The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. (of IV.)
W >> W. Grant Hague, M.D. >> The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. (of IV.)The moving-picture shows, vaudeville entertainments, dancing carnivals, the
ease of travel, the laxity of laws, the opportunities for promiscuous
interviews, all tend to give youth a false impression of the reality of
life and to make the path of the degenerate easy and attractive.
The history of civilization is, curiously enough, the story of masculine
brutality, self-indulgence, and vice. The history of the world also proves
that woman's sphere has been to submit patiently and silently to injustice
and imposition. _Practical eugenics is the first worthy effort in the
history of all time to hold men and women responsible for their mode of
living._ It is a mighty problem. There is no greater nor more difficult one
to be solved. It has taken eons to bring men to the point of questioning
their right to do as they please; it will take time to compel them to
realize their disgrace and acknowledge their duty. When we consider that
there are eighty thousand women condemned to professional moral degradation
in the City of London, and that every so-called civilized city on the globe
contributes its pro rata share to this army of potential mothers, we begin
to appreciate the vastness of the task.
Eugenics has already accomplished what no other movement has ever
accomplished: it has created the spirit that gave birth to the thought of
men's responsibility, and it has taught us that the female of the race has
rights. We can now speak without fear; the light is no longer hidden.
Women must realize, however, that they have contributed, and continue to
contribute, to race degeneracy. We hear and read much about the double
standard of morals. As long as woman are willing to marry their daughters
to reformed rakes, providing they have money and social position, [xxviii]
so long shall we have a double standard. So long as young society women go
into hysterics over pedigreed dogs and horses and then marry men reeking in
filthy unfitness for parenthood, mothers cannot expect any other standard
of morals. So long as one marriage in twelve ends in divorce, the ethics of
the female need enlightenment. We shall not get another standard of morals
until women themselves demand it and insist on it. If they lend themselves
to breaking down the conspiracy of silence, the women may solve the
marriage problem by refusing to marry rakes.
We need a more liberal construction of the intent of eugenics in order to
clarify the obtuse minds so that its propaganda of education may be easily
and justly comprehended.
There is no field for speculation in the analysis of right living. It
conforms to the law of cause and effect. It is positively concrete in
substance. A recital of the life history of Jonathan Edwards, in comparison
with that of the celebrated "Jukes" family, emphasises this assumption with
a degree of positiveness that is tragic in its significance.
Jonathan Edwards was born in England in Queen Elizabeth's time. He was a
clergyman and he lived an upright life. So did his wife. His son came to
the United States, to Hartford, Connecticut, and became an honorable
merchant. His son, in turn, also became a merchant, upright and honored.
His son, again, became a minister, and so honored was he that Harvard
University conferred two degrees on him on the same day; one in the morning
and one in the afternoon. This learned man again had a son, and he became a
minister. Jonathan Edwards was his name.
Now let us see, in 1900, what this one family, started by a man in England
who lived an upright life and gave that heritage to his children, produced:
1,394 descendants of this man have been traced and identified; 295 were
college graduates; 13 were college presidents; 65 were professors; 60 were
physicians; 108 were clergymen; 101 were lawyers; 30 were judges; 1 was
Vice-President of the United States; 75 were Army and Navy officers; [xxix]
60 were prominent authors; 16 were railroad and steamship presidents; and
in the entire record not one has been convicted of a crime.
Twelve hundred descendants have been traced from the one man who founded
the "Jukes" family. This record covers a period of seventy-five years; out
of these, 310 were professional paupers, who spent an aggregate of two
thousand three hundred years in poorhouses; 50 were evil women; 7 were
murderers; 60 were habitual thieves; and 130 were common criminals.
It has been estimated that this one family was an economic loss to the
state, measured in terms of potential usefulness wasted; costs of
prosecution; expenses of maintenance in jails, hospitals and asylums; and
of private loss through thefts, and robberies, of $1,300,000 in
seventy-five years, or more than $1,000 for each member of the family.
_It would seem to be worth while to be well born, after all._
In order to succeed in the regeneration of the race, we must believe that
race regeneration is possible, and, that it is worth while. We must preach
its principles as we would a religion. The power of knowledge is a mighty
lever. We are living in a period of transition, but we are nearer the
future than the past.
