EUGENICS AND MARRIAGE 
A TREATISE UPON AN 
IMPORTANT PHASE 
OF SOCIAL HYGIENE 
BY 
LEE ALEXANDER STONE, M. D. 
Member American Anthropological Association, American Genetic 
Association, Southern Sociological Congress. Reprinted from the Journal of the Tennessee State Medical 
Association for September, 1915. 
COPYRIGHTED 
1915 “Know thyself; be thyself; think any- 
where. Discuss with others. Be defi- 
nite in your thinking. Think to a pur- 
pose.” —Socrates. 
“I am and I have a right to be." 
—Mary Wollstonecraft. INTRODUCTION 
A great many people are of the opinion 
that Eugenics and Social Hygiene are sep- 
arate topics and should be discussed as such. 
This is a mistake, for they are closely allied, 
and one cannot be properly referred to with- 
out touching closely upon the other. 
The Eugenist and Social Hygienist should 
be in every sense what the term implies, a 
humanitarian, for without possessing a broad 
humanitarian viewpoint he cannot hope to 
succeed in replacing many of the foundations 
in our present-day civilization that have be- 
gun to crumble under the weight of buildings 
of faulty construction. Foundations of 
knowledge must be made strong if men and 
women and boys and girls are to be expected 
to reach1 the very pinnacle on which is placed 
the compass that will guide the ship of in- 
tellectuality into a safe harbor, so that its 
cargo may be disposed of to the best ad- 
vantage, and bring the price that should be 
paid for knowledge that will aid, not only 
present generations, but those yet unborn. 
Some, unfortunately, have been preaching 
the doctrine of fear, trying to frighten indi- viduals into doing right by placing before 
their eyes horrible pictures of the abnormal 
and pathological. They seem to have forgot- 
ten that abnormal and pathological conditions 
do not predominate, but are in the minority, 
and that normality is the controlling element 
in nature which directs the actions of men 
and women and causes them to develop 
mentally and spiritually. Nothing was ever 
gained by teaching that unless one does so 
and so, according to doctrines laid down by 
some individual or set of individuals, 
they will be punished and endure untold 
agony in the future. This very doctrine of 
fear has caused a great many to prophesy the 
ultimate downfall of the teachings of Social 
Hygiene. If fear is to be the controlling fac- 
tor in the minds of teachers of Social Hygiene, 
it would be better to stop all talk and let our 
present system of hypocrisy and chicanery con- 
tinue to exist. 
William Marion Reedy has said that “it 
is sex o’clock.” He is right; it is “sex 
o’clock;” already have the hands on the dial 
of the clock of destiny begun to point to a 
new era in our civilization. Society is ready 
to lay hands on the false structure it has 
builded in the past. Its members are being 
prepared for the crash that will mark the downfall of tradition and superstition, and 
the birth of a new ideal that is destined to 
precede a change in social conditions. The 
dead lumber room of yesterday is being piled 
high with cast-off standards which have been 
for so long established around mock modesty 
and prudery, and from which secret vices 
have so frequently emanated. 
That the members of modern social systems 
have not been willing to recognize the ever- 
ruling sex instinct is unfortunate. It always 
has been the controlling power. Without the 
controlling elements of sex, society and civili- 
zation would never have developed. Every- 
thing would have remained just as it was in 
the beginning, cold and passionless. The 
creating of human beings of opposite sex 
caused man to aspire to the establishment of 
higher ideals; this ambition resulted in a 
fixed determination to excel. Men and women 
became controlled by sex hunger; thus may 
sex hunger rightly be ealled the creative im- 
pulse toward an ideal. 
If man had never been hungry for woman, 
and if woman had never been hungry for 
man, none of the finer traits of human char- 
acter could have been developed. Love, art, 
music, poetry—in short, all the finer quali- 
ties that have gone so far towards making life beautiful, could never have existed. Noth- 
ing would be known of religion, and human 
beings never would have felt the need of the 
exaltation that comes with it, had they not 
been controlled by sex hunger. 
Just a word about sex discussion: There 
must be in all sex discussion a dissociation 
of the terms sexual and sensual. Sexual mat- 
ters are the result of physio-psychic love and 
a desire for offspring, with a feeling that 
there can be no peace of mind for the male 
and female unless they can be joined to- 
gether by the bonds of conjugal joys; while 
the sensual marks a desire for erotic pleasures 
to be obtained from sexual congress out of 
lawful wedlock, without an ambition for off- 
spring or marriage. Sensuality destroys love 
and allows only lust and desire for fleeting 
pleasures to control the intellect and the bet- 
ter and saner judgment. 
The sexual life is a holy as well as a socially 
necessary one, and to look on the discussion 
of those subjects that will produce a higher 
race in the future as being unclean is foolish 
in the extreme. No harm can possibly result 
from discussions of sex questions if they are 
reverently entered into and discussed intelli- 
gently and from a scientific standpoint. 
Hysterical discussions by those who are not 
10 acquainted with their subject should be for- 
bidden. Fortunately, all discussions and 
questions involving the development of a 
higher ideal come out from under the in- 
fluences of radicalism and sentimental hys- 
teria unhurt. The pendulum of common sense 
eventually swings away from false alarmists 
who cry “wolf, wolf,” when there is no wolf. 
During the nineteenth century, when phil- 
osophers and scientists were in the most pro- 
found doubt as to what to do with the social 
problems which were in rapid succession pre- 
senting themselves for solution, the Great 
Galton was born, and from his ingenious mind 
was evolved the earliest logical schemes for 
the improvement of the race. He it was who 
gave to the world not only the term 
“eugenics,” to replace the older and less com- 
prehensive one “stirpiculture,” but laid down 
rules, which, if consistently followed, would 
so regenerate the great masses of society that 
a new order of things and a new and better 
order of men and women would be developed, 
redounding to the credit of the entire human 
race. 
Eugenics has become a common term, and 
its application to the betterment of mankind 
is being discussed in universities, colleges, 
schools, churches, in the secular and religious 
11 press, and in the home. Indeed, it has become 
the chief topic of the day. Even the less 
widely informed of the public are giving the 
subject earnest attention. 
Not only biologists and zoologists, but men 
of medicine and the clergy, as well as the 
more intelligent laymen, are giving the sub- 
ject of the future improvement of the race 
great consideration, and are seeking for the 
best possible means to better the generations 
that are to come—generations on whose 
shoulders will fall the responsibilities of state 
and the physical, moral, ethical and economic 
welfare of this great nation. 
In discussing this important topic, many 
have discussed it thoughtfully and sanely, 
while others, perhaps well meaning enough, 
but mistakenly, have strayed from the direct 
paths of logic and common sense and have 
offered all kinds of solutions for the manifold 
and many angled problems that even this early 
have presented themselves. 
Ultra-biologists and zoologists virtually 
have suggested the establishment of certain 
rules, which, if arbitrarily enforced, would 
result in an over-production of human beings, 
who, however closely they might approach the 
physical ideal, would be utterly devoid of in- 
12 tellect or any semblance of higher mentality. 
In effect, they propose to maritally bring to- 
gether men and women in whom there never 
has existed that physio-psychological condi- 
tion known as love, which alone leads to the 
union of two human beings of opposite sex in 
perfect physical and psychical accord. Un- 
consciously, perhaps, they would attempt to 
destroy by such arbitrary and unintelligent 
mating the desire of human beings to produce 
a being like unto themselves, who should even 
excel the parents in both physical and mental 
attainments. 
