The Topeka state journal., 1922-01-28
p TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
washington. D. c.
EXIT MOTHERHOOD.

that the new woman is traitor TO heI
/ race because she refuses to marry and
have children. The blame for this
he places largely upon college edV-
cation which, he asserts, tends to de-
\ velop the feminine mentality and in
spfre it with the ambition to have
not babies-but career"
Professor Holmes-for that is the
name of the brave gentleman-has de-
ve1oped his theme in most discreet
and dispassionate manner. Tt is OBJ
vious that he is entirely sympathetic
| toward the new woman's aims and de-
sires, and is merely interested in set
ting forth their biological significance
| Nevertheless, the new women do not
! like it. Nearly every day, one of their
| resentful number bursts forth in the
| readers columns of the, daily press
with a stern rebuke for the professor,
and a defense of the feminist's noble
! ehara acter. The college girls seem to
feel particularly insulted, and are TAX
| ing great pains to explain in elaborate
detail Just why they do>not marry. 1t
is not, in their judgment, because of
\ their own liberal education, but the
/ lack of it in most men.
/ The reasons for this widespread
| spinsterhood among intelligent, we'll
educated females are doubtless many
Hand varied, but Professor Holmes is
! chiefly concerned with its effect upon
/ the race. His greatest alarm is over
1
classes continue to produce husky off,
, spring at a mid-Victorian rate, while
those of superior stock are limiting
! their families to one or two, or declin
| ing to. go in~for motherhood at all.
College Women Stay Single.
'It may be said that about SO per
cent of college women remain unn1ar-
ried." he writes in his recent book.
| sit is apparently true that women OF
superior intellect and force of charac-
| ter are those who, whether college
women or not, are pretty apt to be
J selected for spinsterhood. They are
more likely to win positions which
permit them to enjoy the comforts
and many luxuries of life; they de-
yeIop other interests which often de-
tract from the appeal of matrimony
| In some cases they lose a certain
| feminine charm, a misfortune that
! arouses a deep seated, instructive re-
| coil in the opposite SEX There can be
no doubt that the race is losing q
vast wealth of material for mother
| hood of the best and most efficient
type. Many of the women who are
nowadays most prone to sacrifice
motherhood to a career are just the
ones upon whom the obligation of
motherhood should rest with the
greatest weight. 1t may be seriously
doubted if the growing independence
of women, despite its many advan
tages, is an unmiXed blessing. Thus
far it has worked to deteriorate the
race in the interests of social ad-
vancement. a, process which is bound
to be disastrous in the long rum
Yet Professor Holmes evidently
thinks that the new woman's treachery
to the race is more involuntary than
| it is deliberate. She is, he shows.
largely victim of her own environ
ment: merely the product of an in
4 .s,,T. 4 ~
accumulation and guarding of prop
erty-not children. AS many other
students of the problem have pointed
out, women are simply being absorbed
by industry as everything else is be-
ing absorbed by industry, which is like
a huge sponge that will some day ab-
Sorb the race itself.
\ Every year, an increasing number
of young women enter sedentary oc
cupations in business offices and shops
which, Professor Holmes thinks, con-
tribute to their physical debility and
multiply the hardships of childbirth.
There is no doubt, he says, that the
conditions Of present-day civilization
have in the last few generations seri-
ously weakened the physique of this
modern civilized woman" For one
thing, both her Willingness and ability
to nurse her children has decreased
very conSiderably-an unquestfoned
disadvantage to her offspring, as it
has been found, according to a med
ical authority quoted by Holmes. that
"breast-fed children are superior IN
later life to those artificially fed in
weight, character of teeth, intelli-
gence, and general physical develop
ment.'
Only a few years ago, the majority
of girls Of American upper middle
class families of refinement and edu
cation were not dashing madiy around
in the industrial world. They stayed
home and married and had babies and
did very little else 1t was doubtless
less exciting than directing a person
mel department of a~targe industrial
concern or selling bonds, but it was,
it seems, better for the race in gen
eraI. The stay-at-home method at
least was more conducive to the re-
production of superior stock Now,
it is the immigrant woman who re-
mains at home and has the babies and
nurses them into superior health ana
enduring vigor.
Reproducing Stupidity.
Thus if you follow Professor
Holmes argument to its logical con-
clusions, you reach the pleasant pros
pect of a race ultimately reduced to
the general level of intelligence of
Little Italy. OF course, the whole
argument will strike you as distinctly
absurd unless you believe in the gen
orally accepted theory that mental
ability hereditary.
still" declared one college girl in
discussing her share Of responsibility
in speeding the race TO its doom, 81
don't see what we are going to do
about it. You can't leap into matri-
mony as easily as you can leap into
job. and it seldom pays as well. This
is a day of money making and quick
profits, and there's no money-making
or quick profit in having babies. Per-
haps II the race would only pay us
for having good, strong, healthy,
bright children as well as it pays us
for facilitating its business. We might
get really interested and do our best
to save it from ruin. Perhaps the day
will come when the state will recog-
niZe motherhood as valuable service.
and remunerate it accordingly-make
it worth while'
Another college girl believes that
the modern woman would take more
interest in matrimony and mother
hood if there were only greater pre-
ponderance of intelligent males