We are told by the average individual that it will be impossible to arouse
the public to an intelligent appreciation of the scope of race
regeneration. When the writer conceived the happy phrase, "Better Babies,"
a few years ago, he builded better than he knew. It has become the slogan
of splendid achievement already, and there are a multitude of signs and
tokens that the propaganda is established on a sure foundation.
If the annihilation of all past civilizations was due to the refusal of its
members to breed for posterity, may we not reasonably assume that we have,
according to our statistics, reached the same crisis? If this is logical
reasoning, and every factor warrants this conclusion, have we not reached
the time when the perpetuation of the race is the most serious question of
our times? Is it not a problem for the enthusiastic and immediate [xxx]
support of every statesman, politician, teacher, and preacher alike? Can
any question be of more importance? What will our marvelous material
splendor avail if the race is destined to immediate extinction?
We need the assistance of every intelligent citizen, we need most, the
awakening impulse of the mothers of the race. We who are alive are
responsible for environment and nurture, and we must believe that the
purpose to be achieved is of supreme importance. Every mother, through the
power of knowledge, may become a practical eugenist. It is to aid her in an
intelligent appreciation of the practical intent of the science that this
work is presented.
W. GRANT HAGUE, M.D.
New York City.
* * * * *
[1]
THE EUGENIC MARRIAGE
CHAPTER I
"Nations are gathered out of nurseries."
CHARLES KINGSLEY.
"To be a good animal is the first requisite to success in life, and to
be a nation of good animals is the first condition of national
prosperity."
HERBERT SPENCER.
CONDITIONS WHICH HAVE EVOLVED THE SCIENCE OF EUGENICS
INFANT MORTALITY--MARRIAGE AND
MOTHERHOOD--HEREDITY--ENVIRONMENT--EDUCATION--DISEASE AND
VICE--HISTORY--SUMMARY.
There has been evinced during recent years a desire to know something more
definite about the science of eugenics.
Eugenics, simply defined, means "better babies." It is the art of being
well born. It implies consideration of everything that has to do with the
well-being of the race: motherhood, marriage, heredity, environment,
disease, hygiene, sanitation, vice, education, culture,--in short,
everything upon which the health of the people depends. If we contribute
the maximum of health to those living, it is reasonable to assume that the
future generation will profit thereby, and "better babies" will be a direct
consequence.
We are frequently told that we must take the world as we find it. This has
been aptly termed, "the motto of the impotent and cowardly." "Life is what
we make it," is the more satisfying assertion of the optimist, and most [2]
of us seem to be trying to make existence more tolerable and more happy. It
is encouraging to know that intelligent men and women to-day seek an
opportunity to devote serious consideration to the betterment of the race,
while yet the pursuit of wealth and pleasure are enticing and strenuous
occupations.
It would be superfluous in a book of this character to enter into any
lengthy explanation as to how the science of eugenics proposes to work out
its problems. We hope only to excite the interest of mothers in the
subject, and to instruct them in its rudiments and principles.
It will be of distinct advantage, however, first to briefly consider the
conditions,--which are known to all of us,--which have led up to the
present status of the subject.
INFANT MORTALITY.--No elaborate argument is necessary to prove that the
present infant mortality, in every civilized country, is too high. It is
conceded by every authority interested in the subject, no matter what
explanation he offers, or what system he advances as a solution of the
problem.
MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD.--Every intelligent person knows that most young
girls enter into the marriage relationship without a real understanding of
its true meaning, or even a serious thought regarding its duties or its
responsibilities. We know that their home training in domestic science is
generally not adequate, and that their educational equipment is
inefficient. We also know that economic necessity has deprived them of the
tutelage essential to social progress and physical health, and has endowed
them with temperamental characteristics undesirable in the mothers of the
race. Maternity is thrust upon these physically and mentally immature young
wives, and they assume the principal role in a relationship that is onerous
and exacting. We know that the duties of wife and mother require an
intelligence which is rendered efficient only by maturity and experience.
