The Family 
and the New Democracy 
A Study in Social Hygiene 
By 
Anna M. Galbraith,' M. D. 
‘Author of 
“The Four Epochs of Woman’s Life” 
“Personal Hygiene and Physical Training for Women” 
Fellow, American Medical Association 
Fellow, New York Academy of Medicine 
Philadelphia and London 
W. B. Saunders Company 
1920 Copyright, 1920, by W. B. Saunders Company 
PRINTED IN AMERICA 
PRE88 OF 
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY 
PHILADELPHIA TO THE MEMORY OF MY VALIANT AND PATRIOTIC ANCESTORS 
PIONEERS AND LOYAL SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE 
KEYSTONE STATE WHO SERVED THE STATE AND 
NATION IN THE INDIAN AND REVOLUTIONARY 
WARS AND IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE STATE THROUGH ITS ROADS 
AND RAILWAY SYSTEMS 
THIS BOOK ON THE FAMILY 
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
TO MY GREATtGREAT-GRANDFATHER 
JAMES MOORE AND HIS WIFE; 
TO MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER 
JOHN MOORE AND HIS WIFE ELEANOR THOMPSON MOORE; 
TO MY GRANDFATHER 
SAMUEL GALBRAITH AND HIS WIFE NANCY MOORE GALBRAITH; 
AND 
TO MY FATHER THOMPSON MOORE GALBRAITH AND 
HIS WIFE ELIZABETH WOODS GALBRAITH. 
AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE TO 
THEIR DARING, INITIATIVE, AND STERLING 
INTEGRITY OF CHARACTER 
BY THEIR DESCENDANT THE AUTHOR PREFACE 
Ignorance is the curse of God; 
Knowledge, the wings wherewith we fly to heaven.—Henry VI. 
If it is possible to perfect mankind, the means of doing so 
will be found in the medical sciences.—Descartes. 
“The Family” is the logical sequence to “The Four 
Epochs of Woman’s Life,” and with “Personal Hygiene 
and Physical Training for Women,” completes the trilogy 
on the various phases of woman’s life. 
Nothing is so greatly neglected to-day (referring to 
the period just preceding the Great War) as the study 
of the history of our social institutions, of social hygiene, 
and of the specific educational training in the duties 
of marriage and parenthood . 
The disintegration of the family is properly considered 
a national calamity; the Church hurls her anathemas at 
divorce; the reactionaries blame the feminists; and the 
progressives blame prostitution, the venereal diseases, 
alcoholism, and the double standard'of morals, for this 
threatened break-up of the family. What is sorely 
needed to-day is not mutual recriminations, but con- 
structive cooperation from all classes—statesmen, church- 
men, physicians, lawyers, educators, and social econo- 
mists, to stabilize the family through the education and 
elevation of the race. 
Perhaps the greatest shortcoming of the American 
people is that in the mad pursuit of the almighty dollar, 
or in a constant whirl of social gaiety, they have not 
1 2 
PREFACE 
stopped to study the past and the logical consequences of 
certain lines of conduct. And this study is emphatically 
the first step towards the reconstruction of the stable 
family along democratic lines. 
If marriage and the family are ever going to be ideal 
and the development of the race reach its highest pos- 
sible plane, woman must be made man’s intellectual 
companion. And this can only be achieved by a scien- 
tific study of the sex characteristics and how they can 
best be made to complement each other; by the higher 
education of women, their vocational training, their 
economic independence, and the recognition of their 
political rights. 
The present study of the four-fold aspect of the family 
is so vast and covers such a diversity of subjects that in 
order to bring the whole into the brief compass of a 
single volume, it was deemed best to give mere sketches 
of the vital epochs of the history of our social institutions. 
To endeavor to briefly point out the social evils which 
are to-day undermining the family and the race, and 
finally to suggest methods whereby it is believed by 
many writers and social economists that the welfare 
and happiness of the family and the race may be greatly 
increased. 
The proposition which confronts us is this: the family 
and the social institutions which are threatening its dis- 
integration and the degeneracy of the race, are of such 
national importance as to demand that a special commis- 
sion should at once be appointed to investigate how these 
great social vices may be most effectually eradicated; and 
Federal laws should be enacted on marriage, divorce, and 
breach-of-promise suits. Happily the evident trend of 
modern legislation is toward uniformity among the na- 
tions of Christendom on the vital subjects of marriage and 
divorce. But no laws can ever be enacted or will ever PREFACE 
3 
be obeyed until the masses of the people have been edu- 
cated to see the necessity for such laws and to demand 
their enactment. 
It may be confidently stated that no one so thoroughly 
understands humanity as the medical profession; they 
come to us not only for their bodily ailments, but with 
their mental sufferings and moral lapses, and our 
offices are literally converted into confessionals. For us 
is drawn aside the curtains which conceal the family 
skeletons, and we can truly say we have seen the naked 
souls of our clientele. And so ours is especially the duty 
to make use of this knowledge for the benefit of humanity. 
It gives the author pleasure to take this opportunity 
of expressing her indebtedness to Prof. Franklin H. Gid- 
dings, professor of Sociology at Columbia University, 
for his valuable suggestions in the early preparation of 
this work; and to Mrs. Emily James Putnam, special 
lecturer on “ Historical Institutions,” at Barnard Col- 
lege, for her critical reading of the chapters on the History 
of our Social Institutions. 
A bibliography has been added in the hope that the 
reader will be sufficiently interested to undertake a deeper 
study of this all important subject. 
Anna M. Galbraith. 
New York City, 
October, 1919. CONTENTS 
INTRODUCTION 
Paqb 
Rally to Save the American Family 11-17 
The Child in the Family; The Function of the 
Family; The Institution of the Family; Social 
Hygiene the Basis of Family and National Life; 
The Moral and Spiritual Benefits of the Great War. 
CHAPTER I 
Primitive Man's Problems of Marriage and the 
Family 18-29 
Marriage and the Family Founded on Biologic, 
Economic, and Physiologic Laws; Three Arguments 
Against the Theory that a General State of Promis- 
cuity Ever Existed; The Zoologic, the Physiologic, 
and the Psychic; The Antiquity of Human Marriage; 
Bachofen’s Theory of the Three General Cultural 
Stages of the Race: (1) Hetairism and Limited 
Promiscuity, Marriage by Capture; (2) The Matri- 
archate and Polyandry; (3) The Patriarchate and 
Polygyny; The Influence of Economic Forces on 
Marriage and the Family; The Family from an 
Economic Point of View. 
CHAPTER II 
Marriage and Divorce Laws in Primitive Society 
and Ancient Civilizations 30-51 
Divorce in Primitive Society; The Form of Mar- 
riage and its Effect on Divorce; Ancient Codes of 
Marriage and Divorce; (1) Stage of Evolution: Mar- 
riage and Divorce Laws of Ancient Civilizations; 6 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Marriage and Divorce Among the Ancient Hebrews 
and the Mosaic Law; Marriage and Divorce Among 
the Ancient Greeks; (2) Stage of Evolution of Mar- 
riage and Divorce Laws: Those of Ancient Rome; (3) 
Stage of Evolution of Marriage and Divorce Laws: 
Ecclesiastic and Canon Law; Rise of Ecclesiastic 
Marriage; Development of the Social Contract 
Theory; (4) Stage of Evolution of Marriage and 
Divorce Laws: The French Revolution, 1792 and 
The Civil Code of Napoleon; The Reformation in 
England; Civil Marriage in New England. 
CHAPTER III 
Various Aspects of the Modern Divorce Problem 52-70 
The Divorce Act of 1857; The Present English 
Divorce Laws; The German Imperial Code; Divorce 
in the American Colonies; The Divorce Laws in the 
United States; The Essentials to Marriage; Divorce 
Legislation; Interstate Comity; Divorce Statistics 
for the United States; Causation of the Increase of 
Divorce, and the Disintegration of the Family; The 
Readjustment of the Family to Changed Economic 
Conditions; The Great Industrial Revolution of the 
19th Century; The Stress of Economic Life; Artificial 
Standards of Living; The Passing of the Economic 
Function of the Family; The Economic Emancipa- 
tion of Women; The Ethical Readjustments. 
CHAPTER IV 
Prostitution, Social Disease, and Marriage 71-95 
Prostitution Instituted: (1) To Avenge the Anger 
of the Gods; (2) To Preserve the Sanctity of the Home, 
Sanctioned in Ancient Greece and Rome; (3) Recog- 
nized in the Middle Ages as a Necessity for Man’s 
Physiologic Needs; The Regulation and Organiza- 
tion of Prostitutes. 
The Chief Causes of Prostitution at the Present 
Day: (1) Economic Necessity; (2) Biologic Predisposi- 
tion; (3) Man’s Physiologic Necessity; (4) Civiliza- CONTENTS 
7 
Page 
tion Value; (5) Masculine Unchastity and the Double 
Standard of Morals. 
The Venereal Diseases; Gonorrhea: Its Risks to 
the Life and Health of Women; Influence on Preg- 
nancy; Syphilis: The Prevalence of Syphilis; The 
Blood Test for Syphilis; Symptomatic or Incomplete 
Cure; Syphilis and Marriage; Effects of Syphilis on 
Child-bearing Women; Modes of Transmission of 
Syphilis; The Time of Treatment and the Five-year 
Rule; Syphilis and Engagements to Marriage; 
Syphilis and Prostitution; Syphilis and Divorce; 
Public Efforts Against Venereal Diseases. 
CHAPTER V 
Alcohol and Race Degeneracy 96-114 
Alcohol in History: (1) The Revolutionary War 
and the Ethical Temperance Movement; War and 
the Temperance Movement in Great Britain; (2) The 
European Scientific Hygienic Movement, 1873; 
Alcohol, Psychic Reaction and Efficiency; Alcohol 
and Race Degeneracy; Alcohol and Heredity; (3) The 
European Social Reform Movement; Alcohol and 
Moral Degeneration; Alcohol and Prostitution; (4) 
Alcohol and the Great War; The United States and 
Prohibition, 
CHAPTER VI 
Why is a Man a Man? Why is a Woman a Woman? 
What are the Special Characteristics oe Each 
Sex? 115-146 
Why is a Woman a Woman? The Relation of 
Sex to Nutrition; The Natality and Mortality of 
the Two Sexes; The Importance of Sexual Selection 
on the Development of the Race; The Laws of 
Heredity: (1) The Secondary Physical Characteris- 
tics; (2) The Secondary Physiologic Characteristics; 
(3) The Secondary Intellectual Characteristics; 
The Inventive Genius; The Variational Tendency 
in Men; Woman’s Adventitious Character. 8 
CONTENTS 
CHAPTER VII 
Page 
Sex Education as a Solvent for the Double Stand- 
ard of Morals and Celibacy 147-180 
Chastity in Woman; Man’s Code of Honor; The 
Psychology of Sexual Life; Ethics and Sex Education; 
The Problem of Self-control for Young Men; The 
Double Standard of Morals; Natural Feminine 
Eroticism or the Sexual Appetite in Woman; Con- 
tinence in Man and the Mode of Individual Life; 
Prenuptial Chastity in Man both an Ethical and 
Race Obligation; Woman’s Attitude Toward the 
Double Standard of Morals; The Atypical Type of 
Woman and Free Love; The Arguments Against the 
Theory of Free Love; The Evolution of Morality. 
CHAPTER VIII 
Celibacy an Excrescence of Modern Civilization ... 181-199 
Marriage a Duty to the Race; Celibacy in the New 
England Colonies; Morality and the Law in the New 
England Colonies; Economic Conditions one of the 
Chief Factors of Celibacy; The Effects on Celibacy 
of the Higher Education and Culture of Women; 
The Problems of Life Long Sexual Abstinence; 
Reflex Action of Celibacy on the Community. 
CHAPTER IX 
The Psychology of Love, Modesty, and Dress: of 
Courtship, Coquetry, and Flirtation 200-229 
Rut and Love; Sexual Selection Based on Love 
and Calculation; Amorous Intoxication; Durable 
Love; Jealousy; The Evolution of Modesty and 
Dress; Modesty Simply the Result of Clothing; 
Clothing Used as a Protection Against the Lusts of 
Men; The Husband’s Jealousy the Cause of the 
Adoption of Clothes; Man Really Constitutes the 
Modest Sex; The Psychology of Dress; Woman’s 
Dress and Adornments in Ancient Civilization; CONTENTS 
9 
Page 
Woman’s Dress in the Renaissance; Woman’s Dress 
of the Present Day; Woman’s Dress in the New 
Democracy; The Psychology of Courtship and 
Coquetry; Flirtation. 
CHAPTER X 
Problems of Betrothal 230-278 
Choosing a Life Mate: (1) Both Parties to the 
Contract Must be Economically Independent; (2) 
They Must Belong to the Same Social Class, with 
Similar Interests and Temperamentally Adapted 
to Each Other; Woman’s Dual Nature and Marriage; 
The Ideal Age for Marriage; (3) An Interchange of 
Health Certificates Before Betrothal; (4) A Mutual 
Understanding of the Sexual Ethics of Marriage; 
The Safeguarding of Maidenhood; Betrothal and 
Marriage; Breach of Promise and Marriage Portions 
in the New England Colonies; The Custom Under- 
lying the Principle of Demanding a Dowry with the 
Bride; Trial Betrothals Versus Breach of Promise 
Cases. 
CHAPTER XI 
The Problems of Marriage 279-315 
The Essence and Characteristics of Marriage; 
The Classification of Marriages: (a) Marriage of 
Inclination or Marriage for Love; (b) Marriage for 
Profit; (c) Marriage de Convenance; Science and 
Marriage; The Danger Zones of Marital Life: (1) 
Marital Unethics; Man’s Masterful Spirit and 
Assertion of Rights; Sexual Continence in Marriage; 
The Instinct of Procreation; (2) Failure in Domestic 
Economics; The Financial Squalls and Hurricanes; 
(3) The Spirit of Martyrdom and Tyranny of Tears, 
Due to the Wife’s Lack of a Definite Vocation; (4) 
The First Arrival and the Neglected Husband; 
The Spirit of Jealousy; (5) The Zone of Darkness; 
Woman’s Spatial Separation from Her Husband’s 
Vocational Interestsc 10 
CONTENTS 
CHAPTER XII 
Page 
The Rights of the Child; Eugenic Marriages; The 
Limitation of Offspring 316-350 
The Child’s Right to Choose Its Ancestry; The 
Right of the Child to Two Parents; Genetics and 
the Laws Governing Heredity; Active or Dominant 
Character Units; The Laws of Transmission of 
Temperament; Disease Transmission; Alcoholism; 
The Feebleminded; Morons; Galton’s Law of In- 
heritance; The Ethical Duty of Eugenic Selection 
to the Child and to the Race; Heredity and Race 
Culture; Love and Eugenic Marriages; Conjugal 
Procreation, Its Rights and Duties; The Limitation of 
Offspring in the Interests of the Child and of the 
Mother; Quality Versus Quantity; A High Infant 
Mortality Habitually Goes with a High Birth-rate. 
CHAPTER XIII 
Woman’s Economic Independence and the Disinte- 
gration of the Family 351-374 
The Tradition and Sanctity of the Family; The 
Status of the Mother of the Family; The State 
Versus Paternal Authority; The Family in Relation 
to Property; The Effect on the Stability of the 
Family of Woman’s Economic Dependence; Sec- 
ondary Female Characteristics that Make for the 
Stability of the Family; The Maternal Instinct; 
Woman as the Mother of the Race; The Reflex 
Action of Woman’s Economic Independence on her 
Functions as Wife and Mother; The Critical or 
Dangerous Age; The Goal of Social Evolution in 
Respect to the Family, 
References 375 
Index 379 THE FAMILY 
AND 
THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
INTRODUCTION 
RALLY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN FAMILY 
The Child in the Family; The Function of the Family; 
The Institution of the Family; Social Hygiene the Basis 
of Family and National Life; The Moral and Spir- 
itual Benefits of the Great War. 
But we are concerned, and we are vitally concerned, not only 
to make the world safe for democracy, but we are enlisted in 
America to make democracy safe for the world. . . . This war 
has changed the fate of nations, and everything old is cast away, 
and we shall emerge as a young, a new and fresh Republic, with 
vision to see justice more clearly than we have ever seen it in the 
past.—Secretary Daniels. 
When we consider that one out of every twelve mar- 
riages ends in the divorce courts; that one baby out of 
every eight born in this country dies before it reaches the 
age of one year; that the venereal diseases are reckoned 
to be the greatest menace to the human race to-day; 
and that it has been estimated that six thousand women 
in New York City alone are swept down into the bottom- 
less pit every year;1 it is self-evident that the reconstrue- 
1 Reginald W. Kauffman. 12 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
tion of our social institutions is only second in importance 
to the winning of the Great War. 
The Child in the Family.—The child is the central fact 
of a nation’s progress. What a nation comes to be is 
evidence of what its children have been trained, allowed, 
and encouraged to be. Each generation is the parent 
of the next, and it rests with this generation to secure the 
well-being and progress of the next. Childhood is the 
time when human nature is most easily molded; and the 
bent that is given to it then is nine times out of ten 
decisive of its ultimate destiny. 
Babies have no corporate existence; there is no proper 
purpose for which they can be moved from the seclusion 
in the family, which is their natural setting. In real 
life babies come one by one, and they come only when 
they are expected and adequate arrangements have been 
made for their comfort. Babies are born into families 
and it is only when we leave the family out of the reck- 
oning that the problem of handling them presents serious 
difficulties. 
In the family the baby and the child has a unique 
position; the concentration of tenderness and attention 
during the first few months of his helplessness continues, 
though in a less degree, as he becomes older. There 
can be no doubt that this differentiation by affection 
within the family group is the most important factor in 
developing the individuality of the child. The very 
fact that his presence gives pleasure to someone, that 
someone really cares to know all his little secrets, fancies, 
and troubles; and that there is someone with whom he 
can live on an equality of affection, has much to do with 
his physical and moral growth. It is this which forms 
the real links between generations, and makes of the 
child something infinitely valuable in itself. Again the THE FUNCTION OF THE FAMILY 
13 
relation with the family is a permanent one. And 
although it begins with absolute dependence on the 
parents, it gradually develops into one of mutual support 
and assistance. 
Institution children are notably slower to develop 
than children who are brought up with their parents, 
and there is a tendency for the somewhat troublesome 
qualities of initiative, enterprise, and individuality, 
to be ruled out by the less valuable qualities which are 
conformable to discipline and routine. It is for this 
reason that social schemes which would dispense with 
the family, and would have the child born straight into 
the State without its immediate shelter, seemed fore- 
doomed to failure. The State can only deal with classes, 
not with individuals, and the child who is not dealt with 
as an individual from the first seems likely never to 
become one in the fullest sense. 
The Function of the Family.—The family is, as we 
shall see, the primary unit of social order; the first form 
of society; it is the first step of man in the moral life, 
without which all others are impossible. Further, if 
it were not for the nature of the family, this institution 
so much invoked against among socialists, man would be 
killed shortly after birth. The family is the very oldest 
of our social institutions; its origin, as we shall learn, 
antedates the human race, and probably originated in 
the prolonged helplessness of the young of the anthropoid 
apes and the need of the mother for help in the care of 
the young. In the primitive life of the human race the 
same conditions prevailed, as they still do to-day. 
Furthermore the family is the most powerfully mobi- 
lized body of human activity. Sacred and legitimate in 
itself, it exists to a much greater degree in the union of 
spirits than in the physical necessity of desire and duty; 14 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
through the usages of law and liberty it sanctifies one of 
the most imperious laws of our animal natures. Finally, 
the family perfects and completes the existence of the 
individual in the same way that in the moral order it 
insures the persistence of society. The growing laxity of 
the present generation in the sphere of sex indicates the 
fate that must await any civilization which neglects the 
development of will and conscience in favor of a merely 
material and intellectual culture. 
Manhood means discipline, and the old ethical tradi- 
tion has stood for such discipline over against all emo- 
tional subjectivism and all of the youthful worship of 
the merely natural instincts. The will, the backbone of 
all personal life, cannot be developed except in such an 
atmosphere of discipline. Moreover genuine erotic 
feeling itself cannot develop except upon such a basis of 
well-developed will power. 
“Why was I born? For what purpose was I created 
and put upon the earth ?” All great minds who have 
studied this problem deeply, unanimously agree that 
there is a purpose in life. We are not a thing apart, 
an isolated entity; we are a part of the great stream of 
life; we have an ideal to maintain, a sacred duty to 
perform, both toward our ancestors and our descendants. 
And our descendants will hold us responsible for our 
manner of living. And we have also a duty to perform 
toward our own age of society. If we fail in our duty 
and in our responsibilities, we not only rob the world of 
the help which we should have bestowed, but in a far 
larger measure we deprive ourselves of the benefits and 
pleasures that would have been the direct outcome of the 
fulfillment of these responsibilities. 
The Institution of the Family.—So many divergent 
factors enter into the makeup of the family that it can THE INSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY 
15 
only be stable, happy, and prosperous when all of these 
factors have been taken into consideration and the proper 
foundations for its security have been laid. 
To-day, and especially in the United States, the exist- 
ence of this institution of the family is threatened by 
three fatal excrescences, which have fastened their 
deadly fangs upon the tree of life and happiness, sapping 
away its vitality like a cancerous growth. They are 
prostitution, free love, and divorce. And the well-nigh 
insurmountable difficulty of completely exterminating 
these evils lies in fact that they are almost as old as 
civilization itself. With the institution in ancient Greece 
of monogamy as the only legal form of marriage, arose 
pari passu the legalization of prostitution. We shall 
see that divorce was legalized at a very much earlier 
date, and free love, so strongly advocated to-day by the 
extreme wing of socialists, arose in the last years of the 
Roman Empire and is believed to have been one of the 
great underlying causes of its fall. 
And it is only by the scientific investigation of just 
how these three institutions—prostitution, free love, 
and divorce—affect the family and the race, and the 
application of these principles to the institution of the 
family, that the rapidly disintegrating American family 
of to-day can be saved from being a mere social, nominal 
relation of the sexes for the propagation of the race, to be 
dissolved at the pleasure of either party concerned. 
Thus* will it be transformed into what it must be to ele- 
vate the race and to standardize and perfect the amal- 
gam of all citizens dwelling under the aegis of our glorious 
banner, into a true and noble American citizenship, the 
fusion of two incomplete beings into one perfect whole, 
to the mutual help, comfort, and happiness which the 
one should have of the other; and for the propagation of 16 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the best possible progeny which can be produced from 
normal stock. 
Social Hygiene the Basis of Family and National Life. 
—A study of social hygiene has been forced on the at- 
tention of the public through the great havoc that threat- 
ened the armies during the first years of the war through 
the venereal diseases, which are so highly contagious as to 
threaten not only the health of the individual, but of the 
family and community as well. And society has a right 
to demand of the State that it at once set up a vigorous 
campaign to stamp out these diseases, just as it so 
successfully stamped out yellow and typhoid fever. 
Never was the time so propitious as it is to-day, when 
the State demands the supreme sacrifice as the duty of 
man. It is a small thing to demand that he shall give 
up his vices, and in the greater sacrifice the lesser one 
seems trifling. Humanity would never have fallen to 
its present low level had woman received the same edu- 
cational, economic, and political privileges as man. The 
policy which has heretofore ruled the world has been that 
of keeping woman in ignorance of the physiologic laws 
and ethics of marriage and parenthood, and of the vices 
of our underground social institutions. Woman, the 
riddle of the sphinx in the past, is nature’s supremest 
instrument for the future. 
The Moral and Spiritual Benefits of the Great War.— 
“On the whole,” says Donald Hankey,1 “the actual 
experiences of war bring the best man to the front, and 
the best qualities in the average man. Officers and men 
are welded into a closer comradeship by dangers and dis- 
comforts shared. They learn to trust each other and 
to look for essential qualities rather than for accidental 
graces. One learns to love men for their great hearts, 
1 A Student in Arms. MORAL AND SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF THE WAR 
17 
their pluck, their indomitable spirits, their irrepressible 
humor, their readiness to share a weaker brother’s burden 
rather than their own. . . . You have learned to know 
a man when you see one and to value him.... He had 
learned too in the trenches that God had given him a man’s 
part to play as a man should. To see the possibilities 
in the part they were called upon to take, and they re- 
solved to make the most of it. 
“And after the war? Much depends on the women of 
England. If they carefully guard the ancient ruts against 
our return, and if their gentle fingers press us hack into 
them, we shall acquiesce; hut if at this hour of crisis they 
too have seen a wider vision of national unity and learned 
a more catholic charity, the future is indeed radiant with 
hope. m 
The problems of our social institutions which confront 
the State to-day are peculiarly the work of American 
womanhood, because it has not been their privilege in 
the masses to do the marvelous work that has been im- 
posed on and gladly taken up by the women of France 
and Great Britain. Their Governments have declared 
that the war could never have been carried on to victory, 
but for the cooperation of their women. What a glori- 
ous privilege it will be for the women of America to 
point to the redemption of the family, as their highest 
part in this the turning point of the world’s history. 
To-day civilization is facing its Calvary, and as Jean 
Paul Richter said so many years ago of that first Calvary: 
“ The pierced hands of Christ lifted the gates of the ages 
off their hinges and the stream of life flowed through 
new channels.” And so it is predicted that it will 
again be said of the supreme sacrifice of mankind to-day; 
that the gates of the ages will be lifted off their hinges 
and the stream of life will flow through new channels. 
1 The italics are the writer’s. CHAPTER I 
PRIMITIVE MAN’S PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGF 
AND THE FAMILY 
Marriage and the Family Founded on Biologic, Eeco- 
nomic, and Physiologic Laws; Three Arguments against 
the Theory That a General State of Promiscuity Ever 
Existed: The Zoologic, the Physiologic, and the Psychic; 
The Antiquity of Human Marriage; Bachofen’s Theory 
of the Three General Cultural Stages of the Race: (1) 
Hetairism and Limited Promiscuity, Marriage hy Cap- 
ture; (2) the Matriarchate and Polyandry; (3) the Patri- 
archate and Polygyny; the Influence of Economic Forces 
on Marriage and the Family; the Family from an Eco- 
nomic Point of View. 
The softened pressure of an uncouth hand, a human gleam in an 
almost animal eye, an endearment in an inarticulate voice—feeble 
things enough. Yet in these faint awakenings lay the hope of 
the human race. 
Marriage and the family are not merely the result of 
custom, convention, and tradition; but were primarily 
founded on biologic, economic, and psychologic laws, 
which sprang up in the animal kingdom prior to the 
advent of the human race. Marriage and the family 
were based rather on the hard experience of animals in 
the struggle for existence, which forced upon them pri- 
marily the problem of the food supply and the need of a 
sort of economic cooperation which would be more lasting 
in its results than the mere pairing instincts. It was the 
entire social, mental, and moral product of animal ex- MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY 
19 
perience of living together, which man in some measure 
inherited as a rich legacy from his humble predecessor. 
In the lower mammals in a state of nature this pairing 
instinct only takes place once a year—in the spring 
time—best adapted for procreation and the care of the 
young. At this time the most solitary animals come 
forth and gather together in herds. It is the so-called 
“rut.” 
It is obvious that where the generative power is re- 
stricted to a certain season, it cannot be the sexual in- 
stinct which keeps male and female together for months 
or years. Considering that this union lasts until after 
birth of the offspring, and further considering the care 
taken of them by the father, we may assume that the 
prolonged union of the sexes is in some way connected 
with the paternal duties. Westermarck is strongly of 
the opinion that the tie which joins male and female is 
an instinct developed through the powerful influence of 
natural selection. It is evident that where the father 
helps to protect the offspring, the species is better able 
to survive in the struggle for existence than it would be 
if this obligation devolved entirely on the mother. Pa- 
ternal affection and the instinct which causes male and 
female to form somewhat durable alliances are thus useful 
mental dispositions, which in all probability have been 
acquired by the survival of the fittest. 
Marriage and the family are thus intimately connected 
with each other; it is for the benefit of the young that 
male and female continue to live together. Marriage 
is therefore rooted in the family; rather than the family 
in marriage. The fact that anthropoid apes produce 
feeble and dependent young, whose infancy is prolonged, 
was probably the origin of marriage. 
There are three principal arguments against the theory 20 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
that at any time a general state of promiscuity has ex- 
isted: the zoologic, the physiologic, and the pyschic. 
1. The Zoologic Argument.—This is based on a com- 
parison of the sexual habits and instincts of animals 
with those of the lowest races of men. In the outset it 
is important to observe that the physical differentiation 
between the sexes is itself the product of the struggle for 
existence. Thus when an animal is forced to greater 
exertion, when it must work in order to exist, when 
unresistingly it cannot any longer suffer the stream of 
events to press upon it, but withstands it and seeks to 
follow its own course, then the separation of the sexes 
appears, and indeed as a division of labor created by 
nature for the purpose of developing the species. 
From the moment in which the sexes are separated 
with a specialization of two different reproductive cells, 
the conjugation of these two cells is the basis of genera- 
tion in two organic animals, with the absorption among 
the higher animals of the male cell by the female. As 
hunger and the struggle for food is an animal instinct 
for the preservation of the individual, so the sexual and 
pairing instinct was implanted by nature for the pres- 
ervation of the species. These two are the great pri- 
mordial forces of nature. 
According to Starcke we are disposed to under-estimate 
the great influence which sexual matters exert on all of 
the concerns of life. Primitive marriage did not rest 
upon the kind of sentiment which we call love, but was as 
hard and dry as private life itself; it had its origin in the 
most concrete and prosaic requirements. The common 
household in which each had a given work to do and the 
common interests of obtaining and rearing children were 
the foundations upon which marriage was originally 
built. According to this view, marriage appears to THE PSYCHOLOGIC ARGUMENT 
21 
have been a kind of contractual relation from the very 
beginning. 
2. The Physiologic Argument.—This rests upon evi- 
dence furnished by Sir Henry Maine that promiscuous 
intercourse between the sexes nowadays tends to patho- 
logic conditions very unfavorable to fecundity, and in- 
fecundity amidst perpetually belligerent races implies 
weakness and ultimate extinction. Dr. Carpenter cites 
conditions that existed in the West Indies before the 
abolition of slavery, when the planter took great pains 
to form the negroes into families, because of the well- 
known fact that promiscuity produced infertility. It is 
well authenticated that prostitutes very rarely have 
children. Westermarck’s suggestion is axiomatic for 
all time: that in a community where all the women 
belong equally to all the men, the younger and prettier 
ones would be the most sought after, so that their position 
would be somewhat akin to the prostitutes of modern 
society. 
3. The Psychologic Argument.—This alleges the uni- 
versal prevalence of sexual jealousy among all male 
quadrupeds and, looking back upon the stream of time, 
leads to the conclusion that judging from the social 
habits of man as he now exists, the probable view is 
that the aboriginal man lived in a small community with 
a single wife or, if powerful, with several wives, whom 
he jealously guarded against all other men. Among 
primitive people death or severe punishment was often 
the penalty for adultery. 
Among a large number of peoples a husband not only 
requires chastity from his wife, but demands that the 
woman whom he marries shall be a virgin. A husband’s 
pretensions may reach even farther than this; he often 
demands that the woman whom he chooses to be his wife 22 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
shall not only belong to him during his life but after his 
death. So strong is this idea of the wife being the exclu- 
sive property of her husband that among several peoples 
she may not even survive him. 
Against the argument that man’s gregarious way of 
living made promiscuity necessary, else the men of the 
group must either have quarreled about their women and 
separated into hostile tribes, Westermarck contends 
that there is no reason for thinking that tribal organiza- 
tion in primitive times should have differed from those of 
savage tribes at the present day, in which man has his 
special wife. He asserts that the numerous facts put 
forth in support of the hypothesis of general promiscuity 
do not entitle us to assume that promiscuity has ever 
been the prevailing form of the sexual relations among a 
single people; far less that it has constituted a general 
stage in the social development of man; and least of all 
that such a stage formed the starting point of all human 
history. 
The Antiquity of Human Marriage.—If it be admitted 
that marriage as the requirement for the existence of 
certain species is connected with some peculiarity of their 
organism, and more particularly among the highest 
monkeys with the paucity of their progeny and the long 
period of their helplessness, it must be admitted that 
in all probability among primitive men the same causes 
kept the sexes together until after the birth of their 
offspring. The family, consisting of father, mother, and 
offspring, is a universal institution, whether founded on 
monogamous, polygynous, or polyandrous marriage. 
And as among the lower animals having the same habits; 
it is to the mother that the immediate care of the children 
belongs, while the father is the provider and guardian of 
the family. While man in the savage state is very often THE ANTIQUITY OF HUMAN MARRIAGE 
23 
indifferent to the welfare of his wife and children, never- 
theless the simplest paternal duties are always recognized. 
If he does nothing else the father builds the habitation 
and employs himself in chase and war. It has been in 
rare circumstances only that women have engaged in 
either pursuit. Under such conditions a family con- 
sisting of a mother and young would probably have 
succumbed. 
Man gradually found many new ways of earning his 
living; and more and more emancipated himself from 
dependence on surrounding nature. While the chief 
objects of the previous gregarious life were by this means 
realized, other advantages became apparent which 
induced families or small gangs to unite together in 
large bodies. Thus it appears the gregariousness and 
sociability of man sprang in the main from the progressive 
intellectual and material civilization, while the tie that 
kept together husband and wife, parents and children, 
was the principal “social factor in the earliest life of 
man. 
“Biology,” declares Letourneau "is the starting point 
of sociology.” Not only do the same psychic forces 
which influence gregarious animals also influence grega- 
rious man; but man in very many respects only went on 
to develop the previous experience of animals, which he 
made the firm foundation of his higher advancement. 
Confirming and developing the theories of Darwin and 
Spencer, Star eke and Westermarck advance as the 
result of their further researches the belief that the 
theory of original promiscuity must be abandoned, and 
that the pairing of one man and of one woman must be 
accepted as the typical form of sexual union from the 
infancy of the race and the monogamous family as the 
primitive social unit. Howard and many other social 24 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
economists do not agree in this view that monogamy was 
the original form of human marriage. 
The other most widely held theory of the evolution of 
monogamous marriage and the family is that advanced 
by Bachofen and his followers, modified by Heldwald, 
Lippert, and McLennan. 
According to the theory of Bachofen the human race 
passed through three general cultural stages: 
1. Culture State: Hetairism and Limited Promis- 
cuity.—It is the general belief that the hetairism which 
prevailed was restricted to the immediate horde or 
kindred, which was never large; thus in the horde there 
was unregulated polygyny. The union of the sexes 
was probably loose and transitory. There is no idea 
of consanguinity, though men may have been held 
together by a feeling of kindred. 
In this first phase of unregulated communism, material 
motherhood is the essential fact. Fatherhood is neces- 
sarily uncertain. There is no conception of kinship 
between father and child, nor that of property. Every- 
where when society emerged from this stage kinship is 
traced through the female line. Slowly the idea of 
blood relationship arose, and eventually observation led 
to a recognition of a system of kinship through the 
mother. But primitive man was rude, ignorant, and 
relatively helpless. Before the invention of the arts and 
provident habits, the struggle for existence must often 
have been very serious. The instinct of self-preserva- 
tion must therefore have frequently dominated; in this 
struggle for food and security the balance of the sexes 
would be seriously destroyed. As bravery and hunters 
were required and valued, it would be in the interest of 
every horde to rear, when possible, its healthy male 
children. The weaker sex must obey the cruel law of EXOGAMY 
25 
the survival of the fittest; hence arose the common and 
perhaps general practice of female infanticide, which 
left only one or two girls in a family. 
The natural consequence of the diminution of woman- 
hood would be to enhance their value and relative impor- 
tance. Every woman would now have several wooers; 
quarrels and divisions within the horde would become of 
frequent occurrence. This led to the stealing of women 
from the weaker tribes. These were the first wars for 
women and were one of the causes which led to exogamy, 
the other cause being that a horror of incest or inbreeding 
arose in the endogamous mother-group. 
Exogamy or the Prohibition of Marriage among 
Kindred and Wife Capture.—Spencer says: “In all 
times and places among savages and civilized peoples, 
victory is followed by pillage, and the victors take all of 
the portable things of value which they find. The 
taking of women is manifestly but a part of this process of 
spoiling the vanquished.” Women were prized as 
wives, concubines, and drudges; and after the men were 
killed the women were carried off by the victors. The 
captured woman had the additional value in that she 
served as a trophy. 
Westermarck thinks that the explanation of the horror 
of incest among primitive peoples must have been the 
operation of the laws of natural selection. Among the 
ancestors of man as well as among animals there must 
have been a time when relationship was no bar to sexual 
intercourse. Variations here as elsewhere would mani- 
fest themselves, and those of our ancestors who avoided 
inbreeding would survive, while the others would grad- 
ually decay and ultimately perish. Thus an instinct 
would be developed which would, as a rule, be powerful 
enough to prevent injurious unions. Of course it would 26 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
simply display itself as an aversion on the part of indi- 
viduals to the union with others with whom they lived, 
but these as a matter of fact would be blood relations, so 
that the result would be the survival of the fittest. 
It is a mooted question as to whether woman had any 
part in the overthrow of hetairism and communism, but 
it is a generally accepted belief that these changes in the 
social relation of the sexes were brought about solely 
because of the changed economic conditions in which the 
question of private property in lands and movables arose, 
and also from the natural jealousy of man. 
2. Culture Stage: the Matriarchate.—This is pre- 
sented as a turning point, a transitional phase through 
which humanity passed from its lowest to its highest 
status. Within it the rudiments of marriage appear but 
combined with hetairism surviving in various forms. 
The mother ceases to be merely the center of common life, 
and she is now the social axis around which everything 
revolves. Mother-right, involving as the necessary 
consequence of the continued uncertainty of fatherhood, 
the recognition of kinship only in the female line as well 
as succession to name and property now became fully 
established. 
Polyandry resulted from the scarcity of women and is 
regarded as the earliest type of the family so-called— 
a family resting upon marriage, that is, upon the court- 
ship of men and women protected by public opinion. 
It is of especial interest because of its progressive phase 
and it is held to be the medium of transition from the 
maternal to the paternal or agnatic system of kinship; 
and therefore through the aid of contract in the form of 
wife purchase, to modern conceptions of the marriage 
relation. 
Bachofen’s theory, holding that this became an age of POLYGYNY VERSU S_POLYA N DRY 
27 
gynocracy involving the social leadership of women and 
eventually the political and military subjugation of men, 
is no longer accepted by our leading sociologists. 
Gynocracy and with it polyandry, which is its result, 
is the highest stage in the evolution of mother-right; 
just as polygyny and the patriarchal family are the 
highest stages of the evolution of father-right or the 
agnatic system of kinship. 
3. Culture Stage: the Patriarchate.—Just as gross 
hetairism was an offense to the religion in the first culture 
stage, so Amazonism was a shock to religion in the second. 
Hence arose a striving for a higher conception of social 
relations. It was the assertion of fatherhood which de- 
livered the mind from natural appearances, and when this 
was successfully achieved, human existence was raised 
above the laws of material life. The principle of mother- 
hood is common to all species of animal life, but man 
went beyond this in giving pre-eminence to the power of 
procreation, and thus became conscious of his higher 
vocation. 
Polygyny versus Polyandry.—It is doubtful which is 
more harmful to the offspring, but it is almost certain 
that polygyny is far worse in its effects upon women and 
the home. As a rule neither is favored by women, in 
whom the passion of jealousy is very strongly developed. 
Polygyny is an offense against the feelings of women 
even of savage races. It is a noteworthy fact that among 
the monogamous savage races the position of woman is 
comparatively good, while on the other hand polygyny 
is in almost every way degrading to the female sex. 
Accordingly under the ideas and sentiments favoring 
the freedom and dignity of woman, both forms of mar- 
riage must yield to the monogamous. Polygamy must 
disappear as soon as growing development brings into 28 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
play permanent motives and fundamental forces. 
Among these forces is the idea of the procreative condi- 
tions entering into the conception of fatherhood, from 
which follows chastity on the part of the wife, as well as 
limited sexual liberty on the part of the husband. And 
out of this sprang ancestor worship, a powerful force in 
differentiating the monogamic household. Even in 
primitive times the character of the soul, the inward 
mysterious being of the father, was supposed to decide 
the character of the child. 
The Influence of Economic Forces on Marriage and 
the Family.—Groose distinguishes two forms of the 
family: the individual family (Sonder familie) or the 
community of parents and children, living in a lasting 
and exclusive marriage relation, which is practically the 
only form known where Western European culture 
prevails; and the great family (Groos familie), which 
comprises not merely parents and children, but all 
descendants with their families, so far as they are not 
separated from it by marriage or otherwise. Examples 
of these are afforded by the Romans and Chinese. In 
each form of the family either the maternal or the pater- 
nal form of succession may exist, but succession does not 
necessarily involve the idea of authority, although 
paternal succession usually does carry with it the supre- 
macy of the father. 
The Family from an Economic Point of View.—From 
this cursory view of the evolution of marriage and the 
family, whether we take the stand that the race started 
with the monogamous marriage or that this was only 
attained after passing through various evolutionary 
stages, the crucial fact remains the same that monoga- 
mous marriage was founded on the biologic needs of man 
and woman and the prolonged dependent condition of THE FAMILY FROM AN ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW 
29 
their offspring; and that it forms the inseparable trinity 
of father, mother, and child. 
Again it would seem that the family in its simplest 
form creates its own economic condition. By recogniz- 
ing the dependence of the weak upon the strong it 
creates the necessity for the responsible head to produce 
or in some way provide more substance than is needed 
for himself alone. This is an economic condition of the 
very highest importance and one which no other insti- 
tution but that of the family or slavery can ensure. CHAPTER II 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS IN PRIMITIVE 
SOCIETY AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 
Divorce in Primitive Society; the Form of Marriage and 
Its Effect on Divorce; Ancient Codes of Marriage and 
Divorce; (1) Stage of Evolution: Marriage and Divorce 
Laws of Ancient Civilizations; Marriage and Divorce 
among the Ancient Hebrews and the Mosiac Law; 
Marriage and Divorce among the Ancient Greeks; (2) 
Stage of Evolution of Marriage and Divorce Laws: 
Those of Ancient Rome; (3) Stage of Evolution of 
Marriage and Divorce Laws: Ecclesiastic and Canon 
Law; Rise of Ecclesiastic Marriage; Development of the 
Social Contract Theory; (4) Stage of Evolution of 
Marriage and Divorce Laws: The French Revolution 
of 1792 and the Civil Code of Napoleon; the Civil Code 
of Napoleon; the Reformation in England; Civil Mar- 
riage in New England. 
Man only is created in the image of God; therefore woman shall 
serve him and be his handmaid.—Canon Law. 
The Law of England regards marriage as a contract. It dif- 
fers from other contracts in this, that the rights, obligations or 
duties arising from it are not left entirely to be regulated by the 
agreement of the parties, but are to a certain extent matters of 
municipal regulation, over which the parties have no control 
by any declaration of their will.—Lord Robertson. 
From the earliest period of the recorded history of England, it 
has always been the accepted doctrine that marriage as an insti- 
tution is the keystone of the commonwealth; and the highest 
expression of morality,—Lord Bryce. DIVORCE IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETY 
31 
Divorce in Primitive Society.—Divorce is a social 
phenomenon almost as old as marriage, and as its 
counterpart cannot be considered separately. In the 
prelegal period marriage is often without ceremony and 
is restricted only by social custom. The husband and 
wife unite as a matter of choice and as freely separate. 
Marriage is a temporary convenience to be solved at the 
pleasure of either party. Where rude marriage cere- 
monies exist they are scarcely more than a symbol, indi- 
cating the beginning of domestic relations, such as eating 
together, sitting together beside the same fire, or per- 
forming jointly some household duty. As society 
advanced in culture, more permanent social, legal, and 
political forms were evolved, and the institution of the 
family shared in the general improvement. 
In harmony with the general progress the family 
assumed a more permanent character without reference 
to the form in which it existed, and with the increase of 
regulative customs and ceremonies regarding marriage 
the conditions of separation became more restricted and 
more clearly defined and began to assume the nature of 
formal divorce. At first it may have been little more 
than a voluntary separation. When custom and law 
began to require publicity, they also began to establish 
methods of procedure. In the beginning it usually 
involved a symbolic act, which indicates the nature of 
the transaction, as the turning of the party out of doors 
or the throwing out of the clothes. Sometimes it was a 
mere proclamation before witnesses. Again it had to 
be settled by a council, either of the friends of the married 
pair or of the tribe; or it may have required the judicial 
action of the chief. By slow but well-defined processes 
it passed over in the more highly developed societies to 
trial by the courts and the writing of a “bill of divorce- 32 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
ment.” Not however until we reach a stage of general 
culture, where the family became a permanent institu- 
tion, with its ideals of life-long companionship, did 
divorce become a remedial measure for the readjustment 
of the legal and social status of those whose marriage 
relations had broken down. 
With the rise of marriage by capture and purchase the 
wife became the chattel of her husband-owner and 
divorce became his sole prerogative. He might then 
do with her as he pleased, but he was refrained from the 
free exercise of his liberty by certain external considera- 
tions. Especially in the case of wife-purchase, there was 
always the danger of blood feuds with his wife’s tribes- 
men if his treatment became too severe. Economic 
considerations at a very early date complicated matters; 
in the absence of more refined restraints his regard for his 
wife as a species of property became a matter of conse- 
quence. If he divorced her his interest in her ceased. 
Furthermore he was likely to suffer the loss of the price 
which he had paid for her, and in addition be compelled 
to return any property which she may have brought with 
her at the time of her acquisition. 
Under further social progress, where wife-purchase was 
replaced by the payment of the “bride price” and the 
receipt of the marriage portion, divorce was attended 
with still greater loss. It often involved the loss of a 
fortune. Unless the divorce was for grave reasons, the 
husband was usually required to restore the dower and 
was in addition sometimes obliged to turn over all or a 
part of his own property, and not infrequently to suffer 
the loss of his children. Where the wife was accorded 
the privilege of leaving her husband, unless it was for 
serious offense on his part, she was usually compelled 
to leave behind her both dower and children. Difficulties FORM OF MARRIAGE, ITS EFFECTS ON DIVORCE 
33 
of self-support and disabilities of sex have always made 
the part of the wife more difficult and compelled her 
to endure much rather than leave her husband. 
Thus as society arrived at a stage of greater stability, 
the relation of the permanence of the family to that 
stability is perceived, and an intelligent conservation in 
respect to divorce makes its appearance in many places. 
So property interests became an increasing factor in the 
stability of society, and marriage came to rest less upon 
sexual instincts than upon economic conditions. Thus 
powerful influences are exerted to check the freedom of 
divorce and to increase the stability of the family. 
As marriage grows to be a more permanent relation, 
death comes to terminate proportionately more marriages, 
and the number of divorces in proportion to marriage is 
diminished. 
The Form of Marriage and Its Effects on Divorce.— 
As we have seen in a previous chapter the result of 
scientific criticism and recent research seems unmistak- 
ably to show that pairing has always been the typical 
form of human marriage. Considering the aberrations 
from the type says Howard, development has been in a 
circle. At the dawn of human history individual mar- 
riage prevailed, though the union was not always lasting. 
In the later stages of advancement, under the influence 
of property, social organization, and social distinctions, 
and the motives to which they give rise, various forms of 
polyandry and polygamy made their appearance, though 
monogamy as the type was never superseded. With the 
still further social progress has come the newest monog- 
amy, which has become intolerant of the other forms 
and has practically excluded them from modern society. 
It is perfectly clear just how each of these types of 
marriage would influence the form of divorce. In primi- 34 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
tive monogamy in which both marriage and divorce 
originated, and where the relation exhibited all of the 
degrees of duration, divorce would be quite as free as 
marriage and could be obtained by either party or by 
mutual consent. This is the logical result where mar- 
riage and divorce are purely individualistic. The rise of 
polyandry and polygamy naturally introduced restric- 
tions on the part of the man or the woman in respect to 
the right of divorce. 
Various conditions have operated to keep the con- 
trolling power in the hands of men, but the struggle of 
women to become free has marked the whole course of the 
monogamic institution of marriage. With the gradual 
emancipation of women and the attainment of greater 
equality, the right of women to divorce on the same 
footing as men must be conceded. As various coercive 
tendencies are removed and marriage becomes a matter 
of choice, equally free divorce will necessarily result. 
It thus appears that modern developments are bring- 
ing us to the completion of the circle. As in the primi- 
tive marriage, the individual will remain free to enter or 
to leave the married state, but he will be guided in his 
choice by higher considerations, and because of other 
influences the union will become of much more enduring 
character and will tend to become permanent. 
Ancient Codes of Marriage and Divorce.—From the 
earliest times marriage and divorce have been considered 
subject to the social regulation of the people. In all of 
the higher stages of civilization the ideal marriage has 
come to be considered that of life-long union of husband 
and wife. For many reasons this ideal has never been 
wholly realized in actual experience. The relations 
entered into at marriage frequently cease. In order to 
determine the rights of property, to provide for offspring, MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
35 
and to define the status of the separated parties, society 
has been under the necessity of enacting rules and regu- 
lations. This has been the chief function of the law in 
regard to divorce. The laws of marriage and divorce 
have passed through five stages of evolution. 
1. Stage of Evolution: Marriage and Divorce Laws 
of Ancient Civilizations.—In ancient times every nation 
was a law unto itself. Among the Babylonians and 
Egyptians woman was on an economic and therefore on 
a social and political equality with her husband, and 
marriage was a contractural relation. 
The Babylonian marriage contracts required first of 
all the consent of the father, without which the marriage 
was null and void. The contract was drawn up by the 
father in the presence of the magistrate, to whom the 
father had taken the prospective couple, and in the pres- 
ence of witnesses. The contracts contained details of 
property brought into the union by each party. The 
girl on her side brought in as her dowry property com- 
mensurate with her station in life, which may have in- 
cluded lands, house, furniture, her trousseau, slaves, or 
money. It should be noted that all that the bride 
brought in was her own absolute property, and no 
“Married Woman’s Property Act” of the present day 
could have established her inalienable rights to her own 
belongings more effectually than these clay tablets dating 
back thirty centuries before our era. It was this dowry 
system that gave woman rights over her property and 
made of her an independent actor in her own affairs. 
In the marriage contracts of the Babylonians the possi- 
bility of divorce was always foreseen and guarded against, 
and the very rigor of the conditions proclaims the essen- 
tially monogamous character of these people, but they 
supplemented their fundamentally monogamous mar- 36 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
riages with concubinage. The husband was recognized 
as the head of the household at the same time that the 
wife preserved full rights over her possessions, and only 
the children of the lawful wife were the legitimate heirs. 
There is however a startling difference between the 
action which could be taken by the man and woman. 
The husband as supreme head of the household could 
turn to his wife and merely say: “Thou art not my wife,” 
and then send her back to her father’s house with the 
equivalent in money of the dowry he had received with 
her. Where the dowry was large it no doubt acted as a 
deterrent to any wanton act of divorce, as in addition 
to returning it to the wife in full, the husband was liable 
in certain cases to pay a fine as well. In case the wife 
had borne children, the mother brought up her children 
and was at liberty to marry again. In both cases of 
man and wife there was freedom of appeal to a decision 
of a properly constituted court, such as holds at the 
present day. Adultery on the part of the wife was 
punishable by death. 
Marriage and Divorce among the Ancient Hebrews and 
the Mosaic Law.—This forms a very important epoch 
in the history of the human race, because not only of the 
great influence of the Hebrew law, but also of their 
contempt for woman, which was so indelibly to im- 
print itself upon both ecclesiastic and canon law. The 
ancient Hebrews exercised the patriarchal rights of life 
and death over their families. 
In the Mosaic law1 we note two things: the evident 
tendency to regard women as mere property, to be dis- 
posed of very much as one would a slave; and also a 
matter of pride, which seems to have made the ancient 
Hebrews very sensitive about turning these wives over 
1 Deut. 24, 1-4. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
37 
to someone else even when they had gotten tired of 
them. This resulted in the formation of plural mar- 
riages. Among the ancient Hebrews marriage was not 
a religious ordinance, and neither in the Old Testament 
or in the Talmud is it treated as such. 
The Mosaic law, as contained in the eighteenth chapter 
of Leviticus, sets forth the impediments to lawful mar- 
riage, such as it was under the Roman Empire and con- 
tinues to be to-day. 
The right of the husband to put away his wife was 
freely conceded to him by the Jewish divorce law; he 
was not even required to assign a cause upon which his 
action was based. It was a personal matter. The 
formal bill of divorcement appears to have been intro- 
duced by Moses for the protection of women, and this 
law of divorce1 continued to be accepted by the Hebrews 
until the eleventh century. At a later period the right 
of divorce by women was not unknown among the Jews, 
but it was not until the eleventh century, when the wife 
became capable of owning property of her own and 
acquired an independent legal personality, that the He- 
brew wife also became capable of consenting to a divorce 
and to have an equal right to the children born of the 
marriage. 
Marriage and Divorce among the Ancient Greeks.— 
As we are indebted to the Babylonian and Egyptian 
civilizations for establishing the economic equality of 
woman, the dignity of womanhood, and the reverence 
for motherhood, so we are indebted to the Greeks for 
the establishment of monogamy as the only legal form 
of marriage, which has had an inestimable influence on 
the elevation of both sexes. 