Such mistaken social philosophers would 
produce by their direct method of breeding, 
defectives, by using practically the same 
means to develop mankind that are now used 
to improve plants and animals, in whose lives, 
so far as we know, there never enters any 
element of psychology except, perhaps, that 
which is existent to a degree in all animal 
and plant life. They do not seem to compre- 
hend that human beings are far removed from 
animals and plants by the possession of intel- 
lect or mind, with an ability to think and act 
for themselves. 
It might be well to mention that our 
knowledge of psychology, as far as birds and 
animals is concerned, has been greatly 
13 added to by investigators within the past few 
years, and the man and the woman who ex- 
pects to marry would do well to read some of 
the investigations that have been made. They 
would learn a great deal that would be of 
immense value to them in after years. 
Especially would they learn one of the 
greatest lessons of life—fidelity of purpose— 
if they would study something about the mat- 
ings and lives of birds and other fowls. They 
undoubtedly possess great ability to love and 
remain true to one mate. It is also a notable 
fact that they render each other marked 
assistance in the rearing of their offspring. 
As already stated, mistaken social phil- 
osophers would produce a race of mental de- 
fectives. If permitted to work out their 
theories, intellect would in time give place 
to the hammer of the stone age and men and 
women would become the great physical 
beings they were in former ages, completely 
covered with hair and fighting and scratching 
for physical supremacy, with never a thought 
for the future development of a higher race. 
In brief, social reversion would occur. 
It is the lofty purpose of eugenics to build 
up—not tear down. 
Books in large numbers, and of all sorts, 
are being written to educate the young along 
14 lines leading to sex health and purity; works 
on eugenics abound; yet it never has been my 
pleasure, even after searching a multitude of 
both popular and scientific treatises, to dis- 
cover a single work devoted to broadly edu- 
cating the man and the woman of mature 
mind in Social Hygiene, with the possible ex- 
ception of “The Task of Social Hygiene,” by 
Havelock Ellis. 
A host of men and women are marrying 
daily in absolute ignorance of their duties to- 
wards each other. Especially is this true of 
their sexual relations. They have been for so 
long bound down by the bonds of tradition 
and prudery that the precept “Know Thy- 
self” has no meaning for them. 
There is a crying need for plain unequivocal 
instruction, which, instead of traveling in a 
circle, will start straight towards the center 
and tell the truth in plain, unvarnished Eng- 
lish. 
It has been my. pleasure to compile from 
many sources, expressed herewith under the 
caption “Eugenics and Marriage,” a brief 
treatise, which I hope will be of signal benefit 
in explaining an hitherto mysterious subject 
in its application to the marital relation. 
I have devoted some attention to the evils 
that result from association with prostitutes. 
15 I believe that more knowledge along this line 
is urgently needed, and I sincerely hope that 
what I shall say will in some measure assist 
in disseminating it. CHAPTER I. 
Eugenics, from a Greek term meaning well 
born, is that science which teaches people of 
all races how best to improve generations to 
come and develop a higher and more harmo- 
nious state of mental and physical perfection 
of human beings by teaching better methods 
of breeding. 
This treatise will not deal exhaustively 
with the subject of eugenics, save insofar as 
the science will tend to produce more perfect 
children by its practical application to mar- 
riage. The perfect mating of two beings of 
opposite sex in ethical wedlock will produce 
the uniformly perfect human being of the 
future, and, in so doing, a higher civilization. 
Without physio-psychic love it will be im- 
possible for a higher order of beings to be 
born. The perfectly mated pair, who are at 
all times in accord with each other and in 
whose thoughts centers a desire to bring into 
the world beings like unto themselves, who 
yet shall excel them, are the persons on whom 
the world should depend for the production 
of the great men and women of the future. 
The ideal marriage is that in which there is 
17 a blending of two souls to make more perfect 
the soul of the one who is yet to be born. 
When nature gave the world beings of oppo- 
site sex she made possible this ideal soul crea- 
tion through the evolution of man. 
Heredity, of course, plays a big part in the 
development of the lives of children, and the 
influences of heredity and eugenics are parts 
of each other. It is to be hoped that in the 
near future the unfit can be eliminated from 
society by sterilization, thereby preventing 
defective men and women from becoming 
parents of equally, or more, defective chil- 
dren, who would only follow in their foot- 
steps. Thus only can man hope to secure a 
line of perfect ancestors that may be looked 
back upon and viewed with pride. I will later 
attempt to indicate briefly, in a general way, 
the advantage to be gained by sterilization of 
the unfit. 
Havelock Ellis has this to say about the 
perfecting of the race in the future: 
“Human breeding must proceed from im- 
pulses that arise, voluntarily, in human brains 
and wills, and are carried out with a human 
sense of personal responsibility.” He also 
says: “Eugenics constitutes the link be- 
tween the Social Reform of the past, painfully 
struggling to improve the conditions of life, 
18 and the Social Hygiene of the future, which 
is authorized to deal adequately with the con- 
ditions of life because it has its hands on the 
sources of life.” 
Professor Charles B. Davenport, who, per- 
haps, has done more work along eugenic lines 
than any other American, says regard- 
ing the general program of the Eugenist: 
“The general program of the Eugenist is clear 
—it is to improve the race by inducing young 
people to make a more reasonable selection of 
marriage mates; to fall in love intelligently. 
It also includes the control by the state of the 
propagation of the mentally incompetent. It 
does not imply destruction of the unfit either 
before or after birth. It certainly has only 
disgust for the free love propaganda that 
some ill-balanced persons have sought to at- 
tach to the same. Rather it trusts to that 
good sense with which the majority of people 
are possessed and believes that in the life of 
such there comes a time when they realize 
they are drifting toward marriage and stop 
to consider if the contemplated union will re- 
sult in healthful, mentally well-endowed off- 
spring. At present there are few facts so 
generally known that they will help such per- 
sons in their inquiry. It is the province of the 
new science of eugenics to study the laws of 
19 inheritance of human traits, and, as these 
laws are ascertained, to make them known. 
There is no doubt that when such laws are 
clearly formulated many certainly unfit mat- 
ings will be avoided and other fit matings 
that have been shunned through false scruples 
will be happily contracted.” 
Lydston says: “Intelligently select a mate, 
then fall in love.” 
How often in the lives of human beings does 
the question of the actual meaning of life and 
its reproduction prove a stumbling block in 
their path! Why, through all the ages, has 
ignorance with regard to self been permitted 
to exist? Why is it that anything biologically 
normal, such as the sex impulse that is born 
with and remains as a part of one’s being, 
should be looked upon as unclean? Are not 
the results of the sex impulse, children, 
enough to raise it to a pinnacle of worship 
rather than to lower it into the bottomless pit 
of abuse, of shame and of iniquity? 
All life, all human questions, whether they 
pertain to the state or to the church, whether 
they are questions of economics, polities, 
science or religion, are solely dependent on 
the sex impulse to create beings who will 
carry out for all time to come the basic 
principles and teachings of each. 
20 When woman at the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era became a servile and cringing 
creature, always ready to bear any burden or 
submit to any abuse her lord and master 
chose to inflict upon her; when her sex became 
a thing apart from her social life and an un- 
clean factor in the eyes of the law, false 
modesty, sex hypocrisy and prudery were 
born. Man’s biologic, social and domestic 
partner was made to bide her charms, and she 
became the victim, not of monogamy, but of 
brutish and cruel systems built up by priests 
who were in absolute power. She was re- 
garded as being like any female animal, fit 
only to reproduce her kind and serve as a 
bond servant to grant any whim or fancy her 
lord and master chose to demand of her. As 
a consequence of this idea, which, unfortu- 
nately, even today predominates to a very 
large degree, women have been viewed as 
being, and have largely become, creatures of 
mediocre intelligence, fit only for reproduc- 
tion and sexual and sensual gratification. 
