CHARTER
MEMBERS

E. S. GOSNEY
OTIS H. CASTLE
HENRY M. ROBINSON
DAVID STARR JORDAN
PAUL MCB. PERIGORD
RUDOLPH I. COFFEE
LEWIS M. TERMAN
C. M. GOETHE
JOE G. CRICK
PAUL POPENOE
GEORGE DOCK
OSCAR FORD
A. D. SHAMEL
SARAH H. GOSNEY
LOIS G. CASTLE
GLADYS G. CRICK
ROBERT FREEMAN
MERLE N. SMITH
S. J. HOLMES
HERBERT M. EVANS
CHAS. H. PRISK
A. B. RUDDOCK
JUSTIN MILLER
JOHN VRUWINK
WILLIAM B. MUNRO
R. B. VON KLEINSMID

THE HUMAN BETTERMENT FOUNDATION

(A NON-PROFIT CORPORATION)

EXECUTIVE OFFICES:

SUITE 321. PACIFIC SOUTHWEST BUILDING
PHONE WAKEFIELD 6374

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

OFFICERS AND
TRUSTEES

E. S. GOSNEY
PRESIDENT

OTIS H. CASTLE
VICE-PRESIDENT

GEORGE DOCK
VICE-PRESIDENT

PAUL POPENOE
SECRETARY

JOE G. CRICK
TREASURER

C. M. GOETHE

WILLIAM B. MUNRO

HENRY M. ROBINSON

A. B. RUDDOCK

REPORT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE HUMAN BETTERMENT FOUNDATION, FOR THE YEAR ENDING FEBRUARY 12, 1935.

During the past year a large part of the resources of the Foundation has been devoted to a second survey of sterilization in California, in collaboration with the California Bureau of Juvenile Research. The task of collecting case histories from the state institutions was completed by the Foundation workers, and all of these were tabulated and coded. Hollerith cards were then punched for each individual, 67 facts being thus recorded for each of about 8,000 persons. These cards are now being sorted to make 1500 scatter diagrams, which will reveal the correlations of all of the facts. Males and females are tabulated separately, as are also the insane and feeble-minded. In this immense but highly important task, the staff of the Foundation has been helped by six SERA workers furnished by the Bureau of Juvenile Research. The study should be completed within the next year, and will not merely bring up to date the previous study which this Foundation made (beginning in 1926), but will extend it and result in a great deal of new and valuable information.

The Foundation had a poster exhibit in connection with the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Pasadena in September. Frank C. Reid of the Foundation staff spent most of the time during the week in charge of this exhibit, contacting leaders in the field of public health from all over the United States. An outstanding feature of the meeting was also the eugenics exhibit of the German government, which was devoted largely to sterilization. This is regarded by competent judges as by far the best eugenics exhibit ever assembled, and it will be retained in the United States indefinitely.

The State Board of Health of North Carolina also borrowed our posters for an exhibit in connection with its State Conference of Social Workers. In addition, the posters have been displayed at a dozen all-day conferences of the Institute of Family Relations in various parts of the state.

Publications during the year have continued to present the facts on sterilization to large audiences. A paper entitled "Eugenic Sterilization" by the President, was published in July by the Scientific American, and attracted so much attention that three large reprints have

p. 4

Federation of Women's Clubs, and Mrs. John M. Phillips, President of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Women's Clubs. Both of these have received all necessary material from this Foundation. The Pennsylvania Birth Control League has cooperated with the Women's Club Federation of that state by circulating hundreds of copies of the Foundation's pamphlets, and purchasing twenty copies of Gosney and Popenoe's "Sterilization for Human Betterment" to be loaned to the various clubs in rotation. Women's club leaders in other states have also cooperated actively, particularly Mrs. Thos. G. Palmer of Illinois, who has distributed our literature in a number of states.

In California, the administration of the sterilization laws has continued uninterruptedly. The fall election brought into office a new Director of the Department of State Institutions, Harry Lutgens of San Rafael, who is intelligently interested in and entirely favorable to the administration of the law.

An attempt has been made by a Monterey county judge to enforce Section 645 of the Penal Code, providing for the sterilization of certain types of rapists. This statute has never been used, and has been held by the Attorney General to be unconstitutional, a view in which the legal associates of the Foundation coincide. It will be interesting to watch the course of this case.

The office correspondence of the Foundation becomes heavier each year as its work becomes more widely known. Its services are continually sought by writers, readers, editors, students, and others interested who want information, literature, book reviews, etc., and those who desire information as to sterilization in private practice.

Respectfully submitted,

Paul Popenoe, Secretary.

Memorandum prepared by George Reid Andrews January 30, 1936

Family Betterment Council

Aim of the Council:

To enlist and direct the biological, social, educational and
economic forces to the strengthening and maintenance of the
human family as the fundamental unit of Society.

It is believed that the time has come to inaugurate a new
program of family welfare which seeks not only to preserve
the family but to seek its betterment through the employ-
ment of sound biological principles of science. This means
negatively the restriction of births among families in
which for any reason the children cannot be "safely carried,
safely born and adequately reared"; it means positively the
correlating and coordinating of charitable, child and family
welfare agencies, State and Federal family programs to the
end that duplication of effort may be avoided, charitable
aid made increasingly unnecessary, the maximum of social
efficiency secured and the quantity and quality of our
population maintained. Unless we mix biological science with
our altruistic sentiments we are in fair way of swamping
the country with as socially inadequate people beyond our
power to care for them.

Plan of Organization:

The Council should be a separate and distinct agency
working with and through such social welfare bodies as share
its purpose and wish to cooperate, e.g. and especially the
American Birth Control League, Human Betterment Foundation,
American Eugenics Society, Eugenics Research Association,
American Population Association, Maternal Health Committee
and all child welfare, family welfare and public health bodies.

The Council should have its own officers: President, Vice-
President, Secretary, Treasurer, Board of Directors and such
advisory Committees as needed representing the cooperating
bodies. These bodies may appoint representatives to serve
officially upon the Council.

Special Services of Council:

The raising of funds to carry out its purposes especially
the securing of endowments for this type of family better-
ment. The publishing of a magazine to interpret to the
public the principles of this much-needed family better-
ment program and to further its educational purposes.

The Next Step:

The calling of a national conference on family betterment
along these lines in the spring of 1936 to consider the
formation of such a council and to define carefully its
program of activities. (The American Eugenics Society is
ready to take the lead in calling such a conference)

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL

WASHINGTON SQUARE
NEW YORK

HENRY PRATT FAIRCHILD
Professor of Sociology

February 19, 1936

Dear Ellsworth:

I have gone over your "Memorandum on Family Betterment" with considerable care. You have done a fine piece of work in mapping out a program of this kind, and I am in general agreement with it. My main suggestions are as follows:

It seems to me preferable not to attempt to set up two different bodies, one to conduct research, and the other to co-ordinate practical activity for family betterment. In an undertaking of this kind it seems to me that nothing is to be gained by perpetuating the distinction between research and practical activity. On the contrary, I think these two approaches should be linked up just as closely as possible. As you know, I have little sympathy with the idea that scientific research and practical work are like oil and water, and that the scholar is contaminated by any contact with the practical application of his results. Particularly from the point of view of securing financial support, I think we will be in a much stronger position if we propose just one comprehensive agency, which of course can have separate divisions, one for research, and others for any purposes that may seem desirable.

In the second place, it does not seem to me wise for us to advocate the establishment of a hospital such as you outline at the present time. This is for two main reasons. The first is that it does not appear to fall within the proper scope of a national organization such as the American Eugenics Society to concern itself directly with a localized project of this kind. Of course, we can suggest the desirability of institutions of this kind, if we are sure that we can do so on solid scientific grounds. This leads to my second consideration, which is that it is not in keeping with sound scholarship that we should recommend detailed programs of this kind in advance of the work of the research agencies which we are proposing to set up. We will be in a far stronger position if we hold such things in abeyance, and make practical proposals only after our research division has made a full survey of them and is prepared to recommend them as sound and constructive. It also seems to me that any such agency, if it is to be really eugenic, must apply some selective principle to those who receive its benefits, and this should deal as far as possible with specific family units, rather than statistically with broad groups. I remember in one of our earlier discussions some reference was made to a comment by some outsider in approval of our apparent abandonment of the idea of assuming to pass upon the comparative excellence of different individuals or families.

Professor Huntington

-2-

February 19, 1936

Of course, this has a fine liberal sound, but I must say that it
strikes me as fallacious from the eugenic point of view. The
whole essence of eugenics is that certain families are socially
preferable to others, and that breeding from those families should
be encouraged. If any such program is to be effective, it means
that somebody must take the responsibility of passing on relative
desirability. That the eugenists should completely abandon that
ground seems to me to be treason to their fundamental principle.

By way of a detailed suggestion, it appears to me that
in Appendix A, page 3, mention of race should be included under item
6, "Biological Factors."

I am looking forward to the meeting on March 5th with
much interest, and hope that we shall be able to make some real
progress.

Professor Ellsworth Huntington
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.

HPF: MD

Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory

Bar Harbor, Maine

February 12, 1936

Dr. Ellsworth Huntington
4 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Huntington:

I have read through with a great deal of interest the
memorandum on family betterment which I took from the Eugenics
meeting. I am sending it to you herewith. On a sheet attached to
it are the comments which I should like to make. May I say in
presenting them that I appreciate the large amount of work that has
gone into preparing the memorandum and agree heartily with everything
that it says. The main suggestion which I make, namely the fourth, is
one which perhaps you would be willing to discuss at our next Executive
Committee meeting.

With kindest regards, I am

CCL:MER

EUGENICS SURVEY OF VERMONT

UNDER AUSPICES OF

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

DIRECTOR
H. F. PERKINS

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
ELIN L. ANDERSON

SECRETARY
ANNE R. ROME

162 COLLEGE STREET
BURLINGTON, VT.
TELEPHONE 2330

February 24, 1936

Dear Ellsworth:

I certainly have a lot of enthusiasm for this new
outburst of your ability and this new evidence of your
devotion to the fundamental problems of Eugenics. I
have gone over your Family Betterment script with a
great deal of interest and have already put it in the
mails to be returned to you. I enclosed a couple of
pages with some notes on the first two sections; I did
not feel competent to comment intelligently on the third
and fourth without giving the matter a great deal more
thought than was possible under the circumstances.

I shall be immensely anxious to attend the March
fifth meeting and hear this whole thing discussed, and
if Mrs. Perkins continues to get better at the present
rate I shall be able to make it so far as my home
responsibilities are concerned. Whether I can wangle
the expense money out of the University on any pretext
is something that will have to be decided later. But
you can rest assured that everything I can accomplish
to get to New York will be done.

I have just made a contact with a group of thirty
investigators in the medical profession and have joined
their correspondence association. These are men in
very high standing in a great variety of professions of
medicine and they are scattered all over the country.
A doctor of Barre, Vermont is the organizer and secretary;
they contribute the latest results of experimentation in
their fields by writing frequent letters to the secretary,
these results being assembled, edited, and distributed as
a circular letter every week. I am amazed to find a group
of busy doctors so interested in progress as to devote
this much time to such an enterprise.

APR 23 1936

THE CHILD OF YOUR CHOICE!

The deeper we delve into the mysteries of the Universe, the more are we awed by its perfect orderliness and harmony.

Necessity has brought us many marvelous inventions, every one reflects some action or some law of the Universe.

Curiosity will explore more and more the heights and depths of the still unknown to learn its mysteries. Man, created in the image of his Creator, is still a stranger to himself. Yet he is the finest but most complicated product in the material Universe. The time has come for him to know himself.

Since the dawn of time Man has searched for a solution of the problem of sex control; to discover the force or forces which regulate the sexes with almost mathematical precision, to find the origin of his Mind and mental force, to learn the nature and the character of his soul.

Man has succeeded improving the strain of many living creatures of many horticultural and agricultural products. All efforts to lift the veil, which still enshrouds him, have failed him till now. What a price in blood and treasure has Man paid for his ignorance! Human evolution is a very slow process.

Will Man continue in darkness when at last some knowledge is available to him? Will Man persist to wear the shackles, which Time, Tradition and Custom have forged about him? This seems unbelievable! Is uncertainty concerning sex, temperament, nature and inborn mental ability of a desired offspring preferable to definite knowledge? Hardly.

Would a father continue to spend all his energies for an "unknown" when he has the opportunity to choose his offspring in accordance with his desires? Would a Mother prefer a child of unknown sex, temperament, nature and mental adaptability, which means mental power, to a carefully selected daughter? Would parents continue to run the risk of the arrival of an androgynous member of the family when they are able to prevent it?

Is not the unmasking of Man, the unknown, and the improvement of the strain of Man more important than anything else? The solution of the sex problem, which also means the solution of many related problems, is the very first step in the improvement of the strain of Man.