Marriage was generally contracted at the divine altars 
1 Deut. 24, 1-2. 38 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
and confirmed by oaths. The assistance of a priest 
was not essential, but as Musonius said: “Marriage 
stands under the protection of the great and powerful 
gods.” Before marriage was solemnized the gods were 
consulted and their assistance was implored by prayers 
and sacrifices. Plato affirmed the necessity for religious 
ceremonies. 
One of the great objects of monogamy must have been 
to keep the Greek race pure, for Greek children were only 
admitted to the rights of citizens if they were born of 
free-born Athenian parents. Marrying outside the 
state was thus strictly prohibited. Unhappily with the 
legalization of monogamy there was pari passu the legali- 
zation of prostitution. 
In Sparta, which was surrounded by large and hostile 
states so that Spartans had to be in a constant state of 
preparedness, their whole constitution was directed to 
meeting this necessity. The Spartans had to be a race 
of warriors and it was therefore necessary that women 
should be fitted to give birth to men who could fight. 
These men had to be strong and brave and ready to 
sacrifice everything to the state. Believing as they did 
that children inherited the characteristics of the mother 
rather than those of the father, the Spartans aimed above 
all to secure these qualities in their women. All of their 
education was directed to the one object of preparing 
them to be mothers of a hardy race. 
Every Spartan girl was expected to marry, and the 
age of marriage was carefully fixed by the state. It was 
recognized that children of girl and boy parents could not 
be strong nor attain the height of physical development 
which the needs of the state demanded. Adultery we 
are told was almost unknown in Sparta and divorce was 
non-existent. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
39 
The causes of divorce among the Greeks were eight: 
adultery of either husband or wife; cruel or inhuman 
treatment endangering either health or life; an attempt 
by either spouse to kill the other; threat to kill; condem- 
nation or imprisonment of either spouse for an infamous, 
degrading crime; desertion; and the incurable impotence 
of either party. Both parties were free to remarry, but 
the wife was compelled to wait until a full year had 
elapsed from the time of the granting of the decree before 
contracting a new marriage. 
If the wife was the successful suitor she could recover 
all of her dowry, and in some instances the husband was 
obliged to pay alimony to his wife during the remainder 
of her life or until her remarriage. If the parties had 
children, such of them who were so young as to need a 
mother’s care were temporarily awarded to her care, even 
though she had been declared the guilty party. 
2. Stage of Evolution of Marriage and Divorce Laws: 
Those of Ancient Rome.—This second is the most impor- 
tant stage of marriage and divorce legislation, for in the 
words of Mr. Bryce: “The Romans built up the marriage 
laws of the civilized world.” 
The two fundamental factors which shaped the Roman 
laws were first that the Roman was the typical patri- 
archal family, in which the power of the head of the 
family was absolute; he could imprison, sell, or kill his 
children, under the express laws of the Twelve Tables.” 
“All in the house,” says Momsen, “were destitute of 
legal rights; the wife and child no less than the bullock 
and the slave.” Even the full grown sons and their 
children had to submit to the housefather’s will. The 
consent of the paterfamilias was indispensable to the 
marriage of the children’s sons and daughters alike. 
This vast authority we now know was based on religious 40 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
grounds, and the introduction of a new religion with 
higher conceptions of human rights particularly contrib- 
uted to its downfall. Second: since the great juris- 
consults of the Roman Empire were not Roman but 
Greek lawyers, we can see how their laws would be 
molded by Greek thought and tradition. 
By the earlier form of Roman marriage and that which 
prevailed among the patrician and higher classes the wife 
passed absolutely into the power of her husband; she 
became a member of his family and was legally his 
daughter and the sister of her own children. Her 
property became her husband’s and he apparently could 
exercise over her all the power of a Roman father, except 
that of selling her into slavery. 
From the time of Romulus divorce seems to have been 
regulated by law. The law of Romulus permitted the 
husband to repudiate his wife for three causes: adultery, 
preparing poisons, and the falsification of keys. 
Here as everywhere divorce conformed to the nature 
of marriage. Divorce was established by the law in the 
interests of woman. As the husband had the power of 
life and death over his wife, the law stepped in at an 
early date and provided that instead of killing her when 
he had tired of her, when she had asserted her inde- 
pendence, or had committed adultery, he might divorce 
her. 
At the beginning of the Christian era we find that all 
of the older forms of marriage, with their one-sided right 
of separation, had been practically superseded by free 
contract which placed the husband and wife on an equal 
footing, so that marriage became a simple private agree- 
ment. The wife did not pass under the power of her 
husband, but retained the full control of her property, 
being in this regard placed, as it were, at her husband’s MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
41 
side, while divorce became a formless, private trans- 
action, to which the woman was as freely entitled as the 
man. 
Justin says: “If marriages are made by mutual affec- 
tion, it is only right that when that affection no longer 
exists they should be dissoluble by mutual consent. 
And so far from divorce being dishonorable, all agree- 
ments between the parties forbidding the right of divorce 
were held void and an infringement of the rule ‘that mar- 
riage ought to be free.’ To compel an unwilling party to 
remain married was as unthinkable to the Roman as to 
compel an unwilling party to enter into marriage. Com- 
pulsion in any form is utterly opposed to a connection 
which springs from free choice and is sustained by affec- 
tion only.” 
No judicial or other inquiry into the cause of divorce 
was necessary. All that was required was that it should 
be formal and final. An exception to this rule arose 
when the parties could not come to terms about the 
future of the children or the division of property. 
“These words,” says Mr. Bryce, “have an especial 
interest as being the last words of ancient civilization, 
before Christianity began to influence legislation. They 
have in them much that is elevated, much that is attrac- 
tive. They embody the doctrines which after an inter- 
val of many centuries have again begun to be preached 
with the fervor of conviction to the modern world, 
especially in England and the United States; and espe- 
cially by those who think that the greatest step toward 
progress is to be found in what is called the emanci- 
pation of women.” 
3. Stage of Evolution of Marriage and Divorce Laws: 
Ecclesiastic and Canon Law.—Negatively it was the 
later law of Rome which had most to do with shaping 42 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the opinions of the Christian fathers in regard to the 
nature of marriage and divorce. The moral and social 
results of this excessive freedom of divorce during the 
latter part of the Republic and the early Roman Em- 
pire was such a laxity of the marriage bonds as to be- 
come scandalous. Marriage became unpopular. A 
recent historian has declared that it was almost ended by 
divorce. 
Proper restraints would have lessened the evil, but 
the character of the law was very far from being its sole, 
or even its primary cause. “In a purer state of public 
opinion,” observes Lecky, “a very wide latitude of 
divorce might probably have been allowed both parties 
without any very serious consequences. A vast wave 
of corruption had flowed in upon Rome, and under any 
system of law it would have penetrated into domestic 
life. Laws prohibiting all divorce have never secured 
the purity of married life in ages of great corruption; nor 
did the latitude which was accorded in ancient Rome 
prevent the existence of a very large amount of female 
virtue. 
It is, however, not surprising, that the founders of the 
Christian church should have regarded the laxity of the 
marriage bond as the primary cause of the degeneration 
of Roman society. From the beginning an earnest 
effort was made to restrain, so far as possible, the liberty 
of separation, and to prohibit the persons separated on 
proper grounds from contracting further marriage. 
According to St. Augustine, adultery is the only 
scriptural grounds for separation—but this does not 
dissolve the marriage bond. Moreover, he says those 
who follow the letter of Matthew’s text would for this 
offense allow man, but not the woman, the right of repu- 
diation. This he justly reproaches as violation of one MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
43 
of the great principles of the Christian law, the equality 
of the wedded pair. 
St. Augustine contended that the question of divorce 
was not clearly determined by the words of Christ; but 
there can be no mistake in the attitude of the church of 
Rome to-day on this subject. It positively holds that 
no human power can dissolve a marriage when ratified 
and consummated between baptized persons. 
This third stage of evolution is condensed in the Canon 
law, promulgated in the sixteenth century, when for the 
first time in the history of the world marriage was de- 
clared to be indissoluble, on the grounds that marriage 
was a sacrament. This doctrine has remained up to the 
present time that of the Roman church, divorce from 
bed and board alone being permitted. Separation may 
be allowed in certain cases, but absolute divorce never! 
The dogmas of the Canon law concerning woman’s 
inferiority and consequent subjugation to man have 
from that day to this powerfully shaped public opinion 
and legislation throughout the entire civilized world on 
the subject of marriage and divorce. 
Rise of Ecclesiastic Marriage.—It is a noteworthy fact 
that the early church accepted and sanctioned the ex- 
isting temporal forms of marriage. Her energies were 
directed mainly to enforcing her own rules relating to 
marriage disabilities, such as those arising from affinity 
or nearness of kin, to devising restraints upon the free- 
dom of divorce and second marriages, and to administer- 
ing the matrimonial judicature. The existing legal 
character and the popular forms of betrothal and nup- 
tials were not disturbed. 
The only innovation effected by the primitive church 
was wholly of a religious nature. Hence from the first 
century onward we find evidences of a priestly benedic- 44 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
tion in connection with the betrothal and probably with 
the nuptials. During the first three or four centuries it 
is probable that marriages were not usually celebrated 
in a church. The betrothal and nuptial benediction 
were not essential to a valid marriage; however impor- 
tant it might have been from a religious point of view. 
Then followed the introduction of the bride mass— 
merely an invocation of the divine blessing upon the 
newly married pair and has no legal significance. 
In the tenth century we find that marriage was no 
longer a strictly private transaction, but took place be- 
fore the church door, in the presence of the priest, who 
participated in the ceremony. The couple then entered 
the church and had the bride mass and the second 
benediction. 
The next step was accomplished in the thirteenth 
century, when marriage was usually celebrated by the 
priest, and not merely in his presence. Not until this 
time does the priest appear with authority, as one es- 
pecially qualified by his religious office to solemnize the 
nuptials. 
This stage Professor Summer regards as “the result of 
the astounding movement in the thirteenth century, by 
which the church remodeled all the ideals and institutions 
of the age; and integrated all social interests into a 
system, of which it made itself the central and controlling 
authority.” 
The final stage in ecclesiastic domination came with 
the Canon law, which supplemented and eliminated the 
secular jurisdiction and alone regulated marriage in 
Christian Europe, and only awaited a complete develop- 
ment of the dogma of the sacrament of marriage. 
Hieronymus says: “At the same time the doctrine of 
the sacrament of marriage was growing up and being MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
45 
developed by Tertullian, St. Augustine, and others, 
although it was not recognized by the church as a 
dogma until the sixteenth century.” 
The Council of Trent in 1563 declared marriage a 
sacrament of the church and placed the whole subject 
under ecclesiastic jurisdiction, and marriage was no 
longer valid except when administered according to the 
rites of the church. It was from St. Paul’s words:1 “For 
this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and 
shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one 
flesh,” that the dogma that marriage was a sacrament 
was gradually evolved. 
Development of the Social Contract Theory.'--Luther’s 
conception of marriage is determinative for Protestant 
thought. He did not share in the mediaeval misogyny, 
nor did he hold the sacramental views of marriage. He 
considered marriage pure and the normal relation of 
the sexes. Natural impulses, he held, were divinely 
implanted and their legitimate function a social duty. 
He denied that marriage and the church have anything 
in common. “Marriage is to be regarded as an act of 
free will by those who participate in it. It does not 
concern the church. Therefore know that marriage is 
an external thing, as any other worldly transaction.” 
Yet so high was his estimate of the character of marriage 
that he refers to it as a sacrament. “An external holy 
symbol of the greatest, holiest,, worthiest, noblest thing 
that has ever been, or ever can be; the union of the 
human and divine in Christ.” While marriage certainly 
ceased to be thought of as a sacrament, it continued to be 
regarded by Protestants as a divine institution; hence 
sacerdotal nuptials remained as indispensable as ever. 
While the reformers abolished the sacramental con- 
1 Ephes., v, 32. 46 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
ception of marriage and therefore its indissolubility, 
they still considered that there was something divine in 
it, and so made its dissolution difficult. The great step 
in advance effected by the Reformation was to lay the 
foundation for a social revolution and the right of the 
people to civil and religious liberty, to show the necessity 
for the separation of the Church and State and the 
recognized right of the temporal law maker in the regu- 
lation of all laws affecting marriage and its dissolution, 
as in the highest interest of the family and the State. 
Under the Canon law and the Reformation, the hus- 
band was regarded as the “head’' to whom the wife 
owed unquestioning obedience, in return for a protec- 
tion and love which were not always forthcoming. By 
virtue .of his divine right and superiority the husband 
had the right of chastising and imprisoning his wife, 
and the wife was practically without a remedy. The 
superior courts of all countries refused even to grant a 
wife a separation on the grounds of the husband’s adul- 
tery alone; “for the wife had not right to inquire into the 
conduct of her superior, whom she ought to presume to 
be chaste. She was expected to regard the evil manners 
and ill-treatment of her husband as ‘God’s will, ’ and a 
cross which she must bear for the expiation of her sins. 
For the sin in fact of being a woman.” 
The legalization of the husband’s adultery, which 
reigned so long in Europe and still obtains in England, 
is the fruit of the Canon law. The wife was also ex- 
pected to observe purity before which was not 
expected of the husband. If at any time before marriage 
she had committed an indiscretion, her husband could 
obtain a dissolution of the marriage. 
The position of woman under the Canon law, and it 
was not greatly improved by the Reformation, was ex- MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
47 
pressed by Brouwer in the metaphor: “The husband is 
the soul and the wife is the body.” The property which 
the husband has in the wife, her legal subjection to him, 
and the right of chastisement, together with the property 
of the wife passing into the absolute control of her hus- 
band, were freely allowed by the Roman and Protestant 
church laws. Under the Canon law the wife had practi- 
cally no protection against her husband’s ill-treatment, 
for the right of chastisement was maintained in all of 
its vigor. Brouwer in advocating the more humane 
treatment of women was compelled to rely upon Pagan 
writers such as Cato and Marcus Aurelius for laws which 
Christianity did not appear to allow. 
The Canon law was the very generally accepted law 
on marriage and divorce down to 1803, when the Civil 
Code of Napoleon became the law of France, and very 
greatly influenced the legislation of the European states. 
4. Stage of Evolution of Marriage and Divorce Laws: 
The French Revolution of 1792 and the Civil Code of 
Napoleon.—Until this time the history of divorce is that 
of gradual interpretation and extension of the laws to 
meet the practical exigencies of life, and the development 
of a strong movement attempting to discard all efforts 
to base the laws of divorce upon scriptural texts. 
It was the French Revolution which gave an altera- 
tion of the opinion that marriage was a sacrament. The 
constitution of September 3, 1791, declares in its seventh 
article, title ii: “La loi ne considere le marriage que 
comme contract civil. Le pouvoir l&gislatif 6tablira 
pour tous les habitants, sans distinction, le mode par 
lequel les naissances, marriages, et dec£s serent constates 
et il designera les officiers publics qui en recevront les 
actes.” To this obligatory civil, a sacramental benedic- 
tion may be added if the parties think proper. 48 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The French Revolution thus re-enacted the ancient 
law of the Franks, which was the Roman law and had 
been in force until it was displaced by the Canon law—the 
same law which has always been and still is in force in 
Switzerland. The French Revolution proclaimed that 
men and women had rights as well as duties. Marriage 
was again declared to be a civil contract, in which the 
husband and wife were equal partners, and its regis- 
tration, which had hitherto been in the hands of the 
priests, was placed in the hands of civil officials. 
So civil marriage and civil registration were again 
established, and absolute divorce was granted. Abso- 
lute dissolution of the bonds of wedlock was authorized 
at the mutual desire of both husband and wife, for 
incompatibility of temperament on the part of either 
spouse, and for seven other specified causes. The 
natural result was a vast number of decrees. 
The Civil Code of Napoleon.—’When Napoleon en- 
trusted the preparation of his famous civil code to the 
lawyers it was found that most of them returned to the 
old casuistic preference for judicial separation and the 
public inquiry into the cause of divorce, for they natu- 
rally desired to recover the control of litigation which had 
for so long a time been the source of profit and power. 
It was mainly owing to the influence of Napoleon that 
the fundamental principles of the divorce laws of the 
Revolution, divorce by mutual consent, was retained in 
the code, because divorce by mutual consent for incom- 
patibility of temperament was in his opinion essential to 
marital happiness. Napoleon was a strong upholder 
of the integrity and morality of the family, which he 
looked upon as all rulers have looked upon it, as a politi- 
cal and military institution, which can be more easily 
ruled where the husband is the absolute head. It MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE LAWS 
49 
can scarcely be contended that he ever feared that either 
morality or the family would suffer by liberal divorce 
laws. By allowing divorce by mutual consent and for 
cruelty, and by advocating divorce for incompatibility, 
even where the wife alone desired it, Napoleon did more 
for married women than had ever been done for them 
since the Roman times, although in other respects he 
placed wives in subjection to their husbands. In the 
code, as it was promulgated in 1803, the lawyers and 
Roman Catholics succeeded in retaining a great deal of 
the Canon law, and in hedging around divorce as many 
difficulties and delays as possible. Beside divorce by 
mutual consent, divorce was allowed for adultery, cruelty, 
and condemnation for certain crimes. Incompatibility 
was no longer recognized; mutual consent was admitted 
under certain limitations; and the whole number of 
specified causes was limited to five. The controverti- 
bility of judicial separation into divorce was asserted and 
the dogma of the indissolubility of marriage had received 
its deathblow. 
The liberal policy of France as expressed in the Code 
of Napoleon has undoubtedly had a powerful influence 
on the extension of civil marriage and divorce throughout 
Europe, whereas in America the modern statute maker 
has recovered and passed beyond the point gained by 
the Roman Imperial institutions between Augustus and 
Justinian. The right of society to deal frankly with 
the province of marriage and divorce must be conceded. 
To determine the proper character and sphere of legisla- 
tion is a very different thing. 
The Reformation in England.—When England sepa- 
rated from the church of Rome the Canon law was 
allowed to remain in force in the ecclesiastic courts, 
although its authority was restricted and its study at 
the universities was forbidden. 50 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
In 1549 Henry VIII appointed a Commission to rough- 
hew the Canon law. This Commission consisted of 
Archbishop Cranmer, Latimer, and other eminent divines 
and lawyers, who drew up the famous reforms of ecclesias- 
tic laws. By its provision divorce was to be granted by 
the ecclesiastic courts on the grounds of adultery, deser- 
tion, long absence, cruelty, and the attempt of one spouse 
on the life of the other, or deadly hatred between the 
spouses. Separation from bed and board was to be 
abolished. Husband and wife were placed upon the 
same footing; the innocent party was allowed to marry 
while the guilty party was subjected to the usual drastic 
penalties, such as banishment. This proposed law was 
based on the Canon law and that of the Reformation, 
and had been put into practice in other countries, but 
all of this great and long labor became of non-effect 
becaus of the King’s death. Thus by accident England 
failed to adopt any law of divorce at all, and by a strange 
irony the Catholic Canon law was allowed to quietly 
resume its authority in a Protestant country. 
In ancient times the men of the law in England were 
persons in holy orders, and the judges were originally 
abbots, bishops, deans, canons, and archdeacons. As 
late as 1857 the clergy in their ecclesiastic courts had 
exclusive jurisdiction of matrimonial causes. They 
administered the Canon law of the Western church 
affecting marriage, and ruled that marriage lawfully 
made and according to the ordinances of matrimony can 
by no means be dissolved during the lives of the parties. 
By the passage of the divorce act of 1857 the jurisdic- 
tion in matrimonial causes was transferred to a new civil 
tribunal and absolute divorce was sanctioned, with the 
permission to remarry on the proof of adultery on the 
part of the wife, or adultery and cruelty on the part of CIVIL MARRIAGE IN NEW ENGLAND 
51 
the husband. The civil courts of England have never 
considered marriage as a sacrament or religious ordinance, 
holding, that the dogma and precepts of Christianity 
do not affect the civil status of marriage, but simply add 
to it a religious character. In this respect the law of 
England is in harmony with the attitude of the primitive 
church. 
Civil Marriage in New England.—Since the thirteenth 
century the English marriage had been in a chaotic 
state. All of this was changed in the Colonies. In 
place of confusion and complexity we find simplicity. 
In New England particularly, civil rights, civil registra- 
tion, and a uniform theory of marriage tended to prevent 
manifold evils which grew out of a lax or uncertain law. 
The conception of wedlock as it existed there from the 
beginning was identical with that which later found 
expression in the writings of Milton and the legislation of 
Cromwell. Marriage was declared not to be a sacra- 
ment but a civil contract, in which the intervention of a 
priest was unnecessary and out of place. The civil cele- 
bration in New England was supposed to have been intro- 
duced by the Puritans directly out of Holland. The 
old Colony also made careful provision for registration. 
In Massachusetts the first order of the General Court 
was published in 1639. The intention was that the 
contemplated marriage be thrice published: at a divine 
service on a Sabbath, in a town-meeting or at a public 
lecture, and in both the towns where both the parties or 
either of them resided. Later it became customary for 
the town clerk or his deputy to publish the banns on a 
Sunday, after the blessing on the evening service was 
pronounced. CHAPTER III 
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE MODERN 
DIVORCE PROBLEM 
The Divorce Act of 1857; the Present English Divorce 
Laws; the German Imperial Code; Divorce in the Ameri- 
can Colonies; the Divorce Laws in the United States; 
the Essentials to Marriage; Divorce Legislation; Inter- 
state Comity; Divorce Statistics for the United States; 
Causation of the Increase of Divorce, and the Disin- 
tegration of the Family; the Readjustment of the Family 
to Changed Economic Conditions; the Great Industrial 
Revolution of the 19th Century; the Stress of Economic 
Lije; Artificial Standards of Living; the Passing of the 
Economic Function of the Family; the Economic Eman- 
cipation of Women; the Ethical Readjustments. 
There is abundant evidence that marriage has upon the whole, 
been more durable in proportion as the human race has risen to 
higher degrees of cultivation; and that a certain amount of civiliza- 
tion is an essential condition of the formation of life-long unions.— 
Westermarck. 
The evident trend of modern legislation is toward 
uniformity among the nations of Christendom on the 
vital subjects of marriage and divorce. A study of the 
marriage laws of the world has also brought the happy 
conviction that the wholesome view of marriage, as 
the union of one man and one woman for life to the 
exclusion of all others, is the one triumphant fact of 
human history which can never lose its prestige; and 
that everywhere woman is more and more being allowed THE DIVORCE ACT OF 1857 
53 
her natural place in the community as man’s equal and 
associate. All the legislation of the past century has 
elevated men by giving more justice to women. 
The Divorce Act of 1857.—Following the Civil Code 
of Napoleon which was promulgated in 1803, the next 
most important step forward toward equity in divorce 
legislation was the English Divorce Act of 1857. 
The principal cause of this divorce act was the wide- 
spread discontent at the ecclesiastic courts, which had 
an extensive jurisdiction over matrimonial causes, etc. 
By the passage of this act the jurisdiction of the eccle- 
siastic court was taken away and divorce was placed 
under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The 
husband was entitled to divorce the wife on the grounds 
of her adultery and to sue the corespondent for dam- 
ages. The wife, however, could only obtain a divorce 
when she could prove in addition to her husband’s 
adultery, his desertion, cruelty, bigamy, or incest, 
while she had no corresponding action for damages. 
Beside this, judicial separation and nullity of marriage 
could be obtained by either spouse, upon grounds laid 
down in the Canon law. 
Almost the only champion of indissolubility was Mr. 
Gladstone, who however gave his opinion under protest, 
as not being relevant to the practical question. His 
one concern on the religious aspect was that the Church 
laws should not be touched, and he desired that a civil 
law of divorce and remarriage should be provided that 
did not touch religion at all, with regard to the indissolu- 
bility of marriage. Mr. Gladstone said: “Let me ob- 
serve that we have too much dogmatism. The Gospels 
were intended to benefit humanity, not by means of 
commands and forms in a rigid shape, but rather by the 
infusion of a new spirit into the precepts of the law. 54 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Adultery as the sole cause for divorce is a most arbitrary 
rule. There are many causes for divorce far more fatal 
to the great obligations of marriage, as disease, crime, 
idiocy, crime involving imprisonment for life. He in- 
sisted on the importance of the study of modern legis- 
lation upon the subject, so that the law might be placed 
on the basis of broad experience instead of upon fashion- 
able opinions which were temporary and local. They 
ought to elevate their vision and take less contracted 
views of the operations of the human mind than they 
were apt to do, from a defect he feared which was inher- 
ent in their natural dispositions; a defect which prevented 
them from assuming anything except what chanced to 
be dreamt of in their philosophy.” 
It was, however, in the interests of women that strenu- 
ous attempts were made by Mr. Gladstone and others 
to amend the Bill in Committee, and to extend the narrow 
grounds upon which divorce in it were based. 
Mr. Drummond, who was indefatigable in attempting 
to improve the lot of women, said: “Women have a 
right to object to the competence of a tribunal composed 
of Members of Parliament, who judged women according 
to their own estimate, and for their own purposes; and 
the members of this House are very much in the posi- 
tion of the Turks, legislating for the inhabitants of the 
seraglio. If adultery, as many contend, dissolved mar- 
riage, how many in this House are married?” 
Says Bentham: “To live under the perpetual authority 
of a man you hate, is of itself a state of slavery, but to be 
compelled to submit to his embraces is a misfortune too 
great even for slavery itself. 
“As to what would become of the children in the case 
of divorce, their education would suffer less than it would 
have done, from domestic discords and hatreds.” THE PRESENT ENGLISH DIVORCE LAWS 
55 
The Present English Divorce Laws.—In England a 
man can divorce his wife if he can prove to the satisfac- 
tion of the judge and jury that she has misconducted 
herself on a single occasion. The English wife, on the 
other hand, cannot divorce her husband even though he 
is living in open adultery. In order to free herself she 
is obliged to prove that in addition to unfaithfulness 
he has also been guilty of cruelty, or else that he has 
willfully deserted her for more than two years. The 
communication of venereal disease, when the husband 
knows of his condition, is an act of cruelty. All the 
redress she is able to obtain for the infidelity of her 
husband, unaccompanied by cruelty or desertion, is a 
separation order from the magistrate. 
As a rule, a separation order allows the wife from one- 
third to one-fourth of her husband’s income, though 
whether she will ever receive it is problematic. At the 
same time it stops her forever afterward from suing for 
divorce, and it prevents both husband and wife from 
remarrying. A husband guilty of unfaithfulness, plus 
cruelty or desertion, is divorced and not permitted to 
remarry. 
The Act permitting and regulating the separation 
orders was passed in 1895. It has been estimated that 
during the first thirteen years of its operation it has been 
responsible for throwing upon the world from 150,000 
to 200,000 persons, each of whom, in the words of a 
great English lawyer, is “a potential adulterer, without 
any legal family ties or any possibility of contracting 
them, and licensed by law to indulge his or her passions 
with impunity.” 
The virulence of the late Women’s Suffrage campaign 
in England was largely due to the inferior status of 
woman under the present laws, especially the divorce 56 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
laws, with their maintenance of a double standard of 
morals. 
The effect of the suffrage movement has not only been 
apparent in the “divorce law reform proposals,” but 
also for the demand that is being made for some reform 
in the marriage service that will make it conform to 
modern ideas. Many advanced English women strongly 
object to the idea of being given to any man, and they 
also protest against certain phrases of the service that 
seem to convey the idea of woman’s subjection to man. 
The German Imperial Civil Code.—In 1876 for the 
first time was provided a Governmental regulation of 
marriage, which became law on January 1, 1900. This 
has been described by Professor Maitland as “the most 
carefully considered statement of a nation’s law that the 
world has ever seen.” Marriage is treated as a civil 
contract, to which the State is always an added party. 
A marriage is concluded by the parties appearing to- 
gether before a registrar and declaring in the presence of 
two witnesses their intention of becoming husband and 
wife. The consent of the father is always necessary 
before the age of twenty-one. The right to determine 
all matters affecting the common conjugal life belongs to 
the husband; however, if the decision of the husband is 
an abuse, and not a reasonable exercise of his right, the 
wife is not bound to accept his decision. 
The wife has absolute power to deal with her separate 
property as though she were a single woman. A wife’s 
separate property includes also that which she has accu- 
mulated by her industry or in the course of a separate 
business conducted by her. 
Either spouse may petition for divorce on the ground 
of adultery and five other grounds, the guilty party being 
obliged to provide maintenance for the innocent one, DIVORCE IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES 
57 
in so far as he or she is unable to provide for him- 
self or herself. The maintenance is provided by a money 
annuity, payable quarterly in advance. In some cases 
a'bond or security must be furnished for the performance 
of this duty, which is extinguished on the re-marriage of 
the other party. Both husband and wife must contrib- 
ute toward the maintenance of the children. 
In recent years, while the marriage rate has remained 
stationary, the divorce rate has taken a sudden upward 
turn, adultery on the part of the husband being the 
leading cause. While divorce is easy to obtain, it is 
looked upon as the greatest disgrace and, guilty or in- 
nocent, the mere fact that he has been a party in a 
divorce case is sufficient to ruin a professional man's 
career. An officer, for instance, who has divorced his 
wife is practically obliged to resign. 
Divorce in the American Colonies.—The colonists 
who founded the various states from the time of Eliza- 
beth took with them the common law of England, but 
being Protestants and having no established church or 
episcopal courts, the ecclesiastic or Canon law of England 
was not followed. 
Marriage was a civil contract, usually entered into 
before a magistrate. By the Puritan legislation of New 
England the right of divorce was recognized, but rarely 
exercised. The attitude of the Puritans toward the 
Canon law may be expressed in the words of an American 
historian: “Divorce from bed and board, the separate 
maintenance without the dissolution of the marriage 
contract, an anomaly in Protestant legislation; the pun- 
ishment of the innocent more than the guilty, was utterly 
abhorrent to their principles.” 
In the Southern colonies, however, since the church 
courts were never established and as they had not 58 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
assigned the jurisdiction in question to any other body, 
it followed that there was no tribunal competent to de- 
cree divorce or separation. Separation by mutual con- 
sent or on account of bad conduct did exist, as it always 
does in any society. 
The Divorce Laws in the United States.—After the 
United States had obtained her independence in 1782, 
divorce by private statute continued in practice for more 
than half a century in the majority of the State legisla- 
tures, in which the exclusive power over divorce was 
vested by the American constitution. Gradually, how- 
ever, the grounds for divorce began to be defined by their 
legislatures, and the ordinary courts or courts of chan- 
cery were granted jurisdiction. 
While, as we have seen, the marriage laws in the several 
States originated from the law on the subject as it had 
existed in England at the time of the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, as subsequently modified by State 
legislation and judicial interpretation, the laws of divorce 
as they exist in the several States are entirely of local 
creation. 
The grounds for divorce vary greatly in the different 
States, the principal ones being adultery, cruelty, deser- 
tion, insanity, and other serious diseases and incapacities, 
such as impotence, habitual drunkenness; irreconcilable 
differences between the parties, such as long absence, 
refusal to perform the marital duties, gross misbehavior 
repugnant to the marriage contract, and violent and 
ungovernable temper. 
The United States in its Federal capacity has no single 
system of marriage or divorce laws applicable to all of 
the States and territories. The purpose of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States is to maintain by its Federal 
structure a strong national government, while recogniz- DIVORCE LEGISLATION 
59 
ing each of the States which make up the federation, so 
far as is consistent with the motive of the Union, sover- 
eign commonwealths. So there are forty-eight separate 
governments, each making its own domestic laws. 
The Essentials to Marriage.—There are three requi- 
sites to a lawful marriage in all the States and territories 
in the United States: (1) That the marriage must be 
monogamous; (2) that the parties must be competent; 
(3) that there must be free consent on the part of both 
contracting parties. 
Divorce Legislation.—Regardless of what the statutes 
are, persons whose marital relations have become in- 
tolerable have ultimately found a way of release from 
them. Where divorce is forbidden recourse is often had 
to annulment on some technical ground, and the decree 
of nullity becomes practically the equivalent of divorce 
proper. This is well illustrated by the mediaeval prac- 
tices in which the prohibited degree of relationship, as 
prescribed by the Canon law, provided ample means of 
escape. Lecky cites a case from Coke, “in which a 
marriage was pronounced null because the husband had 
stood god-father to the cousin of his wife.”1 
Where statutory provision is made for divorce, either 
the necessary or the most feasible is utilized. For ex- 
ample, while almost 60 per cent, of all divorces granted in 
the United States during a period of forty years were 
granted on the grounds of cruelty and desertion, in New 
York State all were granted for adultery. The explana- 
tion of this lies in the fact that in New York adultery is 
the only legal cause for divorce. Chancellor Kent, after 
a long experience on the bench of that state, said that he 
believed adultery was committed for the very purpose 
of obtaining divorce. 
1 Democracy and Liberty, vol. I, p. 194. 60 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The same philosophy applies to the State of South 
Carolina, where no divorces are granted, but we are not 
left to theory as to the real facts of the case. South 
Carolina has found it necessary to regulate by law the 
proportion of his property which a married man may 
give to the woman with whom he has been living in open 
violation of the law. 
Bishop says of the practice of Connecticut, that not- 
withstanding the liberty of divorce or in consequence of 
it, there is no State in the Union in which domestic 
felicity or purity, unblemished morals, and matrimonial 
concord more abound than in this very State. 
From South Carolina, which grants no absolute di- 
vorce, to New Hampshire, which grants it on fourteen dif- 
ferent grounds, there is no possible experiment which has 
been left untried and no element of confusion which 
has been omitted. You find one sovereign State which 
refuses to recognize a divorce granted in another sov- 
ereign State. You find a man who has been divorced 
by his wife in Ohio, and has subsequently re-married, 
arrested and convicted of bigamy in New York. You 
find a full circuit of diversity on almost every point of 
practice, procedure, the rules of evidence, alimony, the 
question of re-marriage, and the period necessary to 
establish a legal residence. 
Interstate Comity.—The regulation of marriage and 
divorce is one of the most important domestic concerns 
which remain within the jurisdiction of a state. There 
must be either interstate comity or else an amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States by which, as in 
Germany and Switzerland, the laws of marriage and 
divorce shall come under Federal control. As Wharton 
points out in his “Conflict of Laws,” “Marriage is not 
merely a contract, but an international institution of 
Christendom.” CAUSATION OP INCREASE OP DIVORCE 
61 
Divorce Statistics in the United States.—The facts 
have been ascertained and very carefully tabulated by 
the Commissioner of Labor and the Census Bureau 
for a period of forty years, from 1876 to 1906, the statis- 
tics showing a progressive and very marked increase. 
From a study of the table made to determine the ratio 
between marriage and divorce rates, it is found that the 
ratio of divorce to marriage is increasing constantly and 
at a three-fold rate. 
The divorce rate in the twenty-year period from 1887 
to 1906 was one divorce granted to every fifteen marri- 
ages. The evidence tends to show that at the present 
time (previous to the declaration of war) one divorce 
occurs in every twelve marriages. 
In 1905 in France the number of divorces had increased 
to 26 per hundred thousand of population; at that time 
the third highest divorce rate in Europe, being exceeded 
only by the rate of Switzerland and Saxony. And in 
the same year in Paris it was shown that every 17th 
marriage ended in divorce. Excepting Japan, the di- 
vorce rate is higher in the United Stated than any 
other country in the world. 
Almost two-thirds, or 66 per cent., of the divorces are 
granted to the wife; twice as many being obtained by 
the wife as by the husband. Another fact brought out 
was that divorces usually reach their maximum in the 
fifth year of married life. It is perhaps significant that 
drunkenness as the cause of divorce reaches its maximum 
between the twentieth and twenty-fifth years of married 
life. Of the cases of separation, the greatest number 
have occurred in the first and second years; at the end 
of the fifth year more than one-half of the total number 
of separations have taken place. 
Causation of the Increase of Divorce and the Disin- 
tegration of the Family,—In proportion to the rapid 62 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
increase of divorce in the last fifty years, especially, this 
subject has engaged the attention of theologians, states- 
men, and social economists, with the result that two 
very different interpretations have been given of this 
phenomenon. To a large group of thinkers who reason 
more or less deductively from certain assumed premises, 
the present divorce situation indicates that the family 
is undergoing a rapid process of disintegration, which 
seriously endangers its permanent existence. They re- 
gard the divorce movement as an integral part of a gen- 
eral trend of social degeneration, which threatens the 
family, together with certain other social institutions 
with ultimate extinction. 
To a smaller but rapidly increasing number, this analy- 
sis of the situation is unsatisfactory; they wish to go a 
little deeper into the question by the use of inductive 
methods. In other words they regard these phenomena 
as the result of environmental changes caused by the 
readjustment of society to the new basis of modern civili- 
zation, in other words the increasing divorce rate is the 
result of transition due to progress. Investigations may 
reveal the fact that the family of to-day is not internally 
coherent, and with the lessening of many of the former 
restraints inherent in the patriarchal theory of the 
family and the sacramental idea of marriage, together 
with the removal of some of the external props supplied 
by former social and economic conditions, the family 
is simply falling apart because it lacks moral and spir- 
itual cohesion. To this latter group belongs the social 
economist. 
As we have already seen, the institution of the family, 
as it now exists, is the product of a slow and gradual 
evolution. Marriage is the legal sanction of the social 
custom of the family. It is the institutionalizing of CHANGED ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
63 
those forms of sexual intercourse between men and women 
which have existed everywhere in human society. 
We have further seen that human society followed no 
arbitrarily formed program for its development, but 
proceeded by natural laws of social evolution. The 
recognition of these fundamental principles of human 
development opens the social realm to scientific study. 
On this basis the institution of the family rests on the 
inherent necessities of human nature, it has always 
existed in the form best suited to the needs of that par- 
ticular stage of development of the human race, and the 
general tendency is toward permanent monogamy. 
That the marriage of one man and one woman is a life- 
long union is the ultimate form toward which the long 
process of the ages is surely tending; then we shall be 
fortified against any temporary aberration in which the 
current seems to be deflected from its course. 
Divorce is the result and not the cause of the break-up 
of the family. In an increasing number of instances 
marital relations have ceased to exist between persons 
legally united. Mutual respect and affection, essential 
elements of valid marriages, are absent; and every tie 
upon which the ecclesiastic and civil law placed its 
sanction has been severed. Estrangement of husband 
and wife often leads to separation; if there are children, 
as a rule, they go to live, with one of the parents or some 
other relative, seldom becoming wards of the State. In 
such cases as these the family has no actual, but only a 
legal, existence. 
The Readjustment of the Family to Changed Economic 
Conditions.—Any scientific study of the causes of the 
great increase in the divorce rate since the Civil War, 
and more especially in the last two decades of that time, 
must be based upon a consideration of the various eco- 64 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
nomic conditions which have revolutionized industry and 
all of our social institutions. (1) The industrial revolu- 
tion; (2) the individual strain and wreckage caused by 
the high-keyed tension; (3) artificial standards of living; 
(4) the passing of the function of the family as an eco- 
nomic unit; (5) the economic emancipation of woman; 
(6) ethical readjustments. 
1. The Great Industrial Revolution of the Nineteenth 
Century.—This has been of the greatest possible sig- 
nificance. The wonderful inventive genius which has 
introduced machinery into the field of economic produc- 
tion has resulted in the most radical changes throughout 
the entire industrial world. Existing industries have 
been completely transformed and very many new ones 
have been created. The substitution of mechanical for 
physical power has caused a rearrangement of the forces 
of production and a redistribution of the population. It 
has built the modern industrial cities. The increased 
productivity of capital and labor has made possible 
the rapid accumulation of wealth. These revolutionary 
changes in economic conditions have complicated every 
form of social activity and created a multitude of new 
problems, not the least of these being the upheaval of 
the family, together with all of our social institutions. 
Turning to concrete facts we find that this period, 
in which the most marvelous development of material 
resources has taken place in the United States, prac- 
tically coincides with the period of rapid increase of the 
divorce rate. 
2. The Stress of Modern Economic Life.—With this 
vast accumulation of wealth in the hands of a small 
minority, and the springing up of our great industrial 
cities, which have acted as magnets to the residents of 
our rural population, there has resulted a very alarming ARTIFICIAL STANDARDS OF LIVING 
65 
increase in the cost of living. It inevitably followed 
that the inhabitants of the United States, who sprang 
for the most part from the very well-to-do, intelligent 
upper middle classes of Great Britain, from being one 
great heterogeneous class, again became divided by sharp 
class distinctions, based on their financial standing, 
into the moneyed aristocracy; the tenement population, 
representing our poverty-stricken class who eventually 
become the wards of the state; and the vast middle class, 
always the backbone of any great civilization, whose 
financial condition ranged from those who can by rigid 
economy just make ends meet, to the well-to-do of the 
professional and merchant classes. 
The very fact that a man of the lower middle class 
could raise himself by his own individual efforts to a 
position of influence and wealth naturally caused him 
to steer clear of all handicaps, of which a wife and family 
were not the least. So the path of advance became 
strewed with social wreckage, increased prostitution, 
insanity, suicide, and crime. Within the family these 
same conditions of life, which strain the mental and 
nervous constitutions to the breaking point, are destined 
in multiplied instances to result in discord within the 
family circle, thus increasing the probabilities of divorce. 
3. Artificial Standards of Living.—The increased cost 
of living is due to two very different causes. The first 
is the increased cost of articles necessary to consumption 
and the necessity of purchasing many things formerly 
produced by the family itself. The second is the pres- 
sure of modern social competition, which has demanded 
greater luxuries in the way of houses, food, clothes, and 
home comforts, which have far outstripped the increase 
in the income of the head of the family. It is the pride 
of self-aggrandizement, which seeks to outstrip others 66 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
of the same social scale. Appearances outweigh com- 
forts. The desire to excel becomes the ruling passion 
in countless homes of the middle well-to-do classes, and 
for this reason expenditures are indulged in which 
entail anxiety and often hardship and are very often 
beyond the legitimate and available means of the 
family. Thus for the sake of ostentation domestic 
happiness is sacrificed, and this is one of the prolific 
sources of divorce, suicide, and insanity. 
While among the very poor the hard struggle for 
bread takes all of the romance out of existence, the 
human weaknesses, which might not otherwise affect 
the peace and harmony of the home, are apt to be inten- 
sified until they become too great for overwrought nerves 
to endure. 
Perhaps the most appalling situation has been that 
caused by regarding wedlock as an economic vocation 
for women. Marriage regarded from this point of view 
becomes a species of purchase contract, in which the 
woman barters her sex capital in exchange for life sup- 
port. There are thousands of women of the miscalled 
better classes who spend their lives in boarding houses 
and hotels, or in homes in which they are mere figure- 
heads, whose only occupation is to render sex service, 
mostly barren, to the husbands who furnish support as 
compensation. 
Such wives are not chattels, but willing dependents; 
they are not the drudging home servants of old, nor the 
collaborators of their husbands, as in our rural popula- 
tion. As a result, marriage becomes little more than 
legalized prostitution, and is, on the whole, thoroughly 
incapable of affording the happiness which the marriage 
relation is designed to impart. The probability of 
permanency of the married condition under such cir- THE ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION OP WOMEN 
67 
cumstances becomes slight. It is notably this class 
which furnish the divorce scandals in “high life.,, 
4. The Passing of the Economic Function of the 
Family.— Formerly the wife was not only a home-keeper, 
but a producer of industries which fed and clothed 
her family. With the great industrial changes, all of 
these have passed out of the family, so that instead of 
this work being done within the home, the members 
of the family go out into the great mart of the world to 
do the work which furnishes them with the means of 
subsistence. 
Coincidently with this economic change in the family 
life, the new industries of the boarding house and bachelor 
apartments have sprung up. They remove from the 
young and those of loose morals the restraints of the 
home, and are sought after by the idle. This problem 
has been made much more acute by the ever-increasing 
difficulties of procuring good domestic service, which 
has driven many families unwillingly into hotels. 
6. The Economic Emancipation of Women.—During 
the centuries of her tutelage woman has never been an 
idle dependent; she has always borne her share in the 
world’s work. In primitive society she was the chief 
producer. Her value to her husband-owner has often 
consisted in the value of her labor; to this fact may be 
attributed very largely the persistence of the economic 
family. It was performed in connection with her occupa- 
tion as wife and mother. The changed economic condi- 
tions have changed women’s status as workers to a very 
marked degree. It has resulted in giving woman a 
greater freedom in her choice of vocation. She is no 
longer restricted as formerly to the acceptance of matri- 
mony as a means of support. In 1840, according to 
Harriet Martineau, there were but seven employments 68 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
open to women. In 1890 Mr. Wright discovered that 
out of a total of 369 general groups, to which were as- 
signed all of the various industries of the United States, 
only in nine were no children or women employed. 
Equally important in the economic status of women 
has been the rise of women’s property acts. Prior to 
1840, the legal status of women in regard to property 
rights was determined in general by the common law. 
At marriage such property, real and personal, as the wife 
had, passed over to the control or ownership of her 
husband. Her legal existence, as respected the admin- 
istration of property, was suspended or merged into that 
of her husband during coverture. He was charged with 
her support, and as compensation was given complete 
control over her person and property. 
In two generations these conditions have been radically 
changed. It is a general rule throughout the United 
States at this time that a married woman may receive, 
receipt for, hold, manage, dispose f, lease, sell and con- 
vey, devise, or bequeath her separate property, both real 
and personal, as if sole owner, without joining or receiving 
the consent of her husband. In short we have at length 
arrived at that lofty sense of economic justice to women 
which was so freely granted to them by the statutes of 
ancient Babylonia. 
6. The Ethical Readjustments.—Practical ethics knows 
no distinction of sex. Present ethical tendencies are 
making an effective demand for a single standard of 
morals for both sexes. The social inferiority of women 
in all ages, due chiefly to their economic dependence, is 
largely responsible for the rise and persistence of the dual 
standard. With the change in the social status of woman 
the necessity for the toleration of such discrimination is 
passing away. According to our present standards, it THE ETHICAL READJUSTMENTS 
69 
is neither religious or moral to maintain a relation that 
involves injustice and inequality, so that the divorce 
movement, in certain of its aspects, is a sign of a healthy 
discontent with the present moral conditions, and marks 
the struggle toward a higher ethical consciousness in 
regard to the sexual relations. 
The acceptance of a sincere love between a man and a 
woman, who would live together and be parents, as the 
only workable and decent foundation for the marriage 
relation is becoming to be regarded by society as the 
ideal. Furthermore, that coercion, whether on the part 
of the Church or State, which compels one person to live 
with another of the opposite sex in repugnant conjugal 
relations, does violence to all of the higher ethical in- 
stincts of the soul and comes to be regarded as a species of 
despotism incompatible with free institutions. 
This brings us to the root of the whole matter—the 
need of a loftier popular ideal of the marriage relation. 
While bad legislation and a low standard of social ethics 
continue to throw wide open the doors of wedlock, 
there must of necessity be a broad way out. In how 
many cases are marriages often contracted in ignorance 
and with utter levity? How many thousands of parents 
fail to give their children serious warning against yielding 
to a transient impulse in the selection of a life mate? 
How few have received any real training with respect to 
the duties and responsibilities of conjugal life? What 
proper check is society placing on the marriage of the 
unfit? 
“Our laws,” says an eloquent writer, “stare us in the 
face; there is no man so drunken, so immoral, so brutal, 
so cruel, that he may not take to himself the purest, the 
most refined, the most sensitive of women to wife, if he 
can obtain her consent. There is no woman so petty, 70 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
so vain, so paltry, so inane, that she may not become the 
wife of an intellectual, honorable man and the mother of 
his doomed children. There is no pauper who may not 
wed a pauper and beget paupers to the end of history. 
There is no felon returned from prison, or loose upon 
society uncondemned, who may not make a base play at 
wedlock and perpetuate his diseased soul and body in 
those of his descendants without restraint.” 
For the wise reformer who would elevate and protect 
the family, the basis of the problem is marriage and 
not divorce. The fundamental causes of divorce are 
implanted deeply in the imperfections of the social 
system; particularly in false sentiments regarding mar- 
riage and the family. These can only be removed by 
rational principles and the education of the public. 
The laws should be simple, certain, and uniform. 
The divorce movement is dependent on social forces 
which lie far beyond the reach of the statute makers, 
yet it seems almost certain that there is a margin, very 
important though narrow, within which he may wisely 
exert a restraining influence. Good laws may at any 
rate check hasty impulses and force individuals to take 
proper time for reflection. They may also, by securing 
publicity, prevent manifold injustice in the granting of 
decrees. 
Divorce is a symptom and .not a disease. Certain it is 
that one rises from a detailed study of American legisla- 
tion with the conviction that, faulty as our divorce laws 
are, our marriage laws are far worse, while our apathy, 
our carelessness, and levity regarding the safeguarding 
of matrimonial institutions are well-nigh incredible. CHAPTER IV 
PROSTITUTION, SOCIAL DISEASES, AND 
MARRIAGE 
Prostitution Instituted (1) To Avenge the Anger of the 
Gods; (2) to Preserve the Sanctity of the Home; Sanc- 
tioned in Ancient Greece and Rome; (3) Recognized in 
the Middle Ages as a Necessity for Man’s Physiologic 
Needs; the Regulation and Organization of Prostitutes. 
The Chief Causes of Prostitution at the Present Day: 
(1) Economic Necessity; (2) Biologic Predisposition; 
(3) Man’s Physiologic Necessity, (4) Civilization Value; 
(5) Masculine Unchastity and the Double Standard of 
Morals. 
The Venereal Diseases, Gonorrhea: Its Risks to the Life 
and Health of Women; Influence on Pregnancy, Syphilis; 
The Prevalence of Syphilis; The Blood Test for Syphilis; 
Symptomatic or Incomplete Cure; Syphilis and Marri- 
age; Effects of Syphilis on Child-bearing Women; Modes 
of Transmission of Syphilis; the Time of Treatment 
and the Five-year Rule; Syphilis and Engagements to 
Marriage; Syphilis and Prostitution; Syphilis and Di- 
vorce; Public Efforts Against Venereal Diseases. 
It would appear that prostitution chronologically 
considered, was justified by man as a living and per- 
petual sacrifice of woman; (1) To avenge the anger of 
the gods; (2) To preserve the sanctity of the home; (3) 
To satisfy man’s physiologic needs (?) 
1. To Avenge the Anger of the Gods.—Curiously 
enough it would appear that prostitution had its origin 72 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
in the establishment of the monogamic family, achieved 
in the second phase of social evolution in which the 
matriarchate prevailed. At that time it was held by 
man, that “ strict marriage, that is the exclusive appro- 
priation of a woman by one man, was looked upon as an 
abridgment of a natural or religious right; for which 
expiation must be rendered to the goddess whose law is 
violated.” 
As we follow the history of prostitution through the 
ages, we find that the real reason for it has always been 
the same, namely; man’s so-called physiological necessity, 
and so it was practically a corollary to the establishment 
of monogamy. The probability of the truth of this 
assertion is further emphasized by the fact that when in 
ancient Greece monogamy was legalized by the state, 
so also was prostitution. And while the cause has 
always remained the same, man’s justification for prosti- 
tution has varied according to the ethics of the age in 
which he lived. 
2. To Preserve the Sanctity of the Home.—Public 
brothels were introduced at an early date into Greece. 
Solon introduced them as state institutions in Athens, 
which caused a contemporary to sing his praises in the 
following manner: “Solon, be extolled! For thou hast 
brought public women for the safety of the town; for the 
morals of a town filled with strong young men, who but 
for thy wise institutions, would have given themselves 
up to the pursuit of women of the upper classes.” Thus 
did the law of the State recognize as the natural right of 
man an act, which when committed by women, was 
regarded as degraded and criminal. This same Solon 
decreed in this same Athens that “A woman who has 
had intercourse with a lover, must atone for the enorm- 
ity by the loss of her freedom or her fife.” Her husband TO PRESERVE THE SANCTITY OF THE HOME 
73 
might sell her as a slave. And Solon was one of the 
seven wise men of Greece. 
A sumptuous temple was dedicated to the goddess 
Hetserse in Athens in the time of Plato, 400 B.C. At 
this time there were no less than one thousand prostitutes 
in the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth, which was cele- 
brated throughout Greece for its luxury. The hetserse 
were admitted to the assemblies and banquets, while the 
“honest” women of Greece were without exception no- 
where allowed to appear in public. The latter always 
wore a veil on the streets and dressed in the greatest 
simplicity. Their culture was of the lowest order, for 
their instruction was intentionally neglected. The virtu- 
ous woman was compelled to lead a life of almost abso- 
lute seclusion; society in the modern English sense did 
not exist. 
The Greeks considered that the development of hu- 
manity in all of its organs and functions was the highest 
aim in life. Therefore, when Greek legislators were 
called upon to face the problem of prostitution, they 
attempted a solution by dividing women into two dis- 
tinct classes, one of which was represented by the wife, 
whose duty it was above all things to remain faithful to 
her husband, while the other was composed of the het- 
serse. Each class was held to be necessary and to have 
its particular function in the political and social life. 
The same solution of the difficulty has been accepted in 
the modern state of France. 
Demosthenes defined the sexual relations of the Athen- 
ians as follows: “We marry in order to obtain legiti- 
mate children and a faithful warder of the house; we 
keep concubines as servants for our daily attendance; 
but we seek the hetserse for love's delight.” 