Prior to this period the sex impulse was 
regarded as holy, and nothing was known of 
modesty or prudery, in the sense in which 
these terms today are understood. Men and 
women worshipped at the shrine of purity, 
both in thought and mind, and to regard the 
21 function of reproduction as unclean or inde- 
cent never occurred to them. Their sole idea 
was to worship man, and that which man could 
produce as the result of his mental or physical 
ability. They were in every respect idealists 
who never allowed the profane or impure to 
influence them or their actions. 
It is true that commercialized prostitution 
had been in existence for centuries before the 
Christian era; but even so, prostitutes were 
able to command a certain respect. A close 
study of ancient prostitution will reveal to 
the student a condition very different from 
that which exists at the present time. 
I hope my discussion of “Eugenics and 
Marriage’’ will not offend the delicate sensi- 
bilities of my readers, who belong to the great 
masses of society which for so long has been 
compelled by environment and tradition to 
taboo all mention of sexual matters. I proba- 
bly will shock some because of my plain and 
direct expressions, and I hope that after the 
effects of the shock have worn off an entirely 
different view will develop in their minds as 
to what constitutes immodesty. Possibly, 
also, I may free their minds from prudery. It 
is alsolutely necessary to shock some people 
before they can be made to comprehend that 
the time for their awakening is at hand, and that, if they would develop, they must lay 
aside hide-bound traditions and emerge from 
the hot-house environment in which they have 
beer brought up and change their views, or 
drop back into the ruts which have been made 
by false standards of morals and ethics. 
It is not the province of this brief treatise 
to discuss pathological or abnormal material 
conditions. A discussion of this nature be- 
longs entirely to the real of science. Per- 
versions and abnormalities are so infrequent 
as to have no place in literature designed for 
reading by those who seek personal instruc- 
tion and not a scientific training. 
1‘ Without sexual desire, and the act which 
gratifies it, the human race would soon be- 
come extinct. Procreation would be imprac- 
ticable. All ambition, endeavor and affection, 
all poetry, art and religion—in short, all the 
emotions and achievements inspired by love 
would cease, and humanity would become cold 
and passionless.”* 
The vast majority of men and women are 
blind to the importance of the sexual nature 
in its relation to the affairs of the world. 
They fail to understand that except for sex- 
love they would not exist; that the well- 
spring of happiness and human life would dry 
♦Sex Worship—Howard. 
23 up, and that the foundation of society, there- 
fore, would be destroyed. 
Physio-psychic love is nothing more than 
a manifestation of the sexual instinct, domi- 
nated by the higher faculties of the mind. The 
sexual instinct is the universal animating im- 
pulse of all organic life. 
“Man and woman are reluctant to admit 
the existence of sexual desire when wooing, 
and would blush at its mention and deny its 
existence. Yet, at the same time, the desire 
is there to he gratified after the law has made 
them husband and wife.” 
The teachings of God, as recognized by all 
theologians and men of learning, as bearing 
on procreation of the species, declare that the 
existence of the sexual desire is necessary, 
and that procreation or transmission of life 
from one generation to another must wait 
upon the gratification of that desire. 
The begetting of children has been the 
holiest aim in life since the dawn of creation. 
For a woman to be barren and bear no chil- 
dren once was regarded as worse than death. 
The Jews believed a curse had been put upon 
her. Fear of dying without issue led their 
women sometimes to resort to subterfuges and 
impositions; hence, Lot’s daughters commit- 
ted incest with their father while dwelling in 
24 their secluded abode in the mountains, “be- 
cause there is not a man in all the earth to 
come unto us”—Gen. 19. The begetting of 
children was the highest aim in their lives, 
and, after they were secluded in the moun- 
tains, the fear of barrenness came upon them, 
so that they resorted to subterfuge and deceit 
to bring into the world beings like unto them- 
selves, and thus obey the will of the Almighty. 
“The creative act is man’s incomparably 
greatest pleasure, and produces the most won- 
derful and prized results—a new being like 
himself.” 
“It was on account of their high regard for 
the creative act, and what it produced, that 
man in primitive days worshipped the male 
organ of generation as a god. The phallus 
was regarded as the incarnate source of being, 
as the embodiment of the power on the part 
of man to create a new being. Therefore it 
was looked upon as the Author Life, and wor- 
shipped as such.” 
The holy reverence for the organs of gen- 
eration is exemplified in the book of Deuto- 
ronomy, where Jehovah himself ordained: 
“He that is wounded in the stones, or hath 
his privy member cut off, shall not enter into 
thf congregation of the Lord.”—Deut. 23:1. 
The manner of administering an oath among 
25 the ancient Hebrews was by placing the right 
hand between the thighs of the male, upon the 
genital organs—exactly as today we require 
one taking an oath to place his hand upon the 
Holy Bible—and for the same reason; because 
these were regarded by them as we regard 
the Bible now, as the most sacred of tangible 
things. 
Reverence for the perfect man is not con- 
fined to the past, for at the present day one 
who is mutilated sexually is not considered a 
‘ man” and cannot be consecrated as a priest. 
Castration has always been regarded as a 
punishment worse than death—a fate that de- 
graded man below the level of the lowest and 
meanest brute. 
The Songs of Solomon are replete with the 
beauties of life as obtained by the gratifica- 
tion of sexual desire. They are full of the 
poetry of excessive delight over those things 
which go toward making the union between 
man and woman perfect. Especially is Chap- 
ter VII filled with the genuineness of true 
love, as exemplified in a perfectly mated pair. 
The “Divine Act” is a natural one and 
should be regarded as such, and not classed 
among the hidden and unclean things of life. 
The false structure of prudery should be torn 
down and strong, clean views of life brought 
forward and a temple built to common sense. 
26 CHAPTER II. 
Unfortunately, in the past, no difference 
has been made between the terms Sexual and 
Sensual, and sexual matters have always been 
associated with the sensual and unclean. As 
has been said before, the Sexual Relation is 
the most sacred relation prevailing between 
man and woman united in holy wedlock. 
Sexual matters can only reach their climax 
when there exists that sublime emotion 
which is born when beings of opposite sex are 
in perfect accord with each other, and feel 
that there can be no happiness for them unless 
they become husband and wife. Love is the 
term applied to this feeling, and, without love, 
there is no chance for aught but the sensual 
to exist. 
Women frequently submit to their husbands 
in the sexual embrace when their whole being 
revolts; yet, because of a desire to keep peace 
and avoid contention, they are willing to do 
almost anything. “Legalized rape” is not 
much higher in the moral scale than the crim- 
inal kind. A man who will use brute force or 
unkind words to obtain sexual gratification 
from his wife is no better than a brute. He 
27 should by kindness and love try to bring her 
to the point where he will not have to insist, 
but will have only to express a desire to have 
his wishes granted. No woman likes to be 
forced into the performance of an act that is 
repugnant to her, on account of the brutal 
behavior of her spouse, any more than a man 
likes to be forced against his will to do that 
which he loathes. 
That physical and psychical condition 
known as love has an element of spirituality 
in it which developes one’s inner self to a 
state of perfection that would be unattainable 
without it. In other words, man and woman 
must first learn how to love before they can 
hope to reach the higher plane on which hap- 
piness is located and where the highest degree 
or marital felicity may be enjoyed. 