Long and painstaking investigation has shown that the forces which prevail at the incipient of the material body, are closely related to other forces, which come into play at the birth of the body. Unfamiliarity with their periods of action has filled and is still filling the material Universe with imperfect beings, inharmonious within themselves, beings with twisted and distorted relations between their physical and mental natures. They do not and cannot understand themselves. They are the feminine males, the fiery, masculine females. No perfect male will reflect feminine inclinations or an exclusively feminine temperament; no perfect female will express masculine traits or a purely masculine temperament. It is against common sense! They should be harmonious in mind and body as they were created. Man obeys his sense desires and becomes their slave. He must become their master by choosing his offspring.

There are only six rather short periods for perfect males and 6 periods for perfect females within a year. These periods change from year to year. To know the forces governing these periods and their changes constitute the first step in the improvement of the strain of Man.

Copyrighted "unfailing Directions for Planning your Child" during 1936 are now available.

For further information address E. Herbeck, 45 West 32nd Str.
New York City.

# The Social and Biological Effects of Intermarriage in America

## 1) From an Anthropologist:

A summary of statistical facts concerning intermarriage between different racial groups in America.

deaths and deaths among children

Is intermarriage on the increase or on the decrease?

Which racial or national groups show the largest proportion of intermarriages? Are there any clues to causes of such differences as may appear?

Is there more intermarriage between whites and mulattoes than between whites and Negroes? Are statistics available but facts are needed as soon as possible.

Are intermarriages more or less fertile than marriages within the racial group?

What other significant facts does a study of the statistics reveal or point to as probable?

## 2) From a Biologist:

A summary of established facts concerning the biological results of intermarriage in America.

How does intermarriage affect the vitality of people?

(Define vitality.)

What standards may be applied to evaluate the biological desirability or undesirability of the results of intermarriage?

What types of research or experiment seem to you particularly desirable for increasing our knowledge of racial differences and of the effects of mixed mating?

## 3) From a Social Psychologist:

A summary of established facts concerning the effects of intermarriage on mentality.

What relation do the mental characteristics of the offspring of mixed mating have to those of the two groups?

Are these characteristics the same for the first, second and third generation of offspring?

What standards may be applied to evaluate the desirability or undesirability of the results of intermarriage in terms of mentality?

What types of research or experiment seem to you particu-
larly desirable for increasing our knowledge of the dis-
tinctive mental characteristics of different racial groups
and the effects of intermarriage on mentality?

4) From a Sociologist:

A summary of established facts concerning the immediate
social (as apart from biological) effects of intermarriage.

(What sources are there in addition to the findings of
the Oriental Survey? Can the records of social welfare
agencies be used in any way to secure larger data? If
so, how?)

What standards may be applied to evaluate the immediate
social desirability or undesirability of the results of
intermarriage?

What types of research seem to you desirable for increasing
our knowledge of the immediate social effects of intermarriage?

Memorandum on Family Betterment

have a larger proportion of our children born and reared in homes where
they receive both a good biological inheritance and a good training.

Lack of
activities
to meet
this need

A review of activities directed toward social betterment shows
that this ideal of more children in the finer types of homes and few in
the undesirable types is widely recognized. It also shows that many
highly effective agencies are attempting to improve the health, educa-
tion, and moral training of our children. Very few, on the contrary,
pay much attention to giving the children a better biological inherit-
ance from generation to generation, or to increasing the proportion
born in homes where the training is of high quality. If the right
change could be made in these respects, our efforts toward health, edu-
cation, and moral training would become far more fruitful, for they
would have better material on which to work.

Groups,
not indi-
viduals,
as object
of effort

Although it is not possible to predict how the children of any
particular pair of parents will turn out, it is possible to predict
what percentage will turn out well where many families of the same type
are grouped together. Suppose that a thousand laborers who are them-
selves faithful, sober, industrious, kind-hearted, unselfish, and in-
telligent have wives of the same sort. Suppose, also, that a thousand
of the opposite sort have wives of their own kind. On an average the
children of the first group will unquestionably make much better members
of society than will those of the second. In similar fashion the chil-
dren of a thousand college professors will average far higher in their
classes and will ultimately be far more important in determining the
character of our civilization than will those of a thousand mechanics

whose low capacities obliged them to leave school without finishing
the sixth grade. Obviously, some families are more valuable than others
as producers of children. The best assurance of a better country in
the future is a steady improvement in the type of family in which the
average child is born.

In solving the problem thus presented at least four main types of effort are needed. The first is scientific research; the second is practical projects; the third is the coordination and collaboration of the activities of all agencies concerned in problems of family betterment; and the fourth is education. All four might be united in a single great institution, but each may equally well be carried on separately. Ultimately there will doubtless be hundreds of institutions devoted to each phase of the matter, just as is now the case with education, religion, and government. In the following pages each of the four types is set forth in brief outline; a supplement to this memorandum gives further details.

I. A Research Institute for Family Betterment

A research institute for family betterment is sorely needed. We
must know far more about what kind of individual parents, as well as
what kind of large groups of parents, can be counted on to produce
children who will be of fine types biologically. Far more light is
needed as to the fundamental conditions which cause the birthrates to

6

The third purpose of the projects will be to serve as stepping stones
to other projects which will gradually develop as time goes on.

### III. A Council for Family Betterment

#### Value of united action

The coordination of existing agencies for family betterment may
well be combined with activities of an educational nature. Thus the
many lines of contact with the public will be brought into close coopera-
tion. A council composed of existing societies and other agencies en-
gaged in some phase of family betterment might be organized. This coun-
cil would presumably be directed by a board of directors in which the
constituent agencies were fully represented. As a coordinating body it
would bring together the other agencies for conferences. It would assist
and encourage them in their work, aid them in avoiding duplication, and
assist in financing some of their major projects.

As an educational agency the council would spread abroad the find-
ings of the research institute and explain the meaning of the family bet-
terment projects. It would publish books and magazines, and foster the
training of young people. Although it might act independently, it would
be more effective if closely affiliated with a research institute and with
practical projects for family betterment.

#### Conclusion

The essential point of the present memorandum is that in spite of

the many agencies devoted to social betterment, there is a great gap in
our equipment. Education, religion, social welfare, health, politics,
art, literature, industry, commerce, and many other branches of human
activity all have strong organizations devoted to their upbuilding and
welfare. The improvement of our population through the fostering of
births in families where high ideals are carried into practical effect
has very little of this kind.

Need of
higher
human
types

The world's greatest need is people of finer types, physically, mentall, and morally. Our increasingly complex civilization makes this need more urgent now than ever before. Only people of high competence can adequately cope with the growingly intricate and baffling problems forced upon us by machinery, industry, science, commerce, inter-national relations, and a perfect welter of political and social changes. Something more than mere training is needed. Practically every employer would choose a comparatively un-trained young person with a sound physique and high quali-ties of temperament and intellect rather than a very highly trained one lacking these qualities. If the right qualities are present the young person responds quickly and profitably to whatever training is offered, no matter whether it be physical, mental, or moral. With enough such young people almost anything is possible. Without them Dark Ages blacker than those of the past may close in upon us.

Homes
alone can
satisfy
this need

The most effective way to get young people of this type is to begin with children in the home before they are born. The biological characteristics which the parents of today pass on to their children, and the care and training which the children receive in their earlier years are the chief determinants of the vigor, intelligence, and character of

the coming generation. Therefore the most promising way of
making life happier, more satisfying, and more secure would
seem to be to have a larger proportion of our children born
and reared in homes where they receive both a good biologi-
cal inheritance and a good training.

A review of activities directed toward social betterment
shows that this ideal of more children in the finer types of
homes and few in the undesirable types is widely recognized.
It also shows that many highly effective agencies are attempt-
ing to improve the health, education, and moral training of
our children. Very few, on the contrary, pay much attention
to giving the children a better biological inheritance from
generation to generation, or to increasing the proportion
born in homes where the training is of high quality. If the
right change could be made in these respects, our efforts
toward health, education, and moral training would be come far
more fruitful, for they would have better material on which
to work.

Although it is not possible to predict how the children
of any particular pair of parents will turn out, it is pos-
sible to predict what percentage will turn out well where
many families of the same type are grouped together. Sup-
pose that a thousand laborers who are themselves faithful,
sober, industrious, kind-hearted, unselfish, and intelli-
gent have wives of the same sort. Suppose, also that a
thousand of the opposite sort have wives of their own kind.
On an average the children of the first group will unquestion-

ably make much better members of society than will those of
the second. In similar fashion the children of a thousand
college professors will average far higher in their classes
and will ultimately be far more important in determining the
character of our civilization than will those of a thousand
mechanics whose low capacities obliged them to leave school
without finishing the sixth grade. Obviously, some families
are more valuable than others as producers of children. The
best assurance of a better country in the future is a steady
improvement in the type of family in which the average child
is born.

Four
types of
activity

In solving the problem thus presented at least four main
types of effort are needed. The first is scientific research;
the second is practical projects; the third is the coordina-
tion and collaboration of the activities of all agencies con-
cerned in problems of family betterment; and the fourth is
education. All four might be united in a single great insti-
tution, but each may equally well be carried on separately.
Ultimately there will doubtless be hundreds of institutions
devoted to each phase of the matter, just as is now the case
of the four types is set forth in brief outline; a supple-
ment to this memorandum gives further details.

The scanti-
ness of our
knowledge

parents, as well as what kind of large groups of parents, can
be counted on to produce children who will be of fine types
biologically. Far more light is needed as to the fundamental
conditions which cause the birthrates to differ so widely from
occupation and from one geographical region to another. Another
most alluring and profitable field of research is concerned
with the effects of education, migration, industry, religion,
urbanization, modern philanthropy, race, war, birth control,
sterilization, and many other factors upon the number and quality
of the children produced in any given community. Such studies
in pure science need to be supplemented by scientific investi-
gation of the methods whereby to frame the wisest plans for
practical projects designed to improve the general level of
the families in which our children are born. The type of
research most likely to yield the richest results is discussed
in Appendix A of this memorandum.

II. Projects for Family Betterment

Although scientific research is the foundation of pro-
gress, it remains sterile unless translated into concrete
activity. We need many institutions devoted to practical
projects designed to change the proportions in which children
are found in various types of families. Among the many pos-
sible projects one of the most desirable and feasible might
be to select a few small communities and in an unostenta-
tious way use them as models of what might be done along this
line from the birth of the children until their education is

The need
of intelli-
gent pio-
neering

finished. The sample project described in Appendix B of this memorandum starts with a maternity hospital. The first function of the hospital would be to provide for all the contingencies of childbirth at a moderate fixed rate low enough to remove the first of the economic handicaps which are so effective in postponing the birth of children among the young people of our great middle class. The hospital in turn might lead to a cooperative nursery, a cooperative kindergarten, some form of inexpensive health insurance, and other activities. These would all be designed to enable self-respecting and competent young people of all occupations to have children soon after their marriage and to have families as large as those now born to less desirable couples.

The power of example

No single private organization can take care of more than a minute percentage of our families. But such an organization can start something which will be taken up by others and which will finally spread to large numbers. The first step is to lay very careful plans based on thorough scientific research. The next is to execute a series of projects each of which serves three main purposes. First, the project will test and perfect its methods before they are passed on to others. Second, it will then serve as a working model for other and larger projects of a similar nature carried on by other agencies. If history repeats itself, the process will be like that which has occurred in education and which is now actively occurring in the care of health. The foundation will conduct pioneer projects; interested citizens will see the

# Memorandum on Family Betterment

value of these projects and repeat them in their own communities; the public will see the value of the projects, and ultimately--that is, in the course of generations--the projects will become a public function. The third purpose of the projects will be to serve as stepping stones to other projects which will gradually develop as time goes on.

### Value of united action

The coordination of existing agencies for family betterment may well be combined with activities of an educational nature. Thus the many lines of contact with the public will be brought into close cooperation. A council composed of existing societies and other agencies engaged in some phase of family betterment might be organized. This council would presumably be directed by a board of directors in which the constituent agencies were fully represented. As a coordinating body it would bring together the other agencies for conferences. It would assist and encourage them in their work, aid them in avoiding duplication, and assist in financing some of their major projects.

As an educational agency the council would spread abroad the findings of the research institute and explain the meaning of the family betterment projects. It would publish books and magazines, and foster the training of young people. Although it might act independently, it would be more effective if closely affiliated with a research institute and with practical projects for family betterment.

Conclusion

The essential point of the present memorandum is that in
spite of the many agencies devoted to social betterment, there
is a great gap in our equipment. Education, religion, social
welfare, health, politics, art, literature, industry, commerce,
and many other branches of human activity all have strong or-
ganizations devoted to their upbuilding and welfare. The
improvement of our population through the fostering of births
in families where high ideals are carried into practical ef-
fect has very little of this kind.