The hetserse were divided into many classes, and it 74 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
was only the highest of these, the free-born hetserse, who 
played any important part in the social life of Greece. 
These women rose more and more into prominence as 
the position of the virtuous women fell. They were 
generally renowned for their high intelligence and con- 
versational powers. They used to gather around them 
the highest statesmen and philosophers, and their salons 
might have rivaled in magnificence and culture those of 
the circle which paid court to a Ninon de l’Enclos. In 
such cities as Athens and Gorinth they alone of all the 
women had unrestricted freedom; and of this they 
availed themselves to the fullest extent by the acquisition 
of a large degree of knowledge which, combined with their 
physical beauty, rendered them extraordinarily fascinat- 
ing, even to the highest intellects. Many of them had 
statues raised in their honor. 
The hetserse played a very remarkable part in the 
social life of Greece. There were instances in which 
the hetserse stood to men in the relation analogous to the 
modern wife. Such an instance we find in the case of 
Aspasia and Pericles. Born in Miletus, a city famous as 
one of the strongholds of Ionic culture, Aspasia studied 
philosophy under Thargelia and, attracted by the grow- 
ing fame of Athens, came to that city and set up a school 
of philosophy herself. Her house was frequented by 
the most brilliant and intellectual men of Athens. Soc- 
rates himself was a constant attendant, and it was here 
that she attracted the attention and love of the great 
statesman, Pericles. So strong did this attachment be- 
come that he divorced his wife, and was only prevented 
from actually marrying Aspasia by the Athenian law 
forbidding an Athenian citizen from marrying a foreigner. 
There can be no doubt that she did become his wife in 
all but name. It is said that she instructed him in the PROSTITUTION IN ANCIENT ROME 
75 
art of rhetoric, and that she even composed some of his 
speeches for him. At all events she played a leading 
part in the political life of Athens. 
Prostitution in Ancient Rome.—During the first centu- 
ries of the Roman Empire the Roman woman possessed 
no rights at all. Her position was as abject as that of 
the woman of Greece. It was not until the State had 
grown large and powerful, and the Roman patrician had 
accumulated vast riches, that her position gradually 
changed and she obtained greater social, though not 
greater legal freedom. This occasioned the elder Cato 
to complain that if every father of a family followed the 
example of his ancestors and endeavored to keep his 
wife in the proper state of servility, the sex would cease 
to give so much public annoyance. 
Under the Empire woman acquired the right of her 
inheritance, but she herself remained a minor and could 
dispose of nothing without the consent of her guardian. 
The father was guardian so long as he lived, even though 
the daughter were married. After his death he was 
replaced by the nearest male relative, who had the right 
of transferring his function at will to any third person. 
By Roman law the man was the protector of the woman, 
who had no will of her own. The right of divorce was 
possessed only by the man. With the growing power 
and wealth of Rome, its austere morality disappeared 
and made way for vices and excesses. Celibacy and 
childlessness became more frequent among the ruling 
classes. 
The rise of Christianity to political power produced, 
on the whole, less change of policy regarding prostitu- 
tion than might have been anticipated. The Christian 
rulers had to deal practically as best they might with 
a very mixed, turbid, semi-pagan world. The leading 76 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
fathers of the Church were inclined to tolerate pros- 
titution for the avoidance of greater evils. Even St. 
Augustine, although an ardent advocate of asceticism, 
exclaimed: “If you put down public prostitutes,the State 
will be overturned by the violence of passion.” Chris- 
tian emperors, like their pagan predecessors, were willing 
to derive a tax from prostitution, but the right of prosti- 
tution was no longer so unquestionably recognized as in 
pagan days. From time to time some vigorous ruler 
sought to repress it by vigorous enactments, which how- 
ever always proved futile. 
3. Prostitution as a Requirement for Man’s Physical 
Needs.—It remained for the Middle Ages, which so 
indelibly wrote the blackest pages in all human history, 
to establish this remarkable dogma. Mere physical 
satisfaction was considered such an absolute necessity 
for men that the creditors of imprisoned debtors, were 
compelled to send them sufficient money twice a week 
to pay for the services of prostitutes. Toward the end 
of the Middle Ages the myth was current that an accu- 
mulation of human serum must be dispersed in order to 
prevent a poisoning of the blood. On the strength of 
this belief, even boys of twelve were sent to the brothels. 
It was a characteristic feature of the Middle Ages that 
not even the most contemptible trade could be carried 
on without fixed regulations. Accordingly prostitution 
received a guild organization. In all towns were broth- 
els belonging to the municipality, to the sovereign, or 
even to the church, the proceeds of which flowed into the 
treasury of their proprietors. 
The same communities which officially recognized and 
protected prostitution, however, imposed the severest 
and most cruel penalties on the unfortunate woman who 
had been seduced and forsaken, and the woman who in REGULATION AND ORGANIZATION OP PROSTITUTES 
77 
her despair committed infanticide was, as a rule, pun- 
ished by the most atrocious form of death. 
,From time to time vigorous efforts were made to com- 
bat prostitution. Most notable of all were those of St. 
Louis XI, King of France, who in 1254 ordained that all 
prostitutes should be driven out of France and deprived 
of all their money and goods, even to their mantles and 
gowns, all to no effect. 
The last vigorous attempt to uproot prostitution in 
Europe was that of the Empress Maria Theresa at Vienna 
in the middle of the eighteenth century. Its object was 
indeed not only to suppress prostitution, but fornica- 
tion generally, and the means adopted were fines, im- 
prisonment, whipping and torture. The supposed causes 
of fornication were also severely dealt with; short 
dresses were prohibited, billiard rooms and caffis were 
inspected and no waitresses were allowed. The Chastity 
Commission, under whom these measures were vigor- 
ously carried out, was apparently established in 1751 
and was quietly abolished by the Emperor Joseph II 
in the early years of his reign. 
The Regulation and Organization of Prostitutes.— 
It is especially to Napoleon I that this step was due. It 
is the living expression of his sentiments toward woman; 
oppression of the sex, with contempt for its rights 
and degradation of its individual members as articles 
of pleasure for men and machines for reproduction. 
It was given a semi-official recognition, which enabled 
the authorities to exercise control over it, and by medical 
and police inspection to guard as far as possible against 
the spread of venereal diseases. Medical science has 
long since condemned this system as worse than useless. 
The infectious germs of gonorrhea and syphilis are usu- 
ally met with in the genital organs of man and woman, 78 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
so that every coitus between a healthy and infected indi- 
vidual may infect the former. Hence the danger of the 
spread of infectious diseases increases with the number 
of mutations in sexual intercourse. 
This system consists in the supervision of every woman 
who prostitutes herself. She is given an official form, 
which obliges her to submit to a medical inspection every 
one or two weeks, under penalty of being arrested and 
punished. 
As soon as the State tolerates prostitution and broth- 
els it is obliged to enter into official contracts with 
them; therefore it recognizes them. Moreover the serv- 
ices which it renders them must be paid for. The ex- 
aminations made are very superficial, and the stay in 
the hospital is limited to the short time in which the 
visible sores are cured, when the woman returns to the 
brothel. No real confidence can be placed in these med- 
ical examinations; on the contrary, it gives the male pub- 
lic a feeling of false security. Moreover the medical 
inspections are made too rapidly to be of any practical 
value. While a private prostitute rarely receives more 
than one client in an evening; every prostitute in a 
brothel is obliged to receive as many as present them- 
selves. A girl may therefore have connection with as 
many as twenty or thirty men in the same night. 
The Chief Causes of Prostitution at the Present Day. 
—(1) Economic necessity; (2) biologic predisposition; 
(3) man’s physiologic necessity; (4) civilization value; 
(5) masculine unchastity and the double standard of 
morals. 
1. Economic Necessity.—Investigators frequently as- 
sert that the chief cause of prostitution is poverty, and 
that it is due to the low wages of women or to the sudden 
depression in trade. Prostitutes are mainly derived THE BIOLOGIC FACTOR OF PROSTITUTION 
79 
from the ranks of factory girls, domestic servants, shop 
girls, and waitresses. In some of these occupations it 
is difficult to get work all the year around. We need 
only to consider the miserable wages earned by the 
greater number of working women, upon which it is im- 
possible to exist, the recipients being forced to eke out 
their livelihood by prostitution. Further than this, 
some employers are infamous enough to excuse the 
lowness of the salaries by pointing out this means of 
indemnification. 
Perhaps the great majority of proletarian women 
have become prostitutes to escape the joyless life of the 
working woman, animated by the urgent desire for fine 
clothes, the theater and an existence which appears 
brighter and more desirable than the life of the ordinary 
proletarian who lives simply by hard labor. It is esti- 
mated that from forty to fifty per cent, are recruited 
from the servant class. 
There is another large group of girls falling victims to 
prostitution from the lack of a proper home and the 
conditions of home life, but the great majority of prosti- 
tutes enter their profession as the direct result of eco- 
nomic pressure. It is a fact of common observation that 
where women’s wages rise, prostitution diminishes to a 
proportionate degree, and conversely with a fall of 
women’s wages, not only does there result an increase in 
the number of prostitutes, but, further, as a necessary 
result of the increasing competition, the market price of 
the prostitute’s service falls. 
2. The Biologic Factor of Prostitution.—Lombroso 
has more especially advocated the doctrine that prosti- 
tution is the vicarious equivalent of criminality. In 
this he was developing the results taught by the impor- 
tant study of the Jukes family by Dugale, who found 80 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
that where the brothers committed crime, the sisters 
adopted prostitution. The fines and imprisonments of 
the women of the family were not for violations of the 
rights of property, but mainly for offences against public 
decency. The psychologic as well as the anatomic iden- 
tity of the criminal and born prostitute, Lombroso and 
Ferrero concluded, could not be more complete; both 
are identical with the moral insane and therefore, accord- 
ing to the axiom, equal to each other. There is the 
same lack of moral sense, the same hardness of heart, 
the same precocious taste for evil, the same indifference 
to social infamy, the same volatility, love of idleness, 
and lack of foresight. The same taste for fancied pleas- 
ures, for the orgy and for alcohol, the same or almost the 
same vanity. “ Prostitution is only the feminine side 
of criminality. The prostitute is therefore psycholog- 
ically criminal.” 
It would therefore seem on the whole, so far as the 
evidence goes, that prostitutes are not quite normal 
representatives of the ranks in which they were born. 
3. Man’s Physiologic Necessity.—Science has com- 
pletely and absolutely proven the falsity of that dogma 
of the Middle Ages. Forel says: “It is this modern 
arsenal of prostitution which plays the principal role. 
In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially 
increased, and often directed into unnatural channels, 
but it also leads to the poison and ruin of youth by vene- 
real diseases, to say nothing of alcoholism. 
“Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by arti- 
ficial excitations of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisi- 
tion. It renders difficult the accustomance to marriage, 
fidelity and life-long love for the same woman. The 
degradation of the sexual sentiments of a man who has 
long been accustomed to live with prostitutes is never THE CIVILIZATION VALUE OF PROSTITUTION 
81 
entirely effaced, and generally leaves an indelible im- 
pression on the human brain.” 
Westermarck points out that the more advanced is 
civilization, the greater is the number of illegitimate 
births, and the more widespread is prostitution. In 
Europe the proportion of illegitimate children and of 
prostitutes is nearly double in the towns that it is in the 
country. This shows, he says, the absurdity of regard- 
ing promiscuity as a primitive state. On the contrary, 
it is the rotten fruit of civilization and more especially of 
semi-civilization. Primitive customs are generally chaste 
and it is civilization which corrupts them. In Europe 
prostitution is becoming more frequent while marriage 
is becoming less frequent. It is the latter which con- 
stitutes the primitive and natural state. 
4. The Civilization Value of Prostitution.—Prostitu- 
tion has been considered a buttress to our marriage 
system. That, as we have already seen, was the assump- 
tion of the pagan philosophers of Greece and Rome and 
of the early Christian fathers. That this premise is not 
only wholly false, but that, further, prostitution does 
and always has undermined the very social fabric and 
foundation of the home, has been proven by the cold 
logic of science. Havelock Ellis says: “The attraction 
of the prostitute by no means ceases when men are 
married, for a large number, if not the majority, of those 
who visit prostitutes are married men.” 
Marriage represents the sexual life of one-half of 
the bourgeois world and prostitution represents the 
other. When men for one reason or another remain 
unmarried, they generally resort to prostitution; and 
again, when a man finds no satisfaction in married life, 
it is to prostitution that he resorts. Provision is thus 
made for men celibates as well as for men whose mar- 
riage has been a disappointment. 82 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
It is not merely the general conditions or civiliza- 
tion, but more specifically the conditions of urban life, 
which make the factor insistent. On the one hand, 
urban life, by the stress of competition which it imposes, 
causes a severe, exacting routine of dull work, while at 
the same time it makes men and women more sensitive 
to new impressions, more enamored of excitement and 
change. It multiplies the opportunities for social inter- 
course; it decreases the chances of detection of illegiti- 
mate intercourse; while at the same time it makes mar- 
riage more difficult, for by heightening social ambition 
and the increased cost of living, it postpones the time 
when a home can be created. 
It thus results from the social conditions of to-day that, 
among the men of the possessing classes a considerable 
number renounce monogamic marriage altogether. 
Others if they marry do not live monogamically, and 
finally, in the best of cases, they do not become monoga- 
mists until they have had ten years or more of extra- 
conjugal life. It results that there are a large number 
of men in the full vigor of sexual maturity who believe 
themselves to need opportunities for extrasexual inter- 
course. 
5. Masculine Unchastity and the Double Standard 
of Morals.—While, as we have already seen, there are 
many auxiliary causes of prostitution, the whole history of 
this infamous institution, from the time it was legalized 
in ancient Greece, side by side with or rather because erf 
the institution of monogamous marriage, to the present 
day, shows that it was based on the polygamous pro- 
clivities and practices of the male, which lead him to 
seek the gratification of his sexual instinct whenever and 
wherever he could find a receptive partner. 
Undoubtedly the chief contributory cause is that MASCULINE UNCHASTITY 
83 
false social code of morals, diametrically opposed to the 
moral code taught by Christianity, which readily condones 
in the man what it unsparingly condemns in the woman, 
extenuating or accepting as excusable in the one what it 
decrees to be unpardonable in the other. 
It is by no means intended to say that all men are bad 
and that all women are good; nothing could be more 
false than such a statement. Nor is the sexual appetite 
in woman any such negligible quantity as it is so often 
wrongly represented to be. Through centuries of time, 
custom and tradition, and the social ostracism of the 
woman who forgets her obligations to the standards of 
good society the average woman has her sexual impulses 
under fairly good control. As a rule the woman owes 
her fall to the aggressive solicitations or seductions of 
the man, and very often she yields because of a senti- 
mental feeling from the man’s statement: “You are the 
only one who can save me from perdition.” After the 
first step the descent to a life of shame is easy and almost 
inevitable. 
The influence of this false code of morality is reflected 
in the conventional standards of society, which freely 
opens its doors to the chartered libertine and bars and 
bolts them against his victim. Women are the most 
pitiless and unrelenting in their ostracism of those of 
their sex who have crossed the Rubicon of virtue. The 
virtuous matron who would shield her daughter from all 
contact with a fallen sister as contaminating, with the 
most indulgent charity smiles upon the very man who 
may have been the author of her ruin. She may indeed 
receive him as a suitor for her daughter if he is otherwise 
eligible. 
The father of a family may welcome to the society of 
his wife and daughters men whom he knows lead dis- 84 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
sipated lives and frequent the company of immoral women. 
The father may even pay a bonus in the shape of a 
large dowry to pay the debts the man has incurred in 
keeping a mistress; too often the daughter is compelled 
to share in the discharge of the debt he has contracted 
to disease. 
As the result of this double standard of morality, 
society separates its women, as did the Greeks of old, 
into two classes. From the one it demands chastity and 
the other is set apart for the gratification of the sexual 
caprices of men. The great gulf fixed between virtuous 
and immoral women is bridged over by social convention 
which permits men to pass and repass freely, but the 
prostitute is not without her revenge, for the man carries 
to his chaste wife the germs of the deadly venereal dis- 
eases. 
The Venereal Diseases.—These so-called social diseases 
are extended through society largely through prostitution. 
They are exceedingly communicable and insidious, and 
men and women who lead impure lives sexually are 
certain to be infected with them sooner or later. It is 
difficult to get statistics that are reliable, but even 
conservative physicians have estimated that fully one- 
eighth of the diseases which afflict humanity come from 
unclean sexual life. 
Gonorrhea.—Syphilis is the most obviously appalling 
of the venereal diseases, yet it is less frequent and in some 
respects less dangerously insidious than the other chief 
venereal disease, gonorrhea. The inflammatory results 
of gonorrhea are indubitably a most potent cause of 
sterility in both sexes. Some authorities have stated that 
not only eighty per cent, of the deaths from inflammatory 
diseases of the pelvic organs and the majority of the 
cases of chronic invalidism in women, but the great INFLUENCE OF PREGNANCY 
85 
majority of involuntary sterile marriages, are due to 
gonorrhea. Very much of the blindness of infants is 
due to the same cause. 
Risks to the Life and Health of Woman.—Gonorrhea 
has for its sole etiologic factor the gonococcus. In 
woman the source of this contagion in the vast majority 
of cases is a latent or chronic gonorrhea in the man. In 
man the infection is almost always superficial, while in 
women the infection is more often primarily located in 
the deep parts, which is explained by the physiology of 
coitus, the germs being deposited at the uterine neck at 
the moment of ejaculation. 
In the woman the infection ordinarily remains localized 
in its primary seat without extension to the neighboring 
points, until some exciting influence such as sexual excess, 
the congestion due to menstruation, or pregnancy, deter- 
mines an extension of the process. The auto-infection 
may radiate in both directions, but most frequently it 
takes an ascending course. The gonococci, invading 
the lining membrane of the uterus, pass upward through 
the continuity of tissues to the tubes, ovaries, and peri- 
toneum. In the majority of cases the infection is estab- 
lished insidiously without acute symptoms, so that as a 
rule gonorrhea in woman is not seen until it has become 
a chronic affection. 
Influence of Pregnancy.—Pregnancy, which may result 
in abortion or in accouchement at full term, constitutes the 
greatest conceivable danger to women with gonorrhea of 
the neck of the uterus. The condition to which many 
women ardently aspire in the fulfilment of their hopes of 
maternity, thus becomes the instrument of their destruc- 
tion. The hour to which the woman looks forward as 
the termination of her pains and confinement is but the 
beginning of a long period of suffering, grave danger, 
and not infrequently death. 86 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
When a woman infected with gonorrhea becomes 
pregnant, the disease which has hitherto remained passive 
is apt to undergo a more or less marked virulent modifi- 
cation. Abortion and accouchement create the oppor- 
tunity which permits this infection, now revived into 
virulence, to pass through the tubes, ovaries, and perito- 
neum, determining the grave consequences which follow 
profound infection. 
In the vast majority of cases pregnancy is the pivot 
upon which hangs the destiny of the woman, so far as 
the extension of the infection is concerned, because the 
process of parturition communicates the pathologic im- 
pulse. Not only are the gonococci multiplied in num- 
bers and exalted in virulence, the way being opened for 
ascending infection, but the soil is prepared in the process 
of parturition by the anatomic changes which take place 
in the uterus. After accouchement the tissues of the 
genital organs are in a peculiar state of imbibition, 
infiltration, and succulence; the uterine orifices are 
enlarged, the mucous membrane is in part desquamated, 
and the glandular culdesacs persist, offering to the gono- 
coccus a favorable soil for its proliferation. 
Syphilis is a contagious, constitutional disease due to 
a germ, the Spirocheta pallida, which was discovered in 
1905. The origin of the disease is uncertain. That it 
was unknown to Europe until the return of Columbus and 
his sailors, who brought it back with them from the island 
of Haiti, causing a blasting epidemic to spread over and 
devastate Spain, Italy, France, and England, is highly 
improbable. Invading armies, always a frightful means 
of spreading disease, carried syphilis with them every- 
where, leaving it to rage unchecked among the natives 
when the armies went down to destruction or defeat. 
It has been estimated that at the present time there is THE PREVALENCE OF SYPHILIS 
87 
not a single race or people upon whom syphilis has not 
set its mark. 
The Prevalence of Syphilis.—According to the figures 
given by Stokes1 it is believed to be five times as fre- 
quent in men as women. “Blaschko, while apparently 
extreme, cannot be too lightly dismissed when he places 
the percentage of syphilis in clerks and merchants in 
Berlin between the ages of 18 and 28, as 45 per cent. 
Pinkus estimated that one man in every five in Germany 
had syphilis. 
“Recently published Statistics by Vedder, covering 
the condition of recruits drawn to the army in the United 
States from the city and country, estimated 20 per cent, 
to be syphilitic who apply for enlistment and 5 per cent, 
of the young men who enter our colleges and West Point. 
The percentage of syphilis in any class grouped by age 
increases with the age, since so few of the cases are cured 
and the number is simply added to up to a certain point, 
as time elapses. Even the army, representing in many 
ways a filtered group of men passing vigorous examina- 
tions and protected by an elaborate system of prevention, 
which probably keeps the infection rate far below that of 
the civil population, is conceded by careful observers 
(Nichols and others) to show from 5 per cent, to 7 per 
cent, syphilitics. 
“Attention should be called to the difference in a 
population and the percentage of venereal diseases, in- 
cluding gonorrhea, which increases the percentage enor- 
mously, since it is estimated that as high as 70 per cent, 
of adult males have gonorrhea at least once in a life- 
time. On the whole it is conservative to estimate that 
one man in every ten has syphilis. 
“Taking men and women together on the basis of one 
* The Third Great Plague: John H. Stokes, M. D. 88 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
of the latter to five of the former and excluding those 
under 15 years of age from consideration, this country 
with a population of 91,972,266 (figures based on 1910 
census) should be able to muster a very considerable 
army of 3,842,526.” 
The Blood Test for Syphilis.—The so-called Wasser- 
mann reaction was discovered in 1904. When the Was- 
sermann test shows the presence of syphilis, it is called 
“positive;” before the infection has spread this test is 
negative. In about 20 to 30 per cent, of syphilitic indi- 
viduals the test returns to the negative after the sec- 
ondary stage is passed. This does not necessarily 
mean that the person is cured. If we wish to be sure of 
cure the treatment must be continued not only till the 
test becomes negative, but until it stays negative. This 
usually means repeated tests over a period of several 
years in connection with a course of treatment. 
The discovery of salvarsan (“606”), which is a med- 
ical compound used in the modern treatment of syphilis, 
was announced to the world by its brilliant discoverer 
Paul Ehrlich, in 1910. 
Symptomatic or Incomplete Cures.—Trifling relapses, 
highly contagious sores in the mouth or elsewhere are, 
in the first five years of an imperfectly treated infection, 
a very terrible danger to which thousands fall victim 
every year. Dangerous syphilis is improperly treated 
syphilis, and at any moment it may come into our draw- 
ing rooms, in the swimming pool, across the counter of 
the store, or by way of the milkman, the waitress, or 
the barber. It confronts thousands of wives and chil- 
dren in the person of the half-cured father, infected nurse 
maids and others intimately associated with their per- 
sonal lives. These dangers can be effectively removed 
from our midst by the substitution of radical for symp- EFFECTS OF SYPHILIS ON CHILD-BEARING WOMEN 
89 
tomatic methods. A person under vigorous treatment, 
with a view to a radical cure, is under the constant ob- 
servation of his physician, and is nearly harmless. In 
a reasonable time he can be made fit even for marriage. 
In the fully developed infection in the second stage, 
three years is the minimum, four years the average, and 
five years’ treatment and observation are not uncommon. 
Syphilis and Marriage.—As the product of experience 
it is a safe general rule to consider a person with un- 
treated syphilis as decidedly infectious for the first three 
years of his disease and somewhat so for two years longer. 
Keyes on the basis of his private records made the estimate 
of the risk of infecting the wife. The chances taken 
by a syphilitic husband who used no special pre- 
cautions to prevent the infection of his wife were twelve 
to one in the first year in favor of an infection; five to 
two in the second year; and one to four in the third year, 
being negligible after the fourth year. 
Hoffman says no treatment can guarantee the non- 
inf ectiousness of a syphilitic in the first five years of his 
disease. Time is thus an essential element in pronounc- 
ing a person non-infectious and hence in deciding his 
future for marriage. 
The Effects of Syphilis on Child-bearing Women.— 
Unlike gonorrhea, which as we saw was apt to make 
women sterile, syphilis does not in most cases reduce the 
power to conceive. A woman with active syphilis may 
conceive with great frequency, but she cannot carry her 
children through to normal birth. In other words she 
usually has a series of miscarriages or abortions, in which 
she loses the child any time from the first to the eighth 
month. The series of abortions may be followed by 
still-births or syphilitic children. 
More than 75 per cent, of children born with syphilis 90 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
die within the first year of life and more than 95 per cent, 
of the children when untreated die. The moral effect 
of the loss or crippling of the new-born jars the character 
and morale of the parents to its very foundation. The toll 
of syphilis in misery and desolation, heart-breaks, broken 
bonds, and defeated ideals can never be estimated. 
Modes of Transmission of Syphilis.—Kisses, caresses, 
and sexual relations make up the origin of an overwhelm- 
ing proportion of syphilitic infections. It is through 
these sources of contact that syphilis invades the family 
especially. Many a syphilitic who realizes that he should 
not have sexual relations with his wife while he has the 
disease in an active form will thoughtlessly infect her 
or his children in kissing. Kissing games are potentially 
dangerous. It is no great rarity to find that syphilis is 
dated from a sore on the lip that developed while a young 
couple were engaged. Certainly the indiscriminate kiss- 
ing of strangers is as dangerous an indulgence as can be 
imagined. The combination of a cold sore or crack 
on the lips of the one and a mucous patch inside the lips 
of the other brings disaster very near. Children are 
sometimes the victims of this sort of thing, and it should 
be resented as an insult for a stranger to attempt to 
kiss another’s child, no matter on what part of the body. 
The sexual transmission of syphilis is beyond doubt 
the most important factor in the spread of this disease. 
Here all of the essential conditions for giving the germs a 
foothold in the body are satisfied. It is remarkable 
that trifling lesions can harbor them by the millions and 
how completely, especially in the case of women, syphilitic 
persons may be ignorant of the dangers to others. The 
sexual transmission of syphilis is a physiologic fact. A 
chancre acquired from a drinking cup or a pipe may be 
transmitted to husband or wife through a mucous patch SYPHILIS AND ENGAGEMENTS TO MARRY 
91 
on the genitals and to the children through an infected 
mother, without the question of innocence or guilt ever 
having arisen. Fournier believes that 20 per cent, of 
syphilis in women is contracted in marriage, but accord- 
ing to Stokes 50 per cent, seems nearer the truth. 
The Time Principle Treatment and the Five-year 
Rule.—The man who has conformed to the best practice 
in both particulars may usually marry and have healthy 
children. The woman under the same circumstances 
need not fear that the risk of having offspring injured 
by her disease is any greater than the risks that they 
will be injured in any of the ways that occur in bringing 
a child into the world. 
Syphilis and Engagements to Marry.—If a five-year 
rule is to be applied to marriage a similar rule should 
cover the engagement of a syphilitic to marry and it 
should cover the sexual relation of married people who 
acquire syphilis. It is not too much to expect that an 
engaged person who acquires syphilis shall break his 
engagement and not renew it or contract another until, 
by the five-year rule, he would be able to marry with 
safety. 
Engagements nowadays may well be thought of as the 
equivalent of marriage in regard to the question of syphi- 
lis. “It is not infrequent” says Stokes, “that a man 
infected elsewhere with syphilis, unwittingly infects his 
fiancee through a subsequent kiss.” The publication 
of the banns before marriage is worth while, and an un- 
mistakable testimony as to character and health of the 
parties concerned might be exchanged before a wooing 
is permitted to assume the character of an engagement. 
A medical examination, including a Wassermann test 
by an expert on syphilis, should be demanded. There 
should be a law to enforce this. 92 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The problem of the relation of syphilis and marriage 
is simply an aspect of the transmission of an infectious 
disease. The infection of one party to the marriage by 
the other and the transmission of that infection to the 
children summarizes the social problem. Through the 
intimate contacts of family life syphilis attacks the future 
of the human race. 
The problem of syphilis in regard to marriage is a very 
serious one. It will never be completely met except by 
a vigorous public program against syphilis as a sanitary 
problem. 
Syphilis and Prostitution.—The prevalence of syphilis 
among women who receive promiscuous attention is 
enormous. It is practically an axiom that no woman who 
is lax in her relations with men is safe from the danger 
of the disease, or can long remain free from it. The 
type of man who is a “light o’ love” does not go far before 
he meets the partner who has been infected by someone 
else. Becoming infected himself, he passes his infection 
on to his next partner. The acquiring of syphilis from 
loose men or women is usually thought of as an affair of 
genital contact. Yet it is notable that extragenital 
chancres are not uncommon results of liberties taken 
with light women which do not go to the extent of the 
sexual relation. 
Of actual prostitutes, from 80 per cent, to 85 per cent, 
at some time during their career acquire syphilis. The 
recently published investigation of the Baltimore Vice 
Commission showed that 63 per cent, of 289 prostitutes 
examined by the Wassermann test had syphilis, and of 
266 examined, 92.1 per cent, had gonorrhea. Nearly 
half of the girls examined had both diseases. About 
half the number are apt to have an active evidence of 
the disease. SYPHILIS AND DIVORCE 
93 
Thirty per cent, examined by Papee in Lemberg were 
in the most dangerous period, the first to the third year 
of the disease. Three-fourths of these cases were in 
women under 25 years of age, in the most attractive pe- 
riod of their lives. Averaging a large number of European 
cities, it was found that not more than 40 per cent, of 
prostitutes were even free from the outward sign of 
syphilis, to say nothing of the laboratory tests. It is 
more than evident that prostitution is admirably fitted 
to play the leading role in the dissemination of this dis- 
ease. The young and attractive prostitute is the one 
that draws the largest number, with the almost certain 
prospect of infecting them. 
Syphilis and Divorce.—The influential motive which 
prompts many men and most women to enter into matri- 
mony is the pursuit of happiness. They expect to realize 
the fruition of their hopes in the intimate companion- 
ship and association of marriage, which this relation 
permits. Syphilis introduced into marriage often strikes 
the death knell of such hopes; it is destructive of the mu- 
tual love and esteem which should form the basis of mar- 
riage. Syphilis distils a double venom; it poisons not 
only the health but the happiness of the household. It 
carries in its train not only physical woes but social 
misery, often divorce. 
What husband can hope to retain the esteem and love 
of the wife whom he has dishonored with a shameful 
disease, of the mother in whose child he has infused the 
foul taint of the prostitute, which dies before being born 
or comes into the world an object of disgust and horror? 
If he be a man of consciousness and sensibility, what 
remorse must he suffer from his sense of guilty responsi- 
bility for the ruin he has wrought! 
The husband who has sent his young wife to a prema- 94 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
ture grave because he had not sufficient self-control to 
remain faithful to her in marriage and infected her with 
an acute gonorrhea during pregnancy, is struck dumb 
with horror as he looks on her in her casket. Another, 
whose wife was driven insane by the knowledge that she 
had acquired syphilis from her husband, prated of suicide. 
Cui bono? The tragedy of life is that we cannot go back 
and undo our mistakes and deadly sins. 
We may now inquire what redress the law affords a 
woman who has been infected by her husband in the 
marriage relation. 
The communication of syphilis in married life by one 
partner to the other, or even the exposure of one partner 
to the contagion of disease may affect: (1) contracts to 
marry; (2) annulment of the union, and (3) divorce. 
In the first place it may be observed that the mere 
existence of venereal disease in one partner, or even its 
communication to the other, does not per se constitute a 
sufficient ground for divorce. There must be certain 
concurrent conditions of an aggravating character pres- 
ently to be considered. 
While syphilis is not specifically mentioned as a cause 
for divorce on the statute books, actions for divorce may 
be instituted on the grounds of “ cruelty,” as it is gener- 
ally held by the American and English courts that the 
communication of this disease constitutes cruelty, which 
is a statutory ground for divorce. The French courts 
provide that one partner may demand divorce from the 
other on the ground of “grave injury,” and since the 
communication of syphilis is held to be a grave injury, 
proceedings for divorce are usually instituted upon this 
ground or upon the ground of infidelity. 
In all courts of law special stress is laid upon the knowl- 
edge and wilful communication of this disease. The PUBLIC EFFORTS AGAINST VENEREAL DISEASES 
95 
defendant must know that he had an infectious disease 
and that it was attended with the danger of infecting 
the other party. In other words the existing laws do 
not afford sufficient protection. 
Public Efforts Against the Venereal Diseases.—A 
campaign against tuberculosis was the starting point to 
control tuberculosis and in the same way a campaign 
has been at the bottom of the movement against venereal 
diseases which is now making headway at a pace that 
generations of talking and thinking in peaceful times 
could not have brought about. This country, however, 
is at the present time probably in the rear of any other 
great nations in the world in its efforts to control venereal 
diseases as a national problem. The way has been paved 
by the epoch-making movements of the Scandinavian 
countries and by the studies of the Sydenham Royal 
Commission, on whose findings the British Government 
has launched the greatest single movement against 
syphilis and gonorrhea that has ever been undertaken. CHAPTER V 
ALCOHOL AND RACE DEGENERACY 
Alcohol in History: (1) The Revolutionary War and the 
Ethical Temperance Movement; War and the Temper- 
ance Movement in Great Britain; (2) the European 
Scientific-Hygienic Movement of 1873; Alcohol, Psy- 
chic Reaction and Efficiency; Alcohol and Race Degen- 
eracy; Alcohol and Heredity; (3) the European Social 
Reform Movement; Alcohol and Moral Degeneration; 
Alcohol and Prostitution; (4) Alcohol and the Great War; 
the United States and Prohibition. 
The reason for craving alcohol is that it is an anesthetic, even in 
moderate quantities. It obliterates part of the field of conscious- 
ness and abolishes collateral trains of thought. 
A far safer and more permanently useful procedure to the in- 
dividual would be so to live by his reason and his conscience that 
he need not stupefy them in order to forget the life that he is 
shaping day by day. And the lesson to the community is so to 
brighten the lives of the poor with normal, wholesome pleasures 
and recreations as to lift them from the burdens of poverty and 
social injustice, so that they will not so much need to plunge into 
the grateful oblivion of the wine cup.—William James. 
The tenacious hold of the alcohol trade is based on two funda- 
mental principles: (1) That the use of alcohol creates a craving 
for it; (2) and even more important is that the sale of liquors is 
immensely profitable to the manufacturers and dealers. 
Alcohol in History.—From time immemorial man has 
used some powerful narcotic to increase the joys of life 
or deaden the edge of sorrow. The discovery of alcohol 
is believed to have been coincident with the dawn of the 
agricultural period. The hereditary effects of alcohol ETHICAL TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT 
97 
have been recognized from the earliest times. Plato 
forbade newly wedded couples to drink, knowing that 
drunkenness begets drunkards. Both Buddha and Ma- 
homet understood the degenerating influence of alcohol 
and interdicted its use through religious dogmas. 
Spirituous liquors were unknown to the armies of 
ancient Rome. The canteen of every soldier was filled 
with nothing but vinegar, which was mixed with water, 
and it was by this means that the Roman soldiers were 
enabled to sustain their tedious marches through scorch- 
ing sands without being subject to sickness. 
Six centuries ago the only alcoholics were malt liquors, 
wine, cider, and a little metheglin. About that time a 
species of spirits distilled from wine, since known as 
brandy, which up to that time had only been employed 
by alchemists as a solvent, passed into the Materia 
Medica, under the name of aqua vitce. Soon after this 
whiskey was manufactured, and still later gin. About 
three centuries ago whiskey and brandy passed into 
dietetic use as beverages in common life. Two hundred 
and forty years ago the great evil was powerfully en- 
forced by the introduction of West India rum. Under 
these most powerful of all intoxicants, the drinking 
habits of the Anglo-Saxon people took on darker hues, and 
the debasement became deeper and more fatal. 
1. The Revolutionary War and the Ethical Tem- 
perance Movement.—To those who have complacently 
regarded the anti-alcohol movement as a purely ethical 
one, the fact will come as a startling surprise that in its 
inception as well as in its culmination, it was undertaken 
as a conservative measure to increase individual physical 
efficiency at a time when the resources of the Nation had 
been strained to the utmost by the havoc of war. It was 
in short a conservative measure to strengthen the sinews 98 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
of a young, poor, and struggling country, so that it 
might be enabled in the shortest possible time to repair 
the terrible devastations wrought by the war. The first 
act of the temperance movement was staged in the feeble 
little democracy that lay on the western coast of the 
Atlantic ocean, the United States of America! 
It is to the lasting credit of the medical profession, at 
a time when medical science was in a crude and empiric 
stage of development, that this great movement was 
launched by one of its illustrious members, Dr. Benja- 
min Rush, of Philadelphia, a physician of international 
reputation, an ardent patriot, and a leading statesman. 
In this country, after the French and Indian wars, the 
use of distilled spirits became more common, and during 
the Revolutionary war distilled liquors were freely fur- 
nished to the soldiers by vote of the Continental Con- 
gress under the fatal delusion that it was necessary in 
order to endure the hardships and dangers to which they 
were exposed in that severe struggle. After the war 
they carried out with them into all parts of the country 
the liquor habit they had then formed. During the 
next forty years intemperance in the United States 
attained its most frightful proportions. 
During the period of the war Dr. Rush had written a 
pamphlet in which he emphatically declared that the use 
of rum undermined the system and laid the foundation 
for most of the diseases which occurred in military hos- 
pitals, further stating that the abstraction of rum from 
our soldiers would contribute greatly to promote disci- 
pline and a faithful discharge of duty among them. This 
warning passed unheeded. 
The first important publication on the subject came 
also from the pen of Dr. Rush in 1785: “ An Inquiry into 
the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Mind TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN 
99 
and Body.” This treatise was largely instrumental in 
awakening public attention ‘to the subject and was the 
beginning of the educational movement on temperance. 
One of the early results was the organization in 1826 in 
Boston of “The American Society for the Promotion of 
Temperance.” In this inceptive period the advocates 
of temperance had no conception of total abstinence 
from all alcoholic liquors; they did not go beyond the 
moderate use of distilled liquors, putting no restrictions 
whatever on the use of fermented liquors. 
The next national temperance movement was that of 
the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, organized in 
Cincinnatti in 1874. This was the anti-saloon movement; 
but after some years of work along these lines, these 
women wisely decided that a man’s habits became so 
strongly fastened on him in his early youth and manhood 
that any real reform must be based on an educational 
drive in childhood. So the subject of the pernicious 
effects of alcohol on the human body was introduced into 
the schools. 
At the centennial conference of 1885 National Pro- 
hibition was urged on the grounds that the use of alco- 
holic beverages does greater injury to the individual and to 
society than any other single cause, even pestilence itself. 
It was at that time stated that the loss to the nation in 
deaths due to alcohol, and the wreckage of human life 
due to the same cause since the Civil war, was greater 
than the annual loss during the years of that war, the 
number of drink victims being put at 60,000 yearly. 
War and the Temperance Movement in Great Britain. 
—As had been the case in the United States, it was the 
combined result of the efforts of the medical profession 
and the observation of the deteriorating effects of alco- 
hol on the troops in time of war that concentrated the 100 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
attention of the British government on the regulation of 
the alcohol traffic. 
In 1825 the Royal College of Physicians sent to the 
House of Commons a collective expression of the medical 
profession against the use of intoxicating liquors, and 
at the close of the eighteenth century scientific men 
attacked the use of intoxicating liquors as producing 
the prevailing vices and evils of their times. 
But it was the Boer war that really opened the eyes of 
statesmen on the subject. During this war it was found 
that the average Englishman did not measure up to the 
standards of recruiting, and that the average soldier in 
the field manifested a low plane of vitality and endurance. 
Parliament, alarmed at the disastrous consequences, 
instituted an investigation. The Commission appointed 
brought in a finding that alcoholic poisoning was the 
great cause of national degeneracy. The investigations 
of this Commission have been supplemented by those of 
scientific bodies and individual scientists, all arriving 
at the same conclusion. 
2. The European Scientific Hygienic Movement of 
1873.—The ethical movement had been to a certain 
extent palliative, but it could never have removed the 
drink evil from the nations of the world, nor prevented 
the degeneration of the human race through this insidious 
poison. Ethics is the handmaiden which ministers to- 
ward racial progress, but science is the master which 
holds in its hands the destinies of nations and of the race. 
This great scientific movement, whose foundations 
were so well laid in the German universities, beginning 
with the discoveries of Kraepelin in 1873, which were later 
taken up by the European Anti-alcohol Congresses, has 
revolutionized the attitude of the great nations com- 
posing the Entente Alliance on the use of alcoholic ALCOHOL, PSYCHIC REACTION, AND EFFICIENCY 
101 
beverages. The facts then proved by science placed 
beyond cavil the necessity of absolute prohibition in 
order to secure the highest efficiency of the individual 
and of the nation. It opened up a new era in the 
history of the progress and evolution of the human race, 
whose lasting effects will go far toward neutralizing the 
awful decimation caused by the Great War. 
Alcohol, Psychic Reaction, and Efficiency.—Prof. 
Kraepelin undertook the investigation of the influence of 
various drugs on psychic reaction. When he came to alco- 
hol, he tells us he hoped to discover beneficial reactions 
which might counterbalance the obviously injurious ones. 
Before these experiments Kraepelin shared the popular 
belief that a small quantity of alcohol, one or two tea- 
spoonfuls, had an accelerating effect on the activity of 
the mind, enabling one to perform test operations, such 
as adding, subtracting, and learning figures more rapidly. 
When he came to measure the time with his instruments, 
the exact period and the time occupied, he found to his 
astonishment that he had accomplished the mental 
operations not more but less quickly than before, thereby 
showing that alcohol has a primary deceptive influence 
on the mind* interfering with the power of forming cor- 
rect judgments. 
In all of the various experiments increasing the dose 
on a graduated scale from 30 to 60 grams gave progress- 
ively unfavorable results. Further tests in adding, 
memorizing, reading of print, and tests of strength with 
the dynamometer all showed, after taking from 20 to 30 
grains of alcohol, a lowered capacity. Thus it was 
proven that alcohol lengthens the time required to per- 
form complex mental processes. These experiments, 
reported in 1892, had to do with the influence of alcohol 
within two hours after taking. 102 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Equally striking were the tables made to illustrate 
the qualitative influence of alcohol on psychic reaction. 
Fuerer’s experiments indicated that an intoxication 
too slight to cause observable symptoms, lowered the 
capacity to memorize and to correlate the association of 
ideas, as late as the third day after the alcohol was taken. 
Dr. Fuerer emphasized the enormous quantity of work 
values which go to waste as the result of the ordinary 
use of alcoholic drinks. 
It was next proved that there was a certain sequence 
in the poisoning action of alcohol; first the judgment is 
affected; then coordination, and finally the reflexes. 
Science has shown that alcohol, even in moderate 
quantities, causes disturbance in the brain’s action and 
paralyzes the critical capacity, power of will, the ethical 
and esthetic senses, and lowers self-control, and that the 
continued use of alcohol lowers the body’s resistance to 
all kinds of disease, especially the infections, and shortens 
life. 
Alcohol and Race Degeneracy.—The greatest danger, 
however, in the regular use of alcohol is the degeneration 
of the race. The progeny of the regular drinker inherit 
a generally inferior physique, especially a weakened 
nervous system. This danger has been increased more 
recently by the fact that women have fallen under the 
influence of the general drinking customs. Since the 
mothers of the coming generation have been attacked 
by this chronic poisoning, degeneration must proceed at 
a considerably quickened pace. 
Dr. Ploetz, a pioneer worker in the field of race hygi- 
ene, says: “Many who imagine themselves in the cate- 
gory of the wholly moderate, must actually be placed in 
a lower category; they are, without realizing it, producing 
slightly degenerate children. There is a lowering of the ALCOHOL AND HEREDITY 
103 
reserve forces and a breaking down of the power of re- 
generation.” Furthermore a great number of those in 
this class of so-called moderate drinkers can so depress 
the number of variable variants that no regeneration or 
elimination can restore the level capacity of the race as a 
whole. As it has taken generations to develop the 
standard capacity, even the slightest diminution of race 
capital must be attacked with the greatest vigor, for 
these work more harm to the race than even drunkards, 
since the elimination through sterility is much less. 
Alcohol is not only a personal, but a race poison; the 
holy stream of life is muddled by it. 
Alcohol and Heredity.—Drunkenness is not hereditary. 
You cannot transmit vice, but a certain diathesis can 
be transmitted; a certain predisposition and environment 
do the rest. What you do transmit is a certain nervous 
organization in which your particular vices most readily 
take root; whether that potentiality be developed or 
checked is within the will of your child. 
The London Lancet says: “Alcoholic parents are liable 
to have children who are degenerate, weak in body, and 
feeble in mind, with a tendency to become paupers, 
criminals, epileptics, and drunkards.” They inherit a 
tendency toward vice, though the impulse may not be 
especially toward the drunken form. In this weakening 
and degrading of the race the alcoholic mother bears a 
heavier responsibility than her mate. 
Science now contends that many an alcohol-cursed 
career had its foundation in the nursing stage, for the 
babe at the most impressionable period of its life im- 
bibes alcohol from its mother’s breast. It has been 
repeatedly proved that alcohol is present in the milk 
when the mother has taken spirituous beverages in excess. 
Breast-fed infants nursed by mothers who use alcohol 104 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
are more liable to have convulsions and are more restless 
and irritable than the infants of non-drinking mothers. 
Further, the inability of many mothers to nurse their 
children is one of the hereditary results of alcoholism. 
The germ cells of alcoholic parents are defective and 
cannot evolve a healthy body. This is given as the 
reason for so large a percentage of functional and organic 
diseases among the children of drinking parents. The 
number of still-births and the mortality is also very 
much greater among the children of alcoholic parents. 
It has also been proved that these children, particularly 
those of drinking mothers, are struck about the period of 
adolescence with a sudden abatement of their mental 
faculties. They seem normal enough until about the 
age of twelve or fourteen, when they are suddenly taken 
without any apparent reason with a mental inertia or 
apathy and with an insensibility or indifference to mo- 
rality. Many of them become permanent mental defect- 
ives. It has been suggested that many of our moron 
women, whom the Binet test prove to have only the 
mental capacity of twelve- or thirteen-year-old girls, 
and from whose ranks prostitutes are largely recruited, 
are thus cursed because of alcoholic parentage. This 
statement also applies to our gunmen and gangsters, 
who show similar traits of mental decadence and moron 
incapacity. 
Lastly, statistics have shown that a very large amount 
of sterility is, in a great degree, due to alcohol; that is, 
with an increased consumption of alcohol there has been 
a diminution of the birth-rate. In the United States, 
in the year 1914, the birth-rate had fallen 11.4 per cent. 
If one considers the possibility of the prevention of 
congenital defects due to the use of alcohol by the par- 
ents, and, furthermore, sterility due to the same cause, THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL REFORM MOVEMENT 
105 
the removal of the cause is certainly of prime importance 
to the race and to the nation. 
3. The European Social Reform Movement.—This 
was the natural result of the scientific-hygienic character 
of its Anti-alcohol Congresses. It is no longer to urge 
men to abandon a vice; one has but to show them the 
advantages to the individual and to the race which 
modern hygiene associates with an abstinent life. The 
aim is to convince the worker of the immense heighten- 
ing of personal effectiveness and class resources which 
would follow the general abandonment of the use of 
alcohol. 
The demand to-day is for men of energy and strong 
wills. The modern man must determine his own course, 
must control himself, and assist in the systematic trans- 
formation of our complicated social life. Courage and 
initiative are the watchwords of the reform-hungry 
present. Self-determination and self-control are the 
great demands of modern ethics; and by these ethics 
alcohol is to be judged and condemned; for it weakens, 
superficializes and deteriorates the power of appre- 
hension, undermines the capacity for thinking, en- 
dangers the activities of fancy, and weakens the will 
and power of accountability. 
In answer to the frequent argument raised that prohi- 
bition is an intrusion of personal liberty, social economists 
contend that a certain restriction of individual freedom 
must be made in the interest of society, as in the case of 
Sunday rest, workmen’s protective laws, etc. The de- 
generacy among the children of drinkers makes drinking 
a very much broader question than one of individual 
rights. 
Every kind of alcoholic beverage has its own particular 
method of acting on the nervous system and the brain. 106 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The most sinister thing about beer is its apparent harm- 
lessness. Contrary to the generally accepted belief, 
beer is proportionately more noxious than are wines 
and liquors; for in addition to the small glass of alcohol 
in each pint of beer, it also contains a large and varying 
percentage of lupulin, the active principle of hops. 
The alkaloids too have a stupefying action on the nerves. 
In addressing the Swedish Parliament in 1910, Prof. 
Thyr6n said: “As to the economic side of the question: 
if any given reform calculated to make the great body 
of social units not merely more thrifty but physically 
more vigorous, and so in every respect more valuable 
economically, to say nothing of the outlays in hospitals, 
asylums, and prisons, that reform cannot, in the long run, 
be held back on fiscal grounds.” 
Alcohol and Moral Degeneration.—It has been found 
that one-half of the drunkards contract the habit before 
they are twenty-one years of age and about one-third of 
them before they are sixteen. 
Alcohol attacks the evolution of the race in the moral 
sphere of character, and this is the first sign of chronic 
alcoholism. Every drunkard is a liar and knows that he 
is, and he has no faith in any man. Always there is the 
arrogant glorification of self and the sneering cynicism of 
others. He cannot see above his own level. Social 
evil is so kneaded into the alcoholic evil that they cannot 
be dissociated. Drink and unchastity are inseparable 
twins. 
This loss of character is even a more serious thing for a 
nation than the economic loss, and must be reckoned as 
about 50 per cent., with an economic loss of 21 per cent. 
The full significance of this statement lies in the fact 
that in the average standard of its citizens hangs the 
fate of its institutions and the life of the nation itself, SEXUAL IMMORALITY 
107 
since it has become an axiom of history that if the stand- 
ard of character is below a certain minimal level a nation 
cannot enjoy self-government! 
Thus far, whenever city life has come to predominate, 
the nation has been doomed. Resting upon degenerates, 
its institutions have been blighted; and sooner or later, 
in the struggle for survival, when struck by a foreign foe 
it has fallen, never to rise again. Rome made the deep- 
est imprint upon history because it was the longest rural 
and frugal. While undegenerate it conquered the world, 
and upon the true principles of jurisprudence and justice 
reared a wonderful system of free institutions. 
Sexual Immorality.—The action induced in the brain 
through the use of alcoholic beverages is in the nature 
of a progressive paralysis, beginning with the highest 
level and its most delicate functions and gradually spread- 
ing down through the lower. Moral qualities and the 
higher processes of intelligence are therefore first invaded, 
the moral qualities so painfully acquired in the long 
years of evolution. This is the most delicate part of the 
mental machinery, that which has been most recently 
and most fragilely built up in the evolution of character, 
the moral part. 
As we have already seen, alcohol even in minute 
quantities is toxic. In exact proportion to the quantity 
taken is the impairment of the moral nature, and by 
just so much is the character impaired. The moral 
standards sag and sway. The man or woman has let 
down the bars; the entire man is looser. The higher 
process of intelligence will go on with delicate precision 
after the moral faculties are disordered, and therein lies 
the monstrous peril. 
The next physiologic step is that the finer part of a 
man’s mentality becomes the victim of the toxic paralysis; 108 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
next the associated group of judgment cells are invaded* 
When the judgment goes off guard and the emotions are 
uncontrolled, that man or woman will break the moral 
law. 
Wine warms the cockles of the heart; it clouds the 
brain with a pleasurable mist wherein disagreeable 
memories are obscured; it loosens the reins of judgment 
and daring risks seem paltry things. Life seems like a 
sporting venture. 
It is conservatively estimated that 40 per cent, of 
sexual immorality is caused by drink. Indeed, as the 
result of the investigations made in penitentiaries, re- 
formatories, workhouses and hospitals, many are inclined 
to place the rate much higher. 
According to the statistics of Prof. Forel, who proba- 
bly knows more on the subject than any one else, 
approximately 75 per cent, of venereal diseases are con- 
tracted by men under the influence of alcohol, chiefly 
by persons slightly intoxicated and rendered thereby 
more excitable and irresponsible. The suffering, the 
misery, the heartaches and the broken homes that this 
entails is incalculable. 
Prof. Masaryk, of the University of Prague, says: 
“Drink damages the relation of man to woman. These 
are coarsened and degraded. Modern investigations 
indubitably teach that drinking corrupts the sex life 
of our day. Alcoholism and prostitution are the chief 
factors in the degeneration of nations.” 
Alcohol and Prostitution.—From the earliest times in- 
toxicating drink has been associated with prostitution. 
Through the pages of social history almost from the 
beginning of civilization, alcohol figures as the evil genius 
of sex life. Every Commission that has studied prosti- 
tution agrees with the Chicago report which refers to ALCOHOL AND PROSTITUTION 
109 
alcohol as the most conspicuous and important element 
next to prostitution itself. The exploiters of vice are 
keen to take advantage of the intimate, subtle associa- 
tion of intoxicating drink with sexual immorality, and 
to use it in commercializing the weakness of human nature. 