The holiest aim in the life of any woman 
should be motherhood. No grander privilege 
was ever granted a being. To be able to re- 
produce her kind and watch and guide it as it 
develops mentally and physically is the greatest 
prerogative granted by nature. Nothing sur- 
passes it. The nearest approach to the sight 
of the Deity one ever has is when he or she 
looks into the face of the mother of a new 
born babe. The mother’s face is radiant with 
beauty and spirituality and fills one with awe 
28 and respect. Her countenance is one that 
artists never have been able to copy, because 
it approaches the ethereal and spiritual so 
closely as to be beyond them. 
“There ain’t a picture of it. If there was they’d 
have to paint 
A. picture of a woman mostly angel an’ some saint. 
An’ make it still be human—an’ they’d have to 
blend th’ whole— 
There ain’t a picture of it, for no one can paint a 
soul. 
No one can paint the glory cornin’ straight from 
paradise— 
The motherhood that lingers in a happy woman’s 
eyes.” —Wilbur D. Nesbit. 
The woman who is blessed with the love of 
a good man, one who watches over her and 
cares for her gently and makes of her his 
ideal to be carried everywhere he goes, should 
be happy beyond the expression of words. 
During the dark days of pregnancy (and 
there are many of them), she needs the reas- 
suring presence of her husband and his love. 
She wants to feel that he at all times is will- 
ing to be patient with her; she wants to know 
that her burdens are his, and that he is ever 
ready to do anything he can towards com- 
forting her. 
The great Nietzche has given, perhaps, the best definition of marriage that ever has been, 
written: “Marriage; so named, the will of 
two to call into existence one, who is more 
than they who called him into existence.” 
Where can there be found a'nobler concep- 
tion? To be able to bring into, existence a 
being who, if brought up properly in a favor- 
ing environment, will amount to more than 
they who brought him into existence, should 
make all men and women pause and view with 
greater respect the institution of marriage 
and parenthood. 
Marriage is the Rock of Gibraltar of our so- 
cial structure. By its bonds it has more than 
once held nations together. Marriage is the 
promoter of happiness and bliss, the promoter 
of the greatest institution of all times—the 
home, and for these reasons alone will continue 
as an institution so long as the world shall last. 
In order to properly preserve the race it 
is necessary that the sexual power be held in 
reserve and used only at the proper time; the 
proper time being after the law has united 
man and woman as husband and wife. 
The wasting of sexual energy by illicit com- 
munion is likely to weaken man’s procreative 
ability, and his chance to become the father 
of strong and healthy children. The organs 
of generation are given in order that men and women may become the fathers and mothers 
of beings like unto themselves. The pro- 
creative organs of the male and the female 
may be likened to great laboratories, wherein 
life is first originated; where materials are 
joined together for the purpose of making a 
new being. It is necessary that the materials 
gathered together in these laboratories be 
properly mixed, hence nature has provided 
the Fallopian Tube in the woman, where the 
spermatozoa or seed of the male and the ovum 
or egg of the female may meet and by in- 
corporation become a part of one another. 
This contact results in a new body that be- 
gins to grow by cell division. This body re- 
mains for a little while in the Fallopian Tube, 
until nature, through the little hair-like pro- 
cesses which line the tube, forces the ovule 
out into the womb, where it grows more and 
more rapidly and finally develops into an 
embryonic being, which, after remaining in 
the uterus for 270 or 280 days, is born into 
the world a boy or a girl. 
Marriage is not only an institution whereby 
two souls are united; it is the linking together 
for life of men and women for the procreation 
of children and the perpetuation of the race. 
It is the right of all races to be well-born. It 
is their right to be able to boast of the strength of their ancestry, and to come into 
the world strong in body and inherent ca- 
pacity for mental development. 
There often comes up, of course, the ques- 
tion of the advisability of certain men and 
women being allowed to procreate. There are 
many instances wherein parenthood is not ad- 
visable, as, for example, where it is known 
that there is a taint, on either the husband’s or 
the wife’s side, that would operate against 
the physical and mental welfare of their off- 
spring, as would insanity, epilepsy, etc., in 
their line of ancestry, or where the husband 
is a weakling and the victim of drink, or some 
other pernicious habit or disease which saps 
his vitality. Syphilis, either acquired or 
hereditary, should at all times induce women 
to prevent conception. In brief, anything 
which inevitably tends to weaken her off- 
spring makes it justifiable for the wife to 
prevent conception. 
It has been suggested by some that in order 
to perfect the coming races it will be neces- 
sary to destroy the procreative ability of men 
and women who, because of degeneracy of one 
kind or another, either physical or mental, 
are rendered unfit to have children. 
Havelock Ellis says: 
“The most vital problem before our civiliza- tion today is the question of motherhood, the 
question of creating human beings best fitted 
for modern life.” 
When that time comes in our civilization, 
when men and women before they marry care- 
fully investigate all that may be known of the 
lives of each, with the view of reaching a per- 
fect union, then will be born as a result of 
that union the perfect man; then will the 
dreams of Eugenists come true, and a finer 
and truer philosophy of life be born. 
There is no doubt that children born of 
happy parents—parents who really enjoy the 
marital relation—are the strongest, physically 
and mentally. 
The act of begetting children is God-given 
and should be so regarded and respected. 
Being a natural and socially necessary act, it 
should be performed with a view of obtaining 
the best results. 
I have conversed upon this subject with a 
great many men and women, and have con- 
cluded that if husbands and wives would 
properly perform the marriage relation there 
Vvould be an increased desire for children on 
the part of the wives. 
Every day men and women marry who have 
not the slightest idea as to the proper manner 
of performing the conjugal act. They know that the result of their legal union is the con- 
summation of this act, and instinctively find 
a method of performing it; but as to how to 
gain the best results from their sexual life 
they are grossly ignorant. They have been 
taught that to mention it is vulgar, and that 
only the low and sensually-minded ever dis- 
cuss with others its performance. For this 
reason alone they are content to allow them- 
selves to remain ignorant. 
I venture the assertion that, if the true 
cause of the divorce evil could be ferreted out, 
it would be found that, in the majority of 
cases, the man and woman were sexually ill- 
mated. This would not be the case if the 
sexual relation were better understood by the 
married. 
That Eugenics will, as popularly supposed, 
destroy love, because of its being a science, is 
not a fact. A greater love will develop from 
the mating of beings best fitted to perfect on- 
coming races, on which will depend the de- 
velopment of a higher civilization. Love has 
always stood for those things that are truest, 
and has done its part throughout all the ages 
that have passed in making perfect the union 
between man and woman in order that better 
men and women might exist in the future. Ideal 
34 love should be the very culmination of fitness 
for parenthood. It is practically impossible 
for a child to be well born who is the product 
of a loveless marriage. The results of loveless 
marriages—unhappy and mentally deficient 
children—are today everywhere present in so- 
ciety. I do not wish to be understood as 
meaning that all children born of loveless 
marriages are unhappy or mentally deficient. 
The environment which surrounds children 
may mean their making or their marring. Un- 
doubtedly environment linked with hereditary 
tendencies has the effect of either retarding a 
child or sending it forward to a place among 
those who are born as the result of passionate 
love. 
Havelock Ellis wisely says: 
“It may indeed be pointed out that those 
who advocate a higher and more scientific con- 
science in matters of mating are by no means 
plotting against love, but rather against the 
influences that do violence to love; on the 
one hand, the reckless and thoughtless yield- 
ing to mere momentary desire, and, on the 
other hand, the still more fatal influences of 
wealth and position and worldly convenience 
which gives a fictitious value to persons who 
would never appear attractive partners in life 
were love and eugenic ideals left to go hand in hand. It is such unions, and not those in- 
spired by the wholesome instincts of whole- 
some lovers, which lead, if not to the abstract 
‘deterioration of the race,’ at all events in 
numberless cases to the abiding unhappiness 
of persons who chose a mate without realizing 
how that mate is likely to develop, nor what 
sort of children may probably be expected 
from the union. The eugenics ideal will have 
to struggle with the criminal and still more 
resolutely with the rich; it will have few 
serious quarrels with normal and well consti- 
tuted lovers.” 