COMMENTS ON THE MEMORANDUM ON FAMILY BETTERMENT

1. Pp. 1 (bottom) and 2 (top).

We cannot accurately predict beforehand whether the parents who have socially valuable traits will transmit them to their offspring. Nature shuffles the genes and, as Holmes says, "the particular combination which an individual draws out of the parental store is just sheer luck." This statement is made by a zoologist on the whole sympathetic with eugenics, and it seems to me basic to any program of family betterment. We must accept the fact that large numbers of gifted persons have come from mediocre and humble stock, as Raymond Pearl has shown in his study of the most distinguished men recorded in the Encyclopedia Britannica -- stock that some of us would hardly select and encourage to have larger families. That parents having desirable traits would probably make better homes and rear children more intelligently I heartily believe, -- but I am honestly dubious regarding how much biological inheritance can be improved by encouragement of the fit to have large families. The genetic mechanism is so complicated that we can't predict confidently about the offspring of normal parents -- whether the child will be inferior, mediocre or gifted -- and this applies to humble folk as well as those in higher places. Over a period of generations and with thousands of parents, the stock can probably be measureably (not greatly) improved. But the process is slow and hopes of bringing about marked betterment in one generation seems to me an illusion in the light of genetics.

2. P. 3.

I heartily agree with the need for research, but of a type to detect the normal carriers of defective genes. When this fundamental discovery is made by geneticists then eugenics will have the power to suppress the worst defects from which humanity suffers and to predict more confidently about the hereditary characters of the offspring of given parents. We can't do it now, except with large, very large groups -- not in individual cases, -- which handicaps the practical eugenist at the outset of his program.

3. Appendix A

While the types of research suggested are valuable they seem to me not to emphasize pure research in genetics sufficiently as I have previously suggested.

Appendix B

The projects seem practicable and highly desirable. I am in entire sympathy with them.

4. Comment on organization

I am inclined to believe with Dr. Little that the organization of a council to investigate the programs of existing organizations

A FAMILY COMMUNITY

The greatest need of any community is people of finer types--
physically, mentally, and morally. Only people of high competence can
cope with the growingly intricate problems of industry, commerce, sci-
ence, and a welter of political and social changes. Education alone is
not enough. Practically every employer would chooose a comparatively
uneducated young person with a sound physique, fine temperament, and keen
intellect rather than the most highly educated person without these
qualities. People with fine innate qualities and a good childhood train-
ing respond quickly and profitably to new types of training no matter
whether the training be physical, mental, or moral. With enough such
young people almost anything is possible.

The most effective way to get young people of this type is to
begin with children in the home before they are born. They biological
traits which the parents of today pass on to their children, and the care
and training which the children receive in their earlier years are the
chief determinants of the vigor, intelligence, and character of the
coming generation. Therefore the most valuable new institution that
could be added to any city would be one which caused a larger proportion
of the children to be born and reared in homes where they receive both a

A Family Community

2

Ellsworth Huntington

good biological inheritance and a good childhood training.

An institution of this sort appears to be feasible. It might
take the form of a family community with a two-fold objective. One ob-
jective would be social--to create a new attitude toward children; the
other would be economic--to enable high-grade parents to have families
of reasonable size without lowering their standards of living. The
elements in such a community would be (1) young parents, (2) suburban
houses constructed especially for families of good size, (3) cooperative
enterprises designed to reduce the financial strain imposed by children,
and (4) expert trustees.

The parents would be young people of good ability and fine
character who already had one or two children of high caliber according
to the best modern tests, and who wanted to have more. They would come
from families with good records for character and ability. As their
families increased they would enjoy greater advantages so that additional
children would impose the minimum of economic and social limitation.

The houses would be located in some pleasant, convenient suburb.
Half a million dollars might be spent on tasteful, inexpensive houses for
people of limited income with three or more children. If these were
rented at normal rates according to their cost, the advantages described
below would attract so many applicants that highly desirable tenants
could easily be selected.

The cooperative advantages would include the following: (1) a
central heating plant; (2) a laundry; (3) house-keeping and cooking fa-
cilities so far as these do not interfere with the individuality of the

A Family Community

Ellsworth Huntington

and general progress. They are the main source of our leaders. And
they are also the portion of our people which is dying out most rapidly
because of small families. The incompetent and shiftless and the rich
have larger families than this middle group. If a family community can
increase the size of the best trained, most intelligent, and most public-
spirited families, its city will not only produce better people, but
will attract a higher type of resident just as does a university city.
And it will serve the whole country by opening an almost unlimited field
for the permanent improvement of our population.

A Family Community

Second draft. Aug. 5, 1936

A Better Family Community.

A Community for Family Betterment.

A Better Children Community.

The greatest need of every community is people of high quality. The most effective and economical way to meet this need is to have more children who combine a good biological inheritance and a good intellectual and moral training. The most practical way to secure this combination of heredity and environment is to increase the proportion of children born in homes where good health and plain living are joined with high thinking, loving friendliness, and moral ean- nestness. Unfortunately the stress of modern life has been especially devastating in reducing the number of children in just such homes, which would increase the number of children in such homes would be of inestimable value.

Economic pressure and mistaken social attitudes are the main reasons for the recent drastic reduction in the number of children among our ordinary high school/ and college graduates. Hence there is great need for institutions designed to relieve the economic pressure on high grade parents, and to create a new attitude toward parenthood. Such an institution might be planned in various ways. One method would be to establish a family community. On a pleasant, exten- sive, and easily accessible suburban tract half a million dollars might be spent in constructing tasteful, but not elaborate or expensive houses especially designed for middle class families with three or more children. Advantages such as are described below would give the houses unusual value. If rented at normal rates according to their cost, such houses would be so great a bargain that the trustees could choose the most desirable tenants from a large group of applicants. The tenants would be young parents of good ability-and fine character who already had one or two children and wanted more. They would come from families with a good record for character and intelligence, and their children would rank high according to the best available tests. They would be selected in the hope that the XXXXX economic advantages and social atmosphere of the community would lead them to have larger families than would otherwise be the case.

3

pared with what the family would pay otherwise, and the sense of security thus engendered would be priceless.

(13) Another possibility is the inclusion of capacious guest houses open to all at a moderate charge. These would make it easy to have guests when babies, or a noisy older brother filled the hosts' own house to overflowings; they would provide places for community gathering and private parties; and when the children keftxixuxn began to leave home for college or work, the families could move into smaller houses and yet have the absest children come home freely.

3

pared with what the family would have to pay otherwise, and the sense of security
thus engendered would be priceless.

In establishing a family community four basic principles should be considered.

(1) The board of trustees must be of peculiarly high caliber. In addition to local members it should include some of the country's ablest men and women - persons who would give much time and thought to the institution because of its unique character and because it might become a model for thousands of others. (2) The activities of the community should center around the needs of ordinary middle-class people. Such people are the main supporters of education, religion, good government. They are also the portion of our people which is dying out most rapidly by reason of small families. The incompetent and shiftless need not here be considered. Their families are often too large, their children are usually ill trained, and they receive much public aid. Our new social security legislation is designed largely for them. The rich need no economic help, and there is growing evidence that under present conditions their families are becoming larger than those of the middle class. The dangerous shrinkage in American families has comelargely among the thrifty, careful, self-controlled middle class. They are the really forgotten portion of America.

(5) It must never be forgotten that the ultimate object of the family community is that ultimately the homes where children receive the best inheritance and the best training shall everywhere have the most children. The choice of families to enjoy the advantages of the community can at best be only approximate, and is necessarily difficult. It should be made by an outside committee in order to avoid local misunderstandings. But the fact that choices are made and records investigated should be kept in the background. The best way to avoid difficulty will probably be to make the community so desirable that there will be a long waiting list. A choice once made should be reversed only under most extreme conditions. Certainty of membership is of the utmost importance. Only by careful investigation and cautious experiment can the best plan be devised in this respect, as in others. One thing, however, is clear: if a family community can be made workable, it will open an almost unlimited field for the permanent improvement of our population.

for them. The rich are not deterred from having children by economic motives, and there is growing evidence that under present conditions their families are larger than those of the middle classes. The dangerous shrinkage in American families has come mainly among the thrifty, careful self-controlled people of the middle class who scorn the idea of public help. Such people count the cost of children, as well as of other things, far in advance. They are the really forgotten portion of America.

The third policy should be to study the obstacles which restrain such people from having families of reasonable size, and to attack the obstacles in a definite order, not attempting too much at once. The ultimate object is to create a situation such that the homes where children receive the best moral and intellectual training, together with the best biological inheritance, will have the most children. From that level downward the number of children should decline until there are none among people who, if they had children, would give them a seriously undesirable training and a defective inheritance. Such a profound change can be expected only after generations of effort. It involves a basic alteration in social attitudes and economic adjustments. It can come to pass only through the combined efforts of many people in many places. The function of a local institution would be to select certain aspects of the problem, and show how they can be used as part of a great nation-wide plan for the betterment of our children.

Some of the possible activities of such an institution may be suggested., but further study may show that other methods are better. The first great hurdle which prevents many of our finer young people from establishing families is the cost of childbirth. According to the normal standards of a large proportion of them the coming of a baby means an immediate expense of several hundred dollars. It also involves the possibility of much greater expense in case of complications, the institution To meet this hurdle, might subsidize the local hospital and its staff so that a standard fee of perhaps $50, and a maximum fee of $100 in case of complications,

4

to families with at least two children, both of whom, as well as the parents, are well above the average according to the best available tests of physique, intelligence, and character. In such a community cooperation of many kinds could be carried to a high level, thus greatly reducing the sacrifice which parents with moderate incomes now make if they have more than one or two children.

Cooperation would be possible not only in such matters as nurseries, but in the general care of health, in the provision of facilities for recreation, and in the purchase of food and clothing. Dwellings might well be provided to suit a variety of purses, but all general facilities should be open on equal terms to everyone.

One of the problems will be how to choose the beneficiaries of the proposed institution. For the present the best answer seems to be that so far as funds allow, the advantages as to childbirth, nurseries, and the care of children should be open to all on equal terms. Scholarships and the use of the institutions' dwellings would depend on the qualities of the children and of the home in general. Only by careful investigation and experiment can the best plan be devised. One thing, however, is clear: if such an institution for child betterment can be made workable, it will open an almost unlimited field for the permanent improvement of our population.

APPENDIX A

Choosing
the field
of study

The work of a research institute for family betterment belongs
in the general field of studies of population. Not even a very large
institute, however, could cover the whole of that vast field. Therefore,
we must inquire what parts are most essential to our purpose and offer
the best prospects of fruitful discoveries. By a process of elimination
we shall be led to choose the study of the relation between human char-
acter and biological endowment under specific geographical and cultural
conditions.

Quantita-
tive vs.
qualita-
tive
studies

The first choice that presents itself is between studies of quan-
tity and quality. By quantity of population we mean such conditions as
the number of people per square mile, their distribution in cities and
villages, their location on farms or in crowded tenements. By quality
we mean innate biological inheritance plus all the traits that arise
from social and cultural contacts of every description. The qualities
which thus arise constitute the personality of an individual, and the
personality of individuals determines the character of families and
larger groups. Quantity and quality, however, are so closely related
that both must be kept constantly in mind. A family living on an iso-
lated farm--a condition where the quantity of population is low--is sure
to have qualities different from those of a corresponding family in the
slums of a great city.

Appendix A - 2

A qualitative solution of a coming crisis

In spite of the importance of the quantitative study of population, this does not at present seem to demand so much attention or be so much in need of a new research institute as does the qualitative phase. One reason for this belief is that in the United States the problem of too rapid an increase of population is rapidly solving itself. If the present rates of marriage, birth, and death continue unchanged for two or three decades the natural increase of our population through births will come to an end. Our situation is very different from that of a greatly overpopulated country such as India, or one with a huge natural increase such as Russia or Japan. In due time, however, the problem of increasing the number of births may become acute. When that time comes, the primary need will be for qualitative information: How can an increase be brought about among the types of people that build up the body politic and not among those that tear it down? In other words, as a preparation for an imminent quantitative crisis in the growth of population--a crisis such as has already aroused France and Sweden--we need to set to work at once upon fundamental problems as to the quality of our population.

Abundance
of quant-
titative
data

A second reason for thinking that qualitative rather than quantitative studies should be the primary interest of a research institute for family betterment is that the present body of unused data as to the distribution of population is almost incredible. Moreover, further data are being gathered on an enormous scale by public agencies. These agencies include not only the census bureaus of all countries, but bureaus of vital statistics both local and national, state planning boards which

Appendix A - 3

now exist in almost every state, departments of agriculture, and many
welfare organizations. These agencies, however, pay little attention
to the quality or personality of the individuals with whom they deal.
Hence, it would seem that a new institution should spend relatively
little of its strength in gathering quantitative data, but should draw
on other agencies for facts of this sort. In this way it would be free
to concentrate upon studies of the quality, or character, of the popula-
tion.