It has been demonstrated that small doses of alcohol 
paralyze the inhibitory or controlling centers, and as a 
result of suppression of the inhibitions, the intoxicated 
person becomes suggestible; that is, open to the flood of 
his or her own emotions and to the stimulation of the 
various factors in the immediate environment. 
It is this condition of emphasized, accentuated sug- 
gestibility that accounts in part at least for the tremen- 
dous influence of alcohol in sex morals. As Bloch puts 
it: “Alcohol prepares the way for moral lapses.” In 
case there is in the mind of the intoxicated person or in 
the moral atmosphere of the group in which the drunken 
man finds himself, a tendency toward certain conduct, 
that individual’s will is very frequently incapable of 
withstanding the suggestion, even if the meaning of 
such suggestion is taken into consideration by him. 
What more common method is employed in bringing 
about the moral lapses of young men or girls than the 
use of strong drink in an atmosphere of suggestive 
immorality? 
Intoxicating drink is an important factor in the career 
of every prostitute. It loosens the bands of restraint, 
and over and over again permits the passions to expend 
themselves in the most dangerous ways. Meanwhile a 
desire for alcohol grows up. Acts committed first under 
its influence, after a while are committed for the sake 
of drink itself, and the victim becomes accustomed to 
relationships against which, formerly, horror would have 
been felt. Desire for drink has long been recognized as 110 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
playing an important partin the drift toward prostitution. 
Prostitutes insensibly accustom themselves to the liquor 
habit, until the practice becomes so strong as to preclude 
all chance of returning to a better state, and finishes by 
plunging them into the lowest depths of brutality. 
In houses of prostitution alcohol is used in four dis- 
tinct ways: (1) to attract a clientele; (2) as a means of 
incitement; (3) as a stimulant to women, without which 
the prostitute would be stupid and spiritless; (4) as a 
source of profit to the madam. Drunkenness is almost 
universal among confirmed prostitutes, and drinking is 
quite general among the frequenters of disorderly houses. 
4. Alcohol and the Great War.—The first three years 
of the Great War did more to solve the alcohol problem 
for the State and for the individual than the one hundred 
years which preceded it; but this rapid solution was based 
on the scientific and educational work of all those years. 
Extensive experiments had been carried out on soldiers 
as to the effect of alcohol on their efficiency in precision 
shooting, rapid firing, and endurance; also on their en- 
durance in marching, etc. These tests conclusively 
proved the great superiority of the total abstainer over 
the man who drank only a small amount of alcoholic 
beverages. 
The danger of drunkenness in times of peace had 
become in war-time a monstrous peril. Every soldier 
realized it; every statesman saw it. For the unprepared 
Allies to grapple with the black Hun who for forty years 
had been training his army and navy in efficiency, disci- 
pline, and the most atrocious forms of frightfulness, 
unequaled even by his good ally the Turk, the need of 
sobriety was imperative indeed. The solution of the 
problem was swift and drastic; the manufacture and sale 
of the stronger kinds of alcoholic drinks were prohibited. ALCOHOL AND THE GREAT WAR 
France was first in this as she always has been first 
in the noblest missions of humanity. The day after 
war was ruthlessly and lawlessly declared on her by the 
Hun, she prohibited the sale of absinthe in all of 
France. This was merely a military decree, but as 
soon as the French parliament met it passed a law pro- 
hibiting forever the manufacture, importation, and 
sale of that worst kind of alcoholic drink. 
Long ago the fight on absinthe had begun, but insur- 
mountable obstacles had been in the way. These were 
the banded forces of the manufacturers and dealers on 
the one side and the great revenue of hundreds of mil- 
lions of francs a year which it brought into the treasury. 
Indeed in every country in the world state finance has 
been the rock behind which the liquor interests took 
refuge. The conscience of the nations had become as 
torpid as that of the brewer, as blunted and deformed 
as that of the distiller, until war came and woke them 
up. 
War gave the sudden lesson that the nations needs can- 
not be measured in terms of money. Torn away from 
the petty considerations of greed, the State was forced 
to face the great question of the conservation of its 
people, on whom its future depended, and in spite of the 
distillers, drunkards, and financiers, France decreed the 
great reform which laid down the principle of State pro- 
hibition, and the State said: “I have the right to ask 
of each man his life and his goods in the face of this fierce 
aggression, now that the Huns are at the gate; and surely 
I have a right to ask him to sacrifice his profits and his 
vices, even in the time of peace, when they destroy the 
welfare of the nation.’’ 
Then the voice of Russia was heard. There the peas- 
ants drank, and when their money was gone they pawned 112 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
their plows and their carts, their tools and their clothing; 
pawned their unsown crops and mortgaged all that they 
owned. The drink-shops and the pawn-shops were one. 
Almost from the beginning of its existence the Duma 
took up the question of temperance, and in January, 1914, 
a drastic bill was passed for local option in the various 
communes, which practically assured a majority for 
prohibition. The Czar had been won over, by a tour of 
inspection, to the necessity for a temperance reform. 
Against the will of the people to stop it were the liquor 
interests and the Minister of Finance, who argued that 
one-third of the revenues of the state came from vodka, 
but war gave the people their chance, and by a stroke of 
his pen the Czar decreed the abolition of vodka. 
War is sacrificial. It demands of the nation the 
supreme sacrifice. At such a time a nation yields the 
more readily the lesser sacrifice; it throws into the melt- 
ing-pot not only its jewels and fine gold, but its vices as 
well. 
Russia had learned her lesson from the Russo-Japanese 
war. In 1904 the men came drunk from their homes to 
the centers; one saw them about the streets and on the 
railways and in the gutters. In this war Russia was 
struck sober from the first, for close upon the ukase pro- 
hibiting the manufacture and sale of vodka, came the 
Imperial edict which debarred even beer and wine from 
Russia. 
Russia became a prohibition country at a cost of 
$500,000,000 annually in revenue. In spite of this, on 
the following January the Minister of Finance declared 
that all business conditions had improved and were im- 
proving. This fact was due, in the first place, to the 
greater productivity of labor following the cessation of 
the sale of spirits; and this increased productivity was THE UNITED STATES AND PROHIBITION 
113 
said to be from 30 per cent, to 50 per cent., sufficiently 
large to make up for the shortage of labor due to the war. 
When asked how Russia was going to make up her 
revenue, the Minister of Finance said: “It is a thousand 
million rubles gone. We need only the same sum that 
we did before the war, and we find that we have it in the 
renewed vigor, resourcefulness, and working capacity 
of our people. Heads of large concerns employing 
labor said that they would pay in cold cash the sums 
that were necessary to cover the deficit in the revenue, 
if that were necessary; and they could afford the money 
easily, by reason of the increased capacity of their em- 
ployes. The question of the thousand million rubles 
will naturally take care of itself.” 
The United States and Prohibition.—That the Great 
War was the immediate cause of the almost revolu- 
tionary change of sentiment of the people of the United 
States as voiced by Congress, on the vital necessity of 
prohibition to conserve the individual and therefore 
the national efficiency is clearly shown by the respective 
actions taken by Congress on this subject. In 
December, 1914, prohibition was defeated in the House 
of Representatives by a vote of 197 to 189; three years 
later, in December, 1917, by a vote of 282 to 128 the 
House of Representatives adopted the resolution pro- 
posing an amendment to the Federal Constitution pro- 
hibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors for beverage purposes. On the following day 
the Senate by a vote of 47 to 8, concurred in the joint 
resolution adopted by the House, providing for a vote 
by the States on the nation-wide prohibition amend- 
ment to the Constitution. 
In January, 1919, this action of Congress was ratified 
by the necessary three-fourths of the states. In 114 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
January, 1920, the Prohibition Amendment, the Eight- 
eenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the 
manufacture, sale, and importation of liquor will go 
into effect. 
That the now powerful Democracy of the United 
States should take the lead on this great fundamental 
question involved in making “Democracy safe for the 
World” was to have been expected. CHAPTER VI 
WHY IS A MAN A MAN? WHY IS A WOMAN A 
WOMAN? WHAT ARE THE SPECIAL CHARAC- 
TERISTICS OF EACH SEX? 
Why is a Woman a Woman; The Relation of Sex to 
Nutrition; the Natality and Mortality of the Two Sexes; 
the Importance of Sexual Selection on the Development 
of the Race; the Laws of Heredity: (1) The Secondary 
Physical Characteristics; (2) the Secondary Physi- 
ologic Characteristics; (3) the Secondary Intellectual 
Characteristics; the Inventive Genius; the Variational 
Tendency in Men; Women’s Adventitious Character. 
The Hebrew man stood up in the Temple twice a day and 
thanked God that he had not been born a woman. And the 
Hebrew woman stood up with downcast eyes and arms meekly 
folded across the breast and thanked God that he had made her 
as seemed good to Him. 
In order that woman should reach the same standards as man 
she ought, when nearly adult, to be trained to energy and per- 
severance; and to have her reason and imagination exercised to 
the highest point; and then she would probably transmit these 
qualities to her adult daughters.—Darwin: Descent of Man. 
If there is any distinctive group psychology, it must be 
that of the group of men and the group of women. Men 
and women are organically different, which means that 
the physiologic differentiation in the reproductive sys- 
tem involves a contrasted psychology. There are also 
further degrees and varieties of differentiation, second- 
ary ranges of contrasted qualities in men and women, 116 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
growing out of the primary mental differences, likewise 
to be regarded as derivative sex traits. 
The structure and function of the two sexes are com- 
prehensively similar; sex does not monopolize function, 
though it may dominate. Even the distinct sex features 
of each sex are found in undeveloped form in the other. 
Supplementary to the fact that men and women are pre- 
dominantly human and subject to like yet not identical 
conditions of growth, maturity, variation, and disease, 
every man exhibits feminine traits and every woman 
masculine traits. 
Why is a Woman a Woman?—That question has been 
asked ever since people learned to question. The An- 
cients said “it was because of her womb;” modern 
savants say “it is because of her ovaries;” but modern 
science more exactly says “it is because of the secretion 
of the ovaries and other glands, notably that of the 
thyroid.” 
Precisely in a similar way man is also man because of 
the secretion of the testes and other internal organs. 
These secretions, which are many and emanate from 
various parts of the body, necessarily have different 
and even opposed functions in the two sexes. Their 
action and reaction are highly complex and difficult 
to unravel; some glands aid and supplement; others 
balance and hold in check the influence of the rest. 
Their multiple operations are beginning to make clear 
how it is that a man is not all man, nor a woman all 
woman. Sexuality, we are beginning to learn, is a far 
more fundamental and ineradicable characteristic of 
man and woman than many have hitherto consented to 
believe. 
“There exists a considerable period in life while we 
are carried under the heart of the mother, when it is WHY IS A WOMAN A WOMAN? 
117 
absolutely impossible to tell, from examining the em- 
bryo, which is male and which is female; even when the 
development of the genital organs has made consider- 
able progress. And not until the end of the third month 
is it possible to say with certainty which is male and 
which is female.”l 
We must remember that at a very early embryonic 
period certain groups of cells are reserved to form the 
sexual glands later on. These cells are at first neither 
male nor female, but are undifferentiated; later on they 
become differentiated * to form in certain individuals 
called males, the testicles with their spermatozoa; and 
in the others, called females, the ovaries with their con- 
tained ovules. On this differentiation depends the sex 
of the individual, and accordingly as it takes place one 
way or the other all of the rest of the body develops with 
correlative sexual characters of the corresponding sex. 
The individual has then arrived at the parting of the 
ways! 
The sexual glands, being of undifferentiated origin as 
we have seen, contain the energies of both sexes. Man 
possesses the rudiments of the sexual characteristics of 
woman, such as nipples without lactiferous glands, etc. 
In a general way each part of the genital organs of one 
sex has its corresponding embryonic homologue in the 
other, which is explained by the different transforma- 
tions, which were originally the same in the embryo. 
The clitoris in woman corresponds to the penis in the 
male; the labia majora to the scrotum, etc. 
The three fundamental causes of woman’s social, 
economic, religious, and political subjugation, not only 
by primitive man, but by the man of ancient civiliza- 
tions, were: the mystic because incomprehensible func- 
1 Ploss: Das Weib. 118 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
tion of menstruation in woman, so unlike any normal 
physiologic function in man; the theory that man alone 
was invested with the procreative power, and finally 
that woman was a soulless animal. The end of the 
eighteenth century in Europe, and more especially in 
England and France, was marked by a widespread re- 
solve to reason clearly concerning the reason and nature 
of things and so far as possible to cast off prejudice; and 
it could not fail to touch the question concerning the 
status of woman. Such problems were no longer left to 
work themselves out in unobserved silence. 
The menstrual function, that bete noire of primitive 
man became at a very early date a stigma on woman 
and led to her social and economic undoing. Modern 
science has demonstrated that the function of the uterus 
is to provide a suitable place for the reception of the 
product of conception, where it may be protected and 
nourished during the period of its development, and 
that the purpose of menstruation is to keep the uterus in 
suitable condition for the reception of the product of 
conception. 
It is now known that the menstrual flow is not the 
whole of menstruation, and that the changes going on in 
the uterus are almost as continuous as the process of 
digestion. The whole of the reproductive life of woman 
has been divided into cycles of twenty-eight days each, 
and these cycles have been divided into four stages. The 
first stage is the constructive one, or that of preparation 
for the reception of the ovum. This is the nest-building 
period, in which there is a swelling of the mucous mem- 
brane, an enlargement of the uterine glands, and an 
increase in the connective tissue. It is supposed to last 
for one week. The second or the destructive stage gives 
rise to the usual phenomena of the menstrual flow; there THE FUNCTIONS OF THE THYROID GLAND 
119 
is a discharge of blood, mucus, and disintegrated mucous 
membrane. The third or reparative stage, as its name 
indicates, is one of repair. By constructive changes 
the epithelial lining which was thrown off is replaced by 
a new one, formed in three or four days. The fourth 
or quiescent stage includes the remaining twelve or 
fourteen days of the menstrual cycle prior to the initia- 
tive changes which mark the beginning of the next period. 
The Functions of the Thyroid Gland.—The thyroid 
gland is absolutely larger in women than it is in men; it is 
relatively large in childhood and diminishes considerably 
in size in old age. It is now an established fact that the 
specific qualities of femininity are not entirely dependent 
on the secretions of the ovaries, but rather on the harmo- 
nious balance of a number of secretions, high in im- 
portance among them being that of the thyroid. It is 
believed that the thyroid gland exerts a leading part 
in directing the needs of the whole body, in accordance 
with the needs of the generative system. 
It would appear that the thyroid is not only intimately 
associated with the genital, but also with the psychic 
life of woman, and it has been suggested that it cannot 
fail to leave a mark on woman’s character and mental 
attributes. In women of high intellectual ability the 
sexual impulses are often highly developed, and this may 
find a plausible explanation in the stimulating influence 
of the thyroid in women, alike in the sexual and psychic 
spheres. 
How important a part the secretions of the testes and 
ovaries play in the normal physical and mental life of the 
individual may be seen from the fact that when castra- 
tion or the extirpation of the sexual glands; that is, the 
testes in the male and the ovaries in the female, takes 
place in infancy, it causes a considerable change in the 120 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
subsequent development of the body, even more marked 
in man than it is in woman. Man becomes more slender, 
preserves a high, infantile voice and his correlative sexual 
characters are very incompletely developed, sometimes 
not at all. In both sexes there is a tendency to neuroses 
and degeneration. The removal of the sexual glands in 
the adult does not sensibly modify the body. 
Thus we see that the internal secretions of the essential 
sex organs, together with those of some of the other 
glands, determine the normal characteristic traits of the 
male and female sex. These traits are classified into 
four chief groups: (1) The biologic or physical; (2) the 
physiologic or functional; (3) the intellectual; (4) the 
psychologic. There is in addition to these a very im- 
portant group of abnormal sex traits known as adventitious 
traits, due to the artificial conditions of life. 
We can more intelligently take up this part of our 
subject after first having considered the relation of sex 
to nutrition, the natality and mortality of the two sexes, 
and the general laws of sexual heredity. 
The Relation of Sex to Nutrition.—The researches of 
Diising, supplemented by those of Ploss and Wester- 
marck, seem to demonstrate a direct connection between 
an abundance of nutritive material and female births, 
and a scarcity of food and male births in both the rela- 
tively high animal forms and in man. Reserving our 
attention to the latter, in high altitudes where nutrition 
is scant, the birth-rate of boys is high as compared with 
the lower altitudes of the same locality. More boys are 
born in the country than in the cities, because in the 
latter the diet is richer, especially in meats. 
In times of war, famine, and migration more boys are 
born in poor than in well-to-do families. European 
statistics show that when foodstuffs are high or scarce NATALITY AND MORTALITY OP THE TWO SEXES 
121 
the number of marriages diminishes. In consequence a 
diminished number of births follows a heightened per- 
centage of boys, while, on the other hand, with the return 
of prosperity and an increased number of marriages and 
births, the percentage of female births rises, though it 
never numerically equals that of the males. More 
children are born from warm weather than from cold 
weather conceptions, but relatively more boys from 
cold weather conceptions. During the period of the 
present war these statistics are again being confirmed, 
as there is a great excess of male births in both Germany 
and France. 
The Natality and Mortality of the Two Sexes.—It is 
well known that in England and most European countries 
there are more males than females born. In some coun- 
tries the proportion is as high as 106 males to 100 females, 
but at the age of five years, owing to the greater mortality 
of the males, the sexes are about in numeric proportion. In 
the adult population of all European countries the aver- 
age numeric relation of the sexes is about 102.1 women 
to 100 men.1 
It was formerly supposed that war and the various 
hazardous occupations of men were alone sufficient to 
account for their greater mortality. That they are the 
chief factors, there does not seem to be any reason to 
doubt, but they are by no means the sole ones. These, 
as well as man’s indulgence in alcoholic and other ex- 
cesses, can only be considered as causative factors in 
youth and adult life. As a matter of fact and observa- 
tion, it is in the very earliest and latest periods of life 
that the mortality of the males is most clearly marked. 
Further, the proportion of still-born children is much 
more frequently male than female. In Belgium, during 
1 All statistics refer to the period previous to the Great War. 122 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the period fron 1860 to 1865, the proportion of still-born 
children was 100 females to not less than 136 males. 
Owing to their smaller size, girls at the outset possess 
a much better chance of slipping safely into the world, 
and for some little time after birth natal injuries would 
be operative. The larger size of the male head can only 
be a factor at birth and for a short time afterward, but 
during the entire first year of life the mortality is higher 
among male than female children. It has further been 
suggested that this greater mortality of males at this 
time “must depend on some constitutional difference.” 
Male children are also much more apt to succumb to 
diseases during the first dentition. 
From the third to the fifth year of life there does not 
seem to be much difference in the mortality of the two 
sexes, but this is no doubt due to the greater mortality 
of the males during the first year of life as only the more 
robust of a very large number are left free to compete 
with the smaller but apparently more vigorous females. 
From the fifth to the twentieth year the female mortal- 
ity is greater than the male, this period being especially 
dangerous for women. After the thirty-fifth year there 
is a difference in favor of women, which steadily in- 
creases. Four-fifths of the excess of women in England 
are widows.1 The further we proceed toward the ex- 
treme of life, the greater is the preponderance of women. 
The Distinctive Pathologic Liability of the Sexes.— 
All of the evidence brought together points with a vary- 
ing degree of certainty to the conclusion that there 
exists a greater physical frailty of men and a greater 
tenacity of life in women. It is quite probable that the 
lesser resistance of men is due merely to the greater 
liability to destructive influences from within than from 
1 Longstaff: Studies and Statistics in England and Wales. THE IMPORTANCE OP SEXUAL SELECTION 
123 
without, so that under equalized conditions there would 
be no sexual difference. 
The above conclusions are in harmony with those 
gathered from the zoologic field. The female is the 
mother of a new generation and has a closer and more 
permanent connection with the care of the young. She 
is of greater importance than the male, from nature’s 
point of view, and we therefore find that the female, in 
spite of her greater affectability by minor stimuli, is 
more youthful, more resistant to adverse influences, and 
is longer lived than the male. 
The recent improvement in the death-rate has bene- 
fited women more than men. There is also a greater 
disvulnerability of women, which means that they 
endure surgical operations better, are more tolerant of 
pain, illness, and pathologic maladjustments. They also 
resist physiologic invasion and accident more success- 
fully than men. Such tolerance is shown by records of 
surgical cases, statistics of recovery from disease, ob- 
servations of behavior under illness, endurance of prison 
regime, relative freedom from suicide (three men to one 
woman), and particularly to suicide due to misery and 
want, which is from seven to ten times as frequent among 
men. Degenerative diseases of the arteries are also less 
common in women. The majority of sudden deaths 
from internal or pathologic causes occur in men. 
The Importance of Sexual Selection on the Develop- 
ment of the Race.—The'history of sexual selection must 
be divided into two stages. The first stage is that when 
this prerogative was exercised by primitive woman dur- 
ing the period of limited promiscuity and of the matri- 
archy; men being in great excess were therefore the 
natural wooers. The second stage is represented by 
the patriarchy, when man either captured or at a later 124 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
period purchased his wife or wives. We shall see just 
how each stage reacted on man and woman. 
Darwin has shown that even among the lower verte- 
brates the female most commonly gives preference to the 
most vigorous, defiant, and mettlesome male. A similar 
instinctive appreciation of manly strength and courage 
is found in women, especially those of the savage races. 
“This power to exercise taste and discrimination implies 
a degree of intelligence far in advance of that of the males 
and constitutes a law almost as general as the eagerness 
of the male.” 
We may infer that woman’s instinctive inclination to 
strong and courageous men is due to natural selection 
in two ways: A strong man is not only the father of 
strong children, but is also better able than a weak man 
to protect and provide for his offspring. This female 
instinct is especially well marked at the lower stages of 
civilization, because bodily vigor is then of the utmost 
importance in the struggle for existence. Sexual selec- 
tion resembles artificial selection, save that the female 
takes the place of the breeder. In other words she repre- 
sents the intelligent factor or cause of the operation in- 
involved. If this be true, if it is through her will or 
through some agency or tendency latent in her consti- 
tution that sexual selection comes into play, then she is 
the primary cause of the very characters, as we shall see 
later, through which man’s superiority over woman has 
been gained. 
“He who admits the principle of sexual selection will 
be led to the remarkable conclusion that the nervous 
system not only regulates most of the functions of the 
body, but has indirectly influenced the progressive de- 
velopment of the various bodily structures and certain 
mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, THE IMPORTANCE OP SEXUAL SELECTION 
125 
strength, and size of body, weapons of all kinds, musical 
organs, both vocal and instrumental, bright colors and 
ornamental appendages have all been indirectly gained 
by the one sex over the other, through the exertion of 
choice, the influence of love and jealousy, and the appre- 
ciation of the beautiful in sound, color or form. These 
powers of mind manifestly depend on the development 
of the brain.”1 
That is to say, that while the female has been per- 
forming the higher functions in the process of reproduc- 
tion, through force of will, or through her power of choice, 
she has also been the directing and controlling agency 
in the development of those characters in the male 
through which, when the human species was reached, 
man was enabled to attain a limited degree of progress. 
During the long centuries of the patriarchy, when 
man gained his wives by capture or by purchase, the 
matter of sexual selection became his prerogative, and 
the woman had very little or no say at all in the matter. 
Since the male seems to be ready to pair with any female, 
provided she belongs to the same species, and as this 
probably depends on the great strength of his sexual 
impluses, we may infer that in primitive times, when 
man had a definite pairing season, he displayed a like 
tendency; sexual selection, in proportion as it has be- 
come less intense, becoming more discriminating. Even 
now woman is more particular in her choice than man, 
provided that the union takes place without regard to 
interest. 
In the patriarchal stage, man naturally mated with 
the most perfect woman, according to the prevailing 
ideas of beauty and perfection of the times. Under this 
new form of selection woman was transformed from the 
1 Darwin: The Descent of Man. 126 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
stern and peerless ruler of the household destiriy into 
an ornament of the seraglio and a plaything for man; 
her only important function in life then became the prop- 
agation of the species. 
In primitive society, as we have seen, every unit was 
a producer; the forces which withdrew women from labor 
were the expressions of later social conditions. Speaking 
broadly, these considerations were the desire of men to 
preserve the beauty of women, and also their desire to 
withdraw them from association with other men. It is 
the connection in thought and fact between beautiful 
women and wealth. The exemption of women from 
labor expressed in fact an economic surplus, which early 
society did not possess. 
Woman, deprived of exercising her normal physiologic 
powers through vocational and intellectual occupations, 
was forced into a life of introspection, which was centered 
in the sexual sphere, and at the same time even chastity 
of body was demanded both of the virgin and wife. It 
may be said that during the past five thousand years 
the one vocation and means of subsistence allowed woman 
was the exercise of the reproductive functions. When 
that state of society was reached in which women greatly 
outnumbered the men, even this means of subsistence 
was denied to women of the socially better classes, while 
those of the lower classes were driven into prostitution 
as an open trade. 
Hence it resulted that owing to the peculiar environ- 
ments in which woman was placed, she lost her natural 
physical development and vigor, and instead became 
frail and alarmingly neurasthenic. Some thirty years 
ago one of our eminent medical authorities said: “The 
world seems to be one vast hospital for women, and 
every kindness done seems that extended to an invalid.” THE LAWS OP HEREDITY 
127 
The great change that has been wrought in the phy- 
sique of women since that period; her physical and mental 
development through gymnastic, athletic, and vocational 
training; her higher education and entrance into the 
professional and vocational occupations, only goes to 
confirm the vast detriment that resulted not only to 
woman herself, but to the race and civilization as well, 
by her criminal repression through all these thousands 
of years. 
The Laws of Heredity.—From the laws of heredity it 
results that every human being reproduces more or less 
identically the whole life of its parents and less remote 
ancestors, and constitutes the continuation of life from 
a very minute part of their bodies. Each individual 
thus represents an entire cycle of development, which 
is peculiar to all individuals of the species. 
Children may bear a striking resemblance to a paternal 
grandfather, a maternal grand-aunt, a maternal great- 
grandmother, etc. This is called atavism. Physical as 
well as intellectual and psychologic traits may thus be 
transmitted by heredity; not only the intelligence and 
the will, but the finest shades of sentiment, to the most 
insignificant details of the nails, the form of the bones, 
etc. 
Further, each individual, on the average inherits as 
much from his paternal as from his maternal side, in spite 
of the fact that the ovule is much larger than the sperma- 
tozoa. It is believed that it is only from the part of the 
nucleus of the ovule which conjugates with the male 
nucleus that all of the inherited maternal peculiarities 
arise, and that the rest of the egg is only utilized as 
food; the nutritive blood of the mother, it is believed, in 
no way influences the inherited qualities of the offspring. 
If boys and girls inherited equally from their fathers 128 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
and mothers, the balance of the sexes, physically, morally, 
and intellectually, would not have been so greatly dis- 
turbed. According to Darwin, males have a prepon- 
derating tendency to inherit from their fathers and females 
from their mothers. This, however, should be modified 
by the statement that boys inherit from the maternal 
grandfather, and girls from the paternal grandmother, 
traits and characteristics which have lain dormant in 
the father and mother. 
Daughters do inherit peculiarities from their fathers 
and likewise sons from their mothers, but there is a 
heredity of sex whereby there is a cumulative tendency 
for boys to inherit more from their fathers than from their 
mothers; and in the same way for girls to inherit more 
from their mothers. This tendency, strengthened and 
augmented for thousands of generations, accounts for 
the present strength of man and the comparative weak- 
ness of woman. 
If it be accepted as proved that man’s manifest 
physical superiority over woman to-day is the result 
of the inheritance of forebears who had developed their 
frames and muscles by severe and continuous struggles, 
it is also reasonable to conclude that woman’s present 
mental disabilities have arisen from an unfavorable 
inheritance. 
At the time of the conjugation the qualities of the 
child will therefore depend on the ancestral qualities of 
the conjugated ovum and spermatozoon. Moreover, 
although of the same size, the nuclei which become con- 
jugated are evidently of unequal strength; the energies 
of the one or the other will predominate later on in the 
embryo, and still later in the man. According to cir- 
cumstances, the latter will resemble more or less his 
paternal or his maternal progenitors. A common woman SECONDARY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
129 
will lower the level of the offspring of a distinguished 
man, and vice versa. 
It follows, from the study of the ancestral history of 
man, or phylogeny, that sexual selection, as well as 
heredity has the right to occupy a fundamental place in 
the sexual question, for the germs which at conception 
reproduce a new individual are on the one hand the 
bearers of the inherited energy of our ancestors and on 
the other hand the progenitors of future generations. 
1. The Secondary Physical Characteristics.—There 
can be but little doubt that the greater size and strength 
of man in comparison with woman, together with his 
broader shoulders and better developed muscles, rugged 
outlines of body, his greater courage and pugnacity, are 
all due in chief part to his inheritance from his primitive 
male ancestors. 
In savage races women are physically the equal if not 
the superiors of men. Woman’s smallness of stature, 
physical inferiority, and lessened powers of endurance 
must be attributed also to her heredity and the customs 
of society carried on for thousands of years. 
“Among the most primitive peoples the forms of the 
men and the women are often strikingly similar; the 
women are masculine and generally muscular in appear- 
ance, and the faces of both sexes are often, except for the 
distribution of the hair, extremely alike.”1 
“We find that in East Central Africa the work is done 
chiefly by the women. This is universal; they hoe the 
fields, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. To them too 
falls the labor of housebuilding, grinding corn, brewing 
beer, cooking, washing, and caring for almost all of the 
material interests of the community. 
“The men tend the cattle, hunt and go to war; they 
1 Darwin: Origin of Species. 130 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
also do all of the tailoring; and spend much time sitting 
in council over the conduct of affairs. The men also 
make fish-lines, fish-hooks, spears and other implements; 
construct dance-masks, head-dresses and all of the para- 
phernalia for the various ceremonies and dances.”1 
While the men among all primitive people are fitted 
for work involving violent and brief muscular effort, the 
women are usually much better able to undergo pro- 
longed and more passive exertion; and they are the uni- 
versal primitive water carriers. Schellong, who has 
carefully studied the Papuans in the German protecto- 
rate in New Guinea, wrote in 1891 that some of the 
women have really splendid figures, and from the anthro- 
pologic point of view considered that the women were 
more strongly built than the men. 
The heavy, strong, enduring, patient, often dominant 
type, frequently seen among the lower classes, where 
woman is still economically functional, is probably 
representative of what the women of our race were 
before they were reduced by man to a condition of 
parasitism, which in our middle and upper classes has 
profoundly affected their physical, mental, and moral 
fife. 
Perhaps the most marked of the secondary physical 
characteristics is the massing of the hair and the differ- 
ence in the larynx and voice in the two sexes. The 
latter is not marked before puberty, but at this time 
the boy’s larynx enlarges and his voice “breaks” and 
becomes deeper. 
The classic description of the modern woman, as dis- 
tinguishing her from her brother man, is in the shorter 
stature, smaller muscles, sloping shoulders, broader 
1 James MacDonald: East central African Customs; Jour. 
Anthropolog. Instit., Aug., 1802. SECONDARY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
131 
hips, and shorter arms and legs. The broader pelvis in 
woman causes a greater distance between the sockets for 
the thigh bones; hence the marked inward inclination 
of the thighs which, when it exists in a very marked 
degree, gives the appearance of knock-knee. The inward 
inclination is compensated for by the outward inclina- 
tion of the legs. There is an analogous obliquity in 
the upper extremities; the forearm is never in a straight 
line with the arm; and in woman this obliquity is also 
emphasized. Here again the difference in build enables 
men to very greatly excel in feats of strength, rapidity 
in running, and in making the high jump. 
A man can carry about double his own weight, while 
a woman can carry only about one-half of hers. The 
average male golf player can lift the ball from 120 to 
140 yards, while the average female player can only 
lift it from 70 to 100 yards. On the whole, it may be 
roughly stated that the muscular strength of man is 
about one and one-half times as much as that of woman. 
Exercise invariably tends to strengthen and develop 
the muscles and organs which are thus brought into 
play, while continued disuse leads to their atrophy. 
When woman ceased to be a producer and was relegated 
by her lord and master to an ornamental position in 
the seraglio, both body and mind were suppressed 
and molded into abnormal and pathologic conditions. 
Going to the other social extreme, the proletariat, the 
women were made mere beasts of burden, common 
drudges whose bodies were misshapen by their abnor- 
mally large and constant burdens, and again both body 
and mind were prevented from following their normal 
course of development. 
According to the laws of sexual heredity, the short- 
comings and failures of the mothers are transmitted to 132 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the daughters, and these variations, slight in any one 
individual variation, are cumulative. In hundreds of 
thousands of generations there are finally developed 
marked and distinctive characteristics. 
Another fundamental cause of woman’s inferior 
physique and lowered vitality is to be found not only in 
her own but in her female ancestors’ mode of dress for 
many centuries. Study the physique and mode of dress 
of the ancient Greeks and then follow the history of 
dress down through the Middle Ages and the Renais- 
sance to the present time. If further need be, visit 
the savage races of the earth to-day and behold that 
women of powerful and classic physique still exist in 
the lands where the body is not molded according to 
the barbarous decrees of the modiste of fashion. 
2. The Secondary Physiologic Characteristics.—Our 
studies thus far would indicate that it requires more 
abundant nutrition to develop the female embryo, 
and that there would appear to be some constitutional 
difference, which manifests itself in the greater physical 
frailty of males than in the smaller but apparently 
more vigorous females. 
Moreover, we find that woman represents the con- 
structive, anabolic tendency to store up energy, such 
as is seen in plants, while man, on the contrary, repre- 
sents the destructive, catabolic tendency which charac- 
terizes animals. 
The derivative issues of sex extend to differentiation 
of capacities, endowments, interests, emotions, sensi- 
bilities, and response to social and environmental 
conditions. 
The social organization is an outgrowth of these 
differences and exerts a reflex influence on them. We 
see this first in the matriarchal system. Woman there, SECONDARY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
133 
as everywhere, represents the center of social stability; 
the point of return of the provider to his own, the 
indisputable basis of kinship, and through it of the 
family unity and the tribal consanguinity; the nucleus 
of the arts and conservative tendencies, the cradle 
of the effective life in the reciprocal relations of the 
mother and child, and equally the primary school of 
discipline and tradition. The reproductive function is 
thus made the central condition of the social structure, 
not only in primitive times but throughout the ages. 
The directive masculine quality related to, though 
extending far beyond, the immediate expression of man’s 
sexual nature, is his superior strength and fitness for 
strenuous activity. Man’s sexual ardor is stronger, 
and through its stress he develops in courtship the 
struggle for mates and the assertive quality of his 
nature. Conversely the lesser urgency of the female 
confers the power of choice and the exercise of selective 
preference, leading to the employment of qualities 
connected with the power of attraction. Masculine 
forcefulness finds its expression in mastery, physical 
defense, and social authority. Organization through 
prowess and courage, combat and dominance, promptly 
assumed the military form as its institutional embodi- 
ment. When this became strong enough under favor- 
able traditions, it prevailed above the considerations of 
descent, and patriarchy replaced matriarchy. 
For man his more powerful structure finds expression 
in his masterful part in the struggle for food and mates, 
vitalized by his aggressive sexuality; it finds its appli- 
cation in the freer, more constructive, more variable 
activities and their resulting interests. For woman, 
with a larger and more rigid determination, owing to 
the dominance of her organization, makes her reproduc- 134 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
tive interests larger, gives her functional activities, 
once adjusted, a steadier and more regular orbit. The 
greater morality of woman, bringing her nearer the 
child type and race-norm, are related to her anabolic 
habits; and that in turn is a piece of her lesser varia- 
bility and greater affectability. Furthermore, the avoid- 
ance of excessive high pressure energies, by yielding 
to the initial strain, protects woman from many of the 
masculine risks, but removes her from the intense 
concentration of high effort and daring initiative. 
Because men are organically catabolic, they are prone 
to be masterful by mental habit and extravagant as 
well; the larger, bolder venture is masculine; the closer 
thrift is feminine. This is the clew to the physiologic 
expression. Of this the mode of work is typical; the 
greater strength of man leads to a less constant output of 
work, of more intense energy in high-tension spurts. 
The contrast reflects the catabolic spending and the 
anabolic saving tendencies of the metabolism. This 
is but one of a group of cumulative and commanding 
differences. 
This contrast, when extended, makes the central 
physiologic trait of the female to store, to save, to be 
anabolic in constitution; and that of the male to expend, 
to react with vigor, to be catabolic. The mode of the 
circulation, as well as the blood-tests, reinforce this con- 
clusion; associating a high specific gravity, red corpuscles 
and plentiful hemoglobin with the catabolic constitution 
of man. The supporting physiologic mechanism indi- 
cates a similar adjustment. 
Loss of sleep is a strain which, like gestation, women are 
able to bear because of their anabolic surplus. The -fact 
that women undertake changes more reluctantly than 
men, but adjust themselves to changed fortunes more SECONDARY INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 
135 
readily, is due to the same metabolic difference. Woman, 
as we have seen, offers a greater resistance to disease 
than man. Man is fitted for feats of strength and bursts 
of energy; woman has more stability and endurance. 
3. The Secondary Intellectual Characteristics.—The 
mental correlative sexual characteristics are more impor- 
tant than those of the body; although they are intimately 
dependent on the body for their reflex development. 
The psychology of man is different from that of woman; 
whatever else may be disputed, all students are unani- 
mous upon this point. 
The Brain Weight.—Comparing the brain weights to 
the body weights, it has almost invariably been found 
that women possess brains somewhat larger than men’s 
brains, or else they are about the same size. This was 
ascertained many years ago by a number of observers. 
More recently Bischoff, in his important and accurate work 
on the brain, shows similarly that while woman’s brain 
weight is to man’s as 90 to 100, woman’s body weight 
is to man’s as 83 to 100. Yierordt has also illustrated 
the fact that relatively to the body weight women have 
larger brains. It is regarded as proved that in relation 
to the body weight women’s brains are at least as large 
as men’s and usually larger. 
“From the purely intellectual point of view man con- 
siderably excels woman in his creative imagination, his 
faculty for imagination and discovery, and by his critical 
mind. Education is purely an individual matter and 
only requires one generation to produce results. But 
neither mnemic engraphia nor selection can modify 
hereditary energies in two or three generations. Tied 
down hitherto partly by servitude, the mental powers of 
women will doubtless arise and flourish in all of their 
natural power, equal to those of men, as soon as they are 136 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
absolutely free to develop in society by the aid of equal 
rights. But what does not exist in the hereditary mneme, 
that is to say in the energy of the germs, inherited 
through thousands or millions of years, cannot be created 
in a few generations. There is no excuse at the present 
day for confounding hereditary correlative sexual charac- 
ters with the individual results of education, because 
they are acquired by habit and can only be inherited by 
an infinitesimal engraphia, possibly after hundreds of 
generations.”1 
On the other hand, woman possesses, from the intellec- 
tual point of view, a faculty of reception and comprehen- 
sion, as well as a facility of reproduction, which are 
almost equal to those of man. 
In the matter of artistic productions, woman is on the 
average much inferior in creative ability; even her best 
results are wanting in originality and do not open up new 
paths, but in the reproductive art, as virtuosos, women 
compare favorably with men. There are, however, 
exceptional women, whose productions are original, crea- 
tive, and independent. That there is a reserve force in 
women sufficient to overcome the evil results of the 
supremacy of passion during the last five or six thousand 
years of human experience would, from the present indi- 
cations, seem more than likely. 
The masculine method of thought is massive and 
deliberate, while the feminine method is quick to per- 
ceive and nimble to act. The latter method is liable to 
fall into error, but is agile in retrieving an error; and 
under many circumstances this agility is the prime 
requisite. 
The slighter objectivity of women keeps them aloof 
from philosophic pursuits and the scientific devotion 
1 Forel. SECONDARY INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS 
137 
that reconstructs the interests of life away from the 
personal, directing them to theorize systems, principles, 
rigid conclusions, and objective impersonal relations. 
Woman’s conservatism in thought has also been accen- 
tuated by the feminine attitude of extreme sensitiveness 
to the judgment of others. 
The feminine concrete persentative habit, that leads 
to reproducing rather than summarizing a situation; the 
readier dramatic instincts which confer upon woman the 
mastery of personal arts; the more fluid, sympathetic 
adaptability of women to carry situations; the readier 
use of language for expression; the keener responsiveness 
to variations in self-esteem and social appraisal which the 
literal words and tones convey; are some of the psycho- 
logic attributes of women, all of which would be useful 
in the field of politics. Tact is also a distinctly feminine 
forte; in contrast to the masterful bluntness of man, 
blundering often by too great directness. Persuasion 
and cajolery are results of woman’s enforced situation of 
submission. Duplicity is not a prerogative of either sex. 
Stuart Mill points out the intuitive gift of woman, by 
which her individual observations lead her to rapidly and 
clearly discover a general truth, without troubling about 
abstract theories. This may be called the intuitive or 
subconscious judgment of woman. Woman’s rapid per- 
ceptions and her intuitions indicate undeveloped genius 
and partake largely of the nature of deductive reasoning. 
Given the proper opportunities, she will be able to trace 
the various powers of induction by which she reaches her 
conclusions. In other words, she will be able to reason 
inductively up to her deductive conceDtions. 
The great works thus far accomplished in the world’s 
history have of course been done by men. Woman has 
only risen to the same great heights as man in the histri- 138 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
onic and vocal arts, in which she has equaled and often 
excelled man. In literature she has been at her best in 
fiction. In all these endeavors it will be observed that 
woman was simply displaying the natural developments 
of her mode of life: acting and story-telling. The excep- 
tional woman who has risen to great heights, albeit not 
the greatest, is typical of the latent powers which have, 
from lack of opportunity, lain dormant all these thou- 
sands of years in very large numbers of women, only 
awaiting a propitious time in the world’s history to 
spring into being and activity. 
Miss Thompson’s findings are probably the most im- 
portant in this field: “The point to be emphasized as the 
outcome of this study is that, according to our present 
light, the psychologic difference of sex seems to be largely 
due, not to a difference of average capacity, but to differ- 
ences in the social influences brought to bear on the 
developing individual from early infancy to adult years. 
The question of the future development of the intellec- 
tual life of woman is one of the social necessities and 
ideals, rather than of inborn psychologic characteristics 
of sex.” 
The social customs of the centuries have walled women 
in, and also set up in the minds of men an attitude which 
renders her almost an alien to man’s interests and pur- 
suits, as if she were spatially removed from them. It 
is a well-understood fact that neither individuals nor 
classes which have upon every hand been thwarted and 
restrained, either by unjust and oppressive laws or by 
the tyranny of custom, prejudice, or physical force, have 
ever made any considerable progress in the actual ac- 
quirement of knowledge or the arts of life. 
The Inventive Genius.—The greater intellectual vigor 
and power of invention in man is probably due to natural THE VARIATIONAL TENDENCY IN MEN 
139 
selection combined with the inherited effect of habit; 
for the most able men will have succeeded best in 
defending and providing for themselves, their wives, and 
children. 
In primitive times, while women drudged, men in- 
vented tools and implements for hunting and war, con- 
trived boats, [and studied navigation, winds, weather, 
tides, and waves. Observation of the heavens naturally 
followed; hence a knowledge of mechanics, physics, and 
the rudiments of mathematics and astronomy. Logic 
and philosophy naturally followed. 
All this came naturally to man as the result of the divi- 
sion of labor, while woman, hampered by confinement 
and drudgery, suffering from overstrain and inadequate 
food, had no such opportunities. Their daughters, by 
the laws of heredity and environment, are therefore, 
as a rule, necessarily inferior to men in invention, mathe- 
matics, and logic. 
The Variational Tendency in Men.—Burdach, that 
great biologist, took up this question in his physiology. 
His general conclusion was that the nature of man and 
the nature of woman were both excellent, but that there 
were wider variations in men, more genius and more 
idiocy, more virtue and more vice. Darwin reached 
the same conclusion. 
If we turn to those congenital variations, which are 
very closely allied to mental characters, we still find, 
even to a more marked degree, that men have a greater 
tendency to abnormality than women; for example, 
left-handedness, color-blindness, albinism, deaf-mutism, 
idiocy, imbecility, criminality, and insanity. 
The arithmetic prodigy leads up to the most interest- 
ing and most important of all psychic abnormality, that 
which we usually call genius. We must regard genius 140 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
as a congenital abnormality, and in nearly every depart- 
ment it is undeniable that it is more frequent in men than 
it is in women. Genius is more common among men by 
the same general tendency by which idiocy is more com- 
mon among men. The two facts are but the two aspects 
of the larger zoologic fact, the greater variability of the 
male. From an organic standpoint women represent 
the more stable and conservative element in evolution. 
We have, therefore, to recognize that in men, as in 
males generally, there is an organic variational tendency 
to diverge from the average, and in women generally an 
organic tendency, notwithstanding all their facility for 
minor oscillations, to stability and conservatism, in- 
volving a diminished individualism and variability. 
The more marked variational tendency of men is closely 
allied with their more marked pathologic characters; for, 
as Virchow insisted, every deviation from the normal 
type must have its foundation in a pathologic accident. 
A large part of the joy that men and women take in 
each other is rooted in this sexual difference in varia- 
bility. The progressive and divergent energies of men 
call out and satisfy the twin instincts in women to accept 
and follow a leader, and to expend tenderness on a 
reckless and erring child; instincts often intermingled in 
a delicious confusion. In women men find beings who 
have not wandered so far as they from the typical life of 
earth’s creatures; women are for men the human em- 
bodiment of the restful responsiveness of nature. 
In the domain of sentiment the two sexes are radically 
different; both are passionate, but in different ways. 
The passions of man are coarse and less durable, and 
are only elevated when associated with the more original, 
and complex intellectual aims. In woman sentiment is 
more delicate and more finely shaded esthetically THE WILL POWER 
141 
and morally; it is also, at least on the average, more 
durable. 
In the life of sentiment the two sexes complement 
each other admirably. While the man raises the height 
of the ideal to be attained, woman has the necessary 
tact to soften and refine the tones and to adapt their 
shades to each special situation by the aid of her natural 
intuition; where man risks spoiling everything by the 
violence of his passions and his efforts. This reciprocal 
influence should conduce to the best and highest har- 
mony of sentiments in a happy sexual combination. 
The Will Power.—It is generally conceded that, on 
the average, woman is superior to man in regard to will 
power. It is in this psychologic domain, more than any 
other, that she will always triumph. This fact is gener- 
ally misunderstood, because men have so far held the 
scepter of unlimited omnipotence. By the abuse of 
brute force, aided by the superiority of inventive genius, 
humanity has hitherto been lead by the strong mascu- 
line wills, and because the strongest feminine wills 
have been dominated by the right of the stronger. The 
unprejudiced observer is soon obliged to recognize that 
the directive will of the family is only in general repre- 
sented externally by the master. Man parades his 
authority much oftener than he puts it in practice; he 
lacks the perseverance, tenacity, and elasticity, which 
constitute the true power of the will and are peculiar to 
women. 
Man is impulsive and violent as regards his will power, 
but often inconstant and irresolute; yielding as soon as 
he has to strive persistently for a certain object. From 
these facts it naturally results that it is the man in the 
family who provides the ideas and impulses, but the 
woman who with the finesse of her tact and perseverance 142 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
instinctively makes the distinction between the useful 
and the harmful, utilizing the former and constantly 
combating the latter, not because she is fundamentally 
superior, but because she is more capable of dominating 
herself, which proves the superiority of her will power. 
Woman’s Adventitious Character.—When woman 
was reduced to a condition of dependence on man’s 
activities, wooing became a less formidable matter; 
man purchased her from her male kindred and took her 
to his own group, where she was easier to control. 
On the moral side particularly, man’s disposition to 
bend the situation to his pleasure placed the woman in 
a hard position and resulted in the distortion of her 
nature; or rather in making dominant those elemental 
traits of character which the ethics of civilized nations 
regard as undermining the highest qualities of the race, 
as well as of the very foundations on which the welfare 
of humanity rests. 
During untold ages of subjection women have been 
obliged to compass their ends by more or less indirect 
means. While they have found it advisable to make a 
show of obedience before their husbands and masters, 
they have always found ways to accomplish their ends 
by management and craft; hence tact and finesse are 
preeminently feminine traits. Cunning and deception 
are the natural resort of the weak and oppressed; only 
the strong can afford to be frank. 
In sexual selection, according to Lombroso and Fer- 
rero, a woman instinctively hides her defects, her dis- 
orders, and if necessary her age; anything which may 
injure her in the eyes of men, including even her best 
qualities, if she thinks that these may call out ridicule 
or dislike. A woman usually finds it easy to mold herself 
on the ideal of the man she is with at the moment, pro- WOMAN’S ADVENTITIOUS CHARACTER 
143 
vided she admires him. He would usually be repelled 
if she were to assert her own individuality. The artifices 
of the toilet have the same source, but they are in addi- 
tion intended to impress other women or obtain a tri- 
umph over them. The desire to be interesting leads to 
simulated weakness and a supposed need of protection. 
Lombroso and Ferrero sum up the situation in saying: 
“The method of obtaining results by ruses among all of 
the weaker lower animals is so habitual among women 
that deception has become almost physiologic among 
them.” 
Man has always insisted that woman should be better 
than he. Regarding her in the light which he always 
has done, of being either a minor or child, her mental 
immoralities have rather amused him. At any rate he 
has never greatly objected to them. So there naturally 
sprang up a double standard of morals for the two sexes, 
which may be termed a morality of person and bodily 
habits for woman, as contrasted with the commercial 
and public morality of man, such as exactness in state- 
ments or truthfulness, sterling business integrity whereby 
all misrepresentation as to the real facts in the case 
are frowned down upon, and straightforwardness in all 
business transactions are demanded. 
It must be admitted that according to these regula- 
tions woman has, in the mass, played the game fairly 
well. The man has demanded purity, reserve, con- 
stancy, and devotion; and woman has acted in the man- 
ner which made her most pleasing to man. She was, 
perforce, obliged to, because matrimony was the sole 
vocation allowed her. She has even gone further, and 
naively insisted that her sister should play well within 
the rules of the game, she herself becoming the strict- 
est censor of that morality which has become tradition- 144 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
ally associated with woman. Knowing the obloquy 
which the world attaches to a bad woman, she is the 
first to throw a stone at any woman who bids for the 
favor of man by overstepping the modesty of nature. 
Women, in the mass, have always been found in the 
extreme wing of the reactionaries. Having known noth- 
ing other than economic dependence on man, and perhaps 
having become enamored with the life of luxurious ease and 
luxury which wealth affords, she has proved the greatest 
obstacle to the intellectual and economic advancement 
of woman. Playing on that quality of woman’s sensi- 
tiveness to public opinion, she has simply established a 
law of social ostracism for the woman who has gone in 
for the higher intellectual education; as for the profes- 
sional woman, she is too far outside of society’s pale for 
consideration. This is true even to-day, to such an 
•extent that young women of the wealthier classes, who 
have graduated at any of our leading colleges, simply do 
not acknowledge the fact, because to do so would im- 
mediately insure their social ostracism. 
Modesty in regard to personal habits became so in- 
grained and habitual to all women, and to do anything 
freely is so foreign to her, that any initiative or sugges- 
tion of change in her manner of life came to be regarded 
as quite immodest. Then, too, the centuries of time 
when woman’s sole duty was to charm man and to bear 
him children resulted in a frivolity in their lives that has 
made a lasting imprint on their daughters. 
Schopenhauer, the German philosopher and pessimist, 
asserts that: “Women exist as a whole mainly for the 
propagation of the species and are not destined for any- 
thing else;” and again: “The fundamental fault of the 
female character is that it has no sense of justice. This 
is mainly due to the fact that women are defective in the WOMAN’S ADVENTITIOUS CHARACTER 
145 
powers of reasoning and deliberation; but it is also due 
to the fact traceable to the position that nature has 
assigned them in the sphere of sex.” 
“ They are dependent not on their strength but on their 
craft; and hence their instinctive capacity for cunning; 
and their probable tendency to say what is not true. 
Nature has equipped them with defense, with the arts of 
dissimulation; and the power which nature has conferred 
on man in the shape of physical strength and reason has 
been bestowed on woman in this form. Hence dissimula- 
tion is innate in women; it is as natural for them to make 
use of it on every occasion as it is for animals to employ 
their means of defense when attacked. They have a feel- 
ing that in doing this they are quite within their rights. 
Therefore a woman who is perfectly truthful and not given 
to dissimulation is perhaps an impossibility. But this 
fundamental defect which I have stated with all that it 
gives rise to, falsity, faithlessness, treachery, and ingrati- 
tude. . . . Perjury in a court of justice is more often 
committed by a woman than by a man. It may indeed be 
questioned whether a woman ought to be put under 
oath.” 
For each of these real defects, which must be admitted 
by the friends of woman, there is an historic cause. If 
women are given to small deceits, it is because men 
have been addicted to small tyrannies. If women are 
shortsighted it is because in the nature of things woman’s 
province was small and restricted. If woman has not a 
judicial mind, it was because, until within the last fifty 
years, woman’s mind was largely undeveloped, so that 
her powers of reasoning and abstruse thought remained 
in an infantile condition through life. 
