RACE SUICIDE OR A NATURAL LAW? 33 



charitable to infer that their peculiar affection for cats 

 and dogs is due to the absence of more natural objects 

 of affection through causes beyond their control. 



Surely it is time to call a truce to these extravagant 

 and rather libellous assumptions put forward in the 

 effort to justify untenable beliefs. In face of the enormous 

 proportion of completely childless marriages among the 

 intellectual classes generally, the wives of the leading 

 members of the Eugenics Society, the wives of members 

 of the staff of Cambridge University, and other sections 

 of the community, it is not unreasonable to ask people 

 to reflect upon the implications of these assumptions. 

 At any rate, before accepting the view that there has 

 been a wholesale degeneration of the natural instincts 

 of the wives of the ablest members of the community 

 we are justified in asking for proof, and thus far not a 

 scrap of trustworthy evidence in support has been supplied. 



All the evidence points to the conclusion that these 

 childless couples keenly desire children. Nearly every 

 doctor or other authority competent to express an opinion 

 is emphatic in his testimony that the overwhelming 

 majority of married women want one or two children, 

 and anyone who will note the hungry looks of childless 

 women in the presence of children will easily confirm 

 this opinion. The following passage, written by an acute 

 observer of human nature during a visit to the United 

 States, and descriptive of the attitude of the American 

 people towards children, is typical of the impression 

 made upon those who do not happen to be trying to 

 justify preconceived ideas at the moment : ' You may 

 see that couple later or a couple that might have been 

 them in a suburban house a real home for the time 

 being with a colourable imitation of a garden all about 

 it, and ' the finest suburban railway service in the world ' 



3 



