BIGGER FAMILIES IN GOOD STOCKS 77 



no excuse must here be found for neglecting the call of the 

 nation for families of adequate size. True patriots, if 

 sound in body and mind, will, if possible, have four children, 

 even if it involves some slight fall in the social scale. If 

 the parents' circumstances are such that they cannot, 

 without help from outside, bring up four children to lead 

 useful and honourable, though not necessarily luxurious, 

 Lives, then no doubt they should have few or no children. 

 It is, however, only when another child could not on account 

 of poverty be reared unaided in accordance with a certain 

 minimum standard of civilization that this national call 

 of duty in regard to parenthood should be ignored. 



Amongst highly educated women the birth-rate is excep- 

 tionally low ; and the proportion who do not marry is high. 

 As to women educated in some American Colleges, there 

 are only one and a half children, on the average, to each 

 married couple. Probably it is much the same in this 

 country. In the next chapter we shall see that something 

 more might be done to improve the financial position of 

 married women, so as to make marriage more attractive. 



The efforts made by women in recent years to get employ- 

 ment in calhngs previously only open to men have blinded 

 the eyes of some of them to the fact that women's special 

 duties stand out as amongst the very noblest and most 

 important of all human duties. It depends more on the 

 woman than on the man whether or not a child will be born 

 into the world. Civilization is passed on from generation 

 to generation by tradition. The home is the place where 

 the morals and the customs of those who will come after us 

 are now being determined, chiefly by the mother. If the 

 great importance of the duties which women only can 

 perform were more widely recognized by women, it would 

 often alter their outlook on life. The ideas absorbed in 

 youth unconsciously affect conduct all through life. High 

 ideals as to married life amongst men and women would 

 result in more marriages and wiser marriages. 



Sacrifices for our country's good must often include the 

 abandonment of personal pleasures and of social ambitions. 