Wherever tyranny exists it is met by deceit. In the 
region of physical force the weak must win by love and 146 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
intrigue. This condition is not confined to women. 
Those men who were the favorites of princes used the 
same method of conquest. Moreover the power of a 
strong will over a weak one has always been a factor in 
history, even though the strong will be in a weak body. 
Schopenhauer was a German misogynist; and since he 
wrote, the higher education of women and their entrance 
into the professional and vocational world have in a mar- 
velously short time entirely broadened and made apparent 
their dormant, mental traits. They were among the first 
to acknowledge and deplore this debasing mental 
attitude of women, as they were among the first to insist 
on a single standard of morals for the two sexes; that 
the woman should be trained to the same mental and 
business integrity which characterizes the highest intel- 
lects in the business world; and that man should learn to 
dominate and control his passions because of equity, 
for the sake of the family and of the race. 
The hypothesis that the greater amount of difference 
between men and women is the result of their heredity 
and environment, and not of fundamental maleness and 
femaleness, fully explains the shortcomings of the two 
sexes and woman’s physical and intellectual inferiority. CHAPTER VII 
SEX EDUCATION AS A SOLVENT FOR THE 
DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALS AND 
CELIBACY 
Chastity in Woman; Man’s Code of Honor; the Psychol- 
ogy of Sexual Life; Ethics and Sex Education; the 
Problem of Self-control for Young Men; the Double 
Standard of Morals; Natural Feminine Eroticism, or 
the Sexual Appetite in Woman; Continence in Man and 
the Mode of Individual Life; Prenuptial Chastity in 
Man both an Ethical and Race Obligation; Woman’s 
Attitude Toward the Double Standard of Morals; the 
Atypical Type of Woman and Free Love; the Argu- 
ments against the Theory of Free Love; the Evolution of 
Morality. 
Obey thy conscience! But first be sure it is not the conscience 
of an ass.—Ruskin. 
There is no more potent cause of misery than the failure of men 
to live in accordance with physiologic laws. If this cause of 
misery is to be removed, there is need first of a knowledge of what 
is physiologic.—Frederic S. Lee, M. D. 
Chastity in Woman.—With the advance of civilization, 
as woman became increasingly more dependent on man 
economically, man in return demanded that his woman 
or women should hide their charms from the gaze of 
other men; and the increased valuation laid upon pre- 
nuptial chastity on the part of woman went up by leaps 
and bounds. 
The insistence of men at the present day that the 
hymen should always be intact, and that except in the 148 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
case of very marked pelvic trouble, no vaginal exami- 
nation should be made even by women physicians, would 
seem to be an atavistic survival of the ancient customs of 
insuring the virginity of girls and the fidelity of wives by 
infibulation and the girdles of chastity. 
Man’s Code of Honor.—The first physical surrender 
on the girl’s part affects her whole future life. At the 
present day the woman who has lost her virginity out- 
side the legal bonds of marriage is regarded in fact much 
as was the prostitute of the Middle Ages in law. That is 
to say, in the Middle Ages the prostitute was under every 
man’s hand, for the protection of the law was only 
extended to respectable women. The crime of rape upon 
an unmarried woman was only possible if she were a 
virgin. 
The psychology of the male is of such a character that 
the average man does not merely feel that the prostitute, 
willing or unwilling, should be at every man’s disposal, 
but further than this, he thinks that the girl who has 
once fallen becomes thereby the legitimate prey of every 
man who desires her. Thus does one single fall cause a 
woman to be considered as a beast of the chase, good for 
the exercise of the hunting instincts of every man that 
comes along. This girl, even though she subsequently 
wishes to live continently, will for the rest of her life find 
herself exposed to free-love adventures, owing to the 
first step she has taken in the field of practical sexuality. 
And as Michelis says, there is no power in the world 
strong enough to break the iron chains whose rings are 
based on such a syllogism. So every woman who has 
had sexual experience before marriage, is forever preju- 
diced, quite indifferently whether her action was the 
outcome of lightmindedness, sudden passion, sincere 
affection, or any other possible motive. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXUAL LIFE 
149 
The attitude of the law toward preconjugal experience 
resembles that of public opinion. The legal demand is 
that before marriage the woman’s conduct should be 
morally irreproachable. In the Supreme Court of the 
German Empire it has been recently laid down that the 
husband has the right to contest the validity of his 
marriage, if he learns that before marriage was contracted 
his wife had had sexual relations with another man and 
had concealed that fact from his knowledge. This deci- 
sion is in conformity with the general opinion that a man 
in contracting marriage is considerably influenced by the 
belief that the woman whom he marries is a virgin. 
The Psychology of Sexual Life.—When with the sexual 
functions are combined the ideas of morality, of the 
sublime and the beautiful, a lofty standard has been 
attained in which man stands far above nature and draws 
from inexhaustible sources the materials for nobler enjoy- 
ments, for serious work and the realization of ideal aims. 
Sexual life is no doubt the one mighty factor in the 
individual and social relations of man which discloses 
his power of activity, of acquiring property, establishing 
a home, awakening altruistic sentiments toward a per- 
son of the opposite sex, and toward his own issue as well 
as toward the whole human race. Sexual feeling is really 
the root of all ethics and no doubt of asceticism and 
religion. 
The sublimest virtues, even the sacrifice of self, may 
spring from the sexual life; on the other hand, on account 
of its sensual power, it may easily degenerate into th*e 
lowest passion and basest vice. Unbridled passion is a 
volcano which burns and lays waste all around it; it is 
an abyss which devours all-honor, substance and health. 
When woman ceased for a time to be a chattel, she 
was wooed by man; traces of ethical sentiments began to 150 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
pervade the rude sensual appetites, idealization began, 
the community of women ceased. The sexes began 
to be drawn together by mental and physical merits; 
in this stage woman became conscious that her charms 
belonged only to the man of her choice, so she began to 
veil them from others. This formed the foundation of 
modesty, chastity, and sexual fidelity, so long as love 
endured. 
Where the spirit of colonization developed, man felt 
the necessity for a companion in life, a housewife, and a 
settled home. The Egyptians, the Israelites, and the 
Greeks reached this level at an early period. Its chief 
characteristics are a high appreciation of virginity, 
chastity, modesty, and sexual fidelity on the part of the 
woman, in strong contrast to the habits of other peoples, 
where the host placed the personal charms of his wife 
at the disposal of his guest. 
Christianity raised the union of the sexes to a sublime 
position by making the woman socially the equal of the 
man and elevating the bond of love to a moral and religi- 
ous institution. 
Even though nature should claim merely the law of 
propagation, the family and the State cannot subsist 
without the guarantee that the offspring thrive phys- 
ically, morally, and intellectually. From the moment 
when woman was recognized as the peer of man, when 
monogamy became law, the Christian nations obtained 
a mental and material superiority over the polygamic 
races. 
Love trends forever in a romantic, idealizing direction; 
it wraps the beloved being in a halo of perfection. In 
its incipient stages it is of a Platonic nature and turns 
rather to poetry and history. With the approach of 
puberty it runs the risk of turning the idealizing powers THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXUAL LIFE 
151 
upon persons of the opposite sex, even though mentally, 
physically and socially they are of inferior station. To 
this may be traced many cases of mesalliance, abduction, 
elopements, and errors of early youth; those sad tragedies 
of passionate love which are in conflict with the principles 
of mortality and law. Sensual love is never true and 
lasting; first love is, as a rule, but a passing infatuation, 
a fleeting passion. 
True love, on the other hand, is rooted on the recogni- 
tion of the mental and moral qualities of the beloved 
person, and is equally ready to share pleasures and 
sorrows and even to make sacrifices. True love shrinks 
neither from dangers or obstacles; deeds of daring and 
heroism lie in its wake; but unless the moral foundation 
is solid, it will lead also to crime. Ethical surroundings 
are essential to elevate love to its true and pure form, 
but the sexual appetite will always remain its chief basis. 
Man has, beyond doubt, the stronger sexual appetite 
of the two. From the period of pubescence he is instinc- 
tively drawn toward woman; his love is sensual and he is 
strongly biased by physical attractiveness; a mighty 
impulse of nature makes him aggressive and impetuous 
in his courtship. Women have yet to learn that this 
law of nature does not wholly fill the psychic beings of 
men; and this forms one of the hidden shoals on which 
the matrimonial bark often founders in the early days 
which succeed the delirium of the honeymoon. Having 
secured the prize, man’s love is temporarily eclipsed by 
other vital business and social interests. 
Woman far surpasses man in the natural psychology 
of love, partly because evolution and training have made 
love throughout eons of time her sole vocation in life, 
and partly because she is animated by more refined feel- 
ings. While woman’s sensual desires are awakened much 152 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
later in life than man’s and are as a rule not so strong, 
psychologists have erred greatly in considering them for 
the most part a negligible quantity. All gynecologists 
know from their personal observation that this is not the 
case. Further,sexual consciousness is stronger in woman 
than in man; because of her economic dependence 
through all the ages her need of love was greater. She 
became abnormally self-centered, so that love came to 
be to her continual and not periodic. Woman loves with 
her whole soul. To woman love has become life; to 
man it is the joy of life. Misfortune in love bruises the 
heart of man, but it ruins the life of woman and wrecks 
her happiness. Woman’s mind certainly inclines more 
to monogamy than man’s and at the present day she is 
influenced in her choice more by mental than by physical 
qualities. 
The ignorance of this intrinsic difference of the psy- 
chology of love in man and woman is a very large factor 
in the wreckage of marriages and homes, which eventually 
leads to the divorce courts. In her early married life 
woman does not understand why she cannot always be 
first in her husband’s thoughts, not grasping the fact 
that if she were, his business would soon go to ruin. 
So she makes his life miserable by insistent demands on 
his time and thoughts; when he tries to explain the state 
of affairs, she reproaches him with no longer loving her. 
Jealousy of his business interests soon awakes, and from 
this it is but a short step to fill her imagination with 
the picture of a female rival in her husband’s affections. 
Obviously any such intolerable situation makes the first 
tremendous rift in the matrimonial peace and harmony. 
Man primarily loves woman as his wife and then as 
the mother of his children. After the birth of the first 
child he strongly resents the fact that he has now been THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXUAL LIFE 
153 
relegated to the second place in his wife’s affection, 
for with a great number of women the first place in her 
heart belongs to the father of her child and the second 
to him as her husband. 
This is one of the objections to the young wife’s be- 
coming a mother, before she has really become thoroughly 
adapted to her r61e as wife, and before the mutual affec- 
tions of the young couple have become sufficiently 
secure to stand the slight strain which pregnancy and 
motherhood place on the husband. To this cause 
might be traced the first tendency of the young husband 
to infidelity; when he is pushed aside, as it were, he 
naturally feels abused, and there is a strong tendency 
to turn to some other woman for sympathy. Many 
a woman who prides herself on her chastity has chiefly 
herself to blame for her husband’s infidelity. Here 
again it is the crass ignorance which has been allowed to 
envelop the entire subject of love and marriage that 
has caused so much human suffering and misery. 
Unfaithfulness on the part of the wife has always met 
with much more severe punishment at the hands of 
the law than that of the husband. He is exculpated 
because of the tradition of his naturally stronger in- 
stincts and of his social exposure in a larger world, 
while it is contended that the wife is not exposed to 
the same kind of temptations, and further that she is 
surrounded by many protective influences. 
While all through the ages woman has been forced by 
man to observe a chastity of body, man has allowed his 
passions to run riot; hence, as man grows weak morally, 
he is the more easily enslaved by designing women, 
until finally he is ruined by sensuality. This accounts 
for the fact that in periods of decline of great nations, 
luxury and sensuousness were the prominent factors, 154 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
courtesans and their dependents ruling the state and 
finally encompassing its ruin. 
Ethics and Sex Education.—The need of enlightenment 
on sexual matters is a product of existing conditions. 
Civilization and the social environment are developing 
along a plane which subjects youth to many temptations 
which practically did not exist in the past. There is a 
broader and looser code of ethics. Business monopolizes 
the entire time of the father and social life, with its 
misdirected ambition, the time of the mother. So 
the son and daughter have a wider latitude and freer 
rein than formerly, and the door is left wide open for 
promiscuous intimacies. At the most critical period 
of their lives young girls are allowed to go freely about 
unchaperoned; to go out riding in the public parks with 
their grooms; to go to the theater and to attend public 
dances with some young male escort; or to make up 
travel parties under a very nominal chaperonage of 
perhaps some woman of loose morals. 
The character of many of the plays allowed on the 
stage, the moving picture shows and vaudeville per- 
formances, all tend to lower the public standard of 
morality and stimulate voluptuous desires. So it has 
come about that the path of the degenerate has been 
made easy and profitable. In this way the promiscuous 
libertine has been evolved, the most insidious and dan- 
gerous product of the present-day civilization, the most 
pernicious factor in spreading immoral impulses and 
that vast wave of social diseases which is as serious a 
menace to the State and the race as any “black plague” 
that ever devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. 
Twenty years ago personal sex hygiene was recog- 
nized as the chief reason for sex education; social 
diseases began to attract attention some ten years ETHICS AND SEX EDUCATION 
155 
ago. Commercialized prostitution has been especially 
prominent in the discussion of the past five years, 
and recently there has been stressed the necessity for sex 
education with reference to eugenics. 
The problem of physical morality or clean living is 
primarily a problem of self-control, of the mastery of 
the will over the passions. This mastery can only be 
founded by perfect intelligence of the laws of life and 
sex, and their relation to the laws of bodily health. 
In order that young men should live according to physio- 
logic laws it is necessary that they should know what 
these laws are, as well as the consequences of their viola- 
tion. Since human beings are being left to control the 
most powerful appetite, it is evident that a policy based 
on silence, ignorance, and mystery must fail. 
It is very clear that young people cannot always 
find within themselves the necessary strength and 
knowledge to guide properly their sex behavior amid 
the complex temptations that society has thrown around 
them. Not all young people have normal home life; 
it is for this reason that protecting standards and con- 
ventions are valuable. The institution of monogamy 
should be safeguarded by legal sanction and our children 
should be taught to regard it as sacred. In the same way 
the standards which respect and demand purity in the 
home are of vital importance and should be equally 
binding on both sexes. The salvation of society has 
been the increasingly high standards set up for women. 
If society would rigidly apply the same standard to men 
it would greatly strengthen the morality of their sex 
behavior. Public opinion and public convention are 
more potent by far than the laws of the state, for 
laws are only executed when they are upheld by public 
opinion. Our objective in education is to obtain the 156 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
internal standards of right thinking and acting which 
will inhibit wrongdoing. 
The child must know the meaning of sex; he must 
know what are the best standards of the race about the 
use of sex; he must be willing to choose to use it in accord- 
ance with these standards and have the internal power 
of character which will enable him to carry out his choice 
in his conduct. He cannot reasonably be expected to 
attain this disposition without expert help. 
Education in sexual matters means the education of 
nature by the spirit; and this is not possible without a 
clear and definite idea of the ethics of sex. Such ethics 
is not possible upon the basis of modern materialism; 
it can come from religion alone. The teaching of the 
Christian ethics is indispensable. 
Comte describes the disintegration of all definite and 
authoritative truths as “the disease of the Western 
world.” A pleasure-seeking individual is becoming the 
commanding principle of practical conduct, and in the 
sphere of sex is replacing all social and religious consid- 
erations. The old idea of loyalty, with its immense 
educational power one of the pillars of all the higher 
civilizations, has become a thing of mockery and sexual 
purity has come to be looked upon as unhealthy. 
Reason and objective thinking, are capacities dwelling 
in man apart from the rest of his organism; a direct re- 
flection, as it were, in the midst of the subject of objective 
truths and universal claims. Schopenhauer says: “Just 
as a lead weight attached to a body always brings it 
back to the position required by the center of gravity, so 
in the ordinary man the intellect is constantly drawn 
back to the center of gravity of self-interest. In another 
place: “For real and genuine achievements in philoso- 
phy, there must be an abnormal tendency, which con- PROBLEM OF SELF-CONTROL FOR YOUNG MEN 
157 
trary to the rule of human nature, sets an absolute 
objective effort in place of the subjective effort after 
one’s individual good; and is therefore very positively 
termed “eccentric.” 
“When fixing the compass in a warship, care has to be 
taken above all to isolate the needle from all magnetic 
currents which might arise from the metal hull of the 
ship and deflect the needle; but no one asks whether the 
compass in man, the individual reason, which is to show 
our way, is not deflected a thousand times by disturbing 
forces arising from our physical natures; and whether it 
is not necessary constantly to correct the individual 
compass by fixing our gaze on the Personality who stands 
above all conflicting forces.” 
Reason and conscience are certainly great gifts, but 
they are in need of training, purification, liberation, and 
constant intercourse with a higher wisdom, before the 
direction of our life can be entrusted to them. Faith 
in God, emancipation through Christ, and guidance by 
a great tradition show our reason the way to the highest 
knowledge, saving from the paths and precipices of sub- 
jective folly and mere individual speculation. Only by 
faith in a higher wisdom does man escape the confines of 
his own experience and knowledge. Error is the inevit- 
able fate of man when left to himself. Without faith 
in the spiritual world the human spirit will in the end 
lose faith in itself. This belief, lit at the fire of Christ 
himself, influences the human spirit and fills it with 
ever-increasing strength and confidence. 
The Problem of Self-control for Young Men.—Bige- 
low gives it as his opinion that: “The problem of con- 
trol of the insistent passions of normal young men has 
been unscientifically minimized by numerous writers 
and lecturers. As a matter of fact the sexual instincts 158 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
of young men are characteristically active, aggressive, 
spontaneous, and automatic; while those of young women 
are as a rule passive and subject to awakening by ex- 
ternal stimuli; especially in connection with affection. 
Maintaining perfect self-control in his premarital years 
is for the average healthy young man a problem com- 
pared with which all others, including alcoholic tempta- 
tions, are of little significance. We must not forget that 
every normal young man passes in early puberty through 
peculiar physiologic changes, that arouse his deepest 
instincts.” 
It is believed by biologists that the sex organs, ovaries 
and testes, manufacture certain specific substances 
which, being poured into the blood current, pass to the 
muscles, brain, skin, and other organs. These sub- 
stances by their presence stimulate the particular growth 
that we have noticed as belonging to the various sex 
organs. In other words the natural healthy condition 
of the internal sex organs, through their direct action on 
the blood, most profoundly modifies the body, mind, 
and nature of the organism to which they belong. The 
conclusion of the whole matter is this; in order to develop 
a strong, normal, manly body and mind, the first essen- 
tial is the full, sound development of the internal organs, 
the testes. Conversely, anything which interferes with 
this will, to that extent, prevent the boy from developing 
into complete manhood. The same general laws hold 
good for the normal development of women. 
The biologic place of sex is a wonderful, vital, stimu- 
lating, and holy endowment of human life, to be treasured 
and invested as we treasure bodily health, mental ability, 
and attractive disposition. Only when we grasp the 
whole problem, with the constructive as well as the dis- 
astrous possibilities, can we use it as a part of real human PROBLEM OP SELF-CONTROL FOR YOUNG MEN 
159 
education. The word sex must come to mean fine and 
high things, rather than bestial and low. 
In school the instruction in the physiology and hygiene 
of the reproductive organs should not be isolated, so as to 
concentrate the attention on it, but must be made, as it 
is, a natural part of the systematic teaching of physi- 
ology and personal hygiene. For adolescents the teachers 
should be of the same sex. 
An appeal based on the physical development as a 
motive for purity should have a compelling force with 
boys, among whom admiration for a fine physique, 
strength and vigor is almost universal. This plea is more 
effective when based upon a knowledge of the intimate 
relations existing between sex functions and the physical 
and mental development of the individual. In the nor- 
mal growth of the body it would appear that nature does 
not occupy herself with provision for the reproduction of 
the species until maturity is attained. All growth is a 
function of nutrition, and during the stage of bodily 
development the nutritive energies of the system are 
concentrated upon the upbuilding of these organs which are 
concerned in the conservation of the individual. Only 
after physical maturity is attained does the organism 
produce a surplus of nutrition to be used in reproduction. 
If a demand is prematurely made on this nutritive energy 
to supply a waste from the abnormal secretion and loss 
of seminal fluid, the general nutrition is impaired and the 
normal development of the body is interfered with. 
That chastity conduces to health and strength of body 
and mind is a physiologic law, and every young man 
should set before him the ideal of pure and vigorous 
manhood. Clean thinking is absolutely essential to 
clean living. 
Before entering upon the pubescent period every boy 160 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
should be made acquainted with the fact that his sex 
organs are entrusted with the wonderful power of trans- 
mitting life when he becomes a man; and in order not to 
impair this power these organs should not be injured 
in any way. The first and most essential condition is 
to create a proper attitude toward the appetites and 
passions; to have a right conception of the reproductive 
functions as one of the most important of the body. 
Hence they must be controlled by will and conscience, 
and exercised only in the legitimate way imposed by 
marriage. Every young man should build up high 
ideals in regard to the sex relations, based upon respect 
for his own body, for women in general, and especially 
for the young woman who will one day be his wife and the 
children he will procreate. 
At this vital period of life the mind should be filled with 
high purposes and high ideals; ambitions which will 
absorb the thoughts, strengthen the purpose, and give 
the beginning at least of a personal vision as to how these 
ambitions are to be carried out and a conception of the 
personal qualities which will bring full success. An 
earnest endeavor should be made to stimulate interest 
in life, in its work and opportunities; to make very 
clear the effect of improper familiarities or sex relations; 
to utilize the love motive which is large in most youths 
at this time in order to inhibit improper sex conduct; to 
form and to appeal to religious ideals and motives for 
the same purpose. 
It appears from the experience of many men that strenu- 
ous work and play are the only effective weapons for 
driving sexual images into the background of the mind. 
Athletics are to be recommended as possessing a positive 
prophylactic value against sexual propensities. Physical 
exercise carried to the point of fatigue serves as an outlet PROBLEM OF SELF-CONTROL FOR YOUNG MEN 
161 
for superabundant energy, which might otherwise be 
directed toward the sexual sphere. Then again athletics 
tend to develop a manly spirit and ambition to excel, 
while the rules of the game impose subordination and 
self-control. The mind, as well as the body, is engaged 
in and participates in the benefit. 
There are many problems of sex relations to society 
that young people should be led to consider in the late 
teens and early twenties. Bigelow considers that 
between sixteen and twenty-two, young women should 
be informed in regard to prostitution. A girl’s protection 
must come from without; a boy’s from within. Every 
boy who reaches the age of adolescence knows his nature; 
it asserts itself and his sex instincts are dominant and 
aggressive. He is a man, the father of the race, and the 
laws of procreation are to him an open book. A girl 
remains innocent until she is awakened; it is the touch, 
the kiss, the sense stirred, that awake in her the glory of 
her womanhood or her shame. 
The very frailty of such a girl, her dependence on her 
intuitions, her emotions, and the triumph of feeling over 
intellect, place her in greater danger than her brothers, 
even were their responsibilities to society the same. 
Add to this the fact that with yielding to temptation 
she has also the burden of childbearing; how much more 
necessary that she should have adequate knowledge of 
what she is to meet in the world, or what she must combat, 
lest her emotions forestall her intelligence as physical 
development precedes mental appreciation. 
Ignorance is the fundamental cause of much prosti- 
tution on the part of women. Competent social workers 
believe that knowledge might often counteract the forces 
which lead women from virtue down to prostitution. 
Most men do not realize that prostitution offers great 162 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
danger to their own health and still greater danger to 
that of their wives and children. Regarding the social 
evil from any point of view, educators consider that 
dense ignorance is largely responsible for this, the darkest 
blot on our boasted civilization, the social-sexual evil. 
Girls in late adolescence should learn from some reliable 
source the most general facts regarding the male struc- 
ture and function. First of all many will need these 
facts for self-protection, to forestall the more than possi- 
ble temptation from the young man, because of his sup- 
posed sex needs. The majority of girls will at some time 
have the care of children, so an essential part of their 
later sex education should be scientific facts concerning 
love, marriage, and mother-craft. 
The Double Standard of Morals.—It has long seemed 
to many that the faults of men are in some degree trace- 
able to the fact that women as a sex have not been able 
to demand the same high standard of morality for man- 
hood, that man, the law-giver, has so stringently imposed 
on woman. Social ostracism, on the part of women who 
are social leaders, against the immorality of man, would 
be a long step forward toward the “single standard of 
morals” for the two sexes. The trouble thus far has been 
the lack of education of women in general regard to all 
sexual matters. At the present day, ignorance on any of 
the fundamental principles which underlie the progress 
of the race is nothing short of criminal. 
Education on the subject of social hygiene is a pre- 
requisite for the duties of motherhood, for this is defi- 
nitely necessary for mothers in the training of their sons 
and daughters. The boy must be taught the value of sex 
health, the meaning of the changes of temperament, and 
of sex longings and appetites. He also must be given 
definite warnings with some reasons, but not overstressed SEXUAL APPETITE IN WOMAN 
163 
against masturbation, and the physiologic connection 
of all this with fine manhood. The mother can best 
reach her son in lessons of chivalry toward women as one 
reason for self-restraint, and in the ideals of purity and 
high standards in relation to women; to guard against 
the temptations that will come, and so to spiritualize and 
sublimate the tremendous sex impulses, transforming 
them into sound ideals and habits of self-controlled sex 
conduct. 
Fair play or the square deal, to appeal to the young 
man, should be based on the fact, that most young men 
demand purity of the girls of their own set, their sisters, 
friends, and sweethearts; yet they help drag other women 
down. An honorable man should be willing to play 
fairly and give purity for purity. Still further, young 
men should be impressed with the idea that their sex 
functions should be held sacred to affection; in other 
words that sexual union is only moral as a love inter- 
change, and the minds of young women should be molded 
to demand high standards and ideal manhood. 
Man has tried to justify the code of the “double stand- 
ard of morals,” which he established in primitive times, 
on his supposed physiologic needs and on the other fact, 
taken for granted, that woman as a rule had neither 
such needs nor such sexual desires. Science has now 
demonstrated that up to the age of twenty-five years at 
least, total abstinence from sexual indulgence on the 
part of the male is essential for his own physical and men- 
tal development, and that absolute sexual abstinence 
for life is not injurious. We will now turn our attention 
to the other side of the problem, of woman as a mere 
passive factor in the sexual life. 
Natural Feminine Eroticism, or Sexual Appetite, in 
Woman.—Man has through eons of time imbued woman 164 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
with the idea that she was better than he because she 
was less passionate, and woman has on the whole been 
game. Woman has, on the one hand, inherited the feel- 
ing of the necessity for chastity, and convention has still 
further impressed this fact on her. Very rarely, even as 
patients, will women frankly confess to their physician, 
though a woman, that they are either possessed or obses- 
sed by any over-whelming sexual desire; and very often 
indeed they are entirely unconscious of it, though the 
results are very patent to us, for the simple reason that 
any such feeling on the part of woman has been con- 
sidered abnormal. Then, too, there is a sense of modesty 
and shame in revealing her innermost feelings on this 
particular subject even to a member of her own sex. 
Consider the facts in the case: When man became 
sufficiently well-to-do to allow his wife and daughters to 
pass their time in idleness, the one vocation permitted 
young girls was to get married, and their mothers rarely 
failed to keep this object in view. Practically no exer- 
cise was taken and their lives were filled with novel 
reading, some useless fancy work, and making them- 
selves charming, so far as might be, to seduce the unwary 
male. It was a life of introspection, wholly centered on 
the sexual system, for it is a well-known fact that reading 
a certain kind of novels, very many plays that are staged 
in the theater, music, dancing, and being constantly 
in company with persons of the other sex when not 
engaged in strenuous work, arouse the voluptuous 
sensations. 
In the sexual act the role of woman differs not only in 
the fact that she is passive, but also from the absence of 
the seminal ejaculations. In spite of this the analogies 
are considerable. The erection of the clitoris and its 
voluptuous sensations, the secretion from the glands of SEXUAL APPETITE IN WOMAN 
165 
Bartholin, which resembles the ejaculations in the male 
and is often so profuse as to be pathologic; the venereal 
orgasm itself, which often exceeds in intensity that of the 
male, are not only phenomena which establish harmony 
in the sexual relations, but the consequent severe conges- 
tion of the female sexual organs, without the normal outlet 
of relief, frequently causes intense disturbance of the 
nervous system.1 Although the organic phenomena of 
the accumulating semen in the seminal vesicles are absent 
in woman, there is produced in the nerve centers, after 
prolonged abstinence, an accumulation of sexual desire 
corresponding to that of man. 
Further, in the case of the poor, various kinds of fatigu- 
ing but mostly sedentary occupations occasion a deter- 
mination of blood to the pelvic organs, while sexual 
impulses are stimulated by the constant pressure of sit- 
ting. One of the most injurious of these is the use of 
sewing machines. Its effect on the nervous and sexual 
system is at the same time so exciting and wearing that 
in most cases when continued for years at from ten to 
twelve hours a day it ruins the best constitution. Un- 
due sexual irritation is also caused by working for a long 
time under high temperature, for instance in factories 
for refining sugar, for bleaching, and calico printing; and 
by night work in overcrowded gas-lighted rooms in which 
both sexes work together. 
Extremes of sexual appetite in women are more 
common and more considerable than in men. In woman 
this appetite, recognized as such, is less often developed 
spontaneously, being generally developed later* The 
statement made by many psychologists that voluptuous 
1 Biologists also confirm this fact by their observations on 
domesticated animals, where they too find diseases of the pelvic 
organs from an unnatural mode of life. 166 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
sensations in woman are as a rule only awakened by 
coitus, is a very grave mistake, of which any observing 
gynecologist is well aware. 
The unsatisfied desires of the normal woman are less 
inclined toward coitus than toward the assemblage of 
the consequences of this act, which are so important 
for her whole life. When the sight of a certain man 
awakens in the young girl sympathetic desire and trans- 
ports, she desires to procreate children by this man, to 
give herself to him, to receive his caresses, to be loved 
by him only; and this is combined with the desire to give 
herself passionately, to play the part of the one who de- 
votes herself, who is conquered, mastered, and subjugated; 
to gratify a general sexual need distributed over the 
whole body, and in no way concentrated in the sexual 
organs or in the desire for coitus. The instinct of pro- 
creation is much stronger in woman than it is in man. 
Neither does the sexual appetite of man consist wholly 
in the desire for coitus; in many cases it is combined 
more or less strongly and more or less consciously with 
the desire to procreate children. In spite of the fact 
that man represents the active elements in sexual union, 
that in him the appetite for coitus is stronger, and this 
appetite strongly affects the masculine mind, Forel 
considers that the sexual life plays a less important part 
in the life of man than it does in that of woman. 
As a rule, women are much more the slaves of their 
instincts and habits than men. In all primitive peoples 
boldness and hardiness in men were the qualities which 
made for success. This is why, even at the present day, 
the boldest and most audacious Don Juans excite more 
strongly the sexual desires of women and succeed in turn- 
ing the heads of most young girls, in spite of their worst 
faults in other respects. Nothing is more repugnant to CONTINENCE IN MAN 
167 
the feminine instinct than timidity and awkwardness in 
man. 
In our time, however, it is more the intellectual 
superiority of man which excites the desire of woman. 
Normal woman is much more particular than man in 
giving her love; and from the sexual point of view she is 
much more constant than man. It is rarely possible 
for her to experience sexual desire for several men at the 
same time; her senses are nearly always attracted to one 
lover only, while a man may be a loving and devoted 
husband and at the same time satisfy his animal appe- 
tites with prostitutes. In woman such sexual dualism 
is much more rare and is always unnatural, the normal 
woman being much less capable than man of separating 
love from sexual appetite. 
Continence in Man and the Mode of Individual Life. 
—Forel says: “Abstinence or sexual continence in man 
is by no means impractical for the normal young man of 
the average constitution; assiduous physical and intellec- 
tual work, abstaining from all artificial excitations, espe- 
cially from all narcotics and from alcohol in particular; for 
these substances paralyze the judgment and the will. 
Continence is usually favored by nocturnal emissions 
and the health does not suffer from them in any way. 
The sexual appetite and power are strongest in man 
from twenty to forty years, but especially between 
twenty-five and thirty-five; after forty the sexual power 
gradually diminishes, and disappears after seventy. 
“As long as a young man does not wish to marry, he 
should remove as far as possible all sexual thoughts from 
his mind. A young girl should do the same. By serious 
and persevering work, and by avoiding all means of 
excitation, the sexual appetite can usually be kept within 
the bounds of moderation. Alcoholic drinks and the 168 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
exploitation of the sexual appetite constitute what may- 
be called one of the largest fields of social brigandage. 
“ The artificial and varied repetitions of sexual excita- 
tion by means of objects which provoke it, increase the 
sexual appetite. This cannot be doubted, for the law 
of exercise is a general truth in the physiology of the nerv- 
ous system. This law which is also called the law of 
training, shows that every kind of nervous activity in- 
creases with training. It is not surprising to find this 
law, therefore, in the phenomena of the sexual appetite, 
which diminishes with abstinence and increases with 
repeated excitations and satisfaction.” 
There is no doubt that the mode of life of the indi- 
vidual exerts a great influence on his sexual life. High 
living combined with little bodily exercise increases 
sexual appetite, while insufficient food combined with 
severe muscular work diminishes it. Intellectual work 
acts in a variable manner. As a rule, sedentary life 
increases sexual appetite, and a life full of occupations 
diminishes it. In addition to the use of alcohol the 
sexual appetite is abnormally stimulated by erotic pic- 
tures, obscene novels, dramas, etc. 
The sexuality of the rich man degenerates by luxury 
and by the fact that he is already satiated in his youth; 
that of the poor man is no less degenerate, owing to bad 
food, unhealthy dwellings, neglected education, and 
vicious example. The exploiter and the exploited meet 
in dens of vice. 
There are many physical rules and precautions which 
are advocated as tending to inhibit or diminish sexual 
activity. The avoidance of heat and the cultivation of 
cold is one of them. Hot climates, a close atmosphere, 
heavy bed-clothing, hot baths, all tend powerfully to 
excite the sexual system, for that system is a peripheral CONTINENCE IN MAN 
169 
sensory organ, and whatever stimulates the skin gener- 
ally, stimulates the sexual system. Cold, which con- 
tracts the skin, also deadens the sexual feelings, a factor 
which ascetics of old knew and practised. 
The garments and the posture of the body are not 
without influence. Constriction or pressure in the sex- 
ual region, even tight corsets, as well as internal pressure, 
as by a distended bladder, are sources of sexual irrita- 
tion. Sleeping on the back, which congests the spinal 
centers, acts in the same way, as has long been known to 
those who attend to sexual hygiene. It is stated that in 
the Franciscan Order it is prohibited to sleep on the 
back. Food and drink are powerful sexual stimulants. 
This is true of the simplest and most wholesome nourish- 
ment, but it is particularly true of a heavy meat diet. 
Mental exercise, like physical, has been advocated as 
a method of stilling sexual excitement; but it seems to be 
rather equivocal in its action. If it is profoundly inter- 
esting and exciting, it may stir up rather than lull 
the sexual emotions. If it arouses little interest, it is 
unable to exert any influence. This is true even of 
mathematical occupations, which have been advocated 
by various authorities as aids to sexual hygiene. 
It is easier to avoid arousing the sexual impulses than 
to impose silence on them by hygienic measures, once 
they are aroused. It is therefore in childhood and 
youth that all of these hygienic measures may most 
reasonably be observed, in order to avoid any premature 
sexual excitement. Soon after puberty it sometimes 
happens that a prolonged strain of sexual storm and 
stress dies away, to be succeeded by a period of compara- 
tive calm. It must be remembered that in many, 
perhaps in most individuals, men and women, the sexual 
appetite, unlike hunger and thirst, can after a prolonged 170 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
struggle be reduced to a more or less quiescent state 
which, far from injuring, may even benefit the physical 
and psychic vigor generally. If there has never been any 
sexual gratification, the struggle is less severe and is 
sooner over, unless the individual is of a highly erotic 
temperament. 
Prenuptial Chastity in Man both an Ethical and Race 
Obligation.—How can man reconcile the quality of 
justice, which he assumes is a purely masculine attribute, 
with the double standard of morals? It must be re- 
garded as genuinely unjust that for the same act the 
female should have to pay so much more heavily than 
the male. For the woman there is not only the social 
death caused by her act, but she has to bear the sole 
responsibility for the care of the child. Michelis says: 
“A far juster outlook is that the man’s responsibility is 
the greater, for the man is in addition responsible for the 
girl, who in the world’s eyes is dishonored and who is 
being exposed to the dangers of motherhood.” 
1. The Ethical Point of View, and as the Custodian 
of the Stream of Life.—As a matter of the square deal it 
would be praiseworthy for the young man to preserve 
for his wife the first freshness of his sexual emotions. 
In all countries of the world, according to Michelis, the 
number of young men who enter upon marriage without 
having previously had intercourse with women, is known 
to be small. To-day the impure youth is the counter- 
part of the pure girl. 
From the ethical point of view these considerations do 
not suffice. Sexual morality needs the bridle of the 
sentiment of responsibility, equally alike on the part of each 
sexual partner toward the other; and on the part of both 
toward the community and toward their offspring. 
In the matter of sex, young men are the custodians of DISCIPLINE AND FORMATION OF CHARACTER 
171 
the sacred fire. Their sex will give birth to children; 
for this reason they must safeguard their vital energies 
and must not abuse their physical powers. The recog- 
nition of the inalienable rights to sexuality, implies also 
the recognition of the existence of supreme duties both 
individual and social. 
2. The Physiologic Point of View.—Biologists assure 
us that chastity in man is essential until at least the 
twenty-fifth year of life, for his full physical, moral and 
mental development, and that complete sexual abstinence 
until about this time is advantageous to the constitution. 
The reason given is that perhaps, on account of the 
reabsorption of the seminal fluid, the upbuilding of the 
physical and psychic elasticities is favored, and it is 
maintained that in certain persons these benefits of 
abstinence may be continued even beyond the period 
named. 
Medical men assert that we are justified in concluding 
as the result of personal experience and observation, 
supplemented by specialists in sexual and nervous 
diseases, that men are able absolutely to renounce sexual 
gratification without serious physiologic consequences. 
3. For Discipline and Formation of Character.— 
Primitive Christian chastity was on one side a strenuous 
discipline. The chastity that is regarded to-day by the 
moralist as a virtue has its worth by no means only in its 
abstinence. It is a virtue because it is a discipline in 
self-control, because it helps to fortify the character and 
will, and because it is directly favorable to the cultiva- 
tion of the most beautiful, exalted, and effective sexual 
life. 
The supreme importance of chastity, or even of asceti- 
cism, has never at any time, or in any greatly vital human 
society, altogether failed of recognition. It has fre- 172 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
quently changed in the nature of its manifestations, but 
it has always been there. It is even a part of the beau- 
tiful vision of all nature. Thoreau said: “The glory of 
the world is seen only by a chaste mind.” Without 
chastity it is impossible to maintain the dignity of sexual 
satisfaction. The society in which its estimation sinks 
to a minimum is in the last stage of degeneration. Chas- 
tity has for sexual appetite an importance which it can 
never lose, least of all to-day. 
The fact that chastity is a real virtue with fine uses 
becomes evident, when we realize that it has flourished 
at all times. We find it pronounced among savages; and 
the special virtues of those peoples are hardness, endur- 
ance, and bravery. Savages are also perfectly well aware 
how valuable sexual continence is, in combination with 
fasting and solitude, in acquiring the aptitude for ab- 
normal spiritual powers. 
4. To Insure Marital Fidelity.—The moral idea of 
man’s sexual life must be pure monogamy. This term is 
used not only in the sense of faithfulness after marriage, 
but to imply precon jugal chastity. The ethics of the 
male have for the most part been the stimulus of learning 
from his own personal experience the intimacies and 
refinements of the sexual life in relationship with more 
than one woman. He further argues that the most 
beautiful part of love is the prelude, which comes to an 
end with the possession of the object desired; usually 
with the very first act of possession. The romance of 
love takes flight as the preamble comes to an end. 
Stable and secure sexual possession has a thousand- 
fold advantages. Into the monotony of the conjugal 
life it introduces spiritual and psychic influences which 
are lacking in the first phases of love; and it develops the 
moral elements which in that phase exist only in the TO INSURE MARITAL FIDELITY 
173 
germ. Marriage may bring a fine and tranquil felicity; 
it may be the source of economic well-being and the 
basis of fruitful cooperation between husband and wife, 
ideal in scope and moral in means. 
One coefficient of the amatory life to which far from 
sufficient attention has been paid is the force of habit. 
Upon habit depends, in most cases, conjugal fidelity; 
in all cases, if we except those in which a strong and genu- 
ine affection persists, and those in which the conduct is 
regulated by effective moral convictions. The importance 
of this factor increases with advancing age, when both 
man and woman gradually lose their aggressive tenden- 
cies of sex. The oncoming of age has tamed their 
instincts of conquest. 
Such phenomena of habituation to monogamy are 
seen only in the latter stages of married life, for the male 
is unquestionably characterized by polygamous tenden- 
cies. Even woman is, as a rule, not free from polyan- 
drous inclinations. Nevertheless her erotic sensibili- 
ties are much less developed than those of the male, for 
prolonged and severe repression of sexual manifestations 
during virginity has produced its inevitable results. 
Apart from merely moral considerations, one of the 
principal reasons for the demand of preconjugal purity 
is that as many marriages as possible may be healthy 
and happy. Many women with delicate sensibilities, 
especially those with jealous dispositions or affected with 
idealism, become embittered and disgusted with marriage 
itself when they learn that their husbands have had 
prematrimonial love adventures. For this reason in 
intellectual circles the number of unhappy women is 
on the increase. 
Still more important is the fact that from the existence 
of preconjugal polygamous tendencies, we are generally 174 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
justified in concluding that when the monogamic union 
is undertaken it will be greatly endangered. 
In the majority of cases the influences working in this 
direction will not counteract the effect of bachelor experi- 
ences, of the ease and pleasures of preconjugal indulgence. 
A man who has lived incontinently before marriage will 
find it difficult to endure the sexual abstinence imposed 
upon him as the result of domestic discords, whether 
acute or more especially when they become chronic; 
and further imposed upon him by the pregnancies or 
absences of his wife. 
The world of men must be classified as polygamous and 
monogamous respectively; it is unsound to classify men 
as good husbands with preconjugal experiences and bad 
husbands with the same. No illness exhibits so strong 
a tendency to relapse as the youthful illness of sexual 
incontinence. 
In the male the stimuli capable of arousing sexual 
excitement (this term is not to be understood in the 
grossly physical sense) are so extraordinarily manifold 
and, so widely differentiated that it is quite impossible for 
one single woman to possess them all. Thus the husband 
who is most strict in his observance of conjugal fidelity 
will encounter a thousand times feminine types of such 
a nature as to arouse at least a fugitive desire; nor will 
he be able to hold these natural instincts in check without 
calling to his aid the acquired force of rational and moral 
considerations. 
5. The Extreme Danger of Infection by the Venereal 
Diseases.—This subject has already been dealt with in 
the chapter on prostitution, but its importance cannot 
be exaggerated. 
Woman’s Attitude Toward the Double Standard of 
Morals.—Women may in this respect be divided into 
four classes. ATYPIC TYPE OP WOMAN AND FREE LOVE 
175 
(1) A large majority of young girls entering on married 
life have been taught to regard previous sexual experience 
on the part of their husbands as a physiologic necessity, 
as a matter beyond dispute, and one about which it 
would therefore be absurd to recriminate, since it belongs 
to the life of every normal young man. 
(2) This smaller group of girls, because for the most 
part they have been deliberately kept in ignorance by 
their relatives in all matters concerning the sexual life, 
give no thought at all to that quality on the part of their 
future husbands. To many of this class their marital 
experience is a most rude and brutal awakening. 
(3) There is an ever-increasing minority of girls, belong- 
ing for the most part to the educated classes, who are 
animated by the earnest desire to find a life mate whose 
past sexual conduct shall have been on the same high 
plane as their own. 
(4) There is now a borderland class arising from the 
extreme feminist wing, who insist that there is going to 
be a single standard of morals; and that it is up to the 
men to say just what that standard shall be, whether 
that of the man or of the woman. 
The Atypic Type of Woman and Free Love.—There is 
in America to-day an atypic class of girls of good social 
standing who need guidance regarding premarital con- 
tinence. These are of two types: one with intensive 
sexuality, which is in reality pathologic and is generally 
corrected by medical or surgical treatment; and the other 
of probably normal instincts, but with radical sexual 
philosophy. The first type needs not only emphatic 
instruction regarding continence, but more often medical 
help, either for the general health or for local sexual 
disorders. The second type must be treated exactly as 
a young man, because these are women whose anarchistic 176 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
repudiation of laws and conventions in general has led 
to their acceptance of a single standard of morals for 
men and women, but one of freedom from monogamic 
ideals. While this type is not common in America to-day, 
there is reason for fearing that unless some unexpected 
check comes to this undercurrent toward sexual freedom, 
it may be found in ten or twenty years from now that 
a surprisingly large number of unmarried women have 
fallen into sexual promiscuity, that is so common among 
unmarried men of the same age. 
Chief among the influences which have lead a certain 
number of well-educated young women toward sexual 
freedom is radical printed matter. There is now in 
America a wide distribution of bold literature on “free 
love/’ some of it with a scientific superficiality, which 
will convince many beginners in the study of the sexual 
problems. Much of this literature is a translation or 
readaptation of European authors, but some of it is 
American in origin. 
Two other classes of atypic women are the one formed 
by unprotected girls from low-grade homes and environ- 
ments, and the uninformed girls from the best homes. 
These three groups may innocently or deliberately select 
the pathway to unchastity. For all of these, indeed for 
all women as well as men, the only solid foundation for 
their modes of thought, on which their mode of action 
must necessarily be based, is a systematic sex education 
begun in childhood and carried on through adolescence 
to manhood and womanhood. 
The Argument against the Theory of Free Love.— 
Were it not for the fact that this propaganda of “free 
love ” is doing our young people such a vast deal of harm, 
especially as it falls in with the natural desires of so many, 
it might be dismissed without further comment. FREE LOVE 
177 
First of all, the experience of the race has indubitably 
proved that monogamic marriage is in every way the 
best and highest form of sexual relationship; that it is 
essential to man’s highest development, the happiness of 
woman, the rights of the child, and the preservation of 
the family, of the state, and of the race. Great states- 
men in all ages have recognized the family as the essen- 
tial basis on which the State was founded; for example 
Augustus Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the present- 
day statesmen of Japan. When the family was threat- 
ened with disintegration because of the degeneracy of 
the times, they have always expended their best efforts 
in the passing of laws to prevent such disintegration. 
Freedom from restraint in sex relations inevitably 
leads the majority of men and women to over-indulgence, 
which seriously impairs health and efficiency. The one 
salient motive for the opposition to sex license was 
the necessity for preserving the virility of the young 
men for war. To-day athletes are enjoined to chastity, 
and indeed if a man would succeed in anything, he must 
hold all of his appetites in leash. Promiscuity means a 
continually renewed stimulus; the passion which quickly 
becomes normal and intermittent when it expends itself 
upon one object, is apt to become abnormal and a con- 
tinuous craving when it is solicited by a succession of 
novel and piquant attractions. The absence of tempta- 
tions will leave an instinct dormant which free opportu- 
nity to indulge will develop into an abnormal appetite. 
Nothing more quickly exhausts strength or ambition than 
absorption in sexual pleasures; we need to put our in- 
terests into something which instead of being inimical is 
proving to be the most advantageous. 
The direct inimical result of “free love” would fall 
very heavily on the masses of women who have no 178 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
especial sexual attraction. Because of certain practical 
consequences which experience teaches. “Free love” 
would mean that the best developed and prettiest girls 
would be besieged with solicitations, and almost inevit- 
ably debauched by the excess of temptation, while the 
less attractive would starve for love. It would mean 
jealousies, deserted lovers, and broken hearts. Free 
love is especially hard on woman, for she readily becomes 
attached and craves loyalty. Inconstancy, which is so 
common to man, often needs the pressure of laws and 
convention for its repression. This is not only the worst 
enemy of his own happiness, but the inevitable source 
of friction and clash between men and women. Life 
would become an irresponsible pleasure seeking, a mere 
butterfly existence; new affinities would constantly ap- 
pear on the horizon. The responsibility of parenthood 
would soon become nonexistent. 
Marriage was primarily instituted for the benefit of the 
offspring; the fruit of connubial intercourse has a much 
better prenatal chance of life than the illegitimate one; 
it will better stand the perils of birth and has much 
better prospects of being sufficiently nourished by the 
mother. During its early years of life, so fraught with 
danger as well as afterward, it will have better care and 
protection, and will in every way have a better start in 
life. Herein lies the great interest which society and 
the State have in marriage and the prevention of the 
procreation of illegitimate children. On these points 
statistics everywhere show the same results; that there 
are among these children both a greater number of 
stillbirths and a greater mortality in the early years of 
childhood. 
The Evolution of Morality.—Morality is none the less 
so when it is instinctive and natural. It is the general THE EVOLUTION OF MORALITY 
179 
name for certain redirection of impulses which appeared 
in animal life long before the emergence of what we may 
call man from his ape-like ancestry; all of our self-con- 
scious idealism is but a continuation and development 
of the process then begun. 
The most primitive men acknowledged a duty to their 
neighbors, and the subsequent advance of social morality 
has consisted in the more comprehensive answers to these 
questions. No men, however savage, are insensible to 
the attitude of their fellows toward them; the emotional 
response of others to their acts was from the beginning 
a powerful force for morality. When this attitude is 
explicitly expressed as praise, commendation, or honor 
on the one hand; or on the other as blame, contempt, 
ridicule, or rebuke, its power is well-nigh irresistible. 
Morality not only makes for life, it makes for happiness 
as well. All morality is of course regarded in one aspect, 
a restraint upon desires, a check upon impulse; rebel- 
liousness against its decrees will perpetually recur among 
unregenerate classes of people. As civilization advances, 
mere preservation counts for less and happiness for more. 
It is the underlying utility of morality which is of funda- 
mental importance. As a matter of fact, mankind in- 
herited from its brute ancestry instincts which unguided 
did them great harm. Without the development of 
some system of checks men would forever have been the 
prey of over-indulgence, of sexual wantonness, of civil 
strife, and apathy; they would have remained beasts 
and never have won dominion over the earth. Moral- 
ity has therefore been the greatest instrument of prog- 
ress, the most important part of the wisdom of the race. 
Yet this observable progress is not so certain of con- 
tinuance. With the lessening of the struggle for exist- 
ence, the disappearance of the danger from the wild 180 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
animals, and the increasing conquest over nature; 
the chief means of moral progress hitherto had been 
removed. More and more we must rely on man’s con- 
scious efforts, on personal consecration and self-mastery, 
on improved and extended legislation, on the growth of 
a moralized public opinion and on organizations and 
institutions which shall work for specific causes. 
With the growing complexity of society, new oppor- 
tunities for sin and new temptations continually arise. 
The battle-line moves on, but new foes constantly appear. 
On the whole our material and intellectual advance has 
far outrun our moral progress; and at the present time 
our chief need is to catch up morally. 
Cruel as have been the sufferings caused by war, and 
deplorable as are most of its effects, it did a great deal in 
the early stages of man’s history to promote the personal 
virtues; alertness, caution, courage, and efficiency. 
Tragic as the Great War has been, it is the general belief 
that this purging of the grossness of the world by fire 
will be followed by a great moral and spiritual uplift 
and the regeneration of mankind. CHAPTER VIII 
CELIBACY AN EXCRESCENCE OF 
MODERN CIVILIZATION 
Marriage a Duty to the Dace; Celibacy in the New 
England Colonies; Morality and the Law in the New 
England Colonies; Economic Conditions, One of the 
Chief Factors of Celibacy; the Effects on Celibacy of the 
Higher Education, and Culture of Women; the Problems 
oj Life-long Sexual Abstinence; Reflex Action of Celi- 
bacy on the Community. 
Marriage is a psychological factor, which is necessary for the 
highest physical welfare of both man and woman. So long as 
there are no morbid influences, no moral, or material troubles 
to contend against, the physique of men and women always im- 
proves as a consequence of their regular mode of life; and the 
commencement of senile decay is postponed. It is a well-known 
fact proven by statistics, that marriage has a beneficial influence 
on the duration of life. 
The fewer the people who marry, the greater will be the in- 
fidelity in marriage. Celibates are the enemies of married people 
and should only be admitted with discretion to their manage. 
Montesquieu. 
Marriage a Duty to the Race.—Among the savage and 
barbarous races of men, where the relation of the sexes 
under normal conditions takes the form of marriage; 
nearly every individual strives to get married as soon 
as he or she reaches puberty. Hence bachelors and spin- 
sters are almost unknown among them. Indeed, so 
indispensable does marriage seem to uncivilized man, 
that a person who does not marry is looked upon as 
almost unnatural; a being at any rate who is disdained. 182 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Among many of the early nations of ancient civiliza- 
tion, as we have seen, celibacy was looked upon as an 
impiety, because one who did not marry put the happi- 
ness of the manes of the family in peril. This was a 
misfortune, because he himself would receive no worship 
after death. A man’s happiness in the next world was 
supposed to depend on his having a continuous line of 
male descendants, whose duty it would be to make peri- 
odic offerings for the repose of his soul. 