Our children, the dynamically sexless beings 
of today, will be the men and women of to- 
morrow, possessed of an ability to procreate 
the species. Shall we permit these children to 
grow up as nothing more than pieces of ma- 
chinery and the slaves of tradition and super- 
stition? Should they not be taught the mys- 
teries of self, so that they may grow up with 
a higher sex purpose in mind, with a greater 
respect for those things which nature has de- 
creed shall happen? I wish that it wrere pos- 
sible for me to draw so vivid a picture of the 
fruits of ignorance, tradition, provincialism 
and superstition as to arouse society to intel- 
ligent action and force it from its present 
seat of complacency, and make its members vow to destroy the fruits of the iniquity of 
ignorance, for ignorance is the greatest in- 
iquity of all, and is too apparent to be allowed 
to exist. 
The time will come when, instead of two 
standards of morality, one for the man and 
one for the woman, there will be only one; 
and that one will be built on broad lines; 
built on charity and justice; built so that so- 
ciety will demand of both sexes the same de- 
gree of chastity which it now demands of 
woman alone. 
What is most needed nowadays is plain 
talk, talk that will drive home facts about 
which there already has been much said and 
more written by speakers and authors who 
have feared to use plain language, and who 
have veiled their remarks so as to render their 
meaning very obscure; and who, for this 
reason, never have accomplished the results 
they have hoped for. 
A discussion of the evils resulting from the 
illicit communion of man with the unfortunate 
creatures of the under-world is apropos at this 
point. Sooner or later, the patron of the 
prostitute contracts some loathsome disease— 
gonorrhea, syphilis, or chancroid. Some 
writers claim that neither of the first two of these diseases is ever cured. This is a mis- 
take, although the most rigid and prolonged 
treatment is always required. 
There seems to be a sentence of silence im- 
posed upon the young, their elders conspiring 
in concerted effort to conceal all knowledge. 
The young person is kept in ignorance of the 
dangers of venereal diseases. Even the med- 
ical profession, sad to relate, has not in the 
past paid the attention it should to the treat- 
ment and elimination of gonorrhea. The doc- 
tors have been inclined to make light of the 
disease and have told the patient that he 
could be cured without any trouble—instead 
of impressing him with the importance of 
proper and long continued treatment, and 
with the prospect of his future infection of 
the innocent unless he submitted to rigid 
medication. 
Dr. Milton J. Rosenau, in his recent book, 
“Preventive Medicine and Hygiene,” has the 
following to say regarding our present atti- 
tude toward venereal diseases: 
“Our attitude toward the venereal diseases 
is very inconsistent. There is a natural aver- 
sion to these afflictions. The sanitarian 
should make no distinction between the 
venereal diseases and other epidemic diseases; 
he should regard the greatpox in the same light that he regards the smallpox. The 
principles for the control of syphilis and gon- 
orrhea differ in no wise from those used to 
control smallpox, leprosy, tuberculosis, 
measles, diphtheria, etc. The health officer 
must not regard venereal disease as a punish- 
ment for sin and crime—the victim or culprit 
needs help and sympathy. The immediate 
problem is the prevention of further spread 
of the infection. A person afflicted with a 
venereal disease should be treated in the same 
hi mane spirit that actuates the physician in 
other diseases. Furthermore, the interests of 
the community require that the patient be ac- 
corded the best possible care and attention. 
The usual attitude toward the venereal 
disease may well startle us when we consider 
that in most of our large cities no hospital will 
take a case of syphilis or gonorrhea during 
the acute stages, when these diseases are 
especially communicable. Morrow holds that 
the notoriously inadequate provision made for 
the reception and treatment of venereal pa- 
tients is a disgrace to our civiliation. Formerly 
lepers were segregated in vile lazarettos, and 
cases of smallpox isolated in horrible pest 
houses. Now we have comfortable and con- 
genial isolation wards or special sanatoria for 
these diseases. From the standpoint of pre- 
39 vention, suitable hospital accommodations 
should be provided for the venereal diseases.” 
If the disease produced by illicit inter- 
course could be confined to the guilty, they 
alone would suffer; they alone would be com- 
pelled to bear the awful consequences of their 
debauchery. But unfortunately this is not the 
case; for these same infected men frequently 
marry good women, who are as chaste and 
pure as the driven snow, and impart to them 
the horrible infectious diseases contracted in 
the sowing of their “wild oats.” Many a man 
has thus made an invalid of his wife, who, if 
she had married an untainted man, would have 
enjoyed the pleasures of good health and well- 
being. 
But the wife is not the only sufferer. Her 
children are likely to be born blind, as the 
result of gonorrhea, or born with some loath- 
some marking or lesions of disease, or imper- 
fect brain structure, so that they become 
idiotic as a consequence of syphilitic infection. 
Syphilitic sequelae and nutritional disturb- 
ances may show in each child in succession, 
for its horrors last throughout many genera- 
tions. 
Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of 
Harvard University, has said: 
“Chastity in man is just as necessary as 
40 chastity in woman, for the security, honor and 
happiness of family life; continence is abso- 
lutely healthful for both sexes; men’s prof- 
ligacy is the cause or source of women’s pros- 
titution, with its awful consequences to the 
guilty parties and to the innocent human 
beings who are later infected by the guilty; 
the most precious joys and most durable satis- 
factions of life are put at a fearful risk by 
sexual immorality.” 
Man should not expect more from the 
woman he loves and makes his bride than he 
is willing and ready to give in return. The 
days of the sowing of “wild oats” are pass- 
ing. The time is approaching when a woman 
will look with scorn on a proposal of marriage 
from a profligate whose boast to his friends 
has been that he has had mistresses without 
number and has no desire to associate with a 
girl unless she allows liberties and is loose in 
her moral behavior. 
Lydston, in his book “Sex Hygiene for the 
Male,” pictures in vivid language what it 
means to harvest a crop of wild oats. I present 
the picture in its entirety, with the hope that 
it will aid in destroying the lie that all young 
men must have some experience in the sowing 
of wild oats before they can attain the title 
“man.” 
41 “Should youth be exposed to debauchery to 
strengthen it? Most emphatically, no! If 
youth were protected from wild oats influences 
until its judgment was mature, there would 
not be so many brands to be plucked from the 
burning. For the benefit of those who accept 
the ‘wild oats’ conception of the male ideal, 
here are a few pictures that are only too 
familiar: 
“Picture 1. A certain health resort—the 
sinkhole into which a large part of the im- 
morality, crime and diseases of America is 
dumped—there are a hundred thousand vis- 
itors annually. Of these, a large proportion 
go there to harvest their ‘wild oats’ crop. He 
who visits one of the government ‘rale holes’ 
can best appreciate the harvest of the ‘wild 
oats.’ 
“Picture 2. A hospital. Here is a group of 
locomotor ataxies; there a group of deformed 
children, yonder, a girl in her teens is nursing 
a child who never will know its father. More 
‘wild oats.’ 
“Picture 3. An asylum. Here is a case of 
general paresis; there a melancholiac; in the 
next room a maniac can be heard shrieking. 
:Wld oats’ a-plenty. 
“Picture 4. A police court, full of drunks, 
criminals and bums. ‘Wild oats’ again. 
