There is another type of evil which largely menaces the eugenic ideal of motherhood. It is those cases where married women who have children are compelled to be the bread winners of the family as well as its mothers. No woman can earn support for herself and children outside of her home and competently assume the responsibilities of motherhood at the same time. Whatever aid a mother renders to the state, as a result of effort in factory or shop, is of infinitely less value, from an economic standpoint, than her contribution as mother in caring for her own children in her own home. A careful study of infant mortality, and the conditions of child life, so far as survival value is concerned, condemns in the strongest and most vital sense this whole practice. The preservation of the race is the essential requisite, and it is the vital industry of any people. Any seeming economic necessity which destroys that industry is one that will contribute largely to the downfall of the people as a race.
Eugenics and the Husband.—The question of the husband's moral and parental obligation, as dictated by the marriage institution and constitution, may be left out of this discussion. We may assert, however, that we do not believe the eugenic principle intends, in devising ways
and means for the adequate protection, in its completest sense, of motherhood, to relieve the father of any of his moral or parental obligations. These obligations will be justly defined, and as previously stated, will be the subject of special state legislation. No legislation of an economic character can detract from the performance of a moral obligation, and by no process of sophistication can modern statesmanship accomplish the dethronement of motherhood. The duty of the father is to support his children and the mother of his children, and the duty of the state is to see that this is done. The fundamental law of the eugenist must be to recognize that fatherhood is a deliberate and responsible act, for which a fixed accountability must be maintained. Whatever legislation is undertaken in this connection must be with the object in view of strengthening the efforts of the right kind of father and husband, and of rendering more difficult the path of the irresponsible father and husband. If the supreme duty of a state is the maintenance of justice, its whole effort in the future will be to legislate in harmony with the eugenic principle.
CHAPTER III
"I hope to live to see the time when the increased efficiency in the public health service—Federal, State and municipal—will show itself in a greatly reduced death rate. The Federal Government can give a powerful impulse to this end by creating a model public health service."
Ex-President Taft.
EUGENICS AND EDUCATION
The Present Educational System is Inadequate—Opinions of Dr. C. W. Saleeby, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Luther Burbank, William D. Lewis, Elizabeth Atwood, Dr. Thomas A. Story, William C. White, Dr. Helen C. Putnam—Difficulty in Devising a Satisfactory Educational System—Education an Important Function—The Function of the High School—The High School System Fallacious—The True Function of Education.
The fundamental law of eugenics demands that all education be exerted for parenthood. We have proved that the child is not only essential to the life of the state, but is the state. Consequently any function other than parenthood is a non-essential so far as organic existence is dependent upon it. Education can, therefore, have no higher or more righteous motive than as a contributory agency in the perpetuation of the function upon which all existence depends. If the only function of education is to make one a worthy citizen, or to make him, or her, self-supporting, or able to bear arms in defense of his country, rather than a perfect link in the complete chain of enduring life, its purpose is being perverted. It is not sufficient to provide a girl, for instance, with an exclusive environment which regards her simply as a muscular entity, as is the tendency in some of the "best" girls' schools to-day; nor to fit her as a domestic or society ornament; nor must she be regarded simply as an intellectual machine, as is done under the system styled "the higher education of women." Any one of these is