Mohammedan peoples generally consider marriage a 
duty for both men and women. Marriage is enjoined 
upon every Mohammedan and celibacy is frequently 
condemned. “When the servant of God marries he 
perfects half of his religion,” said the Prophet. Once 
Mohammed inquired of a man if he were married and 
being answered in the negative, he asked: “Art thou 
sound and healthy?” When the man answered that he 
was, the Prophet angrily said: “Then thou art one of the 
brothers of the devil.” 
The ancient Greeks regarded marriage not merely as 
a matter of private but of public interest. This was 
particularly the case in Sparta, where criminal proceed- 
ings might be taken against those who married too late 
and against those who did not marry at all. Plato re- 
marked that every individual was bound to provide for a 
continuation of representatives to succeed himself, as 
ministers of the divinity. 
Just as among the ancients marriage was considered a 
religious duty which man owed his ancestors, so to-day 
marriage is a no less solemn duty that man owes to 
posterit and to the State. Especially is this true of the 
educated and professional classes, to transmit through 
the stream of life to future generations those splendid 
traits of moral discipline, intellectual acumen, civic CELIBACY IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 
183 
responsibility, and patriotism, which form the highest 
nobility of character, for which they are to a great degree 
indebted to their ancestry. 
Celibacy in the New England Colonies.—It may be an 
exaggeration to say that the Mosaic code was the corpus 
juris of the Puritan, but it is certain that the early private 
laws of New England were very greatly influenced by it. 
The family in many respects took on the patriarchial 
character. The sway of the house-father, though in the 
main just, became in theory despotic. Even the con- 
ception of marriage or civil contract gained support from 
Jewish laws. 
Old bachelors, though rare in New England, were 
looked upon with disfavor and regarded almost as “sus- 
pected criminals.” In 1762 a special order of the town 
of Windsor was necessary to permit “Isaac Sheldon and 
Samuel Rockwell to keep house together; so they carry 
themselves soberly and do not entertain idle persons to 
the evil expense of time by day or night.” Hartford 
taxed one man twenty shillings a week for the selfish 
luxury of solitary living. 
Even in the eighteenth century a general statute of 
Connecticut forbade, under a penalty of twenty shillings 
a week, any housekeeper or master of a family, without 
allowance of the selectmen, to give entertainment or 
habitation to a single person. “And such bourders, 
sojourners and young persons are required to attend to 
the worship of'God in the families where they live, and 
to be subject to the domestic government of the same, 
or else to forfeit five shillings for every breach of the law.” 
According to a New Haven law, in order to suppress 
the inconvenience and disorders inconsistent with the 
law of God in the fifth commandment, single persons not 
in service, or dwelling with their relatives, are forbidden 184 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
to diet or lodge alone; but they are required to live in 
licensed families. “And the governors of such families 
are ordered to observe the course, carriage and behavior 
of every such person; whether he or she walk diligently 
in a constant lawful employment, attending to both 
family duties and the public worship of God, and keep- 
ing good order day and night or not.” 
Similar measures were adopted by other colonies. The 
law of Plymouth provided that “Whereas great incon- 
venience has arisen by single persons in this colonie, 
being for themselves and not betaking themselves to 
live in well governed families; it is enacted by the court, 
that henceforth no single person be suffered to live by 
himself, or in any family but in such as the selectmen 
of the town shall approve of; and any person who shall 
refuse to attend to such orders shall be summoned to 
the court to be proceded with as the law shall require.” 
Spinsters.—In a society where marriages were formed 
very early, girls often wedding at sixteen or under, and 
where widows were wooed almost at the bier of the dear 
departed, it is not surprising if old maids were ridiculed 
and sometimes despised. A woman of the age of twenty- 
five became “an ancient maid.” John Dunton on the 
contrary in “HisLife and Errors” praises the woman who 
remained single, not from necessity but from choice; 
“and who knew that time is a dressing-room for eternity; 
and therefore uses most of her time for better purposes 
than those of the comb, the toilet and the glass.” At 
the age of thirty a spinster was called a “thornback,” 
but bachelors and thornbacks were not the only people 
who caused the lawmakers anxiety. The law kept a 
sharp eye on married persons not living with their mates. 
The colonists prescribed the death penalty for dis- 
obedience to parents, following the precepts of the Mosaic MORALITY AND LAW 
185 
law. Furthermore they attempted to regulate courtship 
by statute. Thus the court of Plymouth prohibited 
“any motion of marriage to any man’s daughter or mayde 
servant, without having first obtained leave of the parent 
or master, under penalty of fine and corporal punishment, 
in the discretion of the bench. But appeal is allowed to 
the magistrate, when the master through any sinister 
or covetous desires, withholds his consent.” 
Although parents might be prosecuted for unreason- 
ably denying any child timely or convenient marriage, 
it is evident that lovers had to be very circumspect in 
the old Colonial days. In a community where the power 
to dispose of a son or a daughter in wedlock was believed 
to be the gift of heaven, it is not strange that “allow- 
ance” was sometimes hard to get. 
Nor was the average New England house-father at all 
likely to let the sentiment get the better of prudence in 
seeking to make a match for his child. He was more 
apt to be governed by a spirit of cold calculation, which 
never for an instance lost sight of the “main chance.” 
Morality and the Law in the New England Colonies.— 
The colonists were extremely anxious to restrain vice 
by means of legislation. They were determined at all 
hazards to prevent unchastity and sexual crimes. The 
death penalty for adultery was prescribed in all of the 
New England colonies except Plymouth and Rhode 
Island, and the capital law of Massachusetts at any rate 
was not a dead letter. 
In Plymouth instead of the death penalty “the scarlet 
letter” was adopted as a permanent badge. A public 
whipping preceded, and if at any time the offender 
appeared in public without this stigma, he or she was 
burned in the face with a hot iron. In more humane 
Rhode Island, instead of either of the above penalties, 186 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the culprit was to be “publicly set on the gallows for one 
hour; and shall then be publicly whipped on his or her 
bared back, not exceeding thirty stripes. ’ ’ The way of the 
transgressor was hard indeed. 
Economic Conditions One of the Chief Factors of 
Modem Celibacy.—To those who have made no study 
of social science, the remarkable fact that among the 
possessing classes so many women remain unmarried and 
among the working classes so very few, may seem almost 
inexplicable; but the phenomenon is wholly one of eco- 
nomic causation. The chief cause of celibacy in modern 
society is the difficulty of supporting a family, and the 
importance of this factor is distinctly proved by statistics. 
In non-European countries, where a precocious civili- 
zation has not been introduced, the population is more 
nearly in proportion to the means of subsistence; and the 
peoples adopt their mode of life more readily, according 
to their circumstances. In most cases a man can earn 
his own living sooner and a wife, far from being a burden 
to her husband, is on the contrary a help to him, being 
his laborer or even his supporter. Moreover, children 
instead of requiring an education, which would absorb 
their father’s earnings, become on the contrary the source 
of income. 
To a certain extent the same thing is true of the agri- 
cultural classes of Europe. A peasant wife helps her 
husband in the field, tends the cattle, and takes part in 
the fishing. She cooks, washes, sews, spins and weaves. 
Even in the cities it is not among the poorest classes that 
celibacy is the most frequent. 
The young man belonging to the working classes ex- 
periences an urgent need, alike physical and economical, 
for a permanent life companion. Out of his slender 
wages he is unable to pay a woman to keep house for ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
187 
him and render him a little more comfortable, supervise 
his household expenditures, and mend and wash his 
clothing; nor is he in a financial condition to keep a con- 
cubine for the satisfaction of his sexual desires. He 
makes use of the brothel far less readily than the young 
men of the upper and middle classes. Besides, for the 
working man, purchasable satisfaction has this disad- 
vantage, that it costs money. Thus, by the sheer 
necessity of filling these two elementary needs, the young 
proletarian is obliged to take a wife; and he usually 
does this while in his first youth. 
These facts explain why it is that in a population in 
which there is no great numeric discrepancy between 
young men and young women between the ages of eight- 
een and thirty years of age, unmarried proletarian women 
over thirty years of age are very scarce. This depends 
on the fact that bachelor workmen are very few and far 
between. 
Then, too, a man requires more time to gain his living 
by intellectual than by material work. Thus miners, 
shoemakers, tailors, artisans, etc., who earn in youth 
almost as much as in adult life, marry as a rule 
earlier than the professional classes. In most European 
countries the decrease of marriage is also due to the 
drafting of young men into the army, and the retention 
of their enforced bachelorhood during the years when 
nature most strongly urges matrimony. Of course these 
conditions affect both men and women. 
Again, a “gentleman” before marrying thinks it neces- 
sary to have an income, a mere fraction of which would 
suffice for a married workman. He feels obliged to offer 
his wife a home in accordance to his social position and 
her own. Unless she brings him a fortune, she contrib- 
utes but little to the support of the family. It is obvious 188 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
that women have to suffer from this trouble more than 
men; the lives of many of them being comparatively 
useless and their pretension nevertheless so high. 
Another factor in the problem is the young woman’s 
attitude toward love and marriage. It is a lamentable 
fact that many wives lose interest in devoted husbands 
when children come. This is probably true in at least 
half of the families, and many matrimonial disharmonies 
are the result. This problem is especially important in 
these days when household inefficiency, personal extrava- 
gance, and the desire for social position of numerous 
young women of from twenty to thirty years of age is 
having an enormous influence in advancing the age of 
marriage, because many of the best types of young men 
pause and consider seriously the impossibility of adjust- 
ing a small salary to the ideas of their women friends as 
to what is the minimum of a family budget. Add to 
these facts a growing pessimism on the part of young 
men regarding the inconstant affection of wives with 
children, and the need of especial educational attack is 
evident. 
The need of marriage felt by the proletarian may be 
said to exist but little for the highly paid operatives 
forming the so-called aristocracy of labor. It does not 
exist at all for the young men of the upper middle classes. 
In case of the latter the reasons leading him to a loose 
life before marriage frequently operate to make him avoid 
marriage altogether. In the struggle for life to which he 
also is exposed, many years must usually pass, be he em- 
ploy6, merchant, or a member of one of the learned pro- 
fessions, before his means suffice for the support of a 
wife and children. 
When at length, as middle age approaches, he is well 
enough off to found a family, he has so often become hab- ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
189 
ituated to extraconjugal enjoyment that not even the 
desire so strong in many men for a male heir will drive him 
to abandon his easy and careless bachelor life to embark 
on the waters of matrimony. He is influenced also by 
certain social inconveniences resulting from marriage. 
He thinks with alarm of the rapacity of those women with 
marriageable daughters, of the young women whose aim 
in life is not true companionship with their husbands, 
but simply of an easy time for themselves. Above all, 
he considers that in every degree in which woman gains 
her freedom by marriage, a man loses his; and this in 
many cases deprives marriage of all of its attractions. 
Whereas before marriage, in accordance with the con- 
ventional code of sexual morals, all sexual irregularities 
are forgiven a man so long as he observes certain “ele- 
gancies,” once married, he is expected outwardly at 
least, to observe certain decencies. But fidelity to his 
wife will involve serious sacrifices. Anyone well ac- 
quainted with the force of habit, as exhibited in history 
and in individual human lives cannot fail to see how diffi- 
cult it is for a man who has experienced so many 
years of extraconjugal indulgence to accustom himself to 
monogamy, more especially when his wife is engaged in 
childbearing. 
Of course there are many men who voluntarily refuse 
to accept the risks, indignities, duties, hardships and 
trials of matrimonial life, but in the great majority of 
cases the primary cause of the celibacy of men is due to 
economic conditions. The number of young men who 
cannot afford to marry at the age when mating most 
strongly appeals to the human race is large enough to 
produce very serious results. The higher the class of 
work that the man is engaged in, the more likely he is to 
find himself in the bachelor class until he has reached or 190 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
passed middle age. The higher departments of science, 
law, medicine, literature, and the fine arts, are notori- 
ously starved in early manhood* 
It is now believed by many that when economic condi- 
tions are so improved that every young woman will be 
capable of making an honest and honorable living, that 
the street will make no more recruits and when by reason 
of woman’s economic help every young man can afford 
to marry, prostitution and bachelordom will die natural 
deaths. 
The average man has not yet become sufficiently dis- 
criminating to recognize the greater helpfulness and 
companionship of the intellectual girl over the society 
butterfly. For the general run of young men “the 
intellectual girl is about as attractive as a hair shirt,” 
and as the society girl has become more ease-loving and 
luxurious in her tastes, the demands of this class of 
women have become increasingly excessive, without 
affording any equivalent compensation. She belongs to 
the class of luxuries, such as yachts, motors, and other 
modern extravagances, which a man is obliged to do 
without, if he cannot afford them. 
For the present the importance of the psychic irradia- 
tions of love is shown perhaps more clearly from the 
results of their presence in old bachelors than from any 
other consideration. For the compensation of the void 
made by the absence of love and family, man has found 
his highest enjoyment in hard intellectual, scientific, 
or some other form of creative work, but in spite of 
this the old bachelor is notably cynical, pessimistic, 
and morose. Being acquainted only with the worst 
side of women, he wrongly attributes to all women 
the character of those with whom he has had the 
most intimate relations, and so becomes a misogynist. HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN 
191 
The philosopher, Schopenhauer, was a notable example 
of this class. 
The creative instinct is deeply implanted in every 
human being, and is almost universally manifested by 
the desire for offspring, as well as the instinct among men 
to hand down through future generations their name and 
line of descent. In these later days the creative instinct 
finds a normal outlet and mode of expression through 
invention, literature, music, and the arts; so with the 
progress of civilization, the desire for offspring has 
become less intense. Man’s first appreciation of woman 
was because of her fertility and his desire to found a 
family, and so to become the head of a powerful clan. 
The family, it is alleged, is in danger of disintegration 
through the tendency to individualism, which in many 
ways is so striking a characteristic of the age. Arising 
in urban and economic life, with a rise of the corporate 
and associated industries, comes a weakening of the home 
ties. Through division of labor the hearthstone is be- 
coming a mere temporary meeting place of individual 
wage earners. The congestion of population in cities 
is forming into a new and lower form of life; the tenement 
and sweating systems are destructive to the home. 
The Effects on Celibacy of the Higher Education and 
Culture of Women.—The fear that the higher education 
of woman in connection with her growing independence, 
will be harmful to society through her refusal of matri- 
mony appears to be groundless. According to Dike, 
the demand for her enfranchisement, either as a right 
or on the ground of expediency, grows out of treating her 
as an individual whose relations to society are less a 
matter of condition and more a matter of personal choice. 
We have seen that the present economic conditions 
are the chief factor in late marriages and the falling 192 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
birth rate; therefore, as college women form only three 
per cent, of all women, this would not appreciably affect 
the general marriage rate. 
Further than this, the average age at which women 
marry depends greatly on the age of civilization. Ploss 
has justly pointed out that the ruder a people is, and the 
more exclusively woman is regarded as an object of desire 
or a slave, the earlier in life she is generally chosen; 
whereas, if marriage becomes a union of souls as well as 
of bodies, the man claims a higher degree of mental 
maturity from the woman he wishes to be his wife. 
In modern times, with the general diffusion of education 
and culture, the new inventions and discoveries of the 
age, the increase of commerce, intercourse and wealth, 
the tastes of men and women have broadened, their 
desires have multiplied, and new gratifications and pleas- 
ures have been supplied to them. With the comforts 
offered by the club for either man or woman, the domestic 
circle does not fill so large a place in life as formerly. 
Married life in some measure has lost its advantages over 
single life. It is also believed that the development of 
the mental faculties has made the sexual impulse less 
powerful; that instinct is said to be most excessive in 
animals who have the least intelligence. Idiots are 
known to display gross sensuality. The suggestion that 
the decrease of the sexual desire is a necessary attendant 
upon mental evolution cannot by any means be consid- 
ered to have been scientifically proved. A higher 
degree of forethought and self-control have put a check 
upon human passions. They are restrained by powerful 
bit and rein. 
Finally, there can be no doubt that the higher develop- 
ment of refinement has helped to increase the number of 
those who have remained single. By the diffusion of a HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN 
193 
finer culture through the community, men and women 
can less easily find any one whom they are willing to 
take as a partner for life; their requirements are more 
exacting, their standards of excellence higher, they 
are less able to find anyone who can satisfy their ideals, 
and they are in turn less able to satisfy the ideals of 
anybody else. Men and women are also beginning to 
have a livelier sense of the seriousness of the married 
union and the high motives alone from which it should 
be formed; they are less willing to contract it from the 
lower ones. 
Then too the general culture among women of the 
wealthy, the well-to-do, and educated classes is of a much 
higher grade than that of their brothers and husbands. 
When a young man graduates from college, if he does 
not enter on a professional career he immediately goes 
into business, while the daughters of these same families, 
whether college graduates or not, spend a great deal of 
time in foreign travel, visiting old historic scenes and 
the marvelous architecture of Europe’s wonderful old 
cathedrals, studying the masterpieces of the greatest 
painters and sculptors in the world. Added to this, 
travel itself through such magnificent scenery as parts 
of Europe affords, broadens the vision and uplifts the 
senses, so her tastes become cultivated. In her travels 
she naturally meets many men of leisure and culture, 
and not unnaturally compares them with the other 
young men of her acquaintance. The comparison, from 
the cultural point of view, is rather damning to America’s 
sons.1 Woman, as a rule, knows too little of the world of 
men to discriminate between polish and veneer and the 
1 All this has been changed by the War, as man comes home 
with such a broadened vision as has hitherto been unknown to 
the human race. 194 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
man of sterling worth, whose greatest sin has been that 
he has been so wrapped up, body and soul, in concentra- 
tion of all his energies on the accumulation of wealth, as 
to have no time left for that intellectual culture which 
gives refinement to the habit of life and manners, and 
affords the real joy of living. 
This double standard of education of men and women 
is doubtless one of the great causes of that lack of matri- 
monial harmony which so often ends in the divorce courts. 
Boys and girls, instead of having been fitted by their 
education and training to become life companions, are 
scarcely fitted to live in the same class, to say nothing 
of living in the same house. The great weakness in the 
education of girls has been that the fact has not been 
recognized that if they are to becomes wives and co- 
workers with their husbands, they must be trained for 
their work. Their education, if such it can be called, 
has been too haphazard; too many have been mere butter- 
flies of fashion. 
It may be taken as an axiom that no girl or young 
woman ever started out in life with the fixed or even 
vague intention of becoming a spinster. On the con- 
trary we have seen that the sole vocation of woman was 
to get married. This pre-supposed being taken care of, 
and involved no preparation, training, or responsibilities 
on the part of the girl; so their fives have been spent like 
driftwood, floating down the current of time until they 
could make a good “catch.” 
Never has a greater fallacy been promulgated than 
the belief that the educated classes of girls remain un- 
married because they shirk the responsibilities of mother- 
hood. A girl or woman who has so lost her best instincts 
of motherhood will and often does marry; such a girl 
will promise anything before marriage and afterward 
see to it that there are no children. HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN 
195 
In the law of nature water seeks its own level. If a 
girl is going to be happily married, it must be to a man 
of her own class who has enjoyed equally good oppor- 
tunities for culture and whose tastes are similar. For 
these reasons her opportunities of meeting men whom she 
considers eligible are fewer; and as she grows older, her 
actual opportunities for marriage grow less. 
Moreover, there are many women of admirable char- 
acter, strong, capable, and independent, who dislike the 
domestic habits of men. They have no natural turn 
for mothering and coddling them, and find the concessions 
to conjugal rights in the present state of matrimony 
intolerable to their self-respect, yet the general sense 
of the community recognizes in these very women the 
fittest people to have charge of their children, and see 
a good deal of maternal ability expended on general 
philanthropic works of a very high character. These 
are the very women who in the highest interests of the 
race should become mothers, but they place a very high 
price on wifehood and motherhood, and are only willing 
to bear such children as will continue their own high 
intellectual and moral standards. 
Run over in your mind the notable women of America 
who have remained unmarried; among them you will 
find women of great wealth, noted philanthropists, 
writers, teachers, musicians, artists, and professional 
women. We dare venture the assertion that any one 
of these women would tell you that the ideal life was 
a happy married life, and that no home was complete 
without children. 
The modern woman, like Brunhilde of old, has set up 
certain tests for the prize. If the man would win her he 
must excel in those tests for which she herself is notable: 
the physical, moral, intellectual, and cultural. 196 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
It is generally conceded that the void left in normal 
woman by the absence of love is greater than in man; 
yet her natural energy and perseverance, combined with 
her power of devotion, enable her to concentrate all of 
her energies on her chosen line of work, which is to a 
large degree compensatory. As the various vocations, 
intellectual and other pursuits, have been thrown open 
to women, she not only finds here the fulfilment of her cre- 
ative needs, but the world is also greatly enriched and 
her maternal instincts lead her to the highest deeds of 
altruism. 
The Problem of Life-long Sexual Abstinence.—We 
have seen that up to the age of twenty-five years, sexual 
abstinence is essential for the complete and highest 
development of the individual. In view of all the evi- 
dence we can scarcely escape the conviction that while 
in the majority of cases sexual abstinence is not incom- 
patible with health, there are yet many adults, both 
men and women, for whom it is harmful, and a very 
much larger number for whom, when too prolonged, it 
is undesirable. 
With women who are endowed with strong passions 
and reckless impulses to abandonment, the results may 
be highly enervating, if not disastrous, to the general 
psychic life. It is to this cause that some have been in- 
clined to attribute the mediocre work of women in artistic 
and general intellectual fields. Women of intellectual 
force are frequently, if not generally, women of strong 
passions; and if they resist the tendency to merge them- 
selves in the duties of maternity, their lives are often 
wasted in emotional conflict and their psychic lives are 
impoverished. 
In the working classes the mature woman who remains 
a maid, in the strict physiologic sense of the term, is LIFE-LONG SEXUAL ABSTINENCE 
197 
altogether an abnormal phenomenon. The preservation 
of virginity depends upon continued supervision and 
satisfactory housing conditions. The working girl 
knows neither the one nor the other. With rare excep- 
tions, among such wage-earning women as factory girls, 
agricultural workers, and house servants, none over thirty 
years of age remain unmarried. 
Many, though not all, who deny that prolonged sexual 
abstinence is harmless include women in this statement. 
There are some authorities who believe that whether 
or not any conscious sexual desire is present, sexual ab- 
stinence is less well tolerated by women than men. 
A great many women who are healthy, chaste, and mod- 
est feel at times powerful sexual desires. Numerous 
distinguished gynecologists have recorded their belief 
that sexual abstinence is the cause of various of the 
diseases of the female sexual organs. 
Freud contends that many of the neuroses of civiliza- 
tion are caused by the repression of the sexual instincts. 
To make this assertion of any value, very extensive and 
carefully prepared statistics would have to be compiled, 
comparing the physical condition of the single with that 
of the married woman of the same class. Then, too, 
when every woman has a definite vocation, which ab- 
sorbs her entire interests and energies, just as the man 
of to-day has, we shall be in a better position to judge 
the effects of sexual abstinence on her physical and psy- 
chic well being. 
Bebel says: “When we consider the intensity of the 
sexual impulses, we cannot be surprised at the effects 
which abstinence at a mature age exercises upon the 
nervous system and the whole constitution. . . The 
degree of perfection which any man or woman can obtain 
depends upon the manner in which the impulses and vital 198 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
manifestations show themselves in sex; and on the extent 
with which sexual life finds expression in organic and 
spiritual development, in form and character. Only 
when this expression is complete can the individual 
reach his own completeness.” 
Reflex Action of Celibacy on the Community.—Those 
people who avoid marriage in order not to diminish their 
luxuries, or to lose their independence or convenience, 
should be considered as a sporadic social evil. They 
not only fail in their duty to the State and to the race, but 
they endanger the integrity of the family circle. In 
the words of Virey: “They are like the stones detached 
from the arch of an edifice, which only accelerate its 
ruin.” Even in marrying late in life the majority form 
those marriages, which are disproportionate in age, and 
so constitute a physiologic scandal. They cannot be 
happily married, nor procreate healthy children. 
The tendency to irregular relations between the sexes 
has increased with the progress of civilization. It has 
been proved in the cities of Europe that prostitution 
increases as marriage decreases, also that the fewer 
marriages contracted in a year, the greater the number of 
illegitimate births. 
It must not be forgotten that marriage sustains moral- 
ity, society, and the laws, while on the other hand celi- 
bacy tends toward prostitution, adultery, illegitimacy, 
and depopulation. The longer celibacy is prolonged, the 
more illegitimacy is promoted. The increase of illegiti- 
macy is closely correlated to the late deferred period of 
marriage of young people, till a position is established 
and military service is completed. 
It has been observed that when a State is on its way 
to ruin, whether by bad government or excessive ine- 
quality of fortune, the number of marriages, as well as of REFLEX ACTION OF CELIBACY ON COMMUNITY 
199 
the population decreases. On the contrary, that coun- 
try which is well governed and has the greatest number 
of inhabitants who are able to marry, and to establish 
and maintain families, has an enviable vigor. 
Westermarck says marriage is the natural form of the 
sexual relations of man. Far from being a relic of the 
primitive life of man, irregularity is in this respect an 
anomaly arising chiefly from circumstances associated 
with certain stages of development. Prostitution is rare 
among people living in a state of nature and unaffected 
by foreign influences. It is contrary to woman’s feelings, 
as involving a suppression of natural inclinations. CHAPTER IX 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LOVE, MODESTY AND 
DRESS: OF COURTSHIP, COQUETRY, 
AND FLIRTATION 
Rut and Love; Sexual Selection Based on Love and Calcu- 
lation; Amorous Intoxication; Durable Love; Jealousy; 
the Evolution of Modesty and Dress; Modesty Simply 
the Result of Clothing; Clothing Used as a Protection 
against the Lusts of Men; the Husband’s Jealousy the 
Cause of the Adoption of Clothes; Man Really Consti- 
tutes the Modest Sex; the Psychology of Dress; Woman’s 
Dress and Adornments in Ancient Civilization; Woman’s 
Dress in the Renaissance; Woman’s Dress of the Present 
Day; Woman’s Dress in the New Democracy; the Psy- 
chology of Courtship and Coquetry; Flirtation. 
The influence of all the other passions which agitate the human 
heart could not begin to balance that of love, which inflames the 
senses and fascinates the reason. Love is one of the most powerful 
factors of civilization; it is celebrated in the most sublime works 
of art, of the most noble, poetic, and musical creations. It is 
the underlying cause of the family and of social life. 
On the other hand we fear love as a destructive flame; it is 
that which has engendered more misery, vice, and crime than all 
other calamities put together. Love is so prodigious; its influence 
is so enormous upon the psychic life, and the most diverse func- 
tions of the nervous system. Nevertheless comparative biology 
and the history of development lead us surely and indubitably to 
the most ancient and simple form of love, that is to the elective 
affinity of two different cells, the spermatic cell and the ovule. 
—Letourneau. 
Rut and Love.—With the greater development of the 
nervous system, and finally when the consciousness of 
life awoke in the nerve centers, the great generative SEXUAL SELECTION 
201 
system assumed an entirely different aspect. In the 
animal hierarchy reproduction is effected unconsciously 
in a wholly mechanical manner, but among human 
beings the generative act is a true expansion, both phys- 
ically and psychically, and this expenditure of physical 
and psychic force has for its object the bringing together 
of the cells of generation. 
Human inclinations and the hereditary instincts sprang 
up by a habituation which is determined in the nervous 
cells by a sufficient repetition of the same acts. The 
genesic instinct could not have had any other origin. 
During the very long period of their evolution the an- 
imal species are produced at first unconsciously by the 
very simple processes that we observe in certain zoophy- 
tes. Then the primitive animal essays are differentiated 
and perfected; having acquired special organs they 
divide the biologic labor. From that point the exercise 
of life is retained in the nerve centers. It has awakened 
there impressions and desires, whose energy corresponds 
strictly to the importance of the functions. Now the 
most primordial of the functions is that of generation, 
since upon that depends the propagation of the species. 
Among a number of animals the rut explodes like a 
kind of madness. Little or big, the psychic faculties of 
the animal are always abnormally excited and they go 
beyond their ordinary plane, but all tend to one supreme 
end, the necessity for generation. At this moment 
some kinds of wild and unsocial animals can no longer 
endure solitude; males and females seek each other, and 
sometimes one even sees them form small groups or 
provisional societies that dissolve after the mating 
season. 
Sexual Selection Based on Love and Calculation.— 
Sexual desire is the passion which unites the sexes, 202 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The stimulating impressions produced by health, youth, 
beauty, ornaments and other artificial means of attrac- 
tion are all elements of this feeling. 
In the lower stage of human development marital 
affection is much inferior in intensity to the tender affec- 
tion of parents toward their children, and among several 
peoples it appears to be almost unknown. Though origi- 
nally of much less intensity than parental love, especially 
on the side of the mother, yet it seems in its most primi- 
tive form to be almost as old as marriage itself. It 
must have been a certain degree of affection that induced 
the male to defend the female during her period of preg- 
nancy; but often it is the joint care of the offspring 
more than anything else that makes the married couple 
attached to each other. 
Marital affection has not only increased, but has also 
become more refined as altruism has developed and 
civilization has advanced. In Eastern countries which 
retain their ancient civilizations, there exists even now 
little of that tenderness toward women, which is one of 
the principle charms of our own family life. The object 
with which a Hindu marries is not to gain a companion 
to help him endure the evils of life, but a slave to bear 
him children and be subservient to his rule. 
At the time of puberty an ardent desire, a powerful 
impulse, arises in the nervous system, which attracts the 
individual toward the opposite sex. The care and 
pleasure of self-preservation, which has hitherto occu- 
pied his whole attention, becomes effaced by this new 
impulse. The desire to procreate predominates every- 
thing. A single pleasure, a single desire, a single passion 
lays hold of the entire organism and urges it toward an 
individual of the opposite sex, to become united with it 
in contact and penetration. It is as if the nervous sys- SEXUAL SELECTION 
203 
tem or the whole organism felt as if it had for the moment 
become a germinal cell, so powerful is its desire to unite 
with the other sex. 
If we look at nature we see everywhere the same desire 
and the same attraction of the sexes for each other, but 
in the lower organisms desire consists only in sexual 
instinct and appetite; as soon as the function is accom- 
plished desire disappears. It is only in the higher 
animals that we see more or less durable sympathy devel- 
oped between the two sexes. However, here also, even 
in man, the sexual passion intoxicates for the moment all 
of the senses. In his sexual passion man is dominated 
as if by a magic influence, and for the time being he sees 
the world only under the aspect of this influence. Each 
moment of his amorous feeling inspires sentiments which, 
it seems to him, should last eternally. He swears 
impossible things and believes in immortal happiness, 
but as soon as the orgasm is ended and the appetite satis- 
fied, the feeling of satiety appears. It is from the point 
of view of the intellect, sentiment, and will, that the sexual 
appetite must be considered, to make it comprehensible. 
Love with all that pertains to it belongs to the mind; 
that is, to the activity of the cerebral hemispheres, but 
it is produced there by secondary irradiation from the 
sexual appetite. Having entered the higher brain or 
organ of the mind, it becomes modified, complicated, and 
combined with the different branches of psychic activity; 
the sexual appetite then takes the name of love properly 
so-called. The irradiations of love in the mind consti- 
tute one of the fundamental conditions of human happi- 
ness and one of the principle objects of life. 
First of all, love usually appears to be kindled by 
sexual appetite. However, the relations between love 
and sexual appetite are very delicate and complex. In 204 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
man the second may exist without the first, and love may 
often persist without appetite, while in woman the two 
things are hard to separate, and in her case original 
appetite without love is rare. 
It may also happen that love precedes appetite, and 
this often leads to the most happy unions. Two charac- 
ters may have extreme mutual sympathy, and this purely 
intellectual and sentimental sympathy may at first 
develop without a shadow of sensuality. In modern 
society an enormous number of sexual unions are con- 
summated without a trace of love, and are based on pure 
speculation, conventionality, or fortune. Here it is 
tacitly assumed that normal sexual appetite, combined 
with custom, will cement the marriage and render it 
durable. 
What the normal woman requires is love, tenderness, a 
firm support for life, a certain chivalrous nature, and 
children. She can renounce the voluptuous sensations of 
coitus infinitely more easily than these other things, 
which are for her the chief ones. Nothing makes a 
woman more indignant than the indifference of her hus- 
band, when for instance he treats her simply as a house- 
keeper. Woman is sensual in a manner different from 
man, not more nor less so. 
All of the peculiarities of the sexual appetite in woman 
are thus the combined products of first, the profound 
influence of the sexual functions on her whole existence; 
second, by her passive sexual role; and third, by her 
especial mental faculties. By these and more especially 
her passive sexual role are explained her instinctive 
coquettishness and her love of finery and personal adorn- 
ment; in a word, her desire to please men by her external 
appearance, by her looks, movements, and grace. These 
phenomena betray the instinctive sexual desires of the AMOROUS INTOXICATION 
205 
young girl, which do not normally correspond to a direct 
desire for coitus. 
Amorous Intoxication.—The affinities are at once 
apparent. A man and woman meet and take a fancy 
to each other. The reciprocal action of looks, speech, 
touch; in fact all of the apparatus of the senses and the 
mind awaken in both of them sentiments of sympathy 
and sexual desire, which mutually strengthen each other. 
Sexual desire invests every action and the appearance of 
the loved one with an ever-increasing halo of charm 
and splendor. This halo, of sexual origin, increases in 
its turn the sentiments of sympathy, while the sentiments 
of sympathy increase the sexual desire. In this way 
mutual suggestion grows like a snowball and rapidly 
attains the culminating point of amorous intoxication, 
or what is called “being madly in love.” 
All of this depends on reciprocal illusion. The more 
violent and foolish the amorous intoxication without 
the preparation of reflection, and the less the indi- 
viduals know each other, the more rapidly the illusion 
collapses like a house of cards, as soon as some douche 
of cold water sobers the two lovers. 
It is a well-known law, generally forgotten in human 
calculations, that man loves best those to whom he devotes 
himself, and not those from whom he receives benefits. 
When one of the conjoints in marriage adulates the other, 
the latter may easily find this adulation quite natural; 
and may love the other conjoint much less than a spoiled 
child, to which is devoted all of the transports of an 
unreasonable affection. The spoiled child, the object of 
such blind affection, more often responds to it by in- 
difference or even by ingratitude, disdain, and imperti- 
nence. This is an explanation for the attraction which 
morons have for intellectual men; they call out in them 206 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the highest type of fatherly instinct for molding and 
training the girl,- as they believe, to their own high ideals 
of life, not at the time comprehending that such sub- 
normal brain capacity cannot be developed perhaps 
beyond the sixteenth year of life. 
To be complete, love must be reciprocal, and to remain 
mutual it requires education in marriage. Every hus- 
band should be separated, above all, from himself, and 
not from his wife. If each one did all in the limits of 
his power to promote the happiness of the other, this 
altruistic effort would strengthen his own sentiments 
of sympathy. This requires a constant and loyal effort 
on each side, but it avoids the illusion of a false love 
provoked by the senses, and vanishing like smoke or 
becoming changed into hatred. 
Durable Love.—Certainly there lies at the root of all 
love the unconscious search for the ideal, but for an 
ideal in a concrete, personal form, incarnate for the 
moment in an individual. By a process of mental 
abstraction similar to that which draws from the percep- 
tions the most general ideas, the concrete image is trans- 
formed into a vague scheme, a concept, an absolute 
ideal; and we have a purely intellectual, Platonic, 
mystical love, the emotion being wholly intellectualized. 
In this ascending evolution from the instinctive to 
the idealistic form there is a decisive moment, namely 
the appearance of the individual choice. This is the 
especial criterion which differentiates instinct from emo- 
tion. At bottom the irresistible element is the sexual 
instinct, because of which it only exists; instinctive 
activity alone has such power. 
It may be stated as a principle that true and elevated 
love is durable, and that the sudden passion which sets 
loose the sexual appetite toward an individual of the DURABLE LOVE 
207 
opposite sex, hitherto a stranger, in no way represents 
the measure of true love. Passion warps the judgment, 
conceals the most evident faults, presents everything in 
celestial colors, renders the lovers blind, and veils the 
true character of each from the other. This is why 
sudden amours are always dangerous, and why only 
long and profound mutual acquaintance before marriage 
can lead to a happy and lasting union. Even in this 
case the unforeseen is not absent, for it is very rarely 
that one knows a man and his ancestry. 
Affection depends to a very high degree upon sympa- 
thy, each mutually strengthening the other. Commu- 
nity of interests, sentiments, culture and mode of life 
are essential to close sympathy, and therefore favorable 
to warm affection. If love is excited by contrasts, it is 
only within certain limits. The contrasts must not be 
so great as to exclude sympathy. Great difference of age 
is fatal to this. 
It is to this want of affection and sympathy between 
different layers of society, together with the vain desire 
of keeping the blood pure, that the prohibition of mar- 
riage out of class or the general avoidance of such 
marriages owes its origin. 
Difference in religion as well as in nationality has also 
formed a great barrier to marriage. It is mainly religion 
that has kept the Jews a comparatively pure race. The 
Roman Church prohibits marriage with Protestants and 
with Jews. It is a noteworthy fact that in countries 
which are partly Protestant and partly Roman Catholic, 
mixed marriages form only a small per cent, of the 
marriages. 
There can be no true companionship where the 
husband and wife are not equals in birth; that is, in 
ancestry, education, environment, altruistic and religious 208 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
sentiments, and economic independence. Love is sure 
to die if a woman is merely either a man’s housekeeper 
or an expensive exotic plant. Each must share in the 
household economics and in the rearing of the children. 
Love has often been defined as a dual egoism. When, 
after mature deliberation, a man and a woman are led 
by sexual attraction, combined with harmony of charac- 
ter, to form a union in which they stimulate each other to 
social work, commencing this work with their mutual 
education and that of their children, such may be de- 
fined as ideal love. 
Such a conception of love refines this sentiment and 
purifies it to such an extent that it loses all of the petti- 
ness which so often causes it to degenerate, even in its 
most loyal form. The social work in common of a man 
and woman united by true affection, full of tenderness 
for one another, mutually encouraging one another to 
perseverance and action, will easily triumph over petty 
jealousies and all other instinctive reactions of the phylo- 
genetic exclusiveness of natural love. The sentiments 
of love will thus even become more and more ideal, and 
will no longer provide egoism with the soil of idleness 
and comfort, on which it grows like a weed. 
Jealousy.—The worst irradiation which we have in- 
herited from our animal ancestors, and that which is 
most deeply rooted, is jealousy. This passion has a 
very instinctive character and is profoundly hereditary. 
Jealousy is a heritage of both animalism and barbarism; 
it is ten times better for a woman to marry an unfaithful 
husband than a jealous one, and very far better not to 
marry either. Jealousy transforms marriage into hell. 
On the part of the husband there is perpetual suspicion 
accompanied by insults, threats, and violent words, and 
even homicide may be the result of this atrocious passion. THE EVOLUTION OP MODESTY AND DRESS 
209 
While jealousy on the part of the wife may be less 
brutal, it is just as unendurable; this jealousy extends 
not only to other women, but to the husband’s family, 
his male friends, and all of his pleasures and enjoyments. 
It is more instinctive and more constantly nagging; it 
manifests itself by quarrels, needle pricks, chicanery, 
tears and petty tyrannies, and the wife poses in public as 
a martyr to a brutal husband, while in the domestic 
circle she is a very devil. If a man is of a highly chival- 
rous nature he frequently takes to drink in order to 
forget his troubles or he may commit suicide. All physi- 
cians are familiar with such cases. The point to be em- 
phasized is that in America at any rate this is more often 
a trait of the wife than of the husband. This is one of 
the very worst traits of the human mind; it should be 
looked out for before betrothal and it is more than suffi- 
cient cause for breaking an engagement. 
The Evolution of Modesty and Dress.—Modesty has 
been defined as an almost instinctive fear prompting to 
concealment, usually centering around the sexual proc- 
esses. While common to both sexes, it has usually 
been considered so peculiarly feminine as to be classed 
as a secondary psychic characteristic of woman. 
“It is clear,” wrote Stendhal, “that three parts of 
modesty are taught. This is perhaps the only law born 
of civilization which produces nothing but happiness 
. . . Love is the miracle of civilization.” 
There are various theories of modesty as denoted by 
the adoption of clothing, when not required as a protec- 
tion against climate. (1) It has generally been observed 
by travelers that very many nude peoples are extremely 
modest. (2) It is believed by many that primeval 
woman used clothing as a protection against the lust of 
man. (3) By others it is believed that the jealousy of 210 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
the husband obliged his woman to cover her body or 
parts of it from the gaze of other men. (4) Modesty is 
foreign to a child, and therefore it is the result of con- 
vention and education. (5) Modesty, far from being a 
natural characteristic of woman, is only an assumed atti- 
tude on her part, and it is really man who constitutes the 
the modest sex. (6) Dress is used by woman as a means 
of sexual attraction. 
The significance of such an inquiry becomes greater 
when we reflect that to the reticence of sexual modesty, 
in its progression, expansion, and complication, we owe 
largely not only the refinement and development of the 
sexual emotions, but also the subtle and pervading 
part which the sexual instinct has played in all human 
cultures. 
1. Modesty Simply as the Result of Clothing.—Many 
psychologists, including Sergi, have regarded modesty 
simply as the result of clothing. The view is completely 
overturned by the well-ascertained fact that many races 
which go absolutely naked possess a highly developed 
sense of modesty. 
Numerous travelers have remarked that there is noth- 
ing indecent in absolute nakedness, when the eye has 
gotten accustomed to it. Custom familiarizes them to 
each other’s eyes as much as if they went about muffled 
up in garments. Wallace remarks that there is much 
more immodesty in the transparent and flesh colored 
garments of our stage dancers than in the perfect nudity 
of the daughters of the forest. And Rowley says: “Your 
sense of propriety is far less offended than in England, 
where ample clothing is made the vehicle of asserting de- 
fiance if not of the actual law, yet the wishes and feelings 
of the most virtuous of the community.” 
There are several instances where people who habitu- CLOTHING AS PROTECTION AGAINST LUST 
211 
ally go naked, sometimes use a covering simply as a 
means of attraction. For instance we are told that 
among the Saliras only harlots clothe themselves, and 
they do so to attract through the unknown. What how- 
ever does excite the youth or man in the female sex is 
anything unusual, the sight of certain parts of the skin 
which are usually covered, the clothes, or ornaments. 
The sexual appetite of boys among savage peoples is not 
at all excited by the sight of naked girls; on the other 
hand it is strongly excited by those who are clothed or 
ornamented in a peculiar manner. 
Ideas of modesty are different in every country and 
change at different periods of time. These ideas of 
modesty are therefore relative and conventional. It is 
not the feeling of shame which has provoked the covering, 
but the covering which has provoked the feeling of shame. 
It has been remarked that this feeling is founded upon 
the dread of being condemned or ill thought of by others, 
undoubtedly one of the most powerful motives of human 
actions. Custom is as potent among savage nations as 
law has ever been among civilized ones. 
These facts appear to prove that the feeling of shame, 
far from being the original cause of man's covering his 
body, is on the contrary the result of this custom; and 
the covering, if not used as a protection against the 
climate, owes its origin in the majority of cases to the 
desire of men and women to make themselves mutually 
attractive. 
2. Clothing Used as a Protection against the Lusts of 
Men.—In primitive times woman was a form of booty; 
she was the prey of conquerors in war and the prize of 
the successful single rival in private combat. She 
had every reason to be on her guard against the brutality 
of the male in sexual matters. Thus a dread of the male, 212 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
that is to say, of men in general, has come to dominate her 
life, and it became instinctive in women to conceal from 
the masculine gaze those parts of her body which are 
capable of stimulating man’s sexual desires and of expos- 
ing women to sexual aggression. From this point of 
view the sense of modesty is a consequence of fear, or a 
preventive measure, as it were, against the uncontrolled 
sexual desires of the male. This defensive character of 
modesty is still manifest. 
3. The Husband’s Jealousy the Cause of the Adoption 
of Clothes.—With the conception of woman as property 
was emphasized the importance and necessity of cloth- 
ing, and indirectly of modesty. Waitz, followed by 
Letourneau and Schurz, has insisted that the jealousy of 
husbands is the primary origin of clothing, and therefore 
of modesty. Diderot in the last century had already 
given expression to the same view. It is undoubtedly 
true that married women alone are often clothed, and 
that the unmarried woman, although full grown, remains 
naked. In many parts of the world also, where the men 
are naked and the women covered, clothing is regarded 
as a sort of disgrace, and men can only with difficulty be 
persuaded to adopt it. 
Before marriage a woman was often free, not bound to 
chastity, and at the same time often naked; after mar- 
riage she was clothed and no longer free. To the hus- 
band’s mind the garments appear, illogically although 
naturally, a moral and physical protection against any 
attacks on his property. As the conception of property 
also extended to the rights of fathers over their daughters, 
and the appreciation of female chastity developed, this 
motive spread to the unmarried as well as to the married 
women. It probably constituted the chief element 
furnished to the complex emotion of modesty by the 
barbarous stages of civilization. HUSBAND’S JEALOUSY AND CLOTHES 
213 
When civilization slowly emerged from barbarism, this 
chief new feature became elaborated into a sort of social 
ritual. Civilization expanded the range of modesty 
and at the same time rendered it more changeable. This 
is particularly striking in the attention devoted to the 
elaboration of the most minute details of modesty by the 
French, in the seventeenth century, and by the English, 
in the eighteenth. 
Modesty thus came to have the force of a tradition, a 
vague but massive force which has always borne down 
heavily upon advancing civilization. Even fashion in 
civilized countries can easily inhibit anatomic modesty, 
and rapidly exhibit or accentuate in turn almost any part 
of the body. There is no single part of the human body 
which has not, at some time or place, been regarded as 
the center of human modesty. Moreover, shame has no 
necessary relation with morality. 
Psychologists are pretty well agreed that on the whole 
modesty does not become a more prominent emotion as 
civilization advances; modesty in becoming extended did 
not necessarily become intensified. On the contrary, 
this very expansion was a sign of weakness. Among 
savages modesty is far more ineradicable than among 
civilized peoples. The mere fact that in ancient Greece, 
the very front of modern civilization, manners and cus- 
toms were current, which were hardly possible in associa- 
tion with a highly developed sense of modesty, would 
appear to sustain this theory. Anthropologists have 
found a very highly developed sense of shame among 
people extremely low in the social scale. Among all 
primitive races the necessity for concealing the sexual 
organs from the sight of strangers is strongly felt. 
In Rome male athletes were entirely naked until the 
end of the fourth century, A.D.; and during the August 214 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
festival the women appeared naked in the theater or 
while swimming in the large baths. It was not until the 
sixth century that woman was forbidden to expose her- 
self in public unless she wore at least short drawers 
covering the lower part of the abdomen. This is the 
first reference to this theatric garment. 
It was not until the sixteenth century that the shirt 
began to be worn in Germany. From this fact, as well 
as from the custom of public bathing, it would seem that 
among the German people the sight of complete naked- 
ness was the daily rule up to this time. Everyone 
undressed completely before going to bed, and in the 
vapor bath no covering was used. 
It was at the epoch when Calvinism began to flourish 
that nudity was first proscribed by custom, taking 
refuge in art, which alone preserved the tradition of it. 
In the early part of the seventh century the custom of 
nakedness appears to have been nearly universal. 
Taine pointed out that it was in France, during the 
eighteenth century, that the idea developed that modesty, 
like dress, is a convention. From this the pendulum 
naturally swung to the other extreme of prudery. Mary 
Wollstoncraft quotes the following remarks. ‘‘When a 
lady was asked if women might be instructed in the 
modern system of botany, she emphatically replied: 
‘They cannot!’ In the present century a knowledge of 
the physiology of plants is not usually considered incon- 
sistent with modesty, but a knowledge of animal physi- 
ology is still so considered by many. 
4. Man Really Constitutes the Modest Sex.—The 
feminine instinct of shame is not the outcome of any 
natural instinct; the child knows nothing of it. It is a 
well-known fact that a child left to itself, though very 
bashful, is wholly devoid of modesty. Under civilized THE MODEST SEX 
215 
conditions the conventions of modesty long precede its 
development. It may fairly be stated that this takes 
place at puberty, and to that coincidence the compound 
nature of modesty may be largely ascribed. 
That modesty is not a feminine characteristic is also 
the view of Madame Celine Renooz1 “ Modesty,” she 
argues, is masculine shame attributed to women for two 
reasons: first, because man believes that woman is sub- 
ject to the same laws as himself; secondly, because the 
course of human evolution has reversed the psychology 
of the sexes, attributing to women the results of masculine 
sexuality. This is the origin of the conventional lies 
which by a sort of social suggestion have intimidated 
women. They have, in appearance at least, accepted 
the rules of shame imposed on them by men, but only 
custom inspires the modesty for which they are praised. 
It is really an outrage to their sex. This reversal of 
psychologic laws has only been accepted with a struggle 
by women. 
“Primitive woman proud of her womanhood, for a 
long time defended her nakedness, which ancient art 
has always represented. In the actual life of the young 
girl to-day there is a moment when, by a secret atavism, 
she feels the pride of her sex, the intuition of her moral 
superiority, and she cannot understand why she must 
hide its cause. At this moment, wavering between the 
laws of nature and social conventions, she scarcely 
knows whether nakedness should or should not affright 
her. A sort of confused atavistic memory recalls to her 
a period before clothing was known, and reveals to her 
as a sort of paradisical ideal the customs of that human 
epoch.” 
In support of this view the author proceeds to point 
1 Psychologie Comparee de l’Homme et de la Femme, 1898. 216 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
out that the decollete constantly appears in the feminine 
clothing, never in the male; that missionaries experience 
great difficulty in persuading women to cover themselves; 
and that while women accept with facility examination 
by male doctors, men cannot force themselves to accept 
examinations by women doctors. These and similar 
points had already been brought forward by Sergi.1 
In every country of civilized Europe and America, at 
dinners, dances, and similar social functions, women of 
the well-to-do and wealthy classes appear in low-cut 
dress. Arms, shoulders and frequently the breasts to 
just above the nipples, technically known by society as 
“theneck,” are freely displayed to all beholders. Neither 
the women themselves nor their male companions find 
anything immoral or repellant in such physical display, 
even in the case of young girls. On the contrary, the 
appearance at a ball of a woman in a high-cut dress is 
regarded by the host as a breach of good manners. 
The Psychology of Dress.—To fully understand this, 
the psychology of dress must be considered from two 
points of view: the object with which it is undertaken 
and the reflex action of dress on the wearer. 
To more clearly define these propositions the history 
of dress will be divided into four epochs: first, the adorn- 
ments of primitive man; second, the dress of ancient 
civilization down through the Roman Empire; third, the 
change in dress from the period of the Renaissance 
down to the present day; and fourth, dress in the New 
Democracy. 
In a general way it may be stated that the object of a 
change of style, the making prominent of any portion 
of the body or its ornamentation, was to excite the atten- 
tion and admiration of the opposite sex and allure them 
1 Archivio di Psichiatria, vol. xiii, 1892. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DRESS 
217 
to matrimonial pursuit. Nature has done the same 
thing in the animal world, preeminently in the case of 
birds, with their gorgeous plumage and wonderful 
gifts of song. Here the male is the wooer. 
Primitive man, exceeding woman in numbers, was 
obliged to be the wooer and the one to display all the 
arts of fascination in order to secure a wife; but from the 
patriarchal days, when woman began to be regarded as 
property, all of that was changed. The girl’s father 
would then, according to the conventions of the time, 
place his daughter in the best marketable light, in order 
to secure the highest price possible for her. 
Then came about a striking change in the matrimonial 
customs. Woman, by her excessive numbers and ever- 
increasing uselessness and extravagance, would seem to 
have become somewhat of a drug on the market; and 
the father instead of selling his daughter was obliged to 
buy her a husband, which remains the case at the present 
day. This condition was probably still more sharply 
accentuated by man’s increasing unwillingness to put 
his head into the matrimonial noose. 
A further increase in the extravagance of dress was 
caused by the desire of husbands and fathers to advertise 
their financial success by means of the rich dress and 
extravagant display of jewels of their wives and daughters. 
This initiated a sharp competition, which was imitated 
by the poorer classes. 
Among primitive peoples it seems beyond doubt that 
men and women began to ornament, multilate, tattoo, 
and paint themselves, chiefly in order to attract the 
opposite sex, that they might court or be courted success- 
fully. Thus the girls are painted when they arrive at 
puberty and both sexes are tattooed at this age. 
It is generally considered that women are naturally 218 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
vainer and more addicted to dressing and decorating 
themselves than men. This certainly does not hold 
good for savage and barbarous peoples generally. Among 
many races the reverse is true. Speaking of the Crees, 
Mackenzie remarks, that “While the women are by no 
means inattentive to the decorations of their own persons, 
they appear to have a still greater degree of pride in 
attending to the appearance of the men, whose faces are 
painted with much more care than their own.” In this 
connection it must be noted, as has already been stated, 
that among savages it is the man only that runs the risk 
of leading a single life. 
