202 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



and any increase in the time would, at present, almost 

 certainly mean still fewer children born. 



Such a result would be welcome where the stock is 

 unsound or incompetent, and could some means be 

 devised at the same time of compensating women for 

 their loss of wages in cases where both they and their 

 husbands are worthy citizens, a double economic pressure 

 in the right direction might be established. In past days 

 men founded almshouses and hospitals for the old, the 

 infirm and the weak. May we not hope in the future 

 for endowments for young, healthy, and strong wives 

 and mothers, to be chosen by trustees who should look 

 solely to the probable quality of the offspring ? Till 

 we have slowly felt our way through the pitfalls and 

 dangers of State action, some such tentative experiments 

 would be invaluable. Eventually they may lead to a 

 satisfactory system of selective public endowment of 

 parenthood, whereby the State honours and rewards 

 those in all ranks of life who produce strong, healthy, 

 and able offspring, instead of penalizing, as at present, 

 the reproduction of the best elements of the people, 

 and assuming the burdens of those alone who are least 

 likely to give birth to useful members of society. 



A sociological experiment is being made in several 

 of our Colonies ; without, of course, the slightest 

 knowledge on their part either of the probable effects 

 or the certain dangers of the result. The birth-rate 

 in most of the British Colonies, especially among 

 the capable classes, is as small as or smaller than it 

 is in the mother country. In some colonies legis- 

 lation has tended to make it difficult or impossible 



