358 



The Journal of Heredity 



are its flexibility, its expansibility, the in the entire system. To keep it up 



ease of interpolation, the simpHcity requires attention and a large amount 



of the record, and the constant main- of clerical labor, but no more than 



tainance of the connection of every any other system which may be of less 



card with every other related card efhciencv. 



A View of Birth Control 



Birth Control, bv John M. Cooper, 

 Ph. D., Associate Professor of 

 Sociology, Catholic University of 

 America. Pp. 9(i. Published by the 

 National Catholic Welfare Council. 

 Washington, D. C. 1923. 



The abundant controversial literature 

 on birth control contains few contribu- 

 tions of more weisiht than this state- 

 ment of the official Roman Catholic 

 position, and the reasons that are held 

 to justify this position. The Church's 

 attitude, briefly, is that birth control is 

 permissible in proper cases, but only 

 through the practice of continence, the 

 use of all artificial contraceptives being 

 condemned. The grounds underlying 

 this position are set forth by Dr. 

 Cooper in a remarkably persuasive wav, 

 and the chief contentions of the birth- 

 control propagandists are then assailed 

 one by one and badly damaged. Dr. 

 Cooper's task is, of course, facilitated 

 by the fact that nearly all the birth 

 control propaganda is composed mainly 

 of fallacies and puerilities, and is based 

 on emotion rather than on reason. 



This is not to say that the reviewer 

 accepts all of Dr. Cooper's premises, 

 or all of his conclusions ; or that other 

 readers are likely to do so, unless they 

 be Roman Catholics. But it must be 

 frankly recognized that the author has 

 met the birth control propagandists on 

 their own ground and to a large extent 

 beaten them. It is to be hoped that 

 his attack will call forth replies that 

 are of as high an order, in respect to 



logic and scholarship. The pseudo- 

 scientific rhapsodies that have com- 

 posed a large percentage of the "birth 

 control literature" have been a glaring 

 example of how a biological problem 

 should not be debated. 



The weak point of Dr. Cooper's 

 position (and one which he does not 

 at all attempt to evade) is the fact 

 that he is arguing against a fait accom- 

 pli: birth control is already here, and 

 here to stay. Neither the authority of 

 the Church, nor any other power, is 

 likelv to stop it. So far, no unpreju- 

 diced person doubts that it has done 

 great harm to the race, eugenically ; 

 because it has been practiced more by 

 the eugenicallv superior than by the 

 eugenically inferior. There are two 

 possible remedies for this serious situa- 

 tion : one, which the birth control pro- 

 pagandists have espoused, is to get the 

 practice more widely spread among the 

 inferior. This, for a variety of rea- 

 sons, is a difficult if not hopeless task. 

 The other is the constructive eugenic 

 policy of getting such social and eco- 

 nomic changes in effect as will prevent 

 the superior from limiting the number 

 of their births excessively. This, too, 

 is difficult, but not hopeless. 



Most biologists are convinced that 

 the practice of birth control is desir- 

 able, within proper limits. But the 

 question is still a very live one. No in- 

 terested person can afford to overlook 

 Dr. Cooper's concise and thought-pro- 

 voking pamphlet. — P. P. 



