The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1913-08-16
By DIR. PAUL. s. Hunter.
written for the United Press)

THEORETICALLY I am heartily in favol
of prohibiting the marriage of all mel
and women who cannot show a clear
bill of health, but it does not worl
out in practice. The strongest parents
bring forth puny children; the mos
moral produce immoral offspring. The
old joke about the ministers son" is
founded on history.
On the other hand many of the
weakest fathers and mothers, While
transferring their weaknesses such as
drunkenness, insanity, perversion and
all the traits Surgeon General Blue
says would be eliminated by law, also
pass on the divine spark" that has
lighted the path of progress since time
began.
In fact, genius, nine time out of ten
is very closely allied with i'll health,
criminality, insanity or drunkenness.
There are very few of our greatest
poets, musicians, painters, authors
and other artists who were not afflict-
ed with some weakness which was in
herited from the parents.
Many Were Famous.
Wagner, Dean Swift and Charles
Lamb were insane; Keats and Rob,'l
Louis Stevenson died of inherited tn.
berculosis; Coleridge and De Quincy
were opium fiends Pope was a dwarf
and Herbert Spencer was an invalid;
Edgar Allen Poe was mentally un-
balanced and an inveterate user of
drugs and drink; Goldsmith was call
ed "the inspired idiot; Rousseau and
Oscar Wilde were moral and mental
perverts of the lowest order. Shakes
peare was highly immoral in that he
had an illigitimate daughter. 1t is
hardly necessary to refer to Byron and
Robert Burns, for their drunkenness
and the open immortality of Byron are
too well known.
1t is true that all these i'll came
down through heredity but along with
them came that thing which has conf
PEELED every advancement in the world
Of literature, art, science and inven-
ton. The question of why great talent
seldom accompanies physical health
has never been answered.
Agitation Not New.
The present agitation over eugenics |
s not new. 1t began in Sparta before |
he time Of Christ, when, in order to |
attain physical perfection as a race,
LII cripples or weak or deformed ba-
,ies were exposed on the mountain
ops to die or receive strength from I
he gods. None but the strongest were
Illowed to marry. This system pre-
luced the greatest physical giants of
history, the most perfect animals of
ii time but mentally the race be-
anne dwarfed; their brains went to
eed. They produced no really great
zen, and distinguished themselves
My in war and feats of strength.
If the plans of the eugenics were
arried out in the one matter of pro-
hitting marriage of persons who
rink sixty per cent of the Ameri-
an people would be old maids and
achelors. 1t is evident from his
ow long it will be before such law
ecomes general.
Doctors Certificates Cheap.
And if the nation does get law
every man and woman 10
reduce a physicians certificate, it
ill not accomplish the desired re-
ults, for doctors certificates are cheap
lese days. Any couple intent upon
citing married could get fifty certi-
Gates in a day despite their state of /:
ealth, if they had the price.
Only by training young men into a
Ill and complete knowledge of the sin
against the next generation
z marrying diseased persons, can the
ice be strengthened. Laws contrary
the fundamental instincts always
i've been violated and always VIII be.
ne instinct to have strong, healthy
lildren must be cultivated Mar
age will then occur only between
en- and women capable of becoming
rents of the right kind of children