IS RACE SUICIDE POSSIBLE? 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL 
Washington, D. C. 
NE of the most interesting of the 
questions of today relates to the 
powerful influence exerted upon 
populations by what we might almost 
call negative selection. A selection 
that produces the very opposite of that 
expected. 
For example, no inheritable peculiar- 
ity associated with lack of offspring can 
be made to grow and flourish in a 
community. In spite of all efforts it 
will languish, and promote the growth 
of its very opposite. History is full of 
illustrations. 
CELIBACY 
After the fall of the Roman Empire 
there was a great religious revival 
among the nations. The Middle Ages 
saw Europe filled with monasteries and 
nunneries, where enormous numbers of 
people took vows of celibacy, and re- 
nounced all home and family ties. 
Even outside of the religious houses the 
celibate life was everywhere held up as 
the ideal one to be followed by the best 
and purest elements of the population. 
Instead of helping the church this 
produced the very opposite effect, and 
actually paved the way for the Refor- 
mation! Large masses of the people who 
were most attached to the Church led 
celibate lives, and left no descend- 
ants, whereas the independently minded 
who were not so devoted tothe Church 
were not limited in their reproduction. 
As to the more general effects it may 
be safely said that the worship of 
celibacy during several hundreds of 
years in the past has not tended to the 
improvement of humanity but the 
very reverse; for, where the best and 
noblest led celibate lives, they left no 
descendants behind them to inherit 
their virtues, whereas the worst ele- 
ments of the population continued to 
multiply without restriction. 
It is now felt that the interests of the 
race demand that the best should 
marry and have large families; and that 
any restrictions upon reproduction 
should apply to the worst rather than 
to the best. 
It is of course useless to expect that 
the worst would take vows of celibacy 
or keep them; and the realization of 
this has led to all sorts of impracticable 
schemes to prevent or restrict their 
reproduction by compulsory means. 
The great trouble about all these 
schemes, apart from their impractica- 
bility, is that they aim simply to pre- 
vent degeneration. They aim to pre- 
vent the race from moving backwards, 
but do not help it to move forwards. 
The only hope of producing higher and 
better types of men and women lies 
in the multiplication of the better ele- 
ments of the population. 
There is one very promising feature 
about the present situation, and that 
is that the best are readily attracted 
by high ideals. Give them a new ideal, 
and many will follow it, especially if 
they believe that duty points in the 
same direction. Convince them that 
the interests of the racedemand that the 
best should increase and multiply; 
convince them that it is therefore their 
duty to marry, rather than lead celi- 
bate lives. Depose ‘“‘celibacy’’ from 
the high and commanding position 
she has occupied for so many hundred 
years, and put ‘marriage’ there in- 
stead as the ideal to be held up before 
the best and noblest of the race. Mar- 
riage, with marriage vows as sacred as 
the former vows of celibacy. Nature 
demands this in the interests of the 
race. For the extreme helplessness of 
the human infant necessitates parental 
care for very prolonged periods of 
time—in fact at least from infancy to 
the beginning of adult life—and this 
involves the permanency of the marital 
tie on the part of the parents, especially 
where a number of children are pro- 
duced. 
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