We know that many, if not most, young wives acquire habits which undermine
their health and their morals unwittingly, and we also know that the
product of this inefficiency results in the decadence and the [3]
degeneration of the race.
HEREDITY.--Much remains inexplicable at the present time regarding this
intensely interesting department of science. We do know, however, that its
truths are being investigated and tabulated. Our present knowledge of its
principles has demonstrated the existence of laws from which we can
ethically deduce explanations of conditions which were, in the past, not
amenable to any classification. These relate to individual and racial
characteristics. We are beginning to learn that we can modify these
characteristics by proper selection, by environment, and by education. This
process will, to an eminent degree, redound to the permanent advantage of
mankind. We may reasonably aspire to a system of race-culture which will
eliminate the undesirable or unfit, and conserve all effort in the
propagation of the desirable or fit. This is a consummation to be desired,
and if by any system of eugenics the promise of the future is realized it
is deserving of the intelligent interest and the active cooeperation of
every aspiring mother.
ENVIRONMENT.--By environment we mean the provision of suitable surroundings
in its largest sense. A child to be fit and efficient must be born of
selected parentage, the home surroundings must be desirable, the
educational possibilities must be advantageous, the sanitary and hygienic
conditions must be suitable, opportunities for physical and spiritual
culture must be provided, and the State must ensure justice and the right
to achieve success. We know that--generally speaking--these conditions do
not exist. We know that the dregs of the human species--the blind, the
deaf-mute, the degenerate, the imbecile, the epileptic, the criminal
even,--are better protected by organized charity and by the State than are
the deserving fit and healthy. We know that in the slums thousands of
desirable children waste their vitality in the battle for existence, and we
know that, though philanthropy and governmental supervision and protection
are afforded the deaf, the dumb, the blind and degenerate child, no helping
hand is held out to save the healthy and efficient child, who must pay in
disease and inefficiency the price of his normality in degrading toil, [4]
in factory and pit, where child labor is tolerated. We need the awakening
which is the promise of the eugenist, that these wrongs will be righted,
not by the statesmanship which believes that empires are founded and
maintained by the power of material might, but by a process which will
ennoble selected motherhood and give to every child born its due and its
right.
EDUCATION.--The present system of education is one of the great reflections
on the intelligence of the human race. One of the greatest of contemporary
writers has characterized it as "a curse to modern childhood and a menace
to the future." Even the humblest of us--who would willingly believe the
system efficient, who have no desire to invite criticism as to our
opinion--are forced to acknowledge that there is something wrong with the
educational system now in vogue. The writer is disposed to believe,
however, that the fault is not wholly one of art. The conditions with which
education has to contend are essentially hypothetical. It may be that the
laws of heredity and psychology, when fixed, will evolve, at least, a more
rational and a more ethical hypothesis. So far as eugenics is concerned
with education, its limitation is defined and fixed. If the innate ability
is not possessed by the child, no system of instruction, and no art of
pedagogy, will ever draw it out. When the proper material is supplied by an
adequate system of race culture, science may probably supply the requisite
complementary data which will ensure an educational system that will really
educate.
DISEASE AND VICE.--The eugenic idea is more directly concerned with disease
which tends to deteriorate the racial type. The average parent has no means
of adequately estimating the significance of this type of disease. It has
been estimated that one-half of the total effort of one-third of the race
is expended in combating conditions against which no successful effort is
possible. Think what this means. The struggle of life is a real struggle,
even with success as an incentive and as a possible reward. It becomes a
tragedy when we think of the wasted years, the hopeless prayers and the
anguish of those who fight the battle which is predestined to end in [5]
apparent failure. We are disposed to doubt the justice of the Omnipotent
Mind who created us and left us seemingly alone--derelicts in the eddies of
eternity.
This is but a finite fault, however. The truth is that the scheme of the
universe is unalterable, we are but part of the whole and must share in the
evolution of the process. An apparent failure is not necessarily a
discreditable one. Most lives are failures, if appraised by human estimate.
