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CONTINUITY OF LIFE 



negative and positive side of the problem, 

 that is, they are as much, if not more, in- 

 terested in encouraging larger families 

 among certain groups as they are in lending 

 a hand in helping the less fortunately en- 

 dowed to reduce the number of births. 

 Workers in birth-control clinics are well 

 aware that people in all walks of life are 

 very much interested in spacing their chil- 

 dren so that they bring into the world only 

 the number they can adequately care for. 

 People in the lower income groups, for 

 example, have shown over and over again 

 that their large families are due more to 

 ignorance than desire on the part of the 

 parents. Birth-control information is ea- 

 gerly received by these groups and prac- 

 ticed to a point where beneficial effects are 

 already clearly observable. On the positive 

 side, the dissemination of birth-control in- 

 formation has had little effect, mainly be- 

 cause those people who should have more 

 children also have the information and have 

 been practicing contraception anyway. A 

 thinking couple of moderate means, even 

 though they may desire to do so, will hesi- 

 tate to bring a large family into the world 

 when they know that to rear each child will 

 cost between $15,000 and $25,000 if they 

 want to give them the best possible oppor- 

 tunities. No amount of persuasion empha- 

 sizing patriotism will offset this barrier. 



The drop in birth rates in some nations 

 has stimulated them to attempt several dif- 

 ferent plans designed to prevent further 

 decline. None of them has succeeded in 

 altering the trend of the birth rate in any 

 fundamental way. These devices have in- 

 cluded marriage bonuses, family allowances 

 for each additional child, and salary incre- 

 ments based on family size. Even public 

 acclaim has gone out to women with the 

 greatest number of children. Think of all 

 the women who tried but were only run- 

 ners-up in such marathons; what about the 

 quality of such children? The kind of peo- 

 ple who would go in for such breeding 

 experiments probably would not be the 



kind to contribute substantially to the intel- 

 lectual level of the population as a whole. 

 Any plan designed to make children a finan- 

 cial asset is bound to fail from the genetic 

 point of view because it will never be at- 

 tractive to the people who should be repro- 

 ducing themselves. Is there any way, then, 

 to reverse the present dysgenic trends that 

 are threatening the civilized nations of the 

 world? 



The most comprehensive studies of this 

 problem have been made by the Scandana- 

 vian countries where they have settled on 

 a solution which seems to have more merit 

 than any others. They argue that since the 

 nation's people is its prime asset, the burden 

 of providing a continuing stream of high- 

 grade protoplasm is the responsibility of 

 everyone. Therefore, all should share in the 

 care and education of all children. Conse- 

 quently, the burden of educating and feed- 

 ing during the maturing years falls upon 

 the state. This has encouraged the rearing 

 of larger families in the upper and middle 

 classes and has been no stimulus to the 

 lower classes. The present movement in the 

 United States toward federal supported 

 scholarships to young people who can 

 profit by a higher education should also 

 have gratifying results in the years to come. 

 This has been an outgrowth of the G.I. Bill 

 of Rights, which was one of the finest things 

 that came out of the last war. It made pos- 

 sible the continued education of those who 

 could profit by it even though they were in 

 many cases beyond the normal college age 

 level. An even more encouraging side of 

 this picture is the fact that many or most 

 of them were able to have families while 

 they were gaining a higher education. This 

 meant that a large proportion of our popu- 

 lation were rearing their families at the time 

 when they should be and not postponing it, 

 as is so often the case, and thus cutting 

 down the reproductive years. Support of 

 this kind undoubtedly will have substantial 

 eugenic effects in future generations and 

 should be heartily endorsed by everyone. 