42 “Picture 5. A jail. Here are ‘wild oats’ of 
the striped, short-haired variety in abundance. 
“Picture 6. A foundling asylum full of 
children cursed by society before they were 
born as ‘bastards.’ Poor little ‘wild oats.’ 
“Picture 7. A doctor’s office full of anxious 
men and still more anxious women, who do not 
gossip much about their ailments, even among 
their intimates, save where the women are told 
by the doctor a pretty fairy tale for home use. 
‘Wild oats’ growing in the dark. 
“Picture 8. A brothel. Around the ‘recep- 
tion’ room sits a collection of poor female 
creatures, many of whom were originally 
sacrificed in aiding youth to sow its ‘wild 
oats.’ These women are now getting poetic 
revenge, as the doctor knows. 
“Picture 9. A beautiful girl is found dead 
in the river one fine morning. What is she 
doing there? Washing the ‘wild oats’ out of 
her life. 
“Picture 10. A pistol shot rings out in a 
gambling hell—a man falls dead. The gun 
was loaded with ‘wild oats.’ 
“Picture 11. A defaulting bank cashier 
flees to Canada; he is looking for a market for 
his ‘wild oats.’ 
“Picture 12. A series of deserted babies are 
43 found in the snow. Who planted them there? 
Sowers of ‘wild oats.’ 
“Picture 13. A wife, surrounded by her 
cold and hungry children, is sitting weeping— 
eating her heart out. The husband and father 
is on a drunk; he has whipped her, is in jail, 
or has deserted her. ‘Wild oats’ make broken 
hearts; they are poor food for babies; they 
do not buy coal, nor cover nakedness. 
“The maimed gray-beards who learned the 
‘wild oats’ lie from society’s primer are 
usually willing to confess that the ‘wild oats’ 
of yesterday are watered with the tears of to- 
day. The vicious roots of the ‘wild oats’ of 
youth often lie deep in the ashes of manhood’s 
and womanhood’s despair. The crop is 
garnered with the sickle of regret and 
threshed with the flail of disease and pain.” 
All men and women should bury deep in 
the innermost recesses of their hearts that 
beautiful bit of verse, “My Creed,” by 
Howard Arnold Walter, and recall it to 
memory when they are about to do something 
that will reflect discredit on their actions. 
“I would be pure, for these are those that trust 
me; 
I would be true, for there are those that care; 
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer; 
I would be brave, for there is much to dare; 
44 I would be friend of all—the foe—the friendless; 
I would he forgiving and forget the gift; 
I would be humble for I know my weakness; 
I would look up—and laugh—and love—and 
lift.” 
It is an unfortunate fact that there are 
many men whose chief claim to distinction is 
that they have debauched innocent girls. 
There is a many a girl, who, but for such 
creatures, would never have indulged in 
liquor given with fell design by one of these 
perverts—which caused her to lose her self- 
control and yield up her priceless chastity, 
thereby becoming an outcast from society and 
a shameless creature of the brothel. 
Woman should demand the same pure life 
on the part of her lover that he demands of 
her. The moment she finds that he does not 
measure up to this standard she should shun 
his society as though he were an adder about 
to spring upon her; for, more fearful than 
the adder, whose poison kills at once, he is 
capable of infecting her with a disease germ 
so subtle in its action that it does not produce 
immediate death but long and untold suffer- 
ing. 
The man who can boast of a clean life, and 
of the fact that he has never violated the laws 
of chastity, and who goes to the woman he 
45 marries as pure and undefiled as she, wears 
the priceless jewel of true manhood. 
We are learning every day more about our- 
selves than ever we knew before. We have 
learned that the gratification of sexual desire 
is not necessary to health, and that man may 
refrain from the performance of the sexual 
act until after he is married, without in any 
way injuring his virility or strength in after 
years. 
A very interesting example of man’s ability 
to remain continent is spoken of in “The 
Truth About Woman,” by C. Gasquoine Hart- 
ley. The writer in speaking of the marriage 
laws of the Wyandotte Indians tells of the lover 
“being permitted to share the jacal and 
sleeping robe, provided for the prospective 
matron by her kinswomen, not as a privileged 
spouse, but merely as a protective companion 
for one year; and throughout this proba- 
tionary term he is compelled to maintain con- 
tinence—he must display the most indubi- 
table proof of moral force. At the close of 
the year, if all goes well, the probation ends 
in a feast provided by the lover, who now 
becomes husband, and finally enters his wife’s 
jacal as ‘consort guest.’ ” The Wyandottes 
are noted for their great strength and have 
46 never suffered from the seemingly harsh re- 
quirements of their marriage laws. 
The procreative organs are very delicate 
and should be guarded very carefully in order 
that perfection of development and function 
may be attained. 
The best way to obtain purity of body and 
cleanliness of mind is by proper education. 
It is absolutely necessary to educate the 
young in matters pertaining to sex if they are 
expected to climb the heights of the highest 
civilization attainable. 
The proper sex education of youth will 
bring joy and happiness to them in their 
future lives. Children should be educated to 
understand that indulgence in the sexual re- 
lation before marriage may forever bar them 
from decent society and the chance of mar- 
riage. The “home” should be a school 
wherein the lessons of life are so clearly 
taught the young that when they are sent out 
into the world to battle for themselves it 
will be far easier to withstand temptation 
than it would have been had they not been 
the recipients of such liberal education. 
It has seemed to me that we are not as yet 
ready for instruction in “Sex Hygiene” in 
the schools. My reasons for the above state- 
47 n'.ent I hope to make clear. 
1st. Almost all parents are ignorant along 
sex lines and ought to be educated in sex 
hygiene before it is taught in the schools, so 
that they will be able to think and talk in- 
telligently when discussing the subject with 
their children. 
2nd. The majority of teachers of sex hy- 
giene at the present time have a perverted idea 
as to what is meant by the terms Sex Hygiene 
and Personal Purity. Usually the first thing 
that is done by them in their lectures is to 
put the cart before the horse, and discuss ef- 
fects before even attempting to analyze and 
define causes. They make it a practice to 
discuss pathological conditions and matters 
belonging to a study of the abnormal, instead 
of giving wholesome instruction which will 
have to do with only the normal. 
Instructors in sex hygiene often are men 
and women who habitually deal chiefly with 
diseased minds and bodies. Again, these 
persons are likely to have an exaggerated no- 
tion of the necessity of teaching sex pathology 
to the young. Many of these teachers are 
specialists in treating what Lydston has called 
“diseases of society,” or are workers in the 
slum districts where social conditions and 
human beings are at their lowest ebb. 
48 A special endeavor should be made to ob- 
tain teachers who possess humanitarian ideas, 
and who for at least a part of the time are 
associated with and studying normal con- 
ditions. 