Take for example the life of a young wife who marries a man with disease in
his blood. She begins her wedded life with certain commendable ideals. She
is young, enthusiastic, ambitious, strong, and she inherently possesses the
right to aspire to become an efficient home-maker and a good mother. She
gives birth to a child, conceived in love, and during her travail she
beseeches her Creator to help her and to help her baby, as all women do at
such a time. Her baby is born blind and it is a weak and puny mite. The
mother recovers slowly, but she is never the same vigorous and ambitious
woman. Later her strength fades away, her enthusiasm falters, the home is
blighted and seems a desecrated spot. The baby is a constant worry, it is
always sick, it needs expensive care and it exhausts the physical remnant
of its mother's health. It finally dies and is laid away, not forgotten,
but a sad, sad memory. The ailing and dispirited mother is informed that
she must submit to an operation if she desires to regain her health, if not
to save her life. She returns from the hospital--not a woman--a blighted
thing, an unsexed substitute for what once was a happy, sunny, healthy,
innocent girl.
This is not an overdrawn tale,--it is a true story, a common, every-day
story. Who was to blame? Why were her prayers not heard? Why, indeed? One
might as well ask why seemingly splendid civilizations decayed into
forgotten dust, or why empires rotted away. The answer is the same.
HISTORY.--From the eugenists' standpoint history is prolific only in
negation. A correct interpretation of its pages teaches us that it has not
taught the lesson of the "survival of the fittest," but rather the survival
of the strongest. That the strongest is not always the "fittest" needs [6]
no commentary. That the fit should survive is the genetic law of nature,
and it has been strictly obeyed by biology and humanity when these sciences
have adhered to, and have been under the jurisdiction of the natural law.
When religious schisms swayed the world, the stronger party, in material
strength or in actual numbers, massacred the weaker, which was frequently
the fitter from the standpoint of desirability as progenitors of the race.
Thus posterity was deprived of what probably was the representative,
potential strength of generations.
At a later date religious schism changed her _modus operandi_ but
accomplished the same pernicious purpose, as the following shows:
"Whenever a man or woman was possessed of a gentle nature that fitted him
or her to deeds of charity, to meditation, to literature or to art, the
social condition of the time was such that they had no refuge elsewhere
than in the bosom of the Church. But the Church chose to preach and exact
celibacy, and the consequence was that these gentle natures had no
continuance, and thus, by a policy, was brutalized the breed of our
forefathers."
When religion was not the dominating power, mankind was ruled by militant
tyrants. The non-elect were slaves,--uneducated, uncivilized, debased and
diseased. The elect were licentious and indolent. Neither class practised
any domestic virtues, or respected the institution of motherhood. The
process of the selection of the fittest for survival for the purpose of
parentage, and for the consummation of the evolutionary gradation, through
which the human race is apparently destined to pass, was again in abeyance
for a series of generations.
In our own times, the fate of nations and the destiny of their people would
seem to depend upon the size of the fighting force and the efficiency of
the ships we build; our ability to dicker and barter, to gain a
questionable commercial supremacy, and the loquaciousness of our
politicians. This, at least, is the criterion upon which the modern
statesman estimates the quality of present-day civilization. He is not [7]
apparently interested in the story of the ages. The progress of God's
supernal scheme through aeons of bigotry and darkness neither suggests nor
inspires in him a loftier constructive analysis. He is content to leave the
destiny of nations to tons of material, tons of men and tons of talk.
Nowhere do we find any reference to the quality of the blood-stream of the
people. Nor does it seem to have been discovered by those who wield
authority, that the glory of a nation depends upon its brains, not its
bulk; nor do they apprehend that the greatness of a people is not in its
past history, but in its ever-existing motherhood; and that its battles, in
the future, must be fought, not on battlefields, but in its nurseries. When
we judge our national worth and wealth by the quality of our maternal
material, and estimate our greatness and our glory by the record of our
infant mortality, we will have carved an enduring niche in the celestial
scheme that will be unchangeable and for all time.