From the naked body, ornaments were transferred to 
the clothing. The ornamentation worn about the waist 
or loins of many savage peoples appears to have been to 
make themselves more attractive to the opposite sex. 
In a state where all go nude, it must be so natural as to 
excite no comment, for what we see day after day makes 
no special impression on us. But when a man or a 
woman began to put on a bright-colored fringe, some 
gaudy feathers, a string of beads, a bundle of leaves, a 
piece of cloth, or a dazzling shell, this of course could not 
escape the attention of others. The scanty covering was 
bound to act as the most powerful attainable sexual at- 
traction, hence the popularity of such garments in the 
savage world. 
Woman’s Dress and Adornments in Ancient Civili- 
zations.—'The looms of Babylonia were famous all the 
world over in the years of its ascendancy. The style of 
dress was in itself simple, variety being given by the colors 
and patterns. The materials used were either imported 
India muslin or manufactured locally, the latter being a 
rough woollen stuff. The female costume differed very 
little from that worn by the men. Much feminine in- WOMAN’S DRESS AND ADORNMENTS 
219 
genuity was used in the ornamentation of their robes 
with fringes and patterns, according to the status and 
wealth of those wearing them. The boots were of soft 
leather, without heels, and were laced. Ornaments were 
worn by both men and women, but those of the latter 
were more numerous and took the form of bracelets, 
necklaces, anklets, and rings for the ears and fingers. 
The dress of the Greeks, when at the height of their 
civilization, and that of the Assyrians, Egyptians, and 
ancient Romans was not essentially different, was also 
very simple. It often consisted of a simple garment, 
the tunic, which pleased the eye by the gracefulness 
of its drapery and at the same time was comfortable, 
by reason of its looseness. The garment was all of 
one piece, sometimes girdled more or less closely, but 
characterized by long lines from shoulder to toe. 
The history of Greek costume is for the most part free 
of what is known as change of fashion, for the reason that 
the Greeks did not attempt to reconcile the two opposite 
principles of covering and at the same time displaying 
the figure; that is to say, of cutting the dress to fit the 
body. 
The Greeks were animated by a passionate love of 
beauty, but it was in the human body that they saw 
the noblest form of earthly beauty. They did not con- 
fine their admiration to the face, it was the perfect and 
harmonious development of every part of the body that 
struck them with awe. 
Greece was known as “the land of beautiful women,” 
but their type of beauty was conditioned on perfect 
health. The beautiful woman was well proportioned in 
every limb and feature; it was the grace and harmony 
of every part that constituted beauty. Her height was 
regarded as an essential requisite. Helen was taller than 220 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
her companions. The commanding stature impressed 
the Greeks as being a near approach to the august form 
of the goddesses. Further, beauty was not confined to 
young girls. Helen was, in the eyes of the Greeks, as 
beautiful at forty or fifty as she was at twenty, and prob- 
ably more attractive. The Homeric Greek admired the 
fully developed woman as much as the growing girl. A 
race of healthy, finely formed women is the natural ante- 
cedent to a race of men possessed of a high physical and 
intellectual organization. 
The Greek representations of the female form, in 
which the ideal of beauty in women was carried to a 
height which later generations have never been able to 
approach, shows a perfect development not only of the 
features, but of every portion of the body. It was not 
only the beauty of the face, but the free play of the mus- 
cles and the graceful movements of the limbs that showed 
the grace and beauty of movement of Greek women. 
Nothing could have more accentuated this perfect phys- 
ical beauty than their simple style of dress. 
From the time of Pericles, the great European distinc- 
tion between male and female dress consisted in the 
length of the skirt. Old men, priests, and officials were 
allowed the privilege of wearing long or women’s skirts, 
and young girls were permitted to wear the short or man’s 
skirt. Among the Romans this single garment, worn 
by both sexes, was called the toga. 
When, however, the moral fiber of the Greeks grew 
lax, the courtesans set the fashions, and dress was used to 
display rather than to conceal the figure, and in order to 
make the hips more prominent, the waist was constricted 
by a many-layered belt. At the same time the use of 
cosmetics was introduced. 
Subjugation by the Romans in the first centuries of THE RENAISSANCE 
221 
the Christian era was followed by a general conformity 
to their mode of dress, so that the Roman dress may be 
considered to have become European. From the end 
of the fifth century to the beginning of the seventeenth, 
it became the object of dress in both sexes not merely 
to clothe the person, but also to display the figure and 
adorn it. 
The Renaissance.—In the sixteenth century a dis- 
tinct separation between ancient and modern dress took 
place, and our present fashions took their origin from 
about that time. Two of the inventions of this time 
have made a lasting impression on the bodies, morals, 
and intellects of woman. First and most notable was 
the invention of the corset, by Catherine de Medici, 
which resembled in more than looks that instrument of 
torture, “the machine virgin” of the Inquisition. This 
corset was made of steel and was as inflexible as a suit of 
armor. During the forty years in which she ruled at 
court, a thirteen-inch waist measure became the accepted 
standard. 
When traced to their original sources we find that all 
of these extremes of fashion were made to conceal some 
deformity of the figure, or to give a part of it undue 
prominence. So it was in the case of the corset, which 
was introduced when clothes were not wanted for the 
concealment of the body, but to make more prominent 
the curves and undulations of the figure. 
The greatest handicap ever placed upon woman, pre- 
venting the normal development of her body and brain, 
were perfected by Catherine de Medici, who invented 
the corset, and Louis XIV, that vain little monarch, who 
invented the French heel, their molds being seemingly 
indelibly imprinted on all succeeding generations. The 
combination has simply spelled disaster for woman, and 222 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
it would take almost a miracle to eradicate their evil 
influence, for, as Darwin says: “In the fashion of dress 
man prefers what he is accustomed to seeing, and dislikes 
any very great deviations from the leading fashions.” 
Woman’s Dress of the Present Day.—For the reason 
that the female of the species has so long been under the 
subjection of the male, the styles of female dress and 
adornments which have been adopted from age to age and 
are still in vogue, are largely the result of masculine 
taste. Woman’s business in life has been to marry; at 
least it has been necessary for her in order to gain her 
support, and for this she had to win the favor of the 
opposite sex. She was therefore obliged to captivate 
the male by the seduction of her charms. 
In the course of time, however, when man’s activities 
became his main dependence and woman’s person and 
personal behavior became more significant, especially 
in a state of society where she became dependent on 
man’s activities, both ornament and modesty were 
largely transferred to her. Deprived of participation 
in commercial activities, and with no capital but her 
personal charms and wits, her sole aim in life came to be 
to make herself attractive, to charm the male. So 
she assumed a most aggressive attitude toward courtship, 
and dress became a competitive game with her, especially 
as she had the rather definite realization before her of 
what a dreadful thing it would be to become an “old 
maid.” 
When through man’s economic and social organiza- 
tion and the male initiative she became dependent, and 
when in consequence he began to pick and choose with a 
degree of fastidiousness, and the less charming women 
were not married, and with the still further invidious 
distinction between the wed and the unwed, the desirably WOMAN’S DRESS OF THE PRESENT DAY 
223 
wed and the undesirably wed, woman had to charm for her 
very life. The means of attraction which she employs 
are so highly elaborated and her technique is so finished 
that she is really more active in courtship than man. 
From Samson and Odysseus down, history and story 
recognize the ease and frequence with which a woman 
makes a fool of man. The male protective and senti- 
mental attitude is indeed incompatible with resistance. 
For all these thousands of years, when women have 
been dependent upon men not only for food and clothing, 
but for the luxuries of life as well, it is not singular that 
in this struggle for the manner of life to which they have 
been subjected, they should have adopted the styles of 
dress which would be most likely to secure to them the 
greatest amount of success. When we remember that 
the present ideas of becomingness and propriety in 
woman’s apparel are the result of ages of sensuality and 
servitude, it is not remarkable that they are difficult to 
uproot, especially as so many of these most pernicious 
and health-destroying styles involve questions of female 
decorum, as understood by a sensualized age. 
Havelock Ellis says: “Woman displays her nudity in 
the public ball-room altogether without shame; partly 
from esthetic motives, partly without fully understanding 
why she does it, to attract the male, to gain success in 
the contest for his favor and to please; and yet all the 
time owing to her lack of actual sexual experiences, she 
is commonly far more innocent than man. The woman 
thus attired is far from suspecting the influence exercised 
on the male by the sight of her bare bosom, unless indeed 
she has become aware of this by long experience in social 
life. It would be an unjust reproach to society women, 
to assume that they are aware that no small proportion 
of the young men who have been their partners in the 224 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
dance, visit prostitutes immediately afterward, to calm 
the excitement thus aroused. Beyond question girls 
are generally ignorant of the fact asserted by Vischer, 
and expressive of his own experience as a male, that 
their bare and throbbing bosoms seem to men to pulse 
against the very nerves of desire.” 
Not only do many students of sex problems assert 
with great emphasis that woman’s dress is the responsible 
factor in much of the sexual immorality of men, but 
students in our large colleges and universities have 
declared that the dress of women made it very hard for 
them to be good. Women have themselves to blame for 
much of the existing situation, and it is believed that 
when women of intelligence and good standing have their 
attention called to the seriousness of the situation, they 
will come to realize their responsibility for abolishing 
the clothes that have such a demoralizing effect on both 
sexes. 
Further, it is considered that this d6collet6 style of 
dress, as worn in the ball-room, accentuates the dangers 
of the dance, for it seems to be an accepted opinion among 
physiologists that dancing of any type that involves 
more or less closeness of contact between men and women, 
when dancing in couples, is likely to lead to sexual 
stimulation, that is frequently recognized as such by 
normal men, and a general excitement by most women. 
Woman’s Dress in the New Democracy.—From the 
facts already referred to, that woman dresses to please 
man and so to marry him, and that man dislikes any 
very great deviations from the leading fashions, it would 
take almost a miracle to revolutionize woman’s present 
mode of dress, in spite of its well-known harmfulness, 
physically, mentally, morally, and racially. Besides, 
the constantly changing mode of dress and the compe- WOMAN’S DRESS IN THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
225 
titive, extravagant display on the part of women not 
only fritters away their time, but leads to pettiness 
of character and devours time and energies which should 
be expended on more serious pursuits. Finally, this 
extravagance in dress, which frequently exceeds the 
husband’s income, very often leads to the divorce court. 
In spite of all the just accusations against woman’s 
dress and lack of dress, woman might have continued to 
lead her butterfly existence for succeeding centuries of 
time, with no more serious interest in life than adornment 
of the body and capture of the unwary male, had not the 
miracle happened! The Great War, by the supreme 
sacrifice of many millions of men, the very flower of 
their countries, will cause the purification and regenera- 
tion of our race. The great results must be moral and 
spiritual, for neither the men who live to come back to 
us nor the women who have toiled and offered up their 
all, having caught the vision will rest content until they 
have made our polyglot races into one united whole, fit to 
enjoy the unique privileges of this great land of Freedom. 
Woman in her various activities at home and abroad, 
at once adopted various uniforms which were best 
adapted for the kind of work in which she was engaged. 
She has thus been freed of much of the danger attendant 
on the wearing of skirts, and in the face of this great 
peril men have come to approve of the common sense of 
her dress. 
Two things may reasonably be predicted: women of all 
classes, having known the joy and privilege of work, 
will never go back to idleness; and having experienced 
the greater freedom of movement allowed by knicker- 
bockers, will never again consent to have their legs 
swathed during working hours. 
Such a similarity of uniform as is now seen in that 226 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
worn by our troops and, let us say, the women ambulance 
drivers, might well be standardized after the war for 
business use. This would have three very great advan- 
tages for the race: it would be democratic, it would be 
economic, and it would make for social purity. Up to 
this time such a uniform never could have been adopted 
because of convention, tradition, and public opinion, 
but after the war it is safe to prophesy, “old things have 
passed away and all things have become new.” We will 
simply be reverting to the customs of ancient Greece in 
the similarity of costumes worn by the two sexes and may 
hope then to achieve some of the bodily and intellectual 
perfection attained by that great nation. 
The Psychology of Courtship and Coquetry.—One 
finds the law of coquetry among most species of the slight- 
est intelligence; the female at first refuses the amorous 
caresses, a useful practice which serves so well the purpose 
of selection, for invariably it results only in accentuating 
the desires and awakening latent or benumbed faculties. 
The second law of coquetry is the law of combat on the 
part of the male, so that a rival in the field always causes 
a greater stimulation of the desire for possession. 
It is particularly among birds that the passion of love 
sparkles with the most force and poetry. To this 
influence is attributed the production of their offensive 
and defensive arms, ornaments, organs of song, as well 
as their courage; and the belligerent instincts among 
many of them and the coquetry of the females. 
Audubon thus describes the loves of the lark: “One 
sees the male advancing with a slow and measured step, 
lashing his tail, extending it to the greatest size and then 
closing it, like the most brilliant young lady would close 
a fan. Their notes break forth more melodiously than 
ever; they repeat them more frequently while they re- PSYCHOLOGY OF COURTSHIP AND COQUETRY 
227 
main on the branches or the summit of some great bush 
of the prairie. Unhappy for that one who dares 
to enter as a rival, or rather for that male who comes 
within sight of another at the actual moment of true 
delirium, he is suddenly attacked and if weaker, is 
chased from the territory which is then taken by the 
first combatant. Sometimes one sees several birds en- 
gaged in these rude combats, but rarely for more than 
two or three minutes. The appearance of a single 
female will suffice to terminate the quarrel and they all 
follow after her like madmen. The females give proof 
of the natural reserve of their sex, without which, even 
among the larks, every female would probably remain 
without finding a mate; for it is a little too flattering for 
the animal, and even for man. When this one flies 
towards her, in sighing out his sweetest notes, she flies 
away in an admirable manner, so that it is hard to tell 
if it is to repulse or to encourage. 
“This little tableau portrays all of the salient traits 
of the love of birds; the courage and the jealousy of the 
male, his combat with his rivals, his efforts to charm the 
female by his beauty and the sweetness of his song; 
finally the coquetry of the female, which by withdrawing, 
adds fuel to the flame. But it is especially the female 
who introduces into love the individual fantasy. They 
are subject to aversions and to singular sympathy for cer- 
tain males, refusing the caresses of others. At bottom 
the love of animals does not differ from the love of man.” 
Early in human progress we find that courtship in- 
volved something more than mere acts of strength on the 
part of the male, and it is not only in civilized countries 
that it means a prolonged love-making. We are so 
prone to forget that we are the product of the great 
stream of life, carried down to us by the germ-plasm of 228 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
eons of time, and that the great racial qualities are the 
common property of all. Among women of the savage 
races, the greatest attention and the most fervent solici- 
tations are sometimes requisite, even though there be 
no other lover in the way. This sometimes happens from 
a spirit of coquetry, sometimes from a dislike for the 
man, and his failure to come up to the woman’s standard 
or mental type of what her husband should be. 
Darwin has shown that among the lower vertebrates 
the female commonly gives preference to the most vigor- 
ous, defiant, mettlesome male; a similar appreciation 
of manly courage is found in women. Spencer main- 
tains that mental and facial perfections are fundamen- 
tally connected and that the aspects which please are 
the outward correlatives of inward perfections, while the 
aspects which displease are the outward correlatives of 
inward imperfections. 
It has already been noted that throughout nature the 
male seeks the female, though woman’s need of repro- 
duction is greater and celibacy unquestionably impresses 
the character of woman more deeply than that of man. 
We must also recognize the fact that reproductive life 
must be connected with violent stimulation or it would 
be neglected, and the species would become extinct. 
On the other hand, if the conquest of the female were too 
easy, sexual life would be in danger of becoming a 
play interest and a dissipation, destructive of energy 
and fatal to the species. 
Coquetry is the corollary of courtship; it may be said 
to be a secondary female characteristic in sexual selec- 
tion, in order to give the female who has done so much to 
raise the standard of the species time to study her wooer; 
to see if indeed he possess those qualities of heart and 
mind which she desires in a husband, and those charac- FLIRTATION 
229 
teristics which she would gladly have transmitted to 
her children. Woman is cooler and perhaps more calcu- 
lating in the art of love than is man, she is not so apt to 
allow her heart to run away with her head, but if she is 
a woman of the right stamp, a thoroughbred, having 
once made up her mind she will play the game squarely. 
If her judgment has misled her, she will face the con- 
sequences gamely and do her best to make a good run- 
ning mate. Ancestry always tells on both sides. 
Flirtation.—Coquetry, as we have seen, is an indirect, 
psychic irradiation of love; but there is another form in 
which the art of love is largely practiced, especially in 
England and America—the form of flirtation. In its 
elementary manifestations, flirting is entirely natural 
and normal; we may trace it even in animals. It is 
simply the beginning of courtship at an early stage when 
courtship may be broken off. As a momentary and 
transient expression of all of the necessities of love, flirta- 
tion has the right to exist; but under modern civilized 
conditions, flirtation is often more than this. Here, 
instead of being the mere preliminary stage of normal 
courtship, it is developed into a form of sexual gratifi- 
cation, as we have seen elsewhere, as complete as a due 
observance of the conditions will allow. In France 
this form of flirtation is held in great abhorrence as 
being highly immoral. CHAPTER X 
PROBLEMS OF BETROTHAL 
Choosing a Life Mate: (1) Both Parties to the Contract 
Must be Economically Independent; (2) they Must Be- 
long to the Same Social Class, with Similar Interests and 
Temperamentally Adapted to Each Other; Woman's 
Dual Nature and Marriage; the Ideal Age for Marriage; 
(3) an Interchange of Health Certificates before Be- 
trothal; (4) a Mutual Understanding of the Sexual Ethics 
of Marriage; the Safeguarding of Maidenhood; Betrothal 
and Marriage; Breach of Promise and Marriage Por- 
tions in the New England Colonies; the Custom Under- 
lying the Principle of Demanding a Dowry with the Bride; 
Trial Betrothals versus Breach of Promise Cases. 
Marriage is too grave a step to take lightly and without serious 
reflexion. Before marriage says Wisdom regard well what you 
are about to do, for as the Spanish proverb forcibly puts it, “that 
day will be either your salvation or your ruin.” The happiness or 
misery will in effect depend on whether you marry wisely or un- 
wisely. One cannot deny the importance of choosing with the 
greatest care, the person with whom you are going to pass the 
remainder of your life, under the same conjugal yoke. Fortu- 
nately there are well-known data based on experience and observa- 
tion, as well as the more recent scientific facts for the guidance of 
all in this matter. 
Choosing a Life Mate.—Among the higher animals 
and primitive man, the male does the courting and to 
the female is accorded the power of selection; this is in 
accordance with the biology of sex. At the present day 
it would be more in accordance with the truth to say CHOOSING A LIFE MATE 
231 
that the woman does the courting and to the man has 
fallen the lot of selection. 
The problem of the selection of a life mate is probably 
the most vital one that either man or woman will ever 
have to face. All of the problems of life which have 
preceded this, however important as to the mode of 
education or the choosing of a vocation in life, have been 
purely individualistic, and if they proved uncongenial 
could be changed. In the question of the marriage 
partnership there are not merely dual interests to be 
considered, but even a more serious problem is that con- 
cerning the interests of the future progeny; and it is for 
this reason that the State, as the guardian of the race, 
has to be taken into consideration in making this con- 
tract. 
How are two people, a young man and a young woman, 
who a short time ago were total strangers to each other 
and now, by the mere accident of propinquity are con- 
sidering being bound together by the yoke of wedlock 
for life, going to decide whether this step, which is to 
affect all of their future is a wise one. 
The first point to be considered is that, not being blood 
relations, with the same strains of ancestry flowing 
through their veins, which makes parents tolerant of the 
waywardness of their children, children tolerant of the 
foibles of the “old folks,” and brothers and sisters, in 
spite of their feuds, loyal to death through all adversity, 
marriage does not withstand the strains of domestic feuds 
as the family does. Each one leaves the bond more or 
less impaired, until finally one marriage in every twelve 
breaks down in the divorce court. The cause of the vast 
majority of unhappy marriages is the rashness or the base 
motives with which they are entered into. 
The basic question to be considered is whether these 232 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
young people are physically, morally, socially, intellec- 
tually, and spiritually, real affinities, whose two lives, 
blended together in marriage, will develop into one 
perfect whole. The institution of marriage is one of the 
most complex, most perplexing, and least understood of 
all the vital questions of the day. It is second only to 
life itself, yet it is treated with the same banality with 
which we speak of gravitation, as immutable, unchange- 
able, only, unlike gravitation, to be terminated at the 
pleasure of either or both of the contracting parties. 
When affection comes to play a more important part in 
sexual selection, more regard will be paid to the intellec- 
tual, moral, and emotional qualities, through which the 
feeling is chiefly provoked, and the preference given to 
these higher qualities by civilized man will contribute 
much to the intellectual improvement of the race. 
The foundation on which durable love, already treated 
of from the psychologic point of view, and therefore 
happy marriages are based, is very complex; but there 
are certain well-known fundamental principles which 
must be securely laid down in advance if the union is to 
last until death. These principles involve not only the 
interests of the husband and wife, but also those of the 
progeny. (1) Both parties to the contract must be 
economically independent and there must be a definite 
understanding as to the amount of the financial budget. 
(2) They must belong to the same social class, with 
similar interests, religious beliefs, of suitable age and 
temperamentally adapted to each other. (3) Before 
permitting a betrothal there should be an interchange of 
health certificates, from a state medical examiner. (4) 
The man and woman should have a clear understanding 
as to their views of the sexual relation in marriage. (5) 
It must be an assured fact that both have the strength ECONOMIC SITUATION 
233 
of character to keep the lower element of their dual 
natures under sharp control. This will consist chiefly of 
marital fidelity on the part of the husband and absolute 
rectitude in every respect on the part of the wife. (6) 
They must have similar views in regard to their prospec- 
tive progeny. 
It will be seen from a subsequent consideration of 
marriage that these problems form the great danger zones 
in which so many marriages are shipwrecked. 
1. Both Parties to the Contract Must be Economically 
Independent.—Celibacy we have already seen is neither 
natural nor desirable, and a happy marriage should be 
the goal of every man’s and every woman’s desire. The 
economic situation which prevents so many young 
people from marrying until near the thirties is thoroughly 
unwholesome and must in some way be remedied. Mar- 
riage in the early twenties is not only a safeguard against 
unchastity, but is physiologically better for the woman 
and her children. At this age young people are both 
morally and mentally more plastic, more likely to grow 
together, and more easily make the little compromises 
and adjustments which the fusing of two lives always 
necessitates. It is an infinite pity that those two who 
are to be comrades for life should fail to have those 
years in some ways the best of life, together. 
A man who desires to satisfy his amatory needs in 
marriage is confronted with the social conditions; he must 
first ask himself the question whether he can afford to 
support a wife and family. Thousands of young men 
in the middle classes do not fill an independent position 
which satisfies their notions until comparatively late in 
life. They are unable to support a wife “as becomes 
their station,” unless she have property of her own. 
Many young women who endeavor to catch a husband 234 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
by external attractions have, by the time they have 
succeeded in their quest, become so accustomed to out- 
ward show, expensive entertainments and amusements, 
that the lack of them after marriage so dissatisfies them 
with their comparatively simple menage, as to eventually 
lead them to marital infidelity. Thus men often feel 
that they are walking on the brink of a precipice and 
many prefer to leave unplucked a flower which is only to 
be reached at the risk of their neck. So they go on their 
way alone and seek recreation and enjoyment without 
restraint to their liberties. 
This situation can only be met by both parties laying 
their cards on the table. It may be fairly met in one of 
several ways. The woman should have an income equal 
to the man’s earning capacity, or she should herself 
have an independent vocation, so that the banking of the 
two will suffice for the domestic budget; or, finally, she 
should be a thoroughly trained housekeeper, so that she 
has a real earning capacity as such. There must be no 
doubt as to just what the amount of the domestic budget 
is to be and how it is to be met, before any betrothal 
takes place. This scheme may seem to lovers very 
prosaic and sordid, but high finance in early marriage is 
the frequent grave of love. 
We have seen that the most normal lives are lead by the 
peasant classes, because of economic conditions as they 
exist there. They begin life young, with comparatively 
nothing, but their wants are few and they adapt their 
manner of life to their incomes. This is the kernel of the 
entire matter, and here we find the solution of the economic 
situation which confronts the whole civilized world. 
2. They Must Belong to the Same Social Class, with 
Similar Interests and Temperamentally Adapted to Each 
Other, etc.—In marriage as in companionship there SOCIAL CLASS 
235 
must be an equality of age, of social condition, of for- 
tune, of education, of character, and of sympathy. If 
the married couple are not well fitted for each other, 
one or the other suffers, often both, as from all unequal 
unions. Take for your wife the woman you would 
choose as your friend, were she a man; for the worst con- 
sequences are to be feared from a union which is not 
cemented by mutual sympathy and reciprocal esteem. 
One can only argue their results from hastily concluded 
marriages or those made for financial considerations or 
position, without considering the tastes, inclinations, 
character, or ancestors of the contracting parties. 
It is impossible for a woman with a meager physical 
development and crippled mental faculties, imprisoned 
in the narrowest circles of opinions and condemned to 
exclusive intercourse with her nearest female friends, to 
rise above the banalities of every-day life. Her mental 
horizon is bounded by the most trivial household con- 
cerns, the affairs of relations, and similar topics of in- 
terest. Her mind demands activity and exercise, and 
her husband, whom she often compromises or drives to 
the brink of despair, abuses and execrates defects for 
which he has been principally to blame. 
When we remember that these evils have been in 
existence and in action for many hundreds of genera- 
tions, we shall not be surprised that the natural law of 
heredity and adaptation have at length reached the 
extreme development in which they present themselves 
to-day. 
Man has, as a rule, through all the ages sought his 
friendships among men, because he thought they alone 
could understand his intellectual needs, his business 
activities, and his creative aspirations. So when he 
sought a wife, it was a woman who would bear him 236 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
healthy children and in general minister to the wants 
of his lower nature. He would then naturally seek a 
woman who was still young, beautiful, dependent and 
fawning. 
On the other hand, and this is still the general rule, the 
average man would naturally avoid an intellectual woman, 
who was economically independent, and who possessed 
the very intellectual qualities which he had been taught 
were essential for the male in life; namely, business in- 
tegrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness. Indeed, 
he would seem to regard these qualities in woman as 
rather brazen, and above all things he could not endure 
in his wife the tendency to be “strong-minded.” This 
type of girl was all right if she happened to be his sister 
or a girl chum he had known from childhood, but as a 
sweetheart or a wife, never! 
Being in quest of a mate, probably he has not given 
the intellectual type of girl so much as a single thought, 
unless it has been to deplore the fact that such an other- 
wise nice girl should have been spoiled for making some 
man a good wife. So he has in mind some pretty, docile, 
and deferential young girl, for the cave man and patri- 
archy are still in vogue, with limitations to be sure, but 
these types are just as certainly fixed in the minds of 
men as they ever were. 
The lack of intelligence with which men, whom one 
would suppose are not without experience, select as a 
mate a woman who, however fine and charming she may 
be, possesses none of those qualities which her wooer 
really craves, is a perpetual marvel. To refrain from 
testing and proving the qualities of a woman whom he 
desires for a mate is no doubt an amiable trait of humil- 
ity on the part of the lover, but it is certain that a man 
should never be content with anything less than the WOMAN’S DUAL NATURE AND MARRIAGE 
237 
best which woman’s soul and body have to give, however 
unworthy he may feel of such a possession. This de- 
mand, it must be remembered, is in the highest interest 
of the woman herself. A woman can offer to a man 
what is a part, at all events, of the secret of the universe; 
the woman degrades herself who sinks to the level of a 
candidate for an asylum for the destitute. 
Woman’s Dual Nature and Marriage.1—At the present- 
day women in their relation to marriage may be roughly 
divided into three classes: (a) The great mass of women 
who are economically dependent and whose sole voca- 
tion is marriage. These women are dominated by the 
lower and baser traits of their dual nature. (6) A very 
high-grade class of women who belong to good families 
and have been culturally but not economically educated; 
in this class the highest emotional and sometimes intel- 
lectual traits prevail, (c) A very much smaller, highly 
educated, and economically independent class of women, 
who have been intellectually educated along the same 
lines of business integrity, truthfulness and straight- 
forwardness as characterizes the education of men. 
a. The Economically Dependent Women Whose Sole 
Vocation is Marriage.—As a direct result of woman’s eco- 
nomic dependence she has become intellectually stunted, 
and her worst adventitious traits have been intensified 
by her sex slavery, whether in marriage or out of it. 
The mother has always been the natural matrimonial 
agent of her daughters, and has been shaping them to 
fill the current demands of the market, whatever they 
might be. In visiting the matrimonial market ber busi- 
ness has been to make the best possible trade for them, 
so she hides her daughters’ defects of body and mind, 
seeking for them wealth and a fixed social position ; 
these are the two sine qua nons for a successful suitor. 238 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Society has never greatly inquired into a man’s private 
life. 
The woman’s face is the screen which hides her soul; 
it is in the inner sanctum of her soul that she decides on 
what plane she will place herself in the great marriage 
mart of the world: “ for select, high custom;” “ moderately 
for the general trade,” or “at so much off for shop and 
factory flaws.” 
“Longing from the day of her birth for love, she spends 
her life in the endless effort to find it, little guessing 
sometimes that it the most obvious thing man has to 
offer her. So with color and scent and silken sheen she 
makes a lure of her body; with cunning artifices she makes 
temptations with her hands and face and weaves it with 
her hair. She flatters, pleads, cajoles; denies only that 
she may yield, sets free in order to summon back, and 
calls so that when he answers she may preserve a mysti- 
fying silence. 
“She affects a thousand arts which in her heart she 
despises; pretends to housewifery which she hates, forc- 
ing herself to play music though she has no gift for it, and 
chatters glibly of independence, when she has none at all. 
“In making herself all things to all men she loses her 
individuality and becomes no more than a harp, which 
any passing hand may strike to quick response. To one 
man she is a sage, to another an incarnate temptation, 
to another a sensible business-like person, to another a 
frothy bit of frivolity. To one man she is the guardian 
of his ideals, to another she is a ‘good fellow, with a 
discriminating taste in cigarettes and champagne.’ 
“Let a man ask what he will and woman will give it, 
praying only that somewhere she will come upon love. 
She adapts herself to man as water adapts itself to the 
shape of the vessel in which it is placed. She dare not WOMAN’S DUAL NATURE AND MARRIAGE 
239 
assert herself to be herself, lest in some way she should 
lose her grasp on the counterfeit which largely takes the 
place of love. . . . With tears in her eyes and her throat 
raw, she will choke upon the assertion that she likes 
smoke; and she will assuage passion when his slightest 
touch makes her shudder and turn cold. 
“And most pitiful of all, when blinded by her own 
senses she will surrender the last citadel of her woman- 
hood to him who comes a wooing, undismayed by the 
women around her, whose sacred altars have been pro- 
faned and left bare . . . She believes him till the day 
of realization dawns upon her, when broken and bitter 
hearted she has scarcely a friend in the world, and not 
even the compensating coin, thriftily demanded by her 
sister of the streets.”* 
6. The High-grade Women, Culturally Educated hut 
Economically Dependent.—There is a very much smaller 
class of a vastly higher grade women, whose highest emo- 
tional natures have been cultivated, daughters of the 
well-to-do, who have inherited from the intellectual 
aristocracy of this country a desire for usefulness. These 
women are the joy and comfort of their own families 
and their altruistic tendencies fill their time with good 
works. Like the women of the intellectual class, they 
have made a vocation of work and know nothing of the 
art of love-making; besides they would scorn to stoop 
to the low cunning of the women of the first class. 
They place a high estimate on love and marriage; from 
their manner of life their first instinct is to love some one 
else, and the desire to be loved in return comes only 
later. Again, being unsophisticated, this woman wants 
man to love her before she has done anything to develop 
his love. The heart-breaking tragedy is that, less 
* Myrtle Reed: “The Master of the Vineyard.” 240 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
materialistic than man and more finely grained, she 
aspires to things that are often out of his reach. Failing 
in her aspirations, confused in the effort to distinguish 
the false from the true, she blindly clutches at the counter- 
feit. Another cause of this woman’s unhappiness in 
love and marriage is that she believes that she intuitively 
knows whether she can trust and love a man; this is 
based on a false assumption of premises, since for the most 
part she is wholly ignorant of the forces dominating man. 
Man too, though more rarely, guesses that the impene- 
trable beauty of the soul is above the fog of sense and not 
in it, searching hopefully at first, then despairingly and 
finally offering the counterfeit to the living lie who is 
waiting for it with eager, outstretched hands. 
It is not that at bottom woman is so essentially different 
from man, but that she was born into a man’s world, 
and has been obliged to conform to his laws and the tradi- 
tions and customs of her sex. So it has happened that 
to woman, love has been a vocation; to man it has been 
a pastime. 
c. The Highly Educated and Economically Independent. 
—Here is where the women of the economically indepen- 
dent classes have the advantage; marriage becomes to 
them as it is to man, a question of bettering their spinster 
condition. This class of women are more influenced by 
the consideration of the type of children which they may 
procreate, and so demand that the man’s life must 
match their own in cleanness of living; that he be men- 
tally, morally, and economically their equal. While the 
proportion of marriages in this class is very much smaller 
than in the two preceding, divorces are also vastly 
much more rare. They are older when they marry, so 
their judgment is better; and economic conditions do 
not force them into matrimony as a means of livelihood. THE IDEAL AGE FOR MARRIAGE 
241 
The Ideal Age for Marriage.—This problem must be 
considered from three points of view: (1) The psycho- 
logic or the temperamental plasticity of the parents; 
(2) from the effect of maternity on the mother’s health; 
and (3) the effect of age on the vitality and mortality 
of the children. 
1. The Psychologic or Temperamental Adaptability of 
the Parents.—Convention in regard to the ideal age for 
marriage has varied greatly at different times; it has 
been said that the age for marriage has advanced with 
increasing civilization. That statement is only approxi- 
mately correct. Plato counsels the man to marry between 
the ages of 25 and 33; and for the woman 26. This is 
slightly older than science counsels to-day; it is now 
considered that the ideal age for both man and woman 
is from 23 to 26 years. They may be of the same age or 
the man may be two to three years older, and under no 
case more than five years the girl’s senior. Under no 
circumstances should the girl be the older of the two. 
Arrived at this age, the intelligence of both man and 
woman will be better developed and their judgment 
should be better able to recognize and appreciate nobility 
of character, harmony of interests, mutual sympathy, 
the nature of the marriage bond, and the part that he- 
redity is going to play in the formation or the wreckage 
of their children’s lives. 
The physical, mental, and moral adaptability of both 
man and woman at this period are evidenced to a high 
degree, and it is an age which is responsive to the institu- 
tion of marriage. Their detrimental hereditary traits of 
body and mind have at this time either become very 
marked or have assumed a dormant form. They have 
now acquired the temperamental traits, which, with 
few modifications, they will retain throughout life; that 242 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
is to say the foundations of their characters for good or 
evil have been very thoroughly laid. At the same 
time the mind is open and responsive to reason, and 
there is always a willingness to make readjustments 
on this basis. Temperamentally they are plastic, 
and under favorable conditions there will result a 
degree of sympathy that bespeaks future harmony 
and a happy marriage. 
This plasticity of temperament is fundamental to the 
happiness of any marriage. There can be no mutual 
happiness in marriage if one of the participants is tem- 
peramentally incapable of changing his or her convic- 
tions. One of the fundamental essentials to happiness 
in life or peace in the home is the quality of adaptability 
to circumstances; no other virtue will be called into play 
oftener than this one. At this age a man is eager to 
contribute to the contentment and happiness of his 
partner, even if it is necessary to sacrifice his own whims 
and opinions; and a woman at this age is so constituted 
that she will respond to the same impulses. 
Incompatibility of temperament simply implies that 
two individuals are so constituted that they cannot 
or will not adapt themselves to the characteristics 
of each other. This is one of the most prolific causes of 
unhappy marriages and divorce. Age is an all-im- 
portant factor in the situation. Men much over 
thirty have unconsciously developed habits of judgment 
and are too set in their opinions and ways to accommodate 
themselves easily, or without friction, to the tempera- 
mental differences that will undoubtedly exist in their 
wives. The age of adaptability has gone by, and a 
mental readjustment is scarcely to bejexpected. There 
can never be the same spirit of “camaraderie” that 
develops at an earlier age, and at best we find a spirit of THE IDEAL AGE FOR MARRIAGE 
243 
friendship rather than companionship. Statistics prove 
that “affinities” creep into the loves of those who marry 
very early or after thirty. 
2. Youthful Marriages are Followed hy a Higher 
Mortality of Women.—No woman has the vitality to 
stand the strain of marriage before the twenty-third 
year. Pregnancy is a great drain on the system and 
lactation is a still greater one, and she cannot yet properly 
play the role of wife or mother, because in pregnancy she 
runs the risk of giving to the child the nourishment which 
she herself needs to complete her development. She 
is also more liable to miscarriage. 
A girl of eighteen or twenty has not yet reached the 
period of growth where certain inherited tendencies will 
show. If she has inherited a predisposition to tuberculo- 
sis, she may outgrow it, provided she is allowed to reach 
her full development without submitting herself to any 
undue physical or mental strain. Marriage and mater- 
nity would, however, be very likely to weaken her to 
such an extent that her inherited tendencies would 
become active; whereas, if she had remained single until 
a later period of life, she might have escaped their evil 
consequences. 
The idea was long prevalent that early marriage would 
prevent youth from sowing his “wild oats.” The idea 
that by marriage a woman can reform the inborn charac- 
teristics of her husband is a very grave mistake; the 
woman who is the victim of this delusion will reap a 
harvest of misery. Any man who needs the sacrifice of 
a woman to cultivate the art of self-control is not fit 
to be a citizen, much less a husband and father. A man 
who is willing to bring children into the world before he 
is a self-governed animal, does not understand the first 
principles of race regeneration. 244 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
3. The Effect of Age on the Vitality and Mortality of 
Children.—The mortality of children is much greater in 
early marriages, as the first-born are apt to be sickly, 
because the mother is not sufficiently mature. If 
a girl marries at the age of eighteen, she gives to the world 
children totally unfit to struggle with its problems. At 
the age of twenty-two she may give one child of value to 
the world, but all the others following will be increasingly 
unfit. In early marriages children are apt to come too 
frequently; this is one of the causes of infant mortality. 
Statistics show that children born with only one year 
between them have a mortality 100 per cent, higher than 
those born with two years between them. If these 
children are the progeny of very young mothers the 
percentage is even greater, as is also the percentage of 
children who are malformed or idiotic. It has been 
shown that the child can inherit only what the parents 
possess. If the parents are not at the age when all of 
their powers are at the highest, the child is robbed of just 
this amount of force, and no amount of education or 
training can make it good. 
Quite aside from the physical advantages, as regards 
both mother and child, the age given is a great advantage 
for the child, because at this age a mother can devote 
herself intelligently, sympathetically, and unreservedly 
to its interests, whereas middle-aged women who turn 
to motherhood have lost their youth and mental flexi- 
bilities, and become settled in other grooves. For the 
sake of the woman herself, it would be well if she could 
bring her child-bearing to an end at the age of thirty-five 
years, to enable her to enter upon the wide activities of 
the world for which she has been fitted. Sterility means 
the inability to become a parent. It is stated that one 
out of every eight marriages is barren, and that in about THE DISADVANTAGES OF LATE MARRIAGES 
245 
one out of every six cases it is due to sterility of the hus- 
band. This is often the cause of unhappiness so great as 
to end in divorce. 
The average time which elapses between marriage and 
the birth- of the first child is seventeen months; if a 
woman goes for three years after marriage without 
having a child the chances are that she never will have 
one. After thirty years in women and thirty-five years 
in men, it seems probable that the best conditions for 
procreation begin to decline. 
The Disadvantages of Late Marriages.—Late mar- 
riages are of serious consequences for the mother; she is 
then exposed to the great risk of abortion by the growing 
inextensibility of the uterus. Because of the greater 
fixation of the articulations and of the pelvic bones, 
delivery is very much more difficult and dangerous, and 
the lying-in is more prolonged and serious. 
On the part of the children, risks in childbirth are 
much greater, owing to the fact that the bones of the 
cranium are harder, and frequently the sutures which 
normally allow for the overlapping of the bones during 
labor have become partially or completely ossified, so 
that the child can only be born by the use of forceps. 
The greater pressure necessary to effect this is often 
fatal to the child. 
Those children who survive childbirth and the early 
years of infancy are exposed to rickets and frequently 
die from tuberculosis, although their parents were free 
from this disease. The children of late marriages are 
apt to be eccentric, feeble-minded, and sickly; they also 
lack the vivacity and gaiety natural to their age, and 
have the appearance of wizened old men and women. 
They rarely acquire a robust development and are ex- 
posed to disturbances of the circulatory system. 246 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Further, Havelock Ellis says of late marriages: “By 
increasing the age of the preconjugal life of the male, we 
would increase the dangers of the coming generation, 
partly on account of their greater age, and partly on 
account of the greater prevalence among them of vene- 
real diseases, which would result in the procreation of 
sickly and enfeebled offspring. There would also be 
increased masculine exploitation of a certain portion of 
the feminine world, with a resulting increase of the 
number of illegitimate children.” 
A further consequence would be a decline in the intel- 
lectual relationship between the father and children, 
and even to-day there is a great gulf fixed between them. 
Each generation speaks a different language from the 
preceding one, whereby mutual understanding between 
the coming and passing generations is rendered difficult 
and sometimes impossible; so that there is no real friend- 
ship between the two. It is evident that the further 
increase of age between parents and children could 
not fail to widen the chasm by which they are already 
separated. 
Again, by deferred marriage there would be increased 
difficulties in the way of education of the children, 
which even to-day leaves much to be desired. This is 
because of the father’s professional activities, which com- 
monly keep him away from his home a great deal of the 
time, while he is apt to pass his leisure hours elsewhere 
than in the bosom of his family. By far more fatal to 
the interests of the child would be the increased proba- 
bility of the father’s death before he reached maturity, 
thus removing not only his material help but the invalu- 
able guidance of his experience. 
There is no doubt that the later marriages of the edu- 
cated classes are the most detrimental to the race, be- DISPROPORTION OF AGE 
247 
cause these are the very people who have acquired great 
self-mastery and possess those very characteristics which 
are so essential to the progress of the race. 
Finally, because of the fixed habits of mind and 
temperament, there is a much greater inflexibility of 
adaptability, so unhappy marriages would be more 
frequent. 
The Ethical and Physiologic Disadvantages of Dis- 
proportion of Age.—Men whose marriage has for eco- 
nomic or other reasons been deferred until they are forty 
years of age or more, for the most part marry for the 
procreation of children and to perpetuate the family 
name. As a rule, they choose young women less than 
half their age for wives, partly for the reasons above 
given and partly owing to the universal masculine tend- 
ency to desire in their wives the freshness of youth and 
beauty. There is also the additional reason of the revi- 
talizing influence of young women, physiologically as 
well as psychologically, on elderly men. 
When a bachelor of fifty marries a girl of twenty-five or 
thirty, it is fair to assume that her chief interest in mak- 
ing the match is financial or the social position which 
he is able to give her. The young wives of these men, 
owing to the comparative age of their husbands, would 
find in them neither the physiologic freshness of the 
lover nor the psychologic freshness of the comrade, which 
at their age they have every right to expect. As for a 
still younger girl marrying anyone so much older than 
herself, the very idea is abhorrent as being revolting to 
nature, and the average normal girl would not do it. 
There would result for light-minded young women, in 
view of their frequent contacts with other men much 
younger than their husbands and therefore excelling 
these in physical and psychologic attractions, allure- 248 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
merits to infidelity. The young wife of an aging husband 
is the natural prey of the enterprising woman-hunter. 
Perhaps because of convention we are much less ac- 
customed to see a young man wed a woman many years 
his senior; it is recognized by society as being even more 
unnatural. The clearly recognized basis of the marriage 
is the woman’s wealth, and the type of man who does such 
a thing is very generally despised. The woman who 
allows herself to enter on any such unnatural alliance must 
know in advance that she will be neglected and scorned, 
while her young husband rapidly dissipates her fortune. 
3. An Interchange of Health Certificates before 
Betrothal.—The ordinary man takes very little fore- 
thought of the day of his marriage, the result of the 
manner of his sexual life upon himself, his future wife, 
and his possible children. Forgetting every consider- 
ation of morality and prudence, he leaves to chance that 
act of his life which ought to be the most particular 
subject of his attention; and he creates at a venture a 
new stock of vices, virtues, maladies, and deformities. 
The future health of their children, the care and fore- 
thought of their children’s children, so essential to the 
happiness of marriage and the family, the matter of 
heredity; all those most essential points which would be 
so seriously considered in the breeding of blooded stock, 
are considered too delicate subjects to be talked about 
before marriage. 
On proposal of marriage the girl’s father usually 
inquires about his future son-in-law’s business, the in- 
come on which he proposes to support his wife, and in- 
quiries are made about his business integrity, but it has 
not yet become the custom to demand a certificate of 
health, including that of heredity and freedom from 
venereal diseases, from a state official appointed for that HEALTH CERTIFICATES 
249 
purpose. From this source, as we have already seen, 
result so many sterile unions, separations, and divorces. 
So often on the wedding night are sown the germs of 
disease, illness, and death. 
Not only in the case of the man, but in the case of the 
girl also, is a medical certificate of the highest importance. 
After marriage men not infrequently, and with justice, 
complain that their wives have concealed some grave 
bodily defect or malady from their knowledge. 
Lest anyone should consider this a startling innovation 
of the twentieth century, he has only to refer to Sir 
Thomas More’s “Utopia,” written in the sixteenth 
century. 
The plan suggested was to overcome deceptions prac- 
tised by both the man and the woman. “ Before mar- 
riage a staid and honest matron showeth the woman, 
be she maid or widow, naked to the wooer. And likewise 
a sage and discreet man, exhibits the wooer naked to 
the woman. On buying a horse or colt, in spite of the 
fact that he is almost bare, yet will not men buy him 
unless the saddle and all the harness be removed; lest 
under these coverings be hidden some sore or gall. And 
yet in choosing a wife, which shall be either a pleasure or 
displeasure for all the rest of their lives, they are so 
reckless that they estimate her by scarcely so much as 
one hand’s breadth; for they can see no more than her 
face and so join her to them not without great jeopardy, 
if anything in her body should afterward chance to 
mislike them; so foul deformity may hide under these 
coverings, that it may quite alienate and take away a 
man’s mind from his wife, when it shall not be lawful 
for their bodies to be separate again But it were well 
done if a law were made whereby all such deceit were 
eschewed beforehand.” 250 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
In the twentieth century science declares the necessity 
for a thorough medical examination, on which a medical 
certificate for marriage should be based. Since some- 
thing like 66 per cent, of young women suffer from 
some form of pelvic trouble, some of them trifling in 
themselves, but in the nature of congestion and inflamma- 
tion, for which marital relations will be as the setting of 
a match to gunpowder. To the wife this causes great, 
needless suffering, and very often the marriage relations 
become hateful because of it. On the other hand it is 
not just to the young husband that he should begin his 
wedded life with large doctor’s bills for maladies which 
existed before marriage and were then often easily curable. 
The trend of the law is to render marriage indissoluble; 
it should therefore, before the issuing of the marriage 
license, demand a physician’s certificate, giving a clean 
bill of health for both parties. In giving birth to children 
the parents transmit not only their physical condition, 
and more or less of their energy and endurance, but also 
their psychologic and moral forces. It is therefore of 
the highest importance for the family and the state that 
all of these vital questions should be thoroughly investi- 
gated before marriage. 
4. A Mutual Understanding as to the Sexual Ethics 
of Marriage.—Before marriage young girls should be 
enlightened by their mothers, or a woman physician, 
as to the nature of sexual intercourse and its consequences. 
Many young married women have declared that it is 
nothing less than criminal to allow young girls to enter 
into the marriage relation in total ignorance of this 
subject, and aver that they themselves were simply 
terrified and often repelled by their first experiences of 
marital life. It is another of our atavistic characteristics 
that we consider it improper for a young girl to know MARRIAGE AS A MAGIC SPELL 
251 
anything the day before marriage, of the practical and 
in many ways trying experience which she is going to 
undergo the following day. 
A further result of our ultra-prudishness is, that, 
without having had any experience of a sexual orgasm, 
a normal girl is not in a position to decide whether 
the idea of coitus with a man for whom she feels affection 
is repugnant to her or not. Women who are sexually 
cold, and have a horror of coitus except for procreation, 
cannot be regarded as normal types of wives nor expect 
their husbands to abstain from sexual intercourse 
except for that purpose. 
Before betrothal a man and woman should have a clear 
understanding as to their views on all subjects pertaining 
to marital ethics. This would prevent all misunder- 
standings on a subject that is a frequent cause of such 
unhappiness to both parties and is an open door to the 
divorce court. 
Marriage as a Magic Spell.—The truth which people 
seem to overlook in this matter is that the marriage 
ceremony is quite useless as a magic spell for changing 
in an instant the nature of the relation of two human 
beings to one another. A man may marry a woman after 
a month’s acquaintance, and the day after meet a woman 
whom he has known all his life, finding sometimes, to his 
own irrational surprise and his wife’s equally irrational 
indignation, that his wife is a stranger to him and the 
other woman is an old friend. 
Few realize the extent to which we assume that mar- 
riage is the shortcut to perfect and permanent intimacy 
and affection; further, that the specific relation which 
marriage authorizes between the parties is the most 
intimate and personal of human relations, embracing all 
the highest of these. This is absolutely untrue. The 252 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
fact remains that the most disastrous marriages are those 
founded exclusively on love, and some of the most suc- 
cessful ones those founded on congenial habits, tastes, 
liking, and respect, love having been least considered. 
In the past it has been necessary for a woman without 
money to be sexually attractive, because she was obliged 
to get married as a means of securing a livelihood. The 
illusion of sexual attraction, as we have seen, causes the 
young man to endow her with every accomplishment and 
virtue which makes a wife a treasure, the attraction being 
thus consciously used as a bait by individuals and society. 
Nothing can be more unwholesome for everybody than 
the exaggeration and glorification of a function which 
clouds the reason and upsets the judgment more than 
all the other instincts put together. The process may 
be pleasant and romantic, but the consequences are not. 
It would be far better and more honest if young people 
were taught that what they call love is an appetite which, 
like all other appetites, is destroyed for the moment by 
its gratification, and that it should be held to be an act of 
prostitution to make marriage an open trade in sexual 
gratification as it is at present, with money, board, lodg- 
ing, and personal slavery thrown in. No husband ever 
secured his domestic happiness and honor, nor has any 
wife secured hers, by relying alone on it. 
Marriage has been subject to evolution in various ways, 
the dominant tendency of this process in its later stages 
has been the extent of the wife’s rights. A wife is no 
longer the property of her husband, and according to 
our modern ideas, marriage is a contract of perfect 
equality between the sexes. 
The trouble has been that the truly worthy young girl 
has seldom looked ahead for twenty years or tried to 
visualize what her life will be then, and what kind of DUALISM OP WOMAN IN PRIMARY SEXUAL LOVE 
253 
children she is likely to bear, because of inherited traits 
from their father. So perhaps for some traditional 
scruple she gives a man up when she could have held him, 
when he has been really tricked into an engagement with 
a girl in every way unworthy of him. 
Every young woman should insist that the young man 
who will be her companion and mate for life should bring 
to the marriage altar the same chastity of body and mind 
which she herself brings. 
The highest form of love is service, and so it should be 
in mating, the altruistic desire to serve the loved one; 
not the material return to be had out of it. It is the 
grave duty of young men and women toward their 
prospective children and the community to consider how 
they can best endow these children with the noblest 
heritage of a pure stream of life, sound health, and proper 
environment. 
Dualism of Woman in Primary Sexual Love.—Before 
the first sexual embrace, woman is, for a number of 
reasons, at the same time desirous and timid. There is 
the shame in having to bare portions of her body which 
she has hitherto carefully concealed. There is the inde- 
cision dependent upon the conflict between the desire for 
sexual enjoyment and the fear of its consequences. 
There is the element of advance and withdrawal; the 
amorous sportiveness, which we have studied in the life 
of the higher animals, thus retarding the final enjoyment, 
which is thereby rendered sweeter and more profound; 
in a word, erotic coquetry. Automatic passivity is the 
greatest enemy to desire and the tomb of many mar- 
riages; whereas the feminine art which flees in order to 
invite pursuit, refuses and then yields, and even 
refuses as an act of yielding, provides an increased 
stimulus to the refined nervous susceptibility of the 254 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
male, consequently rendering what we call love more 
enduring. 
In young girls love is a mixture of exalted admiration 
for masculine courage and grandeur and an ardent desire 
for affection and maternity. This sentimentalism of the 
young girl, joined to the passive role of her sex, produces 
in her a state of exaltation which often borders on ecstasy, 
overcoming all the resistance of will and reason. The 
woman surrenders herself to the man of whom she is 
enamored or who has conquered or hypnotized her. 
She is vanquished by his embraces, following him sub- 
missively; in such a state of mind she is capable of any 
folly. 
The reluctance and dual-mindedness of the majority 
girls in their first experiences in the intimacies of love 
are, as we have seen, the outcome of serious motives. 