Havelock Ellis in his book, “The Task of 
Social Hygiene,,, has this to say regarding the 
teaching of sex hygiene in schools: 
“Sexual hygiene in the full sense—in so far 
as it concerns individual action and not the 
regulative or legislative action of communi- 
ties—is the art of imparting such knowledge 
as is needed at successive stages by the child, 
the youth and maiden, the young man and 
woman, in order to enable them to deal right- 
ly, and so far as possible without injury either 
to themselves or to others, with all those 
sexual events to which every one is naturally 
liable. To fulfill his functions adequately 
the master in the art of teaching sexual 
hygiene must answer to three requirements: 
(1) he must have a sufficing knowledge of the 
facts of sexual phychology, sexual physiology 
and sexual pathology, knowledge which, in 
many important respects, hardly existed at 
all until recently, and is only now beginning 
to become generally accessible; (2) he must 
have a wise and broad moral outlook, with a 
sane idealism which refrains from demand- 
49 ing impossibilities, and resolutely thrusts 
aside not only the vulgar platitudes of world- 
liness, but the equally mischievous platitudes 
of an outworn and insincere asceticism, for 
the wise sexual hygienist knows, with Pascal, 
that ‘he who tries to be an angel becomes a 
beast,’ and is less anxious to make his pupils 
ineffective angels than effective men and 
women, content to say with Browning, ‘ I may 
put forth angels’ pinions, once unmanned, but 
not before;’ (3) in addition to sound knowl- 
edge and a wise moral outlook, the sexual 
hygienist must possess, finally, a genuine 
sympathy with the young, an insight into 
their sensitive shyness, a comprehension of 
their personal difficulties, and the skill to 
speak to them simply, frankly and humanly/’ 
And he further says: 
“It is useless to attempt to introduce 
sexual hygiene as a subject apart, and in 
some respects it may be dangerous. When 
we touch sex we are touching sensitive fibres, 
which thrill through the whole of our social 
organism, just as the touch of love thrills 
through the whole of the bodily organism. 
Any vital reform here, any true introduction 
of sexual hygiene to replace our traditional 
policy of confused silence, affects the whole 
of life or it affects nothing. It will modify 
50 our social conventions, enter our family life, 
transform our moral outlook, perhaps re- 
inspire our religion and our philosophy. 
“That conclusion need by no means render 
us pessimistic concerning the future of sexual 
hygiene, nor unduly anxious to cling to the 
policy of the past. But it may induce us to be 
content to move slowly, to prepare our move- 
ments wisely and Irmly and not to expect too 
much at the outset.” 
Rosenau says: “Education in sex hygiene 
and the venereal peril accomplishes a certain 
amount of good. It may be questioned how 
much a knowledge of the consequences will 
prevent some persons committing crime. 
However, the old-style innocence must be re- 
garded as present-day ignorance. Every boy 
and girl, before reaching the age of puberty, 
should have a knowledge of sex, and every 
man and woman before the marriageable age 
should be informed on the subject of repro- 
duction and the dangers of venereal diseases. 
Superficial information is not true education. 
On the other hand, it is a mistake to dwell 
unduly upon the subject, for in many in- 
stances the imagination and passion of youth 
are inflamed by simply calling attention to the 
subject.” 
51 CHAPTER III. 
It is a most lamentable fact that even to- 
day, in the majority of states, a lewd, disease- 
ridden profligate, showing in his every ex- 
pression just what he is, may go to any Coun- 
ty Court Clerk and obtain a marriage license 
to marry a woman who is not only pure, but 
strong and healthy as well, and whose nor- 
mality should not be sacrificed on Hymen’s 
altar. 
There are no questions asked, and even if 
the clerk who issues the license knows per- 
fectly well the character of the man with 
whom he is dealing, he, on account of our 
present laws, is powerless to act, and must 
issue a license, knowing that the prospective 
marriage will cause great suffering, perhaps 
untold agony, in the woman for years and 
years, even until she is finally relieved by 
the kind hand of death. 
What can be expected of laws that compel 
a man to grant a license to a creature like the 
one just described? Should we wonder that 
degeneracy and its evil brood exist—that 
women and children suffer as the result of 
them ? These laws are made by men who are 
totally incapable of sound reasoning, being 
merely the tools of designing politicians, who 
are interested only in their own behalf, caring 
nothing for the future welfare of the nation. 
Breeders of cattle and horses, and flori- 
culturists and practical farmers, are contin- 
ually devising means of improving both ani- 
mal and vegetable forms, and occupy houis 
of time in explaining their methods; yet, when 
asked to vote for a change that will benefit 
the entire social system which they profess 
to represent, they turn away and refuse to 
listen. If they reply at all, they say that what 
was good enough for their mothers and 
fathers is good enough for them. They for- 
get that, instead of standing still, the world 
is progressing, and that as time advances an- 
cient methods and traditions will be relegated 
to the dead lumber room of the past, in order 
that space may be made for improvements 
which must come as a natural result of pro- 
gressiveness. 
The day is fast approaching when legisla- 
tion will in every state enact marriage laws 
which will be strict and will have to be obeyed 
to their very letter. Before a marriage license 
is issued both applicants will have to produce 
certificates of health, signed by an official 
53 board composed of reputable physicians, stat- 
ing that the parties to the proposed marriage 
are physically and mentally fit to marry and 
procreate healthy children, and that neither 
the man nor the woman ever has contracted a 
venereal disease. The applicant who has had 
venereal trouble will have to submit to a 
second thorough examination by a medical 
board and be declared completely cured before 
the license will be granted. 
"When the marriage service may be read by 
any licensed minister, justice of the peace, or 
other official of the law, there is bound to be 
displayed a certain degree of laxity and in- 
difference. This is dangerous, for many men 
and women have lived to rue the day they 
ever saw each other, as the result of hasty 
marriages. 
The old method of publishing the “bans'’ 
should be brought into use again and laws 
passed that would enforce their publication. 
If the law enforced a delay, many persons, 
after due deliberation, would refuse to take 
the step that ought to mean so much to them. 
Marriages often are contracted merely be- 
cause animal passion is allowed to predomi- 
nate over sane judgment. "When sex emo- 
tion enters the door character study flies out 
of the window. When passion cools it is too 
54 late to correct mistakes in mating. Suck mar- 
riages could not take place under laws requir- 
ing a reasonable period of deliberation; suck 
laws would give botk tke man and tke woman 
a ckance to investigate eack otlier and acquire 
a knowledge of eack other’s ckaracter. Tkis 
would frequently induce tkem to refrain from 
an alliance tkat would prove karmful to one 
or tke otker, and in tke end to botk. 
Man one day will be swayed by morals and 
calm reasoning intellect, instead of by in- 
stinct. The coming of tkat day will mark a 
period the like of which never has been seen 
in history. Morality will prevail, and a com- 
plete rebuilding of the social structure will 
result. The position of tke man who leads a 
pure life will be pre-eminently higher than 
that of him who is loose in his morals and 
leads a life of disgusting sensuality. 
The right of the child to be well born can- 
not be gainsaid. How to conserve that right 
is one of the most serious problems the world 
is now facing. Eugenists and writers on 
Social Hygiene are devising ways and means 
to help, and are giving wholesome instructions 
to mothers and fathers as to how properly to 
care for themselves in order that their chil- 
dren may be born healthy and free from 
physical blemishes which lead to moral and mental degeneracy. Instruction is being so 
generally given that there can be no possible 
excuse for ignorance. Children are being 
taught the secrets of life and are being made 
to understand that the mysteries of the past 
regarding themselves are just the things they 
should know. Ignorance with regard to sex 
is being relegated to the ash-heap, along with 
other medieval hypocricies. 
The teachers of eugenics, as well as the 
teachers of Sex and Social Hygiene, in their 
fight for race improvement, have not over- 
looked the fact that in our midst are numer- 
ous antisocial classes which must be reckoned 
with. The hardened criminal, the moral de- 
generate, the mentally deficient, the hopelessly 
insane, the residents of the slums, who breed 
like rats and live in unavoidable squalor and 
poverty, the beggar class—and they are le- 
gion—the prostitute, the pimp, the inebriate, 
cocaine and morphine fiends, and not a few 
others that might be mentioned—these are 
antisocial beings in that they tend to drag our 
social standards down. Some means must be 
devised to prevent their marrying and bring- 
ing into the world beings like themselves. If 
we wish to be rid of all that has a tendency 
to produce anything that will stop progres- 
sion and the upbuilding of the race, it will 
56 be found necessary to resort to radical 
measures. 
