COMMERCIALISM. 299 



exhaust themselves completely, physically or men- 

 tally, so that they parent children who are sadly 

 wanting in physical strength and mental vigor. 



Many children are born tired! The over- 

 worked energies of the parents, their tired con- 

 dition at the time of the initial of life, and in the 

 mother during gestation have robbed them of all 

 physical vigor. A farmer carefully protects his 

 brood animals, feeds them well and sees that they 

 are not overworked ; his wife, however, is allowed 

 to slave from daylight until late at night with one 

 child at the breast and another developing beneath 

 her heart. His colts take the premium at the fair ; 

 his children are weaklings, dullards, or loafers. 

 Poorly fed, overworked mothers give birth to 

 most of that constitutionally tired, indifferent, 

 worthless class called tramps. 



Overwork depletes the brain as well as the body. 

 Most children born from exhausted parents are 

 poorly endowed mentally and morally. When 

 the energies of parents are largely directed to the Overwork De- 

 muscles their offspring are usually more muscular P Ietes the Brain, 

 than intellectual or moral. I have observed that 

 business and professional men, who in their eager- 

 ness to accumulate, greatly overtax their nervous 

 system, frequently parent comparatively inferior 

 children. Seldom does an overworked profes- 

 sional or public man parent a child with a men- 

 tality that is the equal of the father's. 



Again, the constant effort to accumulate aug- 



. . . . . . , Commercialism 



ments the propensities to an abnormal degree and Begets Selfish- 

 correspondingly weakens the other powers. It ness 

 creates inordinate selfishness, robs the intellectual 

 and esthetic faculties, leaves the social nature 



