"How dare you not do it? No plan of recreation or out-of-door life which does not include the healthy association of men and woman can be a success. Young men and women need each other's society. And if you get the right kind they won't abuse their freedom."
The churches have been important instruments in this connection, and the worth of their services can hardly be over-estimated, as they tend to bring together young people of similar tastes and, in general, of a superior character. Such organizations as the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor serve the eugenic end in a satisfactory way; it is almost the unanimous opinion of competent observers that matches "made in the church" turn out well. Some idea of the importance of the churches may be gathered from a census which F. O. George of the University of Pittsburgh made of 75 married couples of his acquaintance, asking them where they first met each other. The answers were:
| Church | 32 |
| School (only 3 at college) | 19 |
| Private home | 17 |
| Dance | 7 |
| — | |
| 75 |
These results need not be thought typical of more than a small part of the country's population, yet they show how far-reaching the influence of the church may be on sexual selection. Quite apart from altruistic motives, the churches might well encourage social affairs where the young people could meet, because to do so is one of the surest way of perpetuating the church.
An increase in the number of non-sectarian bisexual societies, clubs and similar organizations, and a diminution of the number of those limited to men or to women alone is greatly to be desired. It is doubtful whether the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. are, while separated, as useful to society as they might be. Each of them tends to create a celibate community, where the chance for meeting possible mates is practically nil. The men's organization has made, so far as we are aware, little organized attempt to meet this problem. The women's organization in some cities has made the attempt, but apparently with indifferent success. The idea of a merger of the two organizations with reasonable differentiation as well would probably meet with little approval from their directors just now, but is worth considering as an answer to the urgent problem of providing social contacts for young people in large cities.
It is encouraging that thoughtful people in all walks of life are beginning to realize the seriousness of this problem of contacts for the young, and the necessity of finding some solution. The novelist Miss Maria Thompson Davies of Sweetbriar Farm, Madison, Tenn., is quoted in a recent newspaper interview as saying:
"I'm a Wellesley woman, but one reason why I'm dead against women's colleges is because they shut girls up with women, at the most impressionable period of the girls' lives, when they should be meeting members of the opposite sex continually, learning to tolerate their little weaknesses and getting ready to marry them."
"The city should make arrangements to chaperon the meetings of its young citizens. There ought to be municipal gathering places where, under the supervision of tactful, warm-hearted women—themselves successfully married—girls and young men might get introduced to each other and might get acquainted."
If it is thought that the time has not yet come for such municipal action, there is certainly plenty of opportunity for action by the parents, relatives and friends of young persons. The match-making proclivities of some mothers are matters of current jest: where subtly and wisely done they might better be taken seriously and held up as examples worthy of imitation. Formal "full dress" social functions for young people, where acquaintance is likely to be too perfunctory, should be discouraged, and should give place to informal dances, beach parties, house parties and the like, where boys and girls will have a chance to come to know each other, and, at the proper age, to fall in love. Let social stratification be not too rigid, yet maintained on the basis of intrinsic worth rather than solely on financial or social position. If parents will make it a matter of concern to give their boys and girls as many desirable acquaintances of the opposite sex as possible, and to give them opportunity for ripening these acquaintances, the problem of the improvement of sexual selection will be greatly helped. Young people from homes where such social advantages can not be given, or in large cities where home life is for most of them non-existent, must become the concern of the municipality, the churches, and every institution and organization that has the welfare of the community and the race at heart.
To sum up this chapter, we have pointed out the importance of sexual selection, and shown that its eugenic action depends on young people having the proper ideals, and being able to live up to these ideals. Eugenists have in the past devoted themselves perhaps too exclusively to the inculcation of sound ideals, without giving adequate attention to the possibility of these high standards being acted upon. One of the greatest problems confronting eugenics is that of giving young people of marriageable age a greater range of choice. Much could be done by organized action; but it is one of the hopeful features of the problem that it can be handled in large part by intelligent individual action. If older people would make a conscious effort to help young people widen their circles of suitable acquaintances, they would make a valuable contribution to race betterment.