Factors
affecting
quality
of the
population

Granting that qualitative studies are to be the main objective,
the field of study may be divided according to the factors with which
the quality of a population is correlated. Most of these can be classi-
fied under the following headings:

1. Economic factors such as occupations, transportation, commerce, trade, finance.

2. Social factors including education, religion, social customs, marriage.

3. Factors of health including diet, medical practice, sanitation, housing, dress.

4. Political factors, including war, tariffs, migration.

5. Geographic factors such as climate, soil, waterways, natural resources.

6. Biological factors, including both physical and mental inheritance.

In this tabulation the first four headings deal with man's cultural envi-
ronment; the next, number 5, deals with physical environment; while the
last deals with a non-environmental factor in the form of the innate
qualities that a child brings with it into the world.

Appendix B - 4

Present
concentra-
tion on
cultural
factors

An examination of existing agencies shows that there is abun-
dant, although by no means sufficient, provision for the study of the
four types of cultural factors. The agencies dealing with this phase
of the matter include government commissions; national and local depart-
ments of agriculture, education, labor, commerce, and health; all sorts
of agencies for social welfare; many insurance companies; a surprising
number of industrial organizations; and some of the great foundations
such as the Milbank Memorial Fund, Rockefeller Institute, and Carnegie
Corporation. These agencies not only turn out an enormous grist of new
facts, but in some cases apply their facts to practical problems.

Neglect
of bio-
logical
factor

In contrast to this strong development of agencies for the study
of cultural conditions we find great dearth of those devoted to either
the geographic or biological phases of the population problem. Depart-
ments of agriculture, mining bureaus, and some other agencies do indeed
pay some attention to the effect of geographic environment upon the
quality of the population, and so do institutions such as schools of
tropical medicine. Nevertheless, this phase of the world's population
problem is greatly neglected in comparison with the cultural phases set
forth as numbers 1 to 4 above. The situation as to the biological as-
pects of the population problem is still worse. Some work is being done
here and there on a small scale, but no large agency devotes itself mainly
or even considerably to a study of the innate biological characteristics
of specific groups of population, and to applying its findings to practi-
cal experiments in improving those characteristics.

Appendix A - 5

Methods of
studying
biological
aspects of
population

This leads to the conclusion that there is imperative need of a well-endowed institute devoted primarily to research concerning the biological quality of populations. The innumerable problems that demand solution include such matters as the relation of the personality of individuals, families, and larger groups to the way in which they are distributed over the earth's surface; to their occupations, social customs, education, religion, and government; to their resources; and to the conditions under which they and their ancestors have migrated, married, made war, and engaged in countless other activities. An institute devoted to such studies would probably conduct many investigations in definite localities or pertaining to specific sections of the population in well-defined geographic areas. The type of unit to be used might vary enormously. The great range of variation is suggested by such samples as West Virginia coal miners, a middle class suburban area, the Huguenot settlers in America, an entire country like Siam, a small compact group such as the mechanics in a single factory, the families in a given area which furnish defectives or leaders, the members of a given racial group or occupation.

Great
value of
historical
studies of
population

Historic examples should be a major subject of study in such a research institute. They supply data of a kind not otherwise available. Controlled experiments in the alteration of human types are exceedingly slow, difficult, and expensive, even if they are possible. Fortunately, however, mankind has done many things which take the place of experiments. Migration has occurred on a large scale, and in many cases has been highly

Appendix A - 6

selective. Groups of people with certain qualities in common have isolated themselves geographically or by social lines such as those of caste. War, slavery, religion, commerce, industry, art, and even science have led to the more or less complete segregation of certain types of people so that they have interbred almost exclusively with their own kind. These same agencies and others have led to the intermarriage of highly diverse types. Famine, pestilence, war, and social customs, especially those relating to marriage, have also exerted all sorts of selective effects so that distinct types of people have been preserved. For purposes of research hundreds of such occurrences may be regarded as experiments. Even though uncontrolled, they furnish an almost inexhaustible supply of facts and principles to guide in framing a rational population policy for the future.

Purpose of biological studies of population

The fundamental purpose in studies of this sort, both contemporary and historical, would be, first, to ascertain the relation of innate biological characteristics to geographic and cultural factors. To this end each project would draw freely on data supplied by other agencies as to the quantity and distribution of the population, and as to the relation of social, economic, and geographic conditions to the character and personality of the people. Its own activities would naturally center about the problem of obtaining the biological data which are now so scanty, and of correlating these with data of other kinds. Thus there would emerge a picture showing how far the qualities of a specific population, large or small, depend on each of the great factors--biological, geographic, and cultural.

Appendix A - 7

High
qualities
needed in
investi-
gators

The investigators in a research institute for family betterment would need unusual qualifications. Great breadth of training and catho- licity of spirit are essential. The investigators must be able to weigh dispassionately the relative functions of environment and heredity. They must be free from set convictions as to the dominant importance of any one factor in determining the character of a population. They must likewise be original, bold, and yet cautious, for they will be exploring one of the borderlands of science. In such borderlands undue caution is fatal, for the investigator must step out into the unknown. Lack of caution is equally dangerous, for in no field of study is it easier to accept false conclusions and hastily advocate unwise measures. This combination of boldness and temperate wisdom is especially necessary be- cause an institute such as is here contemplated will need to try experi- ments and plan practical projects as well as discover new facts and prin- ciples.

APPENDIX A

Choosing
the field
of study

The work of a research institute for family betterment belongs in the general field of studies of population. Not even a very large institute, however, could cover the whole of that vast field. Therefore, we must inquire what parts are most essential to our purpose and offer the best prospects of fruitful discoveries. By a process of elimination we shall be led to choose the study of the relation between human character and biological environment under specific geographical and cultural conditions.

Quantitative vs. qualitative studies

The first choice that presents itself is between studies of quantity and quality. By quantity of population we mean such conditions as the number of people per square mile, their distribution in cities and villages, their location on farms or in crowded tenements. By quality we mean innate biological inheritance plus all the traits that arise from social and cultural contacts of every description. The qualities which thus arise constitute the personality of an individual, and the personality of individuals determines the character of families and larger groups. Quantity and quality, however, are so closely related that both must be kept constantly in mind. A family living on an isolated farm--a condition where the quantity of population is low--is sure to have qualities different

Appendix A - 2

Appendix A - 3

of a research institute for family betterment is that the present body of unused data as to the distribution of population is almost incredible. Moreover, further data are being gathered on an enormous scale by public agencies. These agencies include not only the census bureaus of all countries, but bureaus of vital statistics both local and national, state planning boards which now exist in almost every state, departments of agriculture, and many welfare organizations. These agencies, however, pay little attention to the quality or personality of the individuals with whom they deal. Hence, it would seem that a new institution should spend relatively little of its strength in gathering quantitative data, but should draw on other agencies for facts of this sort. In this way it would be free to concentrate upon studies of the quality, or character, of the population.

Granting that qualitative studies are to be the main objective, the field of study may be divided according to the factors with which the quality of a population is correlated. Most of these can be classified under the following headings:

4. Political factors, including war, terriffs, migration.

Appendix A - 4

In this tabulation the first four headings deal with man's cultural environment; the next, number 5, deals with physical environment; while the last deals with a non-environmental factor in the form of the innate qualities that a child brings with it into the world.

Present concentration on cultural factors

An examination of existing agencies shows that there is abundant, although by no means sufficient, provision for the study of the four types of cultural factors. The agencies dealing with this phase of the matter include government commissions; national and local departments of agriculture, education, labor, commerce, and health; a surprising number of industrial organizations; and some of the great foundations such as the Milbank Memorial Fund, Rockefeller Institute, and Carnegie Corporation. These agencies not only turn out an enormous grist of new facts, but in some cases apply their facts to practical problems.

Neglect of biological factor

In contrast to this strong development of agencies for the study of cultural conditions we find great dearth of those devoted to either the geographic or biological phases of the population problem. Departments of agriculture, mining bureaus, and some other agencies do indeed pay some attention to the effect of geographic environment upon the quality of the population, and so do

Appendix A - 5

institutions such as schools of tropical medicine. Nevertheless, this phase of the world's population problem is greatly neglected in comparison with the cultural phases set forth as numbers 1 to 4 above. The situation as to the biological aspects of the population problem is still worse. Some work is being done here and there on a small scale, but no large agency devotes itself mainly or even considerably to a study of the innate biological characteristics of specific groups of population and to applying its findings to practical experiments in improving those characteristics.

### Methods of studying biological aspects of population

The innumerable problems that demand solution include such matters as the relation of the personality of individuals, families, and larger groups to the way in which they are distributed over the earth's surface; to their resources; and to the conditions under which they and their ancestors have migrated, married, made war, and engaged in countless other activities. An institute devoted to such studies would probably conduct many investigations in definite localities or pertaining to specific sections of the population in well-defined geographic areas. The type of unit to be used might vary enormously. The great range of variation is suggested by such samples as West Virginia coal

Appendix A - 6

Historic examples should be a major subject of study in such a research institute. They supply data of a kind not otherwise available. Controlled experiments in the alteration of human types are exceedingly slow, difficult, and expensive, even if they are possible. Fortunately, however, mankind has done many things which take the place of experiments. Migration has occurred on a large scale, and in many cases has been highly selective. Groups of people with certain qualities in common have isolated themselves geographically or by social lines such as those of caste. War, slavery, religion, commerce, industry, art, and even science have led to the more or less complete segregation of certain types of people so that they have interbred almost exclusively with their own kind. These same agencies and others have led to the intermarriage of highly diverse types. Famine, pestilence, war, and social customs, especially those relating to marriage, have also exerted all sorts of selective effects so that distinct types of people have been preserved. For purposes of research hundreds of such occurrences may be regarded as

Appendix A - 7

Purpose
of bio-
logical
studies of
population

The fundamental purpose in studies of this sort,
both contemporary and historical, would be, first, to as-
certain the relation of innate biological characteristics
to geographic and cultural factors. To this end each pro-
ject would draw freely on data supplied by other agencies
as to the quantity and distribution of the population, and
as to the relation of social, economic, and geographic
conditions to the character and personality of the people.
Its own activities would naturally center about the problem
of obtaining the biological data which are now so scanty,
and of correlating these with data of other kinds. Thus
there would emerge a picture showing how far the qualities
of a specific population, large or small, depend on each
of the great factors--biological, geographic, and cultural.

The investigators in a research institute for family
betterment would need unusual qualitifications. Great
breadth of training and catholicity of spirit are essential.
The investigators must be able to weigh dispassionately
the relative functions of environment and heredity. They
must be free from set convictions as to the dominant im-
portance of any one factor in determining the character
of a population. They must likewise be original, bold,
and yet cautious, for they will be exploring one of the

Appendix A - 8

borderlands of science. In such borderlands undue caution
is fatal, for the investigator must step out into the un-
known. Lack of caution is equally dangerous, for in no
field of study is it easier to accept false conclusions
and hastily advocate unwise measures. This combination
of boldness and temperate wisdom is especially necessary
because an institute such as is here contemplated will
need to try experiments and plan practical projects as
well as discover new facts and principles.

APPENDIX B

Need of
practical
projects

One of the great needs of our time is a demonstration of what can be done to improve the biological quality of our families. The average quality can be improved either by reducing the number and size of the less desirable families, or by increasing the number and size of those that are more desirable. Several agencies are already at work along the first of these two lines. State schools for the feeble-minded, certain charitable institutions, and the advocates of sterilization and birth control are working to this end. Hence the greatest need at present is in the other direction--that is, for active projects designed to increase the size of desirable types of families.

Among the many hindrances to families of reasonable size in the homes of intelligent people, economic factors hold a high place. Therefore the project here chosen is mainly but not wholly economic. It requires what are the main hurdles which restrain high-grade young people from having children, and then attempts to overcome each hurdle. Thus among the vast number of possible projects the choice falls on one which can be expanded to cover the whole life of the child.

A mater-
nity hos-
pital:
local co-
operation

The first major hurdle in causing many fine young people to be childless or to have very small families is the cost of childbirth.

Therefore a foundation for family betterment might well begin with a ma-

Appendix B - 2

ternity hospital. In order to create a spirit of cooperation and confidence at the very start this should be sponsored by local agencies. It might well be closely affiliated with some established institution such as a college. Local contributions of land or funds would help to give it the immediate confidence and support of the community.

High quality

One of the main characteristics of the hospital should be high professional quality. This is needed partly because the hospital must serve as a model. It is also needed because only thus will the hospital appeal to all classes of society and become a place to which the finest young women go as a matter of course.

Low cost; uniform service

Two other qualities of the hospital should be low cost and uniform service, with no special favors to anyone, no matter how poor or how rich. The hospital might well supply a complete natal service at a standard rate of perhaps $50, with an absolute maximum of $100. This service would include prenatal care of the mother, with prenatal hospital treatment in a private room if necessary; it would cover all phases of childbirth including the physician, nurse, and a room; and it would provide for complications and prolonged hospital care if necessary. In a word, the hospital would guarantee to all prospective parents that under ordinary circumstances the total cost of childbirth will be only $50, and that no matter what complications arise or how long they last the expense will not run above $100, unless either mother or child becomes a permanent institutional case.

Whom would the hospital influence?

For purposes of family betterment the vital problem of such a hospital is the extent to which it alters the birthrate among the various

Appendix B - 3

classes of society. The shiftless and inefficient already get free
medical care and hospitalization. Therefore the number of their chil-
dren would not be increased by such a hospital. In fact, it might be
decreased, as will appear below. The rich can pay for what they want;
so the number of their children also will not be affected. The people
who would benefit would be the great middle class, the kind with in-
comes from perhaps $1,200 to $6,000 per year. Careful, conscientious,
far-sighted young people who plan their families with great care would
be especially helped. The hospital would enable them easily, comfortably,
and with no loss of self-respect to overcome the first great economic
hurdle in raising a family.

A non-
economic
hurdle

Incidentally, such a hospital might partly overcome another hur-
dle--namely, the fear of pain. By using the latest methods such as twi-
light sleep or whatever other method is considered best by physicians, it
would bring to all the mothers of the community the most nearly painless
form of childbirth.

Reduction
in size
of some
families

The hospital would also act as a deterrent to the reckless propa-
gation of children. One way of doing this might be through acting as a
local birth-control clinic. Another might be through a carefully de-
veloped system of instruction whereby the careless type of mothers who have
too many children would gain new ideals, new knowledge, and new self-
respect. Such mothers would listen with respect to a hospital which gave
them good care on the same terms and in the same quality as to the college-
bred wife of the young lawyer.

Appendix B - 4

A row
of small
hurdles

After the birth of a child, a series of hurdles centers around the limitations and the sense of frustration that come to young mothers because so much of their time it taken up by the children. This is especially true of alert, intelligent mothers who are very conscientious and also up to date. To meet all of these hurdles the hospital might have a set of outstations. These could serve as cooperative nurseries and nursery schools, where the children could be kept part of the time. They might also take care of the interminable mending, washing, and caring for clothes which occupy so many mothers by night as well as day. A cooperative community hospital with its nurseries might do these things in a wholesale, efficient, cheap, and speedy way instead of in the present piecemeal, inefficient, expensive, and slow way. This same principle might be applied to certain types of cooking. Another possibility is a scheme for cooperative buying. Families with children might thus purchase food, fuel, clothing, and other standard articles at a considerable reduction.

Benefits
when
hurdles
are
removed

In such ways the over-burdened mothers of our middle class, especially those without servants, would obtain the freedom that they need for rest, recreation, a reasonable social life, the care of their homes, and companionship with their husbands. It would also enable some to engage in outside work as bread winners. To many it would bring a relief from the nervous tension which is now so serious a feature of our civilization. This would result in pleasanter home relations and a better atmosphere for the children.

Appendix B - 5

Value of
co-
operation

In all these attempts to make life easier for families with
young children cooperation on the part of the mothers is highly desir-
able. One object of this would be to save them from expense. Another
object, not so freely stated, would be to act as a selective factor.
The ones who most willingly and intelligently cooperate should and
would be most helped in solving their problems and thus would be most
influenced to have families of reasonable size. Energetic and capable
women who want to be breadwinners, or to do other work outside the home,
would be especially helped. Instead of sharing in the cooperative work
they might pay a moderate sum for their privileges. Others might do
their share by helping in nursery, laundry, kitchen, or cooperative pur-
chasing office. Such work should give each mother her fair share of re-
sponsibility, but leave her with freedom part of the day.

Medical
care at
a flat
rate

Another serious economic hurdle is medical care. The dentists'
bills are bad enough, but the hopeless, crushing thing is the accident,
the unexpected illness, the operation, which suddenly adds ten or twenty
per cent to a budget already overloaded. Therefore another function of
the hospital, or of the child institute which it has now become, might
be to act as a health agency and provide each family with complete medi-
cal care at a fixed and very moderate cost per child. Under such a system
each family would know exactly what its bills for all sorts of medical
care would be, including eyes, teeth, minor ailments, childhood diseases,
and even special illnesses and accidents involving hospitalization. Such
a system would involve the possibility that in certain years, when the
children's health was very good, a family might pay more than if it merely

Appendix B - 6

summoned a physician in case of need. The certainty of this annual pay-
ment plan, however, and its obvious advantages to all concerned, would
appeal to far-sighted and sensible young people and thus be of more
help to them than to the ones with less judgment. In this way a desir-
able selective effect would arise.

Aids in
higher
education

The great hurdle of the cost of higher education might be over-
come in part by awarding scholarships strictly according to the merits
of the children regardless of their economic situation. Thus parents
at any social level whose earlier children were exceptionally talented
would feel that they need not refrain from having more children because
of prospective educational expenses for the older children.

Wider
co-
operation

Other hurdles are found in the sheer cost of food, clothing,
shelter, and recreation. After a hospital had expanded into a child
institute and was beginning to get generous support locally as well as
from an endowment, it might meet these hurdles by still other enter-
prises. One possibility is a cooperative housing project in which each
family preserves its own individuality, but has the advantage of coopera-
tive action in things as far apart as playgrounds, lawn-mowing, insurance,
and care of automobiles.

Who will
profit
most?

The ultimate test of a project of the kind here outlined is its
selective effect. What kind of people will be encouraged to have larger
families? The shiftless, careless type who lack self-control and
let the process of childbearing take care of itself would certainly not
be led to increase the number of their children. They would be the least
likely to exercise the foresight and self-restraint required in order to

Appendix B - 7

share in the benefits of a child institute. So far as they were stimu-
lated to share those benefits the effect would be to reduce the size of
their families. On the other hand intelligent, thrifty, conscientious,
and far-sighted people would be the ones to whom the institute would ap-
peal most strongly. Many of them now want more children than they have.
If they felt sure that the child institute would be permanent, they
would feel warranted in having four or five children, perhaps, instead
of two. They would see how the children could be provided for without
overburdening the mother or unduly depressing the general economic level
of the family.

## Conclusion

A project of this kind, which takes a single community of moder-
ate size and evolves a scheme for the improvement of families, is only
one of many possibilities. It might be tried in several diverse communi-
ties. The essential point is that thus far we lack any organized plans
for active work along this line. Much, although far from enough, is
being done to reduce the size of undesirable families. The general social
tendencies of our times are also working in that direction. On the other
hand, those same tendencies are creating an ever increasing need for large
numbers of people who combine high intelligence with high character. Thus
the weakest place in our whole social system is the scarcity of children
in high-grade homes where they will be well trained.

APPENDIX B

Need of
practical
projects

Among the many hindrances to families of reasonable size in the homes of intelligent people, economic factors hold a high place. Therefore the project here chosen is mainly but not wholly economic. It inquires what are the main hurdles which restrain high-grade young people from having children, and then attempts to overcome each hurdle. Thus among the vast number of possible projects the choice falls on one which can be expanded to cover the whole life of the child.

Appendix B - 2

A materniity hospital:
local co-operation

The first major hurdle in causing many fine young people to be childless or to have very small families is the cost of childbirth. Therefore a foundation for family betterment might well begin with a maternity hospital. In order to create a spirit of cooperation and confidence at the very start this should be sponsored by local agencies. It might well be closely affiliated with some established institution such as a college. Local contributions of land or funds would help to give it the immediate confidence and support of the community.

High
quality

Low cost;
uniform
service

Appendix B - 3

For purposes of family betterment the vital problem of such a hospital is the extent to which it alters the birth-rate among the various classes of society. The shiftless and inefficient already get free medical care and hospitalization. Therefore the number of their children would not be increased by such a hospital. In fact, it might be decreased, as will appear below. The rich can pay for what they want; so the number of their children also will not be affected. The people who would benefit would be the great middle class, the kind with incomes from perhaps $1,200 to $6,000 per year. Careful, conscientious, far-sighted young people who plan their families with great care would be especially helped. The hospital would enable them easily, comfortably, and with no loss of self-respect to overcome the first great economic hurdle in raising a family.

Incidentally, such a hospital might partly overcome another hurdle--namely, the fear of pain. By using the latest methods such as twilight sleep or whatever other method is considered best by physicians, it would bring to all the mothers of the community the most nearly painless form of childbirth.

### Whom would the hospital influence?

### A non-economic hurdle

### Reduction in size of some families

Appendix B - 4

reckless propagation of children. One way of doing this
might be through acting as a local birth-control clinic.
Another might be through a carefully developed system of
instruction whereby the careless type of mothers who have
too many children would gain new ideals, new knowledge and
new self-respect. Such mothers would listen with respect
to a hospital which gave them good care on the same terms
and in the same quality as to the college-bred wife of the
young lawyer.

A row
of small
hurdles

After the birth of a child, a series of hurdles centers
around the limitations and the sense of frustration that
come to young mothers because so much of their time is taken
up by the children. This is especially true of alert, in-
telligent mothers who are very conscientious and also up to
date. To meet all of these hurdles the hospital might have
a set of outstations. These could serve as cooperative nur-
series and nursery schools, where the children could be kept
part of the time. They might also take care of the intermina-
ble mending, washing, and caring for clothes which occupy so
many mothers by night as well as day. A cooperative community
hospital with its nurseries might do these things in a whole-
sale, efficient, cheap, and speedy way instead of in the pres-
ent piecemeal, inefficient, expensive, and slow way. This
same principle might be applied to certain types of cooking.
Another possibility is a scheme for cooperative buying. Fami-
lies with children might thus purchase food, fuel, clothing,

Appendix B - 5

## Benefits when hurdles are removed

## Value of co-operation

In all these attempts to make life easier for families with young children cooperation on the part of the mothers is highly desirable. One object of this would be to save them from expense. Another object, not so freely stated, would be to act as a selective factor. The ones who most willingly and intelligently cooperate should and would be most helped in solving their problems and thus would be most influenced to have families of reasonable size. Energetic and capable women who want to be breadwinners, or to do other work outside the home, would be especially helped. Instead of sharing in the cooperative work they might pay a moderate sum for their privileges. Others might do their share by helping in nursery, laundry, kitchen, or cooperative purchasing office. Such work should give each mother her fair share of responsibility, but leave her with freedom part

Appendix B - 6

of the day.

Medical
care at
a flat
rate

Another serious economic hurdle is medical care. The dentists' bills are bad enough, but the hopeless, crushing thing is the accident, the unexpected illness, the operation, which suddenly adds ten or twenty per cent to a budget already overloaded. Therefore another function of the hospital, or of the child institute which it has now become, might be to act as a health agency and provide each family with complete medical care at a fixed and very moderate cost per child. Under such a system each family would know exactly what its bills for all sorts of medical care would be, including eyes, teeth, minor ailments, childhood diseases, and even special illnesses and accidents involving hospitalization. Such a system would involve the possibility that in certain years, when the children's health was very good, a family might pay more than if it merely summoned a physician in case of need. The certainty of this annual payment plan, however, and its obvious advantages to all concerned, would appeal to farsighted and sensible young people and thus be of more help to them than to the ones with less judgment. In this way a desirable selective effect would arise.

Aids in
higher
education

The great hurdle of the cost of higher education might be overcome in part by awarding scholarships strictly according to the merits of the children regardless

Appendix B - 7

Wider
co-
operation

Other hurdles are found in the sheer cost of food,
clothing, shelter, and recreation. After a hospital had
expanded into a child institute and was beginning to get
generous support locally as well as from an endowment, it
might meet these hurdles by still other enterprises. One
possibility is a cooperative housing project in which each
family preserves its own individuality, but has the ad-
vantage of cooperative action in things as far apart as
playgrounds, lawn-mowing, insurance, and care of automobiles.

Who will
profit
most?

The ultimate test of a project of the kind here out-
lined is its selective effect. What kind of people will
be encouraged to have larger families? The shiftless,
careless type who lack self-control and let the process
of childbearing take care of itself would certainly not be
led to increase the number of their children. They would be
the least likely to exercise the foresight and self-restraint
required in order to share in the benefits of a child in-
stitute. So far as they were stimulated to share those
benefits the effect would be to reduce the size of their
families. On the other hand intelligent, thrifty, con-
scientious, and far-sighted people would be the ones to
whom the institute would appeal most strongly. Many of

Appendix B - 8

them now want more children than they have. If they felt
sure that the child institute would be permanent, they
would feel warranted in having four or five children, per-
haps, instead of two. They would see how the children
could be provided for without overburdening the mother or
unduly depressing the general economic level of the family.

## Conclusion

A project of this kind, which takes a single community
of moderate size and evolves a scheme for the improvement
of families, is only one of many possibilities. It might
be tried in several diverse communities. The essential
point is that thus far we lack any organized plans for active
work along this line. Much, although far from enough, is
being done to reduce the size of undesirable families. The
general social tendencies of our times are also working in
that direction. On the other hand, those same tendencies
are creating an ever increasing need for large numbers of
people who combine high intelligence with high character.
Thus the weakest place in our whole social system is the
scarcity of children in high-grade homes where they will be
well trained.

Appendix C - 3

scription list outside. It is hard to name any other means that would
more effectively coordinate, guide, and stimulate the movement for
family betterment and for the general improvement of our population.

Closely allied to the need for a magazine is the need for a
publication fund. Books and pamphlets, both technical and non-technical,
on a range of topics as great as that of the magazine ought to be pub-
lished in large numbers, and then distributed where they will do the
most good. Much of our activity in writing is wasted because the results
are not properly distributed.

Another crying need which all agencies for family betterment
share in common is competent lecturers, speakers, and organizers. There
is great opportunity for the establishment of local organizations com-
posed of people interested in the general problem of the betterment of
our population. Such organizations are capable of providing much money
and enthusiasm if they are kept alive and active. They tend to die
rapidly, however, unless kept alive by help from some central source.
The help needed, aside from a magazine, consists chiefly in being pro-
vided with interesting and inspiring speakers for dinners and annual
meetings. A central organization specifically equipped for this pur-
pose could greatly help the constituent societies mentioned above and
could also add greatly to the number of people actively interested in
problems of population.

The interest in such problems is growing so rapidly that there is
urgent need for proper instruction in our high schools and colleges.

Publication fund

Organizers,
lecturers,
and local
branches

Education
in schools
and
colleges

Appendix C - 4

Textbooks of the right kind are required. It would also be highly desirable if the council on family betterment could distribute certain books, pamphlets, and magazines very widely among students. Careful planning as to this matter and as to courses of instruction in colleges is one of the chief things to which the council might well turn its attention.

## Funds for the family chest

Another growing need of our times is greater coordination of appeals for funds. Today many organizations working along closely allied lines appeal to the same people. On the other hand many people who might give are not reached. A council for family betterment, equipped with a fine magazine and asking nothing for itself, might make a disinterested and very effective appeal for funds after the fashion developed by community chests. Such an appeal might have greater weight and bring larger returns than would a dozen appeals by smaller and more specialized organizations.

## Grants in aid

If a family betterment council thus helped its constituent members to gather funds, it would naturally find an important function in also helping the members to coordinate their work and avoid overlapping. It might also establish a system of grants for the prosecution of specific projects.

Many other possibilities cannot be mentioned here. It seems clear that the field of action of a council on family betterment is quite as well defined and important as that of a research institute or of projects for family betterment. The three phases of the work are all essential. Each will suffer without the other. And each fills one of the greatest of all needs in the present development of human society.

APPENDIX G

Composi-
tion
of the
Council

The methods by which a council for family betterment serves as a clearing house of ideas and a source of intelligent education will be greatly influenced by the nature and number of the constituent agencies. Some, although not all of the agencies in closely related fields include the American Birth Control League, the American Eugenics Society, the National Committee on Maternal Health, the Human Betterment Foundation of California, the Eugenics Research Association, the Population Association of America, the Council on Population Policy, and the Mental Hygiene Society. With these should be included the research institute and the projects discussed in the two preceding sections of this memorandum, as well as a number of other organizations. If a council composed of such members were permanently endowed, it could fulfill a very useful function.

Wide open
field
for a
magazine

The first work of the council would be to study the
whole field in order to see what needs are common to all
the constituent members. The most obvious need is a maga-
zine. The individual organizations do indeed have their
own publications, often of high excellence. None of these,
however, is adapted to a large circulation or makes any

Appendix C - 2

attempt to cover the whole field of family betterment.
What is needed is a magazine of a general nature, popular
albeit strictly scientific in tone, and written in a style
that interests the ordinary intelligent layman who has no
special knowledge of the problems of population. Such a
magazine would make a very wide appeal. Almost everyone
is interested in knowing how the quality of our families
and of our population in general is related to problems
of migration, marriage, divorce, sex, celibacy, industry,
urbanization, farm life, religion, higher education, specific
occupations, recreation, climate, diet, clothing, and a host
of other matters. Extremely interesting material is avail-
able on biological subjects including problems of heredity,
identical twins, foster children, racial mixture, dominant
and recessive qualities, and the methods of eliminating
specific innate qualities and stabilizing others. Another
set of subjects as to which people are eager for correct in-
formation centers around the effect of sterilization, segre-
gation, and birth control. Historic occurrences which throw
light on the character of specific population groups, or
which illustrate the influence of factors like war, slavery,
and polygamy are likewise of absorbing interest. The problem
is not to find subjects for articles, but to get an editor
who will find where the available material lies and how it
can be presented effectively.

A magazine of this sort demands an editor of the high-
est caliber both scientifically and as a writer. It also

Requirements of
such a
magazine

Appendix C - 3

demands sufficient funds so that it can pay well for articles, help investigators in arranging their material, and thus command the combined services of the best writers and the best scientific authorities. Such a magazine would start with a good body of subscribers from the constituent organizations of the council on family betterment. It would almost certainly soon gain a large subscription list outside. It is hard to name any other means that would more effectively coordinate, guide, and stimulate the movement for family betterment and for the general improvement of our population.

Closely allied to the need for a magazine is the need for a publication fund. Books and pamphlets, both technical and non-technical, on a range of topics as great as that of the magazine ought to be published in large numbers, and then distributed where they will do the most good. Much of our activity in writing is wasted because the results are not properly distributed.

Another crying need which all agencies for family betterment share in common is competent lecturers, speakers, and organizers. There is great opportunity for the establishment of local organizations composed of people interested in the general problem of the betterment of our population. Such organizations are capable of providing much money and enthusiasm if they are kept alive and active. They tend to die rapidly, however, unless kept alive by help from some central source. The help needed, aside from a magazine, consists chiefly in being provided with interesting and in-

Publication fund

Appendix C - 4

spiring speakers for dinners and annual meetings. A central organization specifically equipped for this purpose could greatly help the constituent societies mentioned above and could also add greatly to the number of people actively interested in problems of population.

## Education in schools and colleges

The interest in such problems is growing so rapidly that there is urgent need for proper instruction in our high schools and colleges. Textbooks of the right kind are required. It would also be highly desirable if the council on family betterment could distribute certain books, pamphlets, and magazines very widely among students. Careful planning as to this matter and as to courses of instruction in colleges is one of the chief things to which the council might well turn its attention.

## Funds for the family chest

## Grants in aid

If a family betterment council thus helped its constituent members to gather funds, it would naturally find an important function in also helping the members to coordi-

Appendix C - 5

A publication of the
HUMAN BETTERMENT FOUNDATION
Pasadena, Calif.

HUMAN
STERILIZATION
TODAY

DURING the last quarter of a century, California state institutions have sterilized more than 11,000 insane and feebleminded patients.

The following pages embody results shown by a case-study of the first 6,000 of these sterilizations.

But first, what is sterilization?

It is a surgical operation that prevents parenthood without unsexing the patient.

This operation does not remove any gland or tissue or interfere with any blood or nerve supply. It merely cuts and seals the tubes through which the germ cells,—the spermatotozoa and ova,—must pass. It does not in any degree unsex the individual save to prevent parenthood. It is wholly different, therefore, from the crude and brutal operations of castration and asexualization. Primitive and pagan peoples castrated boys to produce eunuchs. Roman Catholics continued the practice until modern times, to provide male soprano voices for their cathedral choirs. Unlike these practices, modern sterilization is not a mutilation.

In men, the operation can be performed under a local anaesthetic in fifteen or twenty minutes. In women, the operation is more serious, involving the opening of the abdomen. It is thus comparable in severity to an uncomplicated operation for chronic appendicitis. It means a week or two in bed. In either sex, failures are almost unknown.

1

the deterioration of citizenship which is inevitable when a large number of the citizens are mentally abnormal.

Psychologists estimate that at least 1,000,000 persons in the United States are so feebleminded as to need special care and supervision. If an arbitrary level of intelligence is taken, and anyone with less than 70% of average intelligence is called mentally deficient, the number of such persons in the United States is found to be about 6,500,000.

The number of insane persons in hospitals is growing from year to year. Only 435,000 are cared for at any one time, but the turnover is rapid, 95,000 new admissions being reported each twelve months. Statisticians have calculated that nearly 5% of the American population or 6,000,000 people, will at some time during life be legally committed as insane. But there are many who break down to an equal degree, enough to prevent them from carrying on their regular work, but who are not committed to hospitals by the courts. Calculations by Dr. W. F. Ogburn of the University of Chicago show that these amount to an additional 5%, making the total number of mentally diseased about 10% of the entire population.

## EUGENIC STERILIZATION IS NOT A PANACEA

Sterilization is no panacea for these ills of mankind, but it is one of the many measures indispensable to any far-sighted and humanitarian program for dealing with society's tremendous burden of mental disease, deficiency, and dependency.

The principle of compulsory sterilization by the state, under proper safeguards, has been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Buck vs. Bell (1927). Alluding to the character of this case, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes remarked in his decision: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."

Agreeing with this view, state after state is now extending the application of sterilization to such of its defectives as are legally committed to state institutions. In this practice, every state benefits by the experience of California studied and published by the Human Betterment Foundation.

3

The findings in this first study of the first 6,000 California sterilizations, were published in a score of technical papers in various scientific journals. A bound volume of these, entitled "Collected Papers on Eugenic Sterilization in California," is accessible in most of the important libraries of America.

In addition, a more popular digest of the facts was published in 1929 by The Macmillan Company, New York City. This book, entitled "Sterilization for Human Betterment," by E. S. Gosney and Paul Popenoe, can be had for $2 from the publishers or through any book store.

## STERILIZATION IS APPROVED BY ALL

The most striking revelation from our study is the extent to which the policy of eugenic sterilization is approved by everyone who has anything to do with it.

Patients, relatives of patients, state officials, physicians and surgeons, parole and probation officers, social workers, all are virtually unanimous in agreeing on the value of this practice.

It is a protection, not a punishment, and therefore carries no stigma or humiliation.

It permits many patients to return to their homes without danger of producing handicapped children. It thus keeps homes together by removing the threat of defective offspring, prevents the break-up of families, and relieves the California taxpayers of a burden estimated at more than $2,000,000 per year. Even among the feebleminded, at least two-thirds of the sterilized and paroled patients adjust themselves successfully to life outside the institution.

## SEX OFFENSES LESS FREQUENT

Sterilization has been followed by a marked decrease in sex offenses. This is not because the operation changes the sexual life, for it produces no such change. It is because of better health, educational discipline, careful placement, and supervision on parole. But the record once for all disposes of the charge that sterilization will result in increased promiscuity and the spread of venereal diseases. Just one illustration: Of 304 feebleminded

girls sterilized and paroled, 9 out of every 12 had been sex offenders before commitment. After sterilization, only one out of every 12 became sex delinquent on parole.

Sterilization prevents the birth of children who, even if not defective, would otherwise be brought up in unfavorable environments by mentally diseased or mentally deficient parents or by the state. It enables many handicapped persons to marry and to have a life normal in most respects, whose marriage otherwise would be eugenically disastrous. A study of marriages of 130 feebleminded patients after sterilization and parole, shows that two-thirds of them have been successful. This is as good as the record of all California marriages.

## STERILIZATION IS HIGHLY SELECTIVE

It must be understood that not every one who is sent to a state institution is sterilized. Mass sterilization has no place in this program. Each case is judged on its own merits. Of the feebleminded who have been paroled, about one-half have been sterilized. Of the persons admitted to state hospitals for the insane, one in six of the new admissions is sterilized before leaving. Selection of the patients for this operation is made after careful study by medical specialists, and in almost every case with the written consent of the nearest relatives.

Sterilizations in California have been about equally divided between men and women. Three-fourths of the number sterilized were committed as insane, the remainder as feebleminded.

The consistently careful administration of this measure in California is reflected by the fact that during the first six years sterilizations per year increased from 11 to 116; total, 577; a yearly average of 96. During the last twenty years they have gradually increased from 182 in 1915 to 746 in 1934. The average during these two decades was 465 per year.