These feminine tendencies are explicable in the fullest 
sense of the term; none the less they represent one of the 
most dangerous phenomena of the relations of the sexes. 
They are dangerous to the woman, owing to the fact 
that men are, as a rule, firmly convinced that they need 
merely to pursue their own ends, without consideration 
or scruples of conscience, in order to attain what they 
themselves desire, the act of possession; but, at the same 
time, despite all appearances to the contrary, to satisfy 
the concealed but most earnest desire of the woman thus 
possessed. Such Don Juans pass from conquest to 
conquest; from seduction to seduction, without shrinking 
on occasions from the use of personal violence. 
This dualism of woman in her first experience of 
sexual life is no less dangerous to men. For the lover 
in individual cases it is difficult if not impossible to 
decide whether the girl’s resistance to his wishes is 
simulated or sincere; whether her flight is indeed signifi- DUALISM OF WOMAN IN PRIMARY SEXUAL LOVE 
255 
cant of refusal or whether it really indicates a delicate 
form of excitement; whether the use of a certain degree 
of violence will arouse the most ardent passion of love 
or the most furious anger. 
“But,” continues Michelis, “as a general rule the 
relations of the two young people prior to the offense 
were by no means on a purely Platonic plane. From 
secret loving glances to the assignation and the intimate 
amorous caress, they have to their mutual satisfaction 
traversed the whole via voluptatis. At length they have 
arrived at its culmination. The man’s erotic tension has 
reached its extremest tension, and he therefore suddenly 
demands complete possession. In other words he has 
arrived at the natural conclusion of all that went before. 
“But at this point the girl hesitates and is irresolute. 
Although like all girls in general, she fails to understand 
the strength and sudden uprush of the sexual need in 
the male; this misunderstanding depending upon physio- 
logical differences in the sexes is one of the chiefest 
causes of unhappiness in love, alike in marriage and in 
extra-conjugal relationships. And although, owing to 
the comparatively undeveloped state of her own sexual 
sensibilities, she has but a hazy idea of the complex 
phenomena of the sexual act; none the less in the course 
of the battle of love she has been so far inflamed, that 
at the bottom of her heart she also yearns for the cul- 
mination of the voluptuous ecstasy, and for complete 
self-surrender. 
“But adverse considerations pass through her mind 
with the speed of the lightning flash. The dread of 
the unknown potentialities of the sexual process itself, 
fear of her parents, of reproach, of the possible child, 
the thought that the loss of virginity will involve the 
loss of her best chance of success in life; all these 256 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
things make her irresolute. Despite all of this in most 
cases the long-cherished glow bursts into a flame; and 
the girl is a fully consenting part to what follows. 
“Not infrequently however the cold douche of the 
countervailing arguments puts out the fire; and the girl 
indignantly refuses a demand, which now that her own 
mind is freed from the fumes of passion, appears sudden, 
insolent, and even criminal. But the retreat often 
comes too late. The man now in part owing to the 
woman’s own actions, is in a state of hypersexual 
excitability, which has entered the sphere of the 
pathologic, and deprives him of the power of free, rational 
self-determination. 
“Very often the girl’s share in the matter is merely 
ignorance of the sexual nature of the male. The woman 
plays with the man, coquets and trifles; allures and 
goads. Matters proceed to their inevitable end. Man 
if his sexual nerves are stimulated beyond measure 
becomes an animal. This phenomenon belongs to the 
region of psyche, under the impulse of the powerfully 
stimulated sexual impulse. Especially during the period 
of puberty, the youth has strong tendencies toward 
actions which infringe on the laws of civil society and 
are therefore punishable offenses.” 
Many men lose all interest in a woman the moment 
they have possessed her, no less if that possession has 
been obtained by means of marriage. There are others, 
morally at a still lower level, who, when a girl inspired 
perhaps by the most profound affection, has yielded 
to their entreaties, immediately regard her as a fallen 
woman and despise her accordingly. 
A high-spirited woman, the woman who every modern 
man worthy of the name must desire as a proud, self- 
conscious comrade and collaborator, a woman with a DUALISM OF WOMAN IN PRIMARY SEXUAL LOVE 
257 
clear insight, has learned to control herself and keep 
others at a distance. Inspired by high sentiments of 
personal honor, self-respect, and firmness of conduct, 
this woman is practically free from all risk of violation, 
or other sexual aggression. 
No other department of human life offers to the 
educator and social hygienist such extensive and fruitful 
fields of activity, and nowhere are the best endeavors of 
all more greatly needed than in this department of 
sexual life. 
Every physician can testify as to the large number of 
“damaged lives” which come to him for repairs; so 
many of these young women come to women physicians 
that I have sometimes hoped that we see a dispro- 
portionately large number. I have not in mind the large 
class of shop and factory girls, who lack proper home 
environment and the conventions of good society, but 
the daughters of the well-to-do and wealthy classes, 
whose freedom of movement is well-nigh unrestricted. 
Three types will suffice for illustrations. 
First there is the sweet, innocent, pretty young girl, 
whose mother allowed the frequent visits of a young 
man. They became engaged and were then allowed 
to go out in the evenings together. Her fall occurred 
through her innocence and ignorance. The youth so 
misrepresented his physical need that his sweetheart alone 
could “save him from going to the devil, so working 
on her sympathies and her great but terribly mistaken 
love, that the victim fell on the sacrificial altar. The 
final plea usually is, “Well, we are going to be married 
later on anyway.” 
There is also the tragedy of the trusted guest, not a 
young man, but a man of the world, who knew how to 
make himself so fascinating to his host’s daughter. He 258 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
too worked his devilish wiles to the girl’s undoing and 
then, like the hound that he was, hurriedly terminated 
his visit. This girl was older than the first, but was 
lacking in firmness of character, which is generally true 
of youth. 
There is a third type of girl whose mother is one of 
the most charming, cultured, Christian women; but 
she was over-indulgent as a mother, and gave too little 
attention to the character of the girls and men with 
whom her daughter was associating. The girl’s moral 
tone got slack, so that when thrown in tourist travel 
with a married man of loose morals, she became an 
easy prey to his advances. Not one of these mothers 
suspected the black tragedy which had blasted her 
daughter’s life. 
The Safeguarding of Maidenhood.—There is no other 
country in the world that would tolerate the tremendous 
latitude of liberty which is permitted American girls and 
young women—liberty of thought, liberty of expression, 
and liberty of action. We always use that word America 
as synonymous with that section of it specifically known 
as the United States, partly through modesty and partly 
because of the idiosyncrasy of the English language. 
In the last twenty-five years, with the vast accumula- 
tion of wealth and the passing of the great masses of 
young women from the natural shelter and protection 
of the home into the world’s great marts, we have rapidly 
acquired many of the vices of the older civilizations, and 
our girls and young women are exposed to the tempta- 
tions of the world as they never were before. Then, too, 
every class of society contains that most dangerous ele- 
ment, known as 'parasites. These idlers, wherever found, 
form a grave menace to the home and to the state. 
When a girl leaves school, be it grammar school, high THE SAFEGUARDING OF MAIDENHOOD 
259 
school, or college, her mother’s troubles may be said to 
have begun. Her brother’s leaving school has no such 
upsetting effect upon the household. Why the difference? 
Simply this: the boy is promptly put at a trade, goes 
into business, or studies a profession; while the girl is 
placed on the marriage market. 
This is the psychologic time for the vocational educa- 
tion of the young girl, at least in the arts of home-making, 
marriage, and parenthood. This will involve courses in 
household economics, nursing, the care of children, etc.; 
and it should also include training for some definite 
vocational work. The American wheel of fortune makes 
such unexpected turns; the girl’s father may to-day be 
a prosperous professional man or a wealthy business man; 
tomorrow he may be dead or have lost his entire fortune. 
These girls, who have only had a smattering of an educa- 
tion at our fashionable finishing schools, or have even 
been sent abroad to finish an education which was really 
never begun, are absolutely without any resources to fall 
back on. As for instance when a noted lawyer died, 
unfortunate speculations having swept away his entire 
fortune, his daughters, although much wealth had been 
expended upon them, had not been fitted to do any one 
thing well, and were obliged to take positions in one of 
our large dry goods houses. That man would have 
turned in his grave, could he have seen his carefully 
shielded daughters standing behind the counter, young 
and pretty as they were, exposed to the stares and inso- 
lence of shoppers. 
Entirely aside from the economic necessity for such 
a course, there is a definite physiologic and moral neces- 
sity for women of every age to have a regular, fixed 
occupation. Love has its natural and serious beginning 
in maidenhood, but normal love has its limitations; to be 260 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
healthy, it cannot be allowed to run riot and drive every- 
thing else out of life. Otherwise there will be a 
pathologic stimulation of the passions which will under- 
mine the strongest constitution. 
The girl has now reached the most critical period of her 
life, not only physically, but psychologically. Too much 
care cannot be taken by her mother in the selection of 
her friends, books, and social amusements, for these will 
shape her ideals for future conduct. Friendships are 
either elevating or debasing; they are never absolutely 
negative. The young of both sexes have been thrown too 
indiscriminately together. 
Where we have made our greatest mistake was in 
imputing to youth that strength of character and power 
to resist temptation which comes only from the hard 
discipline of life and in the stern school of experience. 
At an age when youth are least capable of resistance, 
we have most unnecessarily exposed our daughters to 
the evil influence of the thoughtless, the ignorant, and the 
vicious. Youth is recklessly generous and idealistic, 
the idle and dissipated man holds out to the innocent 
and virtuous young girl the alluring picture of reforming 
him, whereas men and women know that the men who need 
reforming, or who have not the strength of character 
to reform themselves, make very sorry husbands, or no 
husbands at all. 
Now from the very underlying principles on which 
society is based, there results the fact that friendships 
are formed among those people with whom we are con- 
stantly thrown in contact; that they either help to make 
or mar us, and that the majority of marriages result from 
propinquity. Parents have either not realized this fact 
or have willfully shirked their responsibilities, and here 
fathers must bear an equal share of the blame with the THE SAFEGUARDING OF MAIDENHOOD 
261 
mothers. It is the duty of the father to learn of the 
habits of young men, of their families, and of their 
business, before they are permitted to become trusted 
guests in his home, and the mother should just as care- 
fully weigh in the balance the girls with whom her 
daughters associate. 
Our college girls are easily our best protected class 
of girls at that period of their lives when the young girl 
needs to be shielded from the world. Everything in 
their environment, the necessary discipline of such large 
groups of young women, together with their physical 
and mental training, builds up strength of character; 
so that on leaving college they are the best equipped to 
meet the vicissitudes of life. I do not deem it a matter 
of pure accident that, in a long professional life, of all 
the young girls with blighted lives, who were “damaged 
goods” on the marriage market and in the social world, 
who have come to me for professional advice, there has 
not been one college graduate. 
The great liberty which has unfortunately been accorded 
American girls, the intimacy which has been allowed 
with her brother’s friends and college chums when they 
are house guests, and the so-called flirtations in which 
they inevitably indulge, rub off much of that innate 
modesty which is one of the girl’s greatest charms. For 
a girl to be considered “a jolly good fellow,” and a “good 
sport,” is in all probability the beginning of her matri- 
monial finish. To allow any familiarity of language or 
of actions is for the girl to cheapen herself; she insensibly 
loses caste. 
Certain abstinences that might not seem in them- 
selves important, are really most essential. Little famili- 
arities, caresses, and kisses must at all times be avoided; 
they are like playing with fire. The youth never knows 262 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
when the electric thrill will vibrate through his being, 
awakened by a touch, that may break down all his 
previous good resolutions, injuring his future good and 
wrecking the life of his companion. 
The finest men do not take these liberties, nor do well- 
bred girls permit them or respect the man who seeks 
them. Vulgar jokes and stories must be tabooed, as 
well as all allusions to vice as a natural or amusing 
thing. All unhealthy excitements, alcohol, and gam- 
bling must be shunned. Above all, the imagination must 
be controlled; nothing is more dangerous than the indulg- 
ence in voluptuous dreams. Longings so fostered, so 
pent up without outlet, are apt to break out in spite 
of scruples and resolves, if a favorable and alluring 
opportunity presents. The continuous mental attitude 
toward chastity will decide the issue of the battle at the 
moment of temptation. 
Normal friendship with pure women is vitally neces- 
sary to men; and comradeship with men important for 
women. Normal interests of all sort are important; 
the man or woman who has a full, all-round life, who 
cultivates wholesome intellectual, esthetic, and religious 
activities, is in far less danger of an unregulated passion. 
Human nature must find some happy outlet or it will 
tend to run amuck. What we become depends largely 
upon what we get interested in. Abundant out-door 
life and sports lessen immoderate desires. 
A very important duty of the community lies not only 
in the fight against all that is obscene in books, pictures, 
plays, movies, and the ballet, but it must substitute for 
them good, clean, and invigorating amusements in 
various social centers. Parents must bear in mind that 
in order to properly protect their own children they 
must assist in the general uplift of the community. THE BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE 
263 
Corrupt morals carry with them a more deadly contagion 
than does bodily disease. 
In order that it should not do actual harm to himself 
or others, the amount of liberty that is granted to the 
individual should depend on his mental, moral, and 
altruistic development. This is a self-evident truth. A 
child is not permitted to put his hand into the flame; 
dangerously insane man must be placed under restraint, 
both for his own safety and that of the community. 
For their own highest good as well as for that of society, 
our sons as well as our daughters should have their 
personal liberty somewhat restricted, until they reach 
mature physical, mental, moral, and altruistic develop- 
ment. They should have a mentor, who would stand 
in the capacity of adviser and friend; the gain would be 
a tremendous one, both to the individual and to the state. 
This is, of course, primarily the duty of parents. 
The point which must be borne in mind is that sex 
attraction, always a powerful influence, is at its height 
in youth; and the physiologic readily passes into the 
pathologic; the ruin of the innocent Gretchen by the 
damnable Faust. 
The Betrothal and Marriage.—With the old English, 
as well as among other Teutonic peoples, at the dawn of 
history marriage was a private transaction, taking the 
form of a sale of the bride by the father or other legal 
guardian to the bridegroom. The procedure consisted 
of two parts: the betrothal and the giving away of the 
bride at the nuptials. 
The betrothal was a real contract of sale, essential 
to which was the one-sided performance of the payment 
by the bridegroom of the price of the bride. In 
ancient times the person of the woman was doubtless 
the object of purchase, and within historic times, as 264 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
has already been shown, woman remained in perpetual 
tutelage. 
Among the West Goths the betrothal was nearly as 
binding as the marriage. The father or other legal 
protector might contract his daughter or ward against 
her consent. At this period the amount of the bride 
money was generally fixed by custom and statute both 
in England and on the Continent, the amount depending 
on the rank of the woman. 
From the sixth to the ninth centuries a general change 
in the folk laws of all of the German tribes took place; 
the purchase price was then no longer paid to the guardian, 
but to the bride herself; so that the right of the guardian 
was practically limited to the receipt of a nominal sum; 
that is, to a merely formal fulfilment. 
In the tenth century the betrothal had become merely 
a formal contract, in which there was not even the pay- 
ment of the bride price to the father or guardian; but, 
instead, the agreement which was accompanied by sure- 
ties to pay this to the bride. 
The third phase of the betrothal may be clearly dis- 
cerned in the English laws of the first part of the tenth 
century. In the first stage, falling mainly or chiefly 
within the prehistoric period, the betrothal is a real 
contract, according to which there is a two-sided fulfil- 
ment; the payment of the bride price, and the delivery 
of the bride. In the second stage, existing at least from 
the time of Tacitus onward, the transaction is still in 
the form of a contract or sale, but there is only a one- 
sided fulfilment; the purchase price is paid to the guar- 
dian, but the delivery of the bride is postponed. Next 
a solemn act through the payment of a nominal sum is 
deemed sufficient, the payment of the actual price being 
deferred to the time of the nuptials, when it is often THE BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE 
265 
paid not to the guardian but to the bride herself. This 
is the genesis of the dowry. The betrothal is still a real 
contract, but not a contract of sale. Finally, even a 
one-sided fulfilment is no longer required. Nothing is 
paid and nothing is transferred at the betrothal, which 
now consists of promises and sureties; the real contract 
of sale has now been transformed into a merely formal 
contract, which provided for future fulfilment on the 
part of both the guardian and the bridegroom. 
The second act is the actual giving of the bride to her 
husband. As among the Greeks, the Romans, and the 
Hindus, the nuptial ceremony appears to have consisted 
of three parts, of which the first or the giving of the bride 
is the most important; the father or guardian formally 
surrenders the bride with the symbols of her husband’s 
power and protection, the sword, the hat, and the mantle. 
The second is on the reception of the bride; the husband 
pays the bride price or delivers a character providing 
for this or other allowance for the widow, at the same 
time making symbolic assertion of the power which he 
thus acquires over his wife, for example by treading on 
her foot. 
Either party can bring action in the courts for breach 
of contract. The bridegroom cannot compel the deliv- 
ery of the bride, but he may sue for a recovery of the 
bride gifts and an additional fine. On the other hand, 
a breach of contract on the part of the bridegroom is 
punishable by forfeiture of the bride price and possibly 
also a fine. The betrothal created the negative effect 
of marriage, the obligation of connubial fidelity. 
In the eleventh century the forms of marriage were 
entering upon another stage. Originally the father could 
betroth his daughter against her will; gradually the power 
of the father weakened, the daughter being granted a 266 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
veto power over the choice of the bridegroom; that is, 
her consent was necessary in order to make the contract 
binding. Then gradually the relations of the father and 
daughter were entirely transposed, self-betrothal by the 
daughter constituted a valid contract while to the father 
was granted the power of veto. Naturally it was the 
widow, who in case of second marriage succeeded in 
emancipating herself from tutorial control. 
The real contract through the payment of the bride 
price was retained; this was paid not to the guardian, 
but to the bride and appears most frequently in the form 
of a ring, so well known as the engagement or betrothal 
ring. The ring had been used by the Romans as the 
bride price, and like the bridal wreath and the bridal 
veil, the custom seems to have been borrowed from the 
Germans. 
There can be little doubt of the historic connection of 
the betrothal ring and its duplicate, the wedding ring, 
with the bride price; whether or not it may be considered 
as a surviving symbol of the former servitude of the wife 
is a question. 
The wedding ring appears to have been merely the 
earnest money, which bound the contract of marriage 
between the father and husband. The ring proved not 
that the marriage was a sale, but a civil contract, ex- 
ecuted according to the strict formalities of contracts in 
primitive law. It proved not that the women were 
deprived of their rights, but that their rights were secured 
to them in marriage by the most careful provisions known 
to early society. This is, of course, a very emphatic 
statement of one side of the case. 
Simultaneously with self-betrothal, the bride gained 
also the right of giving herself away. The parties 
conducted the ceremony themselves; but some one BREACH OF PROMISE AND MARRIAGE PORTIONS 
267 
generally appeared, possessed with the right to officiate at 
the giving away of the bride. This was the predecessor 
of the priest. 
The betrothal consisted in reciprocal promises which 
the two made to marry each other. It was a necessary 
prelude to marriage, and always took for granted the 
previous demand for the hand of the young girl, and was a 
public proof of her consent. One finds this custom in all 
epochs and in all nations of greatest antiquity: Greeks, 
Romans, and Hebrews. A ring placed upon the finger 
of the young girl is still an ordinary sign of betrothal. 
For long centuries, union or death was the only alterna- 
tive which remained to the affianced couple. Such was 
the rigor of the engagement that only an incurable 
infirmity, as the loss of a member, leprosy, public dis- 
honor, or abandonment for three years, could break it. 
Every violation of the given word was severely punished 
by the loss of the pledges or considerable amends, and 
even by death among the Bourguigons: “Those who 
are guilty must be punished by the loss of their heads.” 
The Church multiplied equally its precautions in order 
to prevent the infractions of the given word. The 
punishment was excommunication and the illegitima- 
tizing of their children. It was only just, it said, to 
compare the most solemn acts of the first and voluntary 
engagement to the dignity of marriage. 
Breach of Promise and Marriage Portions in the New 
England Colonies.—The New England Puritans retained 
the custom of pre-contract or betrothal, which, almost 
extinct in the mother country at that time, was every- 
where celebrated with due solemnity. It was in fact a 
kind of marriage. The espoused couples were separated 
from the world and placed in a relation whose sacred- 
ness might not be violated without serious consequences. 268 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
When its social and legal consequences are considered, 
the New England betrothal seems to be an institution of 
far more historic interest than has generally been ac- 
corded it. Never perhaps in any modern society has 
parental control been so pronounced, but if consent were 
once given and sealed in due form, it could not be lightly 
withdrawn. 
The early records abound in notices of suits for breach 
of promise. The colonists were a litigious people; even 
members of some of the best families did not hesitate to 
drag their matrimonial difficulties into court. Some- 
times a jilted lover sued his sweetheart or a forlorn maiden 
sought satisfaction from her betrothed spouse. Some- 
times a parent joined with his aggrieved child in seeking 
reparation. Further, Puritan lovers did not always 
hesitate to prosecute their parents for refusing marriage 
when permission had once been given. 
From the amount of damage awarded the plaintiff, it 
would seem that the blighted hopes and disappointed 
affections were not judicially reckoned at an extortionate 
figure, but these were the days of “small change” in 
all domestic affairs. Sometimes very careful contracts 
were executed in court, regarding the property rights of 
the future husband and wife. Often before betrothal, 
and almost always before marriage, an exact arrangement 
was made between the parents touching the marriage 
portion on either side. “The higgling of dowries,” 
says Weeden, “was one of the most singular practices 
of New England life. Even paupers were provided a 
marriage portion at the county’s charge.” 
The Custom and Underlying Principle of Demanding 
a Dowry with the Bride.—The marriage dowry has not 
generally been considered from the standpoint of the 
increased economic independence of the wife; it was a MARRIAGE DOWRY 
269 
tremendous step toward the economic equality of the 
married couple. The dowry may have meant that the 
wife as well as the husband was expected to contribute 
to the joint household. It was also very often intended 
to be a settlement for the wife, in case the marriage 
should be dissolved by the husband’s death or otherwise. 
In Egypt, according to a papyrus taken from a tomb 
near Cairo, dated 341 B.C., it was the man who had to 
put up a bonus in order to make himself a matrimonial 
possibility. This dowry he gave into his wife’s keeping. 
She was the guardian of the purse, the holder of the 
mutual property. If, after a trial of marriage, she came 
to the conclusion that he was not her true affinity, she 
had the privilege of divorce, in which case she returned 
only one-half of the dowry which he brought her and 
one-third of the property which they had acquired by 
their mutual efforts. While in English-speaking coun- 
tries to-day the custom of a dowry for the bride does not 
exist; it is generally observed throughout all other 
European countries. In accordance with this rule a 
young woman entering upon marriage is expected to 
bring something of her own, either in goods, chattels, 
or money. Among the poorer classes this is usually 
turned over to the husband, who has full rights over 
the property; but in the higher classes of society, espe- 
cially among the well-to-do middle classes, the bride’s 
portion is for her own use, and at her death goes to her 
children. 
Marriages in France, Germany, and other Continental 
countries are seldom arranged without a stipulated 
dowry; the income of the average young man, just as 
in the United States, whether in business or professional 
life, being insufficient to support a wife without assist- 
ance of some kind. European women subject to the 270 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
dowry system strongly approve of it and insist that 
marriages on which it is based are, as a rule, not only 
made up of real affection, but are also guided by a 
moderate portion of consideration. They believe that 
a woman who has a dowry of her own, enters the married 
state with a certain feeling of satisfaction and self- 
respect, which cannot be experienced by the bride who 
is utterly dependent on her husband. It is also their 
opinion that the average American girl wastes more 
before her marriage than would make up the dowry of 
her European sister in the same class of society. The 
fact that so many American marriages end disastrously 
on account of money matters is regarded as a further 
proof that the lack of a “dot” and the proper economy 
is responsible for a large share of American divorces. 
Westermarck’s opinion is that, if she does not possess 
especial personal attractions, a young girl of the present 
day without a “dot” runs a great chance of not getting 
married. This state of affairs is quite natural in a 
society where monogamy is strictly enforced, where 
the women are more numerous than the men, where 
many men never marry, and married women so fre- 
quently lead lives of idleness. 
In the so-called American system, which prevails in 
the United States, young men take their wives without 
a dowry, but in reality these young men count on the 
future inheritance of their wives. The daughters of 
rich parents have vastly more chances of marriage than 
do those of poor parents. 
M. Gohier writes: “Among non-civilized peoples the 
husband buys his wife; among ultra-civilized peoples 
the wife buys her husband. In sound and healthy 
communities neither buys the other; and love alone is 
the motive power in bringing about the union. MARRIAGE DOWRY 
271 
“But the honeymoon does not last forever. An hour 
arrives when the brutal husband shouts in violent tones, 
or the well-educated husband hints by gestures, insinu- 
ations, and allusions: ‘Since I support you, you are 
my servant, my slave, my object.For a woman to 
owe her support to a man whom she adores may be 
tolerable; but when the adoration has worn off, it is a 
humiliation. 
In the home, as in the outside world, the question 
of money carries on its work of destruction and dis- 
solution. The abyss is dug between the one who has 
money and the one who has none; between the one who 
gives and the one who receives. Now this very ques- 
tion of money and all of the silent comparisons which 
it causes, all of the bitter calculations and all of the 
ignoble reproaches, disappear only on equalizing the 
possessions which each of the parties brings to the 
wedded life. 
The custom of the dowry or its equivalent is highly 
essential for the stability of marriage, since, as we have 
already seen that it is because of their financial inabilities 
to support a wife and family that young men are obliged 
to defer marriage until so late in life. This is also one 
of the first rocks on which the matrimonial bark founders. 
The most certain way of learning the exact value of 
money is to become a wage earner. After five years, 
say, spent in some definite occupation, a woman for 
the first time in her life realizes just to what extent 
money represents the life-blood of the worker. In the 
professional classes, especially, it is the intense anxiety, 
the heavy burdens of care borne for other people, as well 
as the uncertainty of the yearly income, that tells. It 
is the only really vital way of learning just what is 
essential in life, what are the luxuries and extravagances, 272 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
as well as just how great is the debt to humanity in 
general, to the unfortunate, the down-trodden, and the 
physically unfit. 
Why should a young woman give up a good job with 
a comfortable salary, perhaps larger than her husband 
receives, only to be obliged to work much harder in her 
husband's home, on his meager income, than she ever 
did before at her vocation or profession? Why should 
the husband demand this, or the wife desire it? 
It is only another instance of the difficulty of breaking 
through the ingrained traditions and conventions. 
From time immemorial it has been the prerogative of 
husbands to support their wives, who in turn became 
their chattels; this custom seems to be almost indelibly 
stamped on the mind of the average man and woman. 
Under right economic conditions, Professor Zueblin 
argues, every normal, intelligent adult, whether man or 
woman, should be at least self-supporting. The woman 
can then go to her husband on equal economic terms, 
as he would take a business partner. Later, if she ceases 
to be a wage earner, she contributes at least her services 
to the home; so the marriage relation not only becomes 
tolerable, but beautiful, and is sanctified by their mutual 
love, which is the only excuse for it. 
Trial Betrothals versus Breach-of-Promise Cases.— 
Hasty marriages should always be condemned. Several 
eminent sociologists have suggested that some check 
system should be placed on marriage and the present 
varied and lax laws on the subject in our various states 
and territories. It is the opinion of Professor Zueblin 
that there should be a Federal law making it obligatory 
for the marriage license to be issued at least six months 
before marriage, and providing for the widest and most 
abundant publicity for such an announcement. BREACH-OF-PROMISE CASES 
273 
It has frequently been pointed out that the range of 
selection for the average young man or woman is totally 
inadequate; this is another reason against too youthful 
engagements. If for any reason the marriage can not 
take place within the year, no engagement should be 
allowed to be entered into. 
It not infrequently happens that a young man of 
good family and of the best type learns after his betrothal 
that he has made a terrible mistake in his choice of a life- 
mate, having in the meantime met with quite a differ- 
ent type of girl, who was truly sympathetic with his 
highest ideals and aspirations. In spite of this, a very 
high-principled, although certainly short-sighted man, 
regards it as dishonorable to break his engagement, 
whereas it is vastly more dishonorable not to break it, 
after he has learned his true state of mind. It is only 
fair to assume that any honorable young woman realizes 
that the breaking of any such engagement is in her own 
highest interests. 
Our laws in regard to breach-of-promise cases savor 
of antiquity, handed down as they have been from an- 
cient civilizations through our own New England states. 
Here is where the law steps in and declares that the man 
must have some much more serious reason for breaking 
an engagement than mere incompatibility of temper or 
wider vision on his own part, as for instance unchastity 
on the part of his fiancee. In the case of an army officer 
or clergyman, girls and their designing mothers have 
always made use of two most effective weapons. If 
either of these men should break an engagement of mar- 
riage without proof of very sufficient reasons, the officer 
would lose his commission on the grounds of “conduct 
unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” and the clergy- 
would be unfrocked for the same reason. 274 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Either of these men may do one of two things: he may 
marry the girl and practically live at his club, seeking 
his pleasure outside of his home, the wife being his in- 
ferior in refinement of character, social position and 
intellectual training, all of which he discovered before 
asking to be released from his engagement; or, if his 
finances are such that he cannot afford to keep up two 
establishments, he may live at home and finally take to 
drink and opiates in order to drown his troubles. After 
his higher nature has been totally undermined he may 
either commit suicide or cast prudence to the winds and 
simply abandon his wife for some other woman. Of 
course his career and his life are ruined, but that was 
predestined when these two were made man and wife. 
There is still another course left open to a man in one 
of these two most exalted and honorable callings: the 
girl may prevent him from marrying anyone else, but 
she cannot oblige him to marry her at any given date. 
The man can always plead inability to support a wife 
and children in a style befitting their social position. 
After some years of this indefinite engagement, when the 
girl sees that she is foiled, she begins to look about for 
someone else, and voluntarily breaks her old engagement. 
The man, however, has usually by'this time become wear- 
ied and disgusted with the female sex, either becoming a 
mysogynist and crusty old bachelor or, for the sake of 
handing down an old family name, late in life marries 
some young girl. As we have already seen, such mar- 
riages rarely turn out to be happy ones. 
Men at fifty are much more easily snared by the artful 
husband-seeker than are younger men. The young man 
is more elusive; he has his life before him and he does 
not quite know his own mind, nor is he quite sure of just 
what he wants. He also has fears of his young life being BREACH-OF-PROMISE CASES 
275 
blasted by the responsibilities of a growing family; then 
too he is enjoying the full hey-day of untrammeled 
youth and freedom. But sometimes he too succumbs 
against his better judgment. 
So the man whose susceptibilities have been practised 
on until he has been carried away into a promise of 
marriage to which he can be legally held, and the man 
who has been led into an indiscretion which he must 
repair by marriage on the pain of having to regard him- 
self as a scoundrel or a seducer, in addition to the utmost 
damages the lady’s relatives can obtain from him, are 
equally bound by their betrothals. 
Such a transaction is not an entrance into the “holy 
state of matrimony,” but very generally entrance into a 
life of constant mortification for the woman; a life-long 
squabble and a corroding grudge that causes more misery 
and degradation of character than a dozen natural de- 
sertions and betrayals. Yet the number of marriages 
effected more or less in this way must be enormous. 
One root of the present evil is to be found in the laxity 
of our present marriage laws, and still more so in the 
lack of uniformity of the marriage laws of the various 
states. Boys and girls can make a contract to marry 
at an age when they could not make a contract for any- 
thing else. In some of our states girls of twelve and 
fourteen years of age can marry without the consent of 
their parents. No publicity or previous announcement 
is required. In many states not even a license is de- 
manded. If the laws of one state offer any hindrances, 
the parties can cross over to the adjoining state and be 
married there. 
Paternal authority has declined in some countries 
much more than in others. Even to-day, in France, 
the law affords considerable power to the parents. A 276 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
boy cannot quit the paternal residence without the per- 
mission of his father before twenty-one years of age, 
except to enter the army. A son under twenty-five and 
a daughter under twenty-one years of age cannot marry 
without the consent of their parents; even at this age 
both are bound to ask for it by formal notification. 
Parental restraints to marriage still exist to a very great 
extent in Holland and Germany, the marriage of juniors 
being absolutely void without the consent of the father 
or, if he be dead, the mother. According to the Scotch, 
Irish, and American laws, the consent of the parents or 
guardian is not necessary to the validity of the union 
of minors. 
Edward Carpenter points out the dangers which beset 
one belonging to the poorer classes in a search for a fitting 
mate. “It is really monstrous,” he says, “that the girl 
or youth should have to set out on this difficult quest 
without a word of help as to the choice of a way, or of 
warning concerning the very real doubts and perplexities 
which beset it. Two people come together who know 
very little of each other, who have been brought up along 
very different lines, who certainly do not understand 
each other’s natures, whose mental interests and occupa- 
tions are different; to one of whom the subject of sex 
is probably a sealed book whose most dismal page has 
been opened first. The man needs an outlet for his 
passion; the girl is looking for a home and a proprietor. 
A glamour and an illusion descends upon them. It 
envelops in a gracious and misty halo all of their differ- 
ences and misapprehensions. They marry without 
misgiving; but at a later hour with calmer thoughts, 
they begin to realize that it is a life sentence which has 
been passed upon them.” 
It is a notorious fact that breach-of-promise cases are BREACH-OF-PROMISE CASES 
277 
almost invariably brought by women, though no woman 
of refined sensibilities ever did, or ever could, bring up 
a breach-of-promise suit. In the first place, if this 
serious lack of affinity exists, the woman, as well as the 
man, has been most fortunate that it should have been 
discovered before marriage. The only honorable course 
on either side is to explain the state of affairs and ask 
for a release from the engagement, which will always be 
readily given by the other party to the betrothal; at 
least, if the man and woman are well bred, to say nothing 
of being thoroughbred. But from the consideration of 
marriage as woman’s only vocation, her desperation on 
losing her victim is only too apparent, and her “broken 
heart,” which can only be mended by a large financial 
consideration, is an outrage on the present-day civiliza- 
tion. Only lack of self-respect and indifference to public 
opinion will permit any woman to hale such a matter into 
court and become the subject of newspaper notoriety. 
One of the surest means of cutting down the number of 
unhappy marriages and divorces will be to do away with 
these legal traditions of antiquity. In France to-day a 
promise of marriage, written and signed, is null, and the 
equivalent of a writing without value. The young girl 
has no recourse against her fianc6. 
The evident intention of betrothal is to give the young 
people time to become acquainted with each other before 
becoming united in the indissoluble bonds of matrimony. 
Free and bound, they study each other; enjoying the 
chaste sweetness of a growing affection. The marriage 
which they are approaching hand in hand appears to 
them not merely as a material union, but as the supreme 
consecration of the fusion of their souls. England, 
Switzerland, Spain, and Germany have preserved this 
poetic character at this veritable epoch of life. 278 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Once the vows are exchanged the young man is admit- 
ted into the intimacies of the family; the greatest facilities 
are given him to study the tastes and character of his 
future bride. He talks, walks, and corresponds with 
her, using his prerogative under the unique safeguard of 
promise of marriage. To-day unfortunately, the time 
of their engagement and even the time of their acquaint- 
ance have been abridged; this is also true of the number 
of days which the law and the church have placed between 
the announcement of the intended marriage and the 
marriage itself. The young people are never left alone 
without a chaperon. The role of the fianc6 is reduced 
to official visits and the sending of a daily gift of flowers. 
MARRIAGE 
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours 
For one lone soul another lonely soul, 
Each choosing each through all the weary hours 
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal; 
Then blend they like green leaves with golden flowers 
Into one beautiful and perfect whole, 
And life’s long night is ended, and the way 
Lies open onward to eternal day. 
Edwin Arnold: Destiny. CHAPTER XI 
THE PROBLEMS OF MARRIAGE 
The Essence and Characteristics of Marriage; the Classi- 
fication of Marriages; (a) Marriage of Inclination or 
Marriage for Love; (b) Marriage for Profit; (c) Mar- 
riage de Convenance; Science and Marriage; the Danger 
Zones of Marital Life; (I) Marital Unethics: Man’s 
Masterful Spirit and Assertion of Rights; Sexual Con- 
tinence in Marriage; the Instinct of procreation; (2) 
Failure in Domestic Economics; the Financial Squalls 
and Hurricanes; (3) the Spirit of Martyrdom and 
Tyranny of Tears; Due to the Wife’s Lack of a Definite 
Vocation; (4) the First Arrival and the Neglected Hus- 
band; the Spirit of Jealousy; (5) Woman’s Spatial 
Separation from Her Husband’s Vocational Interests. 
Marriage is the only seal which marks the transition of the 
temporary into untiring service; and of fitful into eternal love. 
—Ruskin. 
Marriage is one of the most desperate risks of existence as it is 
carried on to-day. The lovers enter the laboratory and put their 
souls to the test; they love and grow acquainted with the various 
selves of each other; they face the world and its problems together. 
—Rupert Hughes. 
The Essence and Characteristics of Marriage.— 
Marriage is, always has been, and always must remain, a 
fundamental question among statesmen, churchmen, and 
social economists, because it is the very foundation on 
which rests the family, the state, the nation, and the 
progress of the race. 280 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Considered as a contract, marriage presents certain 
characteristics which are encountered in no other human 
transactions. The most frequent contracts involve only 
a man’s material interests; here it involves his intellec- 
tual and moral being as well. The ordinary contracts 
carry only an obligation or civil consequences, according 
to the agreement of the parties, while the consent of the 
parties concerned is not sufficient for marriage. This 
contract only becomes valid when it has received public 
sanction, in the name of society and the law, by the civil 
magistrate; and in the name of God by one of his minis- 
ters in those countries which have a State religion. 
The authority of the State and Church is then neces- 
sary whenever a member of society wishes to change his 
condition; and it becomes a question of creating a new 
being. Finally, contrary to all contracts, which are 
temporary and can be canceled, the contract of marriage 
is perpetual and, according to the doctrines held by the 
Roman and Episcopal Churches marriage is a sacrament 
that is indissoluble. The other branches of the Church 
hold that marriage is a divine institution and therefore 
should be hedged about with every possible protection 
by the State and Church, divorce only being permitted 
for the gravest offenses. This last is practically the 
view taken by leading statesmen in all modern civiliza- 
tions. In the eyes of physiology and hygiene, marriage 
is something more than a purely civil contract, as some 
philosophers would deem it; it is the natural and legiti- 
mate exercise of love and the creative instinct, authorized 
by the State and sanctioned by the Church. 
Marriage is more than the consecration of the creative 
functions; the taking possession of the woman and the 
man by each other and legal authorization to increase the 
population. It is the uniting of two individuals into ESSENCE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF MARRIAGE 
281 
one; the transforming of the double sexual nature into 
one unique nature, more powerful and more beautiful. 
It is not simply the adjunct of the woman to the man, but 
the completion and rounding out of the unity, the inti- 
mate cohesion of two sexual elements fused into one 
amalgam more glorious and harmonious. 
From the marriage relation there results a wonderful 
creation, a new being; we have now, instead of the dual 
relation, to consider the trinity of father, mother, and 
child. This forms a new group called the family: a 
social center, the basis of primitive society, and the image 
of all future societies. 
In every complete marriage there are two elements: 
a union which is prompted by mutual love and only 
sustainable as a reality by the cultivation of such love, 
and on the other hand a method for the propagation of 
the race, having its end in offspring. Both these ends 
have long been generally recognized. They are set 
forth for instance in the marriage service of the Church of 
England, where it is stated that marriage exists “both 
for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one 
ought to have of the other,” and also “for the procrea- 
tion of children.” The ethical doctrine in marriage 
should call forth the spiritual relationship, which leads 
to the calling forth of the spiritual possibilities. In 
order that the marriage should be complete there must 
be a mental affinity between husband and wife. 
The influence that the woman at her best can bring to 
bear on the man is to socialize him in his work; to give 
him the vision and incentive to follow his calling. It 
is essential for the happiness of both and the success 
of their married life, that the wife should stand by her 
husband’s side. It is said that women as a whole are 
interested in persons and not in abstract ideas or general 282 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
principles. This has been the result of their suppression 
and lack of opportunity for the educating of the higher 
intellectual faculties. One of the great causes of marital 
unhappiness has been the woman’s inability to apprehend 
general situations and general principles; this is a further 
result of their limited education. 
Marriage as the common life involves more or less 
eommunity of goods, and fortune, sharing alike in pros- 
perity and adversity, sorrow and happiness, two streams 
of life being combined into one. The relation is constant 
and close, as is no other. In marriage each one influences 
the other incessantly, and generally more deeply than 
in any other relation. The strongest nature cannot 
escape the penetrating influence of the other, whether for 
good or ill. 
The presence of the child is the capital fact, to perpetu- 
ate the spiritual life on earth in human vehicles; and 
not only to perpetuate it but to enhance it from genera- 
tion to generation. In order to do this it is necessary to 
enhance the spiritual life of the father and mother. It 
is the spirit which acts on spirit; it is the personality 
which acts on personality. It is the atmosphere created 
in the home, it is what a man or woman are in the process 
of becoming that is most essential. It is their life which 
makes a silent but searching appeal to the human side 
of the young. 
When marriage is thus consummated on the basis of 
free, reciprocal consent; when both parties know exactly 
to what they have pledged themselves; when the corrupt- 
ing influence of money is eliminated; when woman 
finally obtains equal rights with man; love and mutual 
respect, combined with sexual attraction, will constitute 
the intimate and personal ties of marriage. 
At the same time instinctive sentiments and legal THE CLASSIFICATION OF MARRIAGES 
283 
duties, together with offspring, will furnish it with 
complementary and lasting cement. Among men whose 
natures are true the instinctive sentiment of altruism 
and conscience urges them to the performance of social 
duties, without the necessity of any legal obligations. 
Marriage is an inner and spiritual thing, of which that we 
commonly call by that name is only the outward symbol. 
Where the inner fact does not exist, neither does the 
marriage. In marriage, as well as in other affairs of 
life, it is the individual facts which we are called upon 
to meet that we may not shirk. 
The Classification of Marriages.—Marriages have 
been classified into a variety of groups, based upon 
the conditions on which they were made. 
a. Marriage of Inclination or Marriage for Love.— 
These are contracted without reflection, simply because 
of love and in spite of every obstacle. They are neither 
more happy nor more durable, for if one marries simply for 
love, as they say in Spain: “It is to place one’s self 
in a temperature of forty degrees centigrade (104° 
Fahrenheit), forgetting that the temperature can easily 
fall below zero. Love takes wings and only grief remains. ’* 
b. Marriage for Profit.—These marriages are made by 
reason of avarice and by the suppression of every other 
sentiment. In marriages for fortune or social position, 
one or the other of the contracting parties are always 
sacrificed, sometimes both. One always marries badly 
in this way. Sometimes a ruined aristocrat marries a 
rich tradesman’s daughter, in order to repair his fortune, 
while the vanity of his fiancee makes a title a desirable 
acquisition. Sometimes a coquette, by clever flirta- 
tion, will simulate a love she does not feel to catch a 
rich man in her net; but more commonly there is calcu- 
lation on both sides and both are duped. 284 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The impoverished foreigner who so frequently comes 
to the States seeking a fortune to mend the condition 
of his family estates, furnishes a type in which the 
father buys a husband for his daughter. These men 
generally possess a refinement of manners and a natural 
hereditary polish; they are acquainted with the little 
arts of attention to the slightest wants and whims of 
women, and have learned the art of luring their victims. 
c. Marriage de Convenance.—These marriages are made 
for position, fortune, family, health or other analogous 
reasons. Ordinarily the parents or friends arrange these 
marriages. The two who are chiefly concerned remain 
indifferent. The marriage is one in name only, and we 
find that such marriage, in a large proportion of cases is, 
in itself, in certain respects a form of prostitution. 
Our social conditions have been unfavorable to the 
development of a high moral feeling in woman. The 
difference between the woman who sells herself in prosti- 
tution and the woman who sells herself in marriage, 
according to the saying of Marro, is “only a difference 
of price and duration of contract.” Or, as Forel puts 
it, “Marriage is a more fashionable form of prostitution.” 
Doubtless in all ages since women have possessed 
property, marriages were oftener determined by pecu- 
niary considerations than by love or affection, but proofs 
are wanting to show that marriage was made an object 
of speculation and exchange in the open market, with 
anything like the same effrontery as it is to-day. In 
our times, among the propertied classes, marriage barter 
is frequently carried on with a shamelessness which 
makes the phrase about the sacredness of marriage 
sound like the emptiest mockery. At no period has 
it been as difficult as it is at present for the great majority 
to attain what they consider as prosperity, and at no SCIENCE AND MARRIAGE 
285 
period has the perfectly justified desire for the amenities 
and enjoyments of life been so universally disseminated as 
now. 
Thus speculation on a wealthy marriage has become 
one of the chief means of rising in life. On the one side 
is the thirst for money, for as much money as possible, 
and on the other side the desire for rank, titles, and 
distinction. These desires, especially in the so-called 
upper classes, provide for each other's gratification. 
In these classes marriage is regarded as mostly a business 
transaction; it is a purely conventional tie which both 
parties outwardly respect, while each acts as his private 
feelings may direct. 
The only legitimate moral end of marriage, whether 
we regard it from the wider biological standpoint, or from 
the narrower standpoint of human society, is sexual 
selection, effected in accordance with the laws of mutual 
love, having for its objects the joy and comfort which the 
one should have of the other and the procreation of the 
race. 
Science and Marriage.—Science is not only examining 
and analyzing the causes of unhappy marriages, but is 
also pointing out certain means by which the whole 
institution of matrimony may be placed on a more sat- 
isfactory basis. First of all is the necessity for the 
sex education of the young, extending this education 
into the vocational one of marriage and parenthood. 
Science has further shown the physical and moral risks 
of binding people together for life, without scruple, in 
the most artificial and ill-assorted unions. Research in 
the realms of psychology, for example, has revealed the 
serious evils which may result from incompatibility of 
temperament; in this respect science is far ahead of the 
times. Considering the amazing differences between 286 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
people, intellectually, morally, and socially, the only 
wonder is that more marriages do not break down. In 
some cases the causes of friction may be removed by 
mutual concessions or a striving for greater harmony, 
but in other cases the only satisfactory remedy is abso- 
lute divorce. 
“Nagging,” for instance, either on the part of the 
woman or the man, has been found by Dr. Howard, as 
one of the most frequent results of incompatibility of 
temperament. In the case of women, Dr. Howard points 
out that the nagging habit is usually due to psychopathic 
conditions innate in the sex, while in men it is simply the 
reflex of constant friction at home. “ Man, ” he says,“ does 
not understand that the emotional outbreaks of women 
usually have a nervous origin and are not always a mere 
demonstration of temper. Many times the man is cruel, 
he wounds by harsh words when he could bring harmony 
by tender acts and silent tongue. He does not as a rule, 
he simply nags. Especially is this so when a man starts 
drinking.” 
Dr. Howard then goes on to cite the case of a man who 
was married to a nagging woman, whose incessant tongue- 
lashings had the most serious results. They drove the 
husband to drink; he also became a nagger, and even- 
tually his wife obtained a divorce. A year afterward 
the man re-married, and his second wife was a physically 
well-balanced woman. She was fit to be a wife and a 
mother, and to-day she is both. After the second 
marriage the man stopped drinking, and harmony and 
peace are to be found in this new home. 
The wife also re-married, but again resumed her nag- 
ging habit; her second husband eventually contracted 
it. This woman was a nagger because of ill-health, 
and in each case the man contracted the same habit THE DANGER ZONES OF MARITAL LIFE 
287 
because the symptoms of this ill-health reacted upon 
normal instincts which they had not learned to 
control. 
In other instances mentioned by Dr. Howard the hus- 
bands were solely to blame for the irritation which led 
to domestic strifes, and in some instances their behavior 
made physical wrecks of their wives. He divides irritat- 
ing husbands into three classes: brutes, insulting com- 
plainers, and subtle irritators. 
Other psychologists have found other reasons for the 
discords which arise among so many married couples at 
the present time, such as the wearing effects of modern 
life and the increase of nervous complaints. Dr. Jung, 
of the University of Zurich and an eminent psychologist, 
has expressed his opinion as the result of observation 
and a long residence in this country, that Americans are 
the most tragic people on earth, and the United States is 
the country of nervous diseases. In every nervous disease 
there is a psychic element which is the witness of some 
painful conflict between body and soul. This nervous 
condition has its effect upon marriage. Men and women, 
who under normal conditions might live in harmony, 
irritate each other; incompatibilities arise which in many 
cases lead to divorce. 
The Danger Zones of Marital Life.—A careful study 
of the causes of marital infelicity which are frequently 
the open sesame to the divorce courts, reveals five prin- 
cipal ones which to a certain extent are present in the 
majority of married lives. (1) Marital unethics; man’s 
masterful spirit and assertion of rights; (2) failure in 
domestic economics; the financial squalls and hurricanes; 
(3) the spirit of martyrdom and tyranny of tears, due to 
the wife’s lack of definite vocation; (4) the first arrival 
and the neglected husband; the spirit of jealousy; (5) 288 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
woman’s spatial separation from her husband’s vocational 
interests. 
The importance of these five danger zones lies in the 
fact that every matrimonial voyage is confronted with 
them. They have grown to be veritable bombs, which 
frequently wreck the ship and leave the hitherto happy 
voyagers adrift in mid-ocean, far out of sight of land. 
Another fact which must be kept in mind is that even 
though the vessel may still be seaworthy, its integrity 
and staunchness are impaired in proportion to the 
amount of damage. 
1. Marital Unethics; Man’s Masterful Spirit and 
Assertion of Rights.—The art of love is based on the 
fundamental nature of courtship, in the effort of the male 
to make himself acceptable to the female. “A man 
should never permit himself a pleasure with his wife,” 
said Balzac, “which he has not the skill first to make her 
desire.” Every direct contact, every attempt at coitus, 
when the feminine organism is not aroused, produces a 
painful physical sensation, an instinct of repulsion, a 
feeling of disgust and aversion. Any husband who 
knows, and dares disregard it, has committed an outrage. 
This greater difficulty or delay on the part of the 
woman in responding to the erotic excitation of court- 
ship is really very fundamental, and covers the whole 
of woman’s erotic life. A woman’s love develops much 
more slowly than a man’s and is more lasting. There 
is real psychologic significance in the fact that man’s 
desire for woman tends to rise spontaneously, while 
woman’s desire for man tends to be aroused gradually, 
in the measure of her complexly developing relationship 
to him. 
In the great majority of cases this lack of the gradual 
transition of the celibate state to sexual enjoyment is MARITAL UNETHICS 
289 
one of the explanations of the anxiety which the modern 
girl is apt to feel before the bridal night. Women writers 
have frequently described in the most vivid way the 
sentiments of alarm, amounting to physical disgust, 
intermingled with shame and terrible anxiety, experi- 
enced by the newly married girl when for the first time 
she finds herself alone with her husband. There are 
many elderly matrons to whom memories of the bridal 
night present themselves with all the characteristics of 
rape. 
The young woman’s dread of her husband has more 
causes than one. First of all there is the crass ignorance 
in which many girls of the upper classes are left before 
marriage, in regard to everything which concerns the 
sexual life; an ignorance which is responsible for an irre- 
sistible feeling of anxiety, and is not inconsistent with a 
dread expectation of terrible things to happen. This is 
all the more comprehensible when we remember that 
the girl, while deliberately kept in ignorance, has never- 
theless been able to glean from conversations, from books, 
and overheard jests, a certain number of sexual facts, 
apt to be offensively conceived, precisely because 
they are torn from their natural context and are most 
remote from the normal workings of the healthy girl’s 
imagination. 
Where, on the contrary, the self-surrender is gradual, 
no anxiety arises. Anxiety and its sister feeling of 
shame disappear in the ecstasy of love; it takes to flight 
before the awakening of desire. The awakening of the 
sexual function is a tremendously important psychic and 
physical event in the life of any woman. Owing to the 
rupture of the hymen, the first conjugal approaches are 
usually accompanied by a slight show of blood, and the 
marital relations continue to be painful for some weeks. 290 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Too-frequent indulgence at this period is a fruitful source 
of various inflammatory diseases; often causing temporary 
sterility or nervous and constitutional disorders. 
There are many instances in which the complete igno- 
rance of a young married woman with regard to sexual 
relations, combined with the cynical lewdness of the 
husband, has transformed an exalted love into profound 
disgust, and has sometimes even caused mental disorders. 
It is only a question of bad habits or lack of tact on the 
part of the husband, behind which perhaps there exists 
a true love. The wounds in the woman’s sentiments 
may heal and intimacy may develop, but when the 
cynicism is too marked, when the habits of sexual de- 
bauchery are too inveterate, the love of the virtuous 
woman is soon stifled and is changed to resignation, 
disgust, martyrdom, or even hatred. Sometimes the 
crisis is accentuated and leads to divorce. 
The brutalities of the nuptial night often prove the 
grave of love. As Balzac puts it, “Happiness in marri- 
age depends on the first night.” Before the consumma- 
tion of marriage it is quite impossible to foresee what 
direction will be taken by the inevitable development of 
the respective sexual partners. Both will certainly