There are in Britain to-day over a million and a quarter females of
marriageable age in excess of the number of marriageable males. A war
between Britain and Germany would unquestionably be the bloodiest war in
all history, and it probably would be the last one, because it would only
end in the dominance of one power over all the others. If we concern
ourselves only with Britain--from the eugenic standpoint--who would dare
compute the ratio of marriageable females over the males after the war was
over? The consequence of such a war on posterity would be tragic. It would
mean the annihilation of the fittest for fatherhood for generations. Only
the unfit would be left from which to begin a new breed.
The multitude of females who would necessarily be left unable to
participate in the highest function of womanhood would have to be
self-supporting. The economic problem would, therefore, have a far-reaching
influence and even if solved adequately as an economic problem, it could
never be solved satisfactorily as a sociological, or as a problem in
eugenics.
Infant mortality is too high. Apart from the statistical proof which [8]
shows it, we may rightly construe as further proof of it, the widespread
effort being made in every civilized country in the world to ameliorate the
condition.
The laws and ethics of marriage are inadequate. Its true purpose is
frustrated and racial and individual injustice and imperfection are the
products of existing conditions.
Motherhood, in its every aspect is not, and has not in the past, been
elevated to the plane which a true estimate of its supreme importance to
the race justifies.
Heredity as a scientific principle is undeveloped, and because of
maladministration in past generations, the present generation is
endeavoring to do the work, the fruits of which it should be enjoying.
Environment in its highest sense is impossible because of inadequate laws,
imperfect hygienic and sanitary knowledge, incomplete education, vice and
disease.
If there was not some supremely important, cardinal error somewhere, it is
reasonable to suppose that in one or other of the departments of human
effort we would have reached the summit of idealism. The State, as an
institution, would have evolved a perfection which would enable it to exist
as an independent mechanism, complete and ideal in all its ramifications.
We have had no such state, however. The highest type of empire has been
ludicrously dependent upon the minor exigencies of individual human
existence.
Science would have evolved the superman, but history, as we have seen, has
persistently deprived science of the material wherewith to contribute him.
The institution of marriage would have been a fixed and an inviolable
guarantee of the happiness of the home, but human wisdom has erred and the
solution is as yet apparently undiscovered.
Investigation into every field of human effort shows that the ultimate aim
in view, if any, was something other than the welfare of the race, as a
race or as individuals.
* * * * *
[9]
CHAPTER II
"The public health is the foundation on which reposes the happiness of
the people and the power of a country. The care of the public health is
the first duty of a statesman."
LORD BEACONSFIELD.
THE EUGENIC IDEA
THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE--THE EUGENIC PRINCIPLE--"THE FIT ONLY SHALL
LIVE"--EUGENICS AND MARRIAGE--THE VENEREAL DISEASES--THE UTILITY OF
MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES--THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES AND VICE--EUGENICS AND
PARENTHOOD--THE PRINCIPLE OF HEREDITY--EUGENICS AND
MOTHERHOOD--EUGENICS AND THE HUSBAND.
The eugenist believes the cardinal error of the past has been a failure to
recognize the worth or value of human life. In the past human lives have
counted for absolutely nothing. As we have seen, each generation has
practically deprived posterity of the best of its breed, and we shall see,
when we consider the facts which affect the present vitality of the race,
that the same preposterous conditions still exist.
It is not necessary to waste the reader's time in an effort to prove,
simply from an argumentative standpoint, the logic of the eugenic idea.
There is no existing economic problem that has established itself so firmly
in the hearts of the people who understand it, as has the study of race
culture. It is not the subject, but its scope of application, that is new.
Biologically, we see the manifestations of eugenics on every side. In the
flower garden we breed for beauty, in the orchard for quality. In the
poultry yard and on the stock farm the same process weeds out the unfit and
cultivates the desirable. The value of the eugenic idea is most strikingly
illustrated in the cultivation, or breeding, of the horse from a primitive
creature into the splendid animals which represent the various types of
equine present-day perfection. It has taken generations of the most [10]
painstaking intelligence to understand the traits which had to be evolved
in scientific mating to reach the present standard. If the same rules, or
lack of rules, applied to the mating of horses as applied to ourselves,
there would be few, if any, "thoroughbreds" among them. The principle which
we must recognize is that "Life is the only wealth."