## WHAT IS THE HUMAN BETTERMENT FOUNDATION?

The Human Betterment Foundation is a non-profit corporation, organized under the laws of California, with twenty-six charter

5

scope of the Foundation is as broad as its
name indicates. It is restricted only to con-
servative, preventive work for humanity as
distinguished from ordinary charity relief
work or patch work. Its goal is the construc-
tive, practical advancement and betterment
of human life, character, and citizenship, in
such manner as to make for human happiness
and progress.

The possibilities of fundamental, construc-
tive, preventive work along these lines are
broad. They are limited only by the ability
and number of workers.

This Foundation is not designed to per-
petuate any name or to be a monument to
any individual or family; but to be a center
from which effective, constructive work can
be carried on by all who feel the importance
of such work and are in a position to help
either by the contribution of capital or by
the contribution of talent. The articles of
incorporation leave the future free from un-
due limitations of organization and policy.

The officers and trustees of this Founda-
tion will be glad to confer with anyone who
is interested in the work above outlined, or
who may wish to use the opportunity afforded
by this organization to realize his own ideals
in the promotion of race betterment.

E. S. GOSNEY.

Suite 321 Pacific Southwest Building
Pasadena, California

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN
STERILIZATION AND
"BIRTH CONTROL"

There is a wide difference between steriliza-
zation and "birth control" by contraception.
Unless this difference is recognized in any
study of the subject, no reliable conclusions
involving both can be drawn.

Eugenic sterilization, primarily, is applied
by the state or with its sanction, to persons
who would be likely to produce defective chil-
dren. It protects such persons, their potential
children, the state, and posterity. Such per-
sons may not have the intelligence, the fore-
sight, or the self-control, to handle contracep-
tives successfully, nor the ability to care for
children intelligently. Sterilization is practi-
cally irreversible — permanent — and 100%

7

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE,
NEW YORK, SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 1936

The History of
Contraception

‘Medical History of
Contraception,’ by Nor-
man E. Himes, Ph.D.
Medical Foreword by
Robert Latou Dickin-
son, M.D. Baltimore:
Williams & Wilkins.
$7

By Clara Cruening Stillman

THERE is a general impression that the birth control movement is essentially modern in origin. Some people think it began with Margaret Sanger, some have heard of the Bradlaugh-Besant trial in the 1870s, of John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community experiment in the '40s, of the works of Knowlton and Robert Dale Owen. A few know that the modern movement, which is characterized by emphasis on economic as well as on medical indications, by an increasingly scientific approach to the subject, and by the democratization and socialization of contraceptive knowledge begins in 1822 with Francis Place, whose handbills and whose book on population constitute the earliest writings in English of the modern phase of the world-wide and immemorial quest for control of fertility.

That it has been world-wide and im-
memorial no one can doubt who examines
the impressive evidence collected by Pro-
fessor Himes, in which the desire for and
efforts toward the control of births is shown
to have been a persistent phenomenon in
all cultures in all parts of the world. To
show this is one of the main purposes of
the book, the author holding that it is
impossible to grasp the full economic and
social importance of the modern movement
if one views it merely as a contemporary
phenomenon. To build up social generali-
zations and formulate general principles of
human conduct it is important to study
not only our own brief culture but the facts
of all cultures throughout the range of
social evolution. The most striking result
of this inquiry, which reaches into the pre-
historic past and faces developments ex-
tending into a remote future, is the estab-
lishment of this universality, not excluding
people who worshipped fertility and scorned
sterility. The quest for fertility and the

quest for sterility are in fact co-existent
everywhere. Historically, birth control has
never been a trend to race suicide. It has
been—as it is today—motivated by the
desire to space births in accord with press-
ing needs, individual and social.

The "Medical History of Contraception" is one of a series on aspects of human fertility issued by the National Committee on Maternal Health, of which Dr. Dickinson, who writes the foreword, is secretary. It is to be followed by two further studies by Professor Himes, one tracing the social and economic development of birth control, the other discussing the relation of birth control to certain fundamental aspects of modern population theory, a subject greatly in need of clarification. The word "medical" in the title of the present volume should not be taken to imply that social aspects have been entirely neglected. This, as the author points out, would be impossible, the social and medical aspects being inextricably connected, and in the sections devoted to modern times the social implications and comments are inevitably more prominent than in the earlier ones. But primarily this is a study of the medical aspect, the subject broadening in treatment only as it actually did broaden in history with the emergence of social pressure in the nineteenth century. It is significant that this the first medical history of birth control should be written by a layman, as Professor Himes modestly calls himself. True, he is not a physician, but he is a sociologist and social historian, and, without doubt, the greatest living authority on birth control in all its manifold aspects. There was no medical historian willing or as competent to undertake the task. The subject has been uniformly neglected in histories of medicine. In his vast researches the author found that, with a few distinguished exceptions, physicians and medical historians were unable to be as helpful as anthropologists, orientalists, sociologists, social historians and ethnographers. It seems that Hippocrates declared that a good physician will not hesitate to learn from the layman if, through peculiar circumstances, the latter possesses specialized knowledge. The modern birth control movement has been characterized throughout by the peculiar circumstance that professional recognition and knowledge has come only very slowly in response to long continued and widespread lay pressure. The most striking recent development is the marked increase in organized medical recognition and expressed testimony of its medical and social importance.

AMERICAN BIRTH CONTROL LEAGUE, Inc.

515 MADISON AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

A STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS
WITH A SOLUTION
ISSUED IN FOUR SECTIONS

This study is endorsed by the highest authorities, who
have assisted in its preparation. Many books, surveys, re-
ports, and articles are analyzed and condensed that busy
people may gain accurate information with minimum effort.
Printed size 5½x8½.

NEW JERSEY'S SOCIALLY INADEQUATE
CLASSES .................................... 25c.
An unassailable assemblage of statistics revealing a
grave menace.

HEREDITY AND TWELVE SOCIAL PROBLEMS 25c.
Establishing the relative importance of heredity and
environment and spotlighting the following social
problems:

Mental Deficiency Education
Mental Disease The Blind
Venereal Disease The Deaf
Neglected Children The Sick
Crippled Children Epilepsy
Immigration War

CRIME IN ITS BIOLOGICAL ASPECT......... 25c.
Filling the omission in our crime conferences and pro-
viding proof of the inadequacy of the environmental
approach to this problem.

STERILIZATION AND THE ORGANIZED
OPPOSITION .................................... 25c.
Giving the latest reports from every State in the
Union with an illustrative map and presenting orig-
inal research in New Jersey.

Published under the auspices of
The Princeton League of Women Voters.
Copies can be obtained from

MRS. MARION S. NORTON

174 Prospect Avenue, Princeton, N. J.
Chairman of the Department of Social Hygiene.

CHARTER
MEMBERS

E. S. GOSNEY
HARRY CHANDLER
HENRY M. ROBINSON, DEC'D.
DAVID STARR JORDAN, DEC'D
PAUL MC B. PERIGORD
RUDOLPH I. COFFEE
LEWIS M. TERMAN
C. M. GOETHE
JOE G. CRICK
HERBERT L. HAHN
GEORGE DOCK
OSCAR FORD
A. D. SHAMEL
SARAH H. GOSNEY
LOIS G. CASTLE
GLADYS G. CRICK
ROBERT FREEMAN
MERLE N. SMITH
S. J. HOLMES
HERBERT M. EVANS
CHAS. H. PRISK
A. B. RUDDOCK
JOHN VRUWINK
WILLIAM B. MUNRO
R. B. VON KLEINSMID
ROBERT A. MILLIKAN

(A NON-PROFIT CORPORATION)

EXECUTIVE OFFICES:
SUITE 321, PACIFIC SOUTHWEST BUILDING
PHONE SYCAMORE 2-6374

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA

November 8, 1938

OFFICERS AND
TRUSTEES

E. S. GOSNEY
PRESIDENT

WILLIAM B. MUNRO
VICE-PRESIDENT

GEORGE DOCK
VICE-PRESIDENT

JOE G. CRICK
SECY.-TREAS.

C. M. GOETHE

A. B. RUDDOCK

H. L. HAHN

ROBT. FREEMAN

ROBT. A. MILLIKAN

Dr. Ellsworth Huntington
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Dr. Huntington:

We shall be pleased to send you, without
charge, as many copies of the enclosed pamphlet and
leafletlet as you can use in your classes or elsewhere
for educational purposes.

Current literature contains so much that
is erroneous, radical, and misleading on human steri-
lization, that there is inevitably a growing demand
for the real facts.

Kindly read carefully the enclosed leaflet
and much condensed pamphlet, note our organization on
page 6, and tell us on the enclosed post card how many
of each you can use.

If you do not send an order, kindly advise
us frankly on the enclosed post card or by letter
why you do not.

ORGANIZATIONS PURCHASING THE NORTON PAMPHLETS

American Association of University Women,
N. J. Division
American Birth Control League
American Eugenics Society
American Public Health Association
Arkansas Eugenics Association
Association for Prevention & Control of
Venereal Disease, the Oranges
Battle Creek College, Michigan
Birth Control Clinic, Toronto, Canada
Bayonne Hospital
Bureau of Associated Charities, Orange
Children's Aid Society, Newark
Child Welfare Department, Bergen County
Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court
Cinnaminson Convalescent Home, Riverton
Dallas Community Chest, Texas
Dept. of Public Welfare, Fitchburg, Mass.
Eugenics Record Office, Long Island
Eugenics Society of Canada
Governmental Research Association, Chicago
Hackensack Hospital
Home for Friendless Women & Children,
Springfield, Mass.
Human Betterment Foundation, California
Joint Reference Library, Chicago
Kansas League of Women Voters
Manitoba Dept. of Agriculture, Winnipeg
Medical Society of New Jersey
Monmouth County Probation Office
Monmouth County Social Service Organization
Monmouth Memorial Hospital
Montclair Bureau of Public Health Nursing
Montclair Free Public Library
Morris County Tuberculosis Association
Muhlenberg Hospital, Plainfield
Municipal Colony Hospital, Trenton
National Committee on Federal Legislation
for Birth Control
National Committee for Mental Hygiene
Newark University
New Haven Orphan Asylum, Conn.
N. J. Birth Control League
N. J. Bureau of Venereal Disease Control
N. J. College for Women
N. J. Federation of Women's Clubs
N. J. Health and Sanitary Association
N. J. Public Library Commission
N. J. State Board of Examiners of Nurses
N. J. State College of Agriculture
N. J. State Colony for Males, New Lisbon
N. J. State Colony for Males, Woodbine
N. J. State Home for Girls, Trenton

N. J. State Hospital, Greystone Park
N. J. State Hospital, Trenton
N. J. State Housing Authority
N. J. State Police
N. J. State Normal School, Newark
N. J. State Reformatory, Annandale
N. J. State Teachers College, Montclair
N. J. State Village for Epileptics
N. J. Taxpayers Association
N. J. Tuberculosis League
New York Herald Tribune
N. Y. Municipal Reference Library
N. Y. School of Social Work
N. Y. State Charities Aid Association
N. Y. State Division of Parole
North End District Social Service
Bureau, Newark
North Jersey Training School, Totowa
Ocean County Health Association
Orange Memorial Hospital
Orthopaedic Hospital, Trenton
Passaic Public Library
Penna. Birth Control Federation
Penna. Branch of the Shut-In Society
Penna. League of Women Voters
Penna. State Hospital, Wernersville
Perth Amboy General Hospital
Plainfield Birth Control Clinic
Plainfield High School
Princeton Elementary School
Princeton High School
Prospect Hill Country Day School, Newark
Republican Club of Lakewood
Republican Club of Ocean County
Russell Sage Foundation Library, New
York City
Rutgers University
Schauffler College, Cleveland
Salvation Army, Philadelphia
Society for Constructive Eugenics
Tennessee State Planning Commission
The Training School, Vineland
University of Newark
U. S. Industrial Reformatory, Chilli-
cothe, Ohio
Visiting Nurses Association, Bayonne
" " " Moorestown
" " " Morristown
" " " New Brunswick
Wheaton College, Mass.
Wisconsin Race Conservation Committee
Wisconsin League of Women Voters
Women's State Republican Club

JULY 1936

MEDICAL INDICATIONS FOR CONTRACEPTIVE ADVICE

By Eric M. Matsner, M.D., Medical Director, American Birth Control League

IN THE opinion of the majority of physicians, clergy-
men, and social workers, there should be no restriction
on the dissemination of contraceptive information to all
married women who wish it. However, the variation in
state laws dealing with dissemination of birth control
makes it necessary in certain clinical centers to restrict
this information to definite health indications. For
example, in New York State the law (Section 1145)
expressly permits physicians to give contraceptive instruc-
tion for "the cure or prevention of disease." For this
reason applicants to the centers are instructed on the
basis of health indications (see group V.) In other states
where there is no legal restriction all married women, or
those about to be married, are accepted.