I suggest the operation of vasectomy— 
sterilization—as a means of improving future 
generations by destroying the procreative 
ability of the unfit, who, by marrying and 
bringing into the world beings like them- 
selves, are doing mankind a great injustice. 
This operation will not in any way inter- 
fere with marriage, except that the man and 
woman will not be able to reproduce the spe- 
cies. They will be able to enjoy the marriage 
relation and live together as man and wife 
without feeling that they are a menace to 
civilization. They will know that when they 
die their race, so far as they are concerned, 
dies with them. It will be by the process of 
elimination, and by it alone, that the race 
improvement we are hoping for will come, 
and sterilization is the most humane method 
of its accomplishment. 
The vasectomy operation is harmless. It 
does not imply castration, and involves no 
real mutilation and no loss of sex power 
other than that of procreation. 
There is a class of people who uncon- 
sciously are a cause of degeneracy and fre- 
quently the cause of criminality by arguing 
to their children when they show a desire to advance and really amount to something in 
the world, that what was good enough for 
their fathers and mothers is good enough for 
them. This is a mistake, and one which should 
be rectified, for mankind must either progress 
or degenerate. 
It must be seen that the men and the 
women who accomplish things in this age are 
those who have brushed aside traditions and 
climbed the mountains of difficulties and have 
overcome them. Only such individuals '•an 
be justly classed as desirable citizens. 
I hold that every man or woman who be- 
longs to the degenerate class, whether crim- 
inal, inebriate, beggar, pimp, prostitute, im- 
becile, moral leper, or pauper, should have 
their powers of procreation taken from them 
in order that in the future it may be truth- 
fully said of children born into the world, 
“They came from strong and healthy families, 
and families composed of men and women 
who have really done something for race im- 
provement.” 
The states that have passed laws providing 
for the destruction of the procreative powers 
of criminals and degenerates have taken a 
long step forwrard in race progression. 
The moment a race of people begins to 
study means and methods for self-improve- ment, that race or nation begins to ascend to 
a plane of civilization that never can be at- 
tained by a people which pays no attention 
to anything but the struggle for the Almighty 
Dollar and what it brings. 
The Spartans, through a process of elimi- 
nation, developed a race of perfect men and 
women—perfect not only in body, but in 
mental attainments. They destroyed, by 
throwing them over the cliffs, all of their 
race who were imperfect mentally or 
physically. 
It will not be found necessary to throw 
the imperfect of the race over cliffs and by 
so doing bring about a violent death; but it 
will be necessary to see that their kind dies 
with them. The way to accomplish this, as 
has been said before, is by destroying their 
procreative ability. 
Every effort is being made to improve ani- 
mal life and produce fancy stock that will 
bring higher prices. Human beings should 
demand that the race to which they belong 
be improved. If fancy breeding and the care 
which animals receive improves them, it is 
certainly logical to treat the human race in 
like manner and bring it up to a similar 
standard of perfection. 
The Rev. Henry Stiles Bradley in an address 
before the Southern Sociological Congress at 
59 Atlanta, Ga., in 1913, gave some startling sta- 
tistics about insane and mentally deficient be- 
ings who are being taken care of in institutions 
throughout the United States. He says: 
“We have been, and are still, trying to drive 
the human race uphill with the brakes on. Of 
all the drags upon the human race today, the 
heaviest are war and bad germ plasm—the re- 
production of the unfit. I shall call attention 
to a few facts relating to- reproduction of bad 
germ plasm. 
“First, I w’ould have you note that the bur- 
den upon civilization dtfe to bad breeding is 
increasing. From 1890 to 1910 the insane per- 
sons in the asylums of the United States in- 
creased from 74,000 to 250,000, the number of 
criminals increased from 82,000 to 115,000, 
juvenile delinquents increased from 15,000 to 
23,000, paupers increased from 73,000 to 85,- 
000, eleemosynary patients increased from 112,- 
000 to 250,000, institutions for the insane in- 
creased from 162 to 372. 
“Four per cent of our population belong to 
this class of insane, idiots, feeble-minded, etc., 
and the care of them is one of our heaviest 
economic burdens. We are spending every 
year in the United States $30,000,000 for the 
maintenance of hospitals and such institutions 
60 for the care of these dependents. We spend 
$1:0,000,GOO for insane asylums, $20,000,000 
for almshouses, $13,000,000 for prisons ,$5,- 
000,000 for the feeble-minded, deaf, and blind. 
The 723,000 persons of this class cost us yearly 
nearly $1(10,000,000. ’ ’ 
These statistics, combined with the sta- 
tistics of criminal institutions, certainly war- 
rant my assertion that the operation of 
vasectomy should be performed on mental 
and moral degenerates, both in and out of in- 
stitutions. Out from under institutional care 
the mentally and morally deficient become the 
greatest menace to race progression. 
To sum up what has been said, there should 
be a perfect knowledge of the ethics of sex; 
for from lack of knowledge damage usually 
results. 
Hasty marriage should be forbidden by 
law. All engagements should be made known 
at least four weeks before the wedding oc- 
curs, and the law along these lines should be 
very strict. In my opinion, the way to defeat 
the divorce evil is through the perfection of 
laws which will not regulate the issuance of 
divorce decrees, but will regulate the whole- 
sale and promiscuous issuing of marriage 
licenses, which is going on today, and prevent, 
61 under penalty of fine or imprisonment, a 
marriage taking place until both contracting 
parties have been fully investigated, and their 
moral, mental and physical condition looked 
into. 
Too long has society been worshipping at 
the shrine of tradition by allowing marriage 
laws to stand, that, while considered good in 
days gone by, are at the present time 
vicious and should not be tolerated by pro- 
gressive men and women. 
Too long has society tolerated some of the 
so-called love matches, which are merely ex- 
aggerated infatuations, mixed with more than 
an ordinary amount of animal desire. The 
head and the heart are too frequently sep- 
arated and usually no attention is paid by 
those wishing to marry to advice or common 
sense. Too long have mothers been tolerant 
of the attention of moral lepers to their 
daughters, because of a fear that the daugh- 
ters would not be a success in society. Fre- 
quently the debauchee is able to disguise him- 
self as a clean man, and, because he happens 
to belong to one of the first families of the 
town and occupies a high social position, he 
is allowed to associate with girls and young 
men who are pure and clean-minded, only to 
taint them by his presence because of the foul 
life he is living. 
62 The future generations that are yet unborn 
are deserving of more forethought, and that 
their welfare be better looked after. It is 
the proud boast of the American people that 
they are the strongest in the world. If the 
laxity of our present marriage laws is allowed 
to continue to exist, what may be expected 
of the human beings who are to be the fathers 
and mothers of races to come? Will they not 
be weaklings and fall, because they are weak- 
lings, and become the vassals of a race of 
people who believe in their own strength and 
who have in the days that have passed pre- 
served their forces in order that they might 
become strong and leave a heritage of power 
to their future progeny? 
Until the laws are made that will look to 
the improvement of the race, and the regula- 
tion of marriage, divorce mills will continue 
to grind and no one will be able to stop them. 
The words of Old Adam in “As You Like 
It” are here most fitting: 
“Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; 
For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood, 
Nor did not, with unbashful forehead, woo 
The means of weakness and debility. 
Therefore my is as a lusty winter, 
Frosty but kindly.” 
1190 Linden Ave., Memphis, Tenn. 
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NASHVILLE