The following serves as a convenient summary of the
medically accepted indications:

**Group I**—All physical or mental conditions which would warrant a therapeutic interruption of pregnancy, if such existed, from the logical point of view, that prevention of conception in such cases is preferable to the interruption of pregnancy.

**Group II**—Anatomical abnormalities and certain obstet-
rical and gynecological conditions not in-
cluded in the above category, such as marked prolapse,
fixed retroversion, history of toxemia of pregnancy, pelvic
deformities, uterine and ednexal tumors, salpingitis, re-
peated caesarian sections.

**Group III**—General systemic diseases, which according
to clinical records are in excess of 100 dif-
ferent diagnoses. It is essential of course to realize that
each disease or disorder in any list presents various degrees
of severity and that each case must be individually con-
sidered. A partial list follows:

Tuberculosis; cardiac disease; nephritis and hyperten-
sion; certain types of arthritis, anemia, thyroid disease,
diabetes, and other conditions; mental and nervous condi-

tions, paralysis, multiple sclerosis, and inheritable forms
of insanity, epilepsy, or feeblemindedness; syphilis and
gonorrhea.

**Group IV**—**Child Spacing:** Recent medical studies have
demonstrated the importance and advisability
of spacing pregnancies to avoid too great a drain on the
health of the mother, and to guard the best interests of
the new-born child as well as of other members of the
family. We do not here undertake to define the ideal
interval between births, dependent as it is upon a mul-
tiplicity of factors. But it is obvious that some regulation
is in line with the principles of modern preventive medi-
cine, and that regulation predicates the use of dependable
contraceptive methods. Multiparity (too many or too
frequent pregnancies in a short period of time) is an
accepted medical indication for contraceptive instruction.
Frequently this is associated with general debility, mal-
nutrition, anemia and other disease entities. There are
also economic and psychological factors to be considered
in determining the number of children in a family. These
factors in themselves have an important and definite in-
fluence on health, both physical and psychological, and
upon the prevention of disease.

**Group V**—**Economic and Social Factors:** Increasing
emphasis has been placed on the interrela-
tionship between organic disease and economic and social
factors. "Prevention of disease," therefore, must include
all of these factors. Since the prevention of conception
concerns the future as well as the past and present condi-
tions of the family, and affects the welfare of both children
and parents, the economic and social situation of the
individual family must often be the determining factor
in indicating the need for contraceptive advice. The num-
ber of living children and their ages, the housing condi-
tions, unemployment, both of the husband and wife, in-
come, reasonable standards of living, dependents, etc.,
are some of the many complex and diverse factors which
must be taken into consideration.

American Birth Control League, 515 Madison Ave., New York City

July, 1936

The
Christian Ideal
for Marriage

ROBBINS W. BARSTOW, D.D.
President of the
HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION

An address
delivered before
THE HARTFORD ASSOCIATION OF
CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS

MAY 6, 1935

Published by request of
the Association.

It often seems that in our great and
commendable zeal for the reformation of the
economic order, and the reshaping of world
affairs, we tend at times to overlook the
importance, which is still fundamental, of
individual attitudes and immediate personal
relationships. And there is no more crucial
test for these matters than the routines and
requirements of ordinary domestic life. It
may be helpful, therefore, to give fresh
thought to some of the implications and
expectations of marriage. My purpose in
this discussion is not to debate this or that
theory, monogamy vs free love, nor even to
consider the legal aspects of the matter and
the statistics of the divorce courts. Rather,
I shall try to bring to bear on this whole
problem with utter frankness, the constructive
interpretations of a sound Christian idealism.

We must recognize at the outset that we
are contemplating a problem that cannot be
settled by any dictum of church or state, nor
can holy writ nor ancient custom be accepted
as final. Jesus was speaking for all human
institutions when he said "Man was not made
for the sabbath, but the sabbath for man."
So it is with marriage. Again, in the words

3

of Edward Scribner Ames, “Only those things can be perpetuated which are renewed in the living experiences of successive days.” That also is as true in this field of endeavor as anywhere else. The institution of marriage must stand on its own merits as it contributes to the highest well-being of man-kind. And my conviction is that nothing short of the truest Christian idealism can bring our thought and our experience of marriage to its fullest and finest possibility.

The more I consider it, the more deplorable it seems that so little constructive thought is given in advance to this problem. What preparation does the average young man or woman have to meet it? In our schools and colleges hundreds of hours are devoted to preparation for a career of engineering or teaching, medicine or high finance. How much time is given there or elsewhere to serious consideration of fitness to be a good husband or wife, a worthy father or mother? We are beginning to have a few consultative lecture series in some progressive spots, but how often this most significant and beautiful of all human adventures is embarked upon more or less impulsively, in the midst of the coarse and unthinking jocularity of well-meaning friends, and an accompaniment of rice and old shoes.

4

Now there is nothing in all the world so intimate and personal, nothing so normative and controlling, as marriage and all that is implied in the larger use of the word. Therefore, it ought to be one of society's chief concerns. More, it must be a primary factor in any true Christian philosophy. I say this because as I apprehend it, the whole Christian scheme of life has more to do with the supreme values of personality, and nothing, I repeat, has more to do with impressions upon or expressions of personality than the various relationships which center about a normal home. It was not by accident that Jesus again and again emphasized the terminology of the home and family in his teachings.

Is it possible for us, in this brief consideration, to discover amid the confusions of the day, some of the real and abiding values of family life?

There are a few elementary considerations which may be taken as definitive assumptions. For marriage is a word used to cover a multitude of sins, even in the most respectable society. Marriage for wealth or social position is no true marriage. Marriage for the conveniences of board and room is no true marriage. Marriage for the gratification of sexual desire is no true marriage. Speaking

5

to and for Christians, I would say that the
only true marriage is the drawing together
into a single unit of beauty and richness and
human achievement, two significant person-
alities, each responsively aroused by the
other, and stirred by that supreme and in-
clusive passion which combines the mental
and the spiritual with the physical attraction.

For I would insist that it is not the word
of minister or justice of the peace that makes
a marriage. That is a wise and desirable
social sanction. But the real fact of marriage
lies in the creation or emergence of a personal
condition enclosing and affecting two personal
entities, a merger of soul with soul and body
with body so far-reaching and fundamental
in its effect that the whole face of the uni-
verse is permanently altered and enriched in
their experience! A wedding is not a goal,
it is merely a gateway—and successful
matrimony is not a thrilling circumstance
speedily consumated, but a continuous and
cumulative achievement.

Now of course even in the face of this
idealistic interpretation, we must be aware
of certain obvious facts. Many marriages
are resting on very precarious foundations,
and in the minds of a good many people the
whole institution is tottering. Judge Lindsey,
famous domestic relations jurist, has recently

6

predicted the doom of marriage, and his com-
ments are illuminating although I do not
agree with his conclusions. All sorts of
temporizing treatments are suggested for the
ailment, without really getting at the root of
the trouble.

As I study it, there appear to be two im-
portant aspects of our present situation.
The first is the growth of selfishness and the
love of pleasure which have come as the
accompaniment of our great material develop-
ments. We are aware of the enervating
effects of the tropical heat in certain lands.
Similarly, we seem to be losing some of our
moral stamina as, depression or boom times,
we bask in the luxurious atmosphere of autos
and radios, fur coats and an unending round
of entertainment. I am not condemning these
things except—please note—except as they
are so often allowed to get out of their proper
proportion, and as they tend to center the
interests and emotions on getting and going
rather than on being and doing. Such a state
of mind reacts most unfortunately on married
life. It puts it under a constant tension of
seeking for things and searching for fresh
and intriguing amusements. And it is not
surprising that graciousness and chivalry, def-
erence and patience and unselfishness easily
give way to irritability and exalted egotism,

7

to ill-temper and covetousness and jealousy
and unworthy desire. Many a marriage is
wrecked by too much prosperity, poorly con-
trolled.

There is also present in our immediate
situation a grossly exaggerated idea of sex.
We are witnessing a new frankness which is
in itself an utterly wholesome thing. But
with the frankness there is much distortion
of the place of sex in life. Novels, movies,
plays, and short-stories build up the sex
appeal without any limit of rationality and
make it appear as the paramount issue in
life. Sex consciousness is stimulated in
countless ways until to many it becomes the
one and only absorbing interest, and its ap-
peasement the sole object of life, regardless
of the other issues that may be involved.
One of the immediate by-products of this
exaggerated emphasis is a sex-restlessness
that is eating into the heart of married life
like a cancer. We see it in the frequency of
affairs and liasons which are not to be
wondered at when men and women make
abject and unworthy surrender to that part
of their nature which ought to be held sacred,
like a pilgrim's shrine, and not allowed to
become the common muddy playground of
passing emotions.

As I see it, the only remedy for these two

8

false emphases is a restoration or a fresh
discovery of a genuine understanding of the
whole significance of life in relation to others,
particularly the one other with whom life is
meant to be shared.

Of course, marriage is primarily conditioned upon this miraculous element of our being which we call sex. And this is a holy and beautiful thing. Civilization has too long suffered under an obsession of social and religious taboo which has considered sex a thing unclean, and its crowning fulfillment under any circumstances a consession to man's lower nature. What could be farther from the truth? These bodies of ours in all their parts and functions are glorious dwelling places for our spirits and instruments for their full expression. No lesser interpretation is reasonable or Christian. The task then is so to use and control this tremendously potent fact that it shall contribute most richly to the completeness and true satisfaction and radiant happiness of personality. And this demands sound intelligence and creative imagination and adventurous devotion both before and after entering upon the great experience of real marriage. For it is not enough to trust instinct and the leadings of nature. To do that is to renounce our very humanity and revert to a place of action and

9

reaction on a parity with the beasts of the field.

What then should be the Christian attitude toward sex? It should be recognized as a stupendous power for good, so significant that when it is debased and perverted it becomes life's darkest blemish. Primarily it is a biological means for propagating the race. But secondarily it is an outlet for and an expression of the highest human emotions.

It is at this point, where the purely physical may be sublimated with a spiritual content, that many marriages fall short. The miracle of sexual intimacy is through ignorance or inherited inhibitions or casual indifference kept from growing and deepening into a supreme spiritual achievement. Its superficial aspects only are recognized and hence the bond which it might become for unifying two lives is frail and insignificant and too frequently gives way at the first strain of irritability or fancied uncongeniality, or the pull of some other suggested appeal.

And here may I express my Christian conviction that there is no reason why only the procreative aspect of the marital relationship should be recognized. This is reducing a fact of great psychical and spiritual potentiality to a merely animal function, whereas within the sacred precincts of true marriage it may be

10

and happily it often is humanized and elevated
to become the purest and most divine of
emotional expressions. And this may be quite
apart from that other divine fulfillment in
the creation of new life. I look for the day
when the technique of birth control shall have
emerged completely from the shadowy realm
of an underground railway and absurdly
antiquated attempts at legal prohibition, into
the open light of approved scientific and
social education.

I hasten to add, however, that this
advocacy of birth control should not be
thought in any way to minimize the funda-
mental role that children must have in the
ultimate fulfillment of marriage. Surely there
is no need to remind this company of the uni-
fying and harmonizing influence of those
unspeakably precious little souls and bodies
that are the reward and the responsibility
of true love between husband and wife. No
home is complete, no marriage has known its
full possibilities, until the circle of love is en-
larged by the inclusion of a wee face and
chubby hands. And thus to the continuing
mystery of conjugal affection are added the
joys and the obligations of parental love.

And here we come to another field where
the tendency of the day is proving costly. The
hectic round of pleasure added to the high

11

pressure of business, means so often that the
children, more and more as they come up to
pass through adolescence, are pushed aside,
made to shift for themselves, mentally and
morally and socially at least, either repressed
and scolded, or allowed to run free with only
a helpless shrug of the shoulders on the part
of the parents. How tragic, and yet you have
known it as I have in many homes.

I glory in the belief and confidence that
youth is normally clean and sound and ideal-
istic, but youth needs counsel and encourage-
ment, comradeship and understanding, which
ought to be the parents' chiefest gifts to them
next to the gift of life itself. For the
Christian ideal indicates a home where
parents and children are definitely and con-
sciously united in the effort to develop
Christ-life characters, and express themselves
toward each other and toward the world in
Christ-like conduct. Any child whose parents
give no thought to its interests, no time to
its activities, take no share in its friendships,
is being robbed as definitely and far more
disastrously than if its toys were stolen or
its bank account defrauded. It is high time
some Christian parents took a thought for
this.

And right here is a further and important
implication. I remarked at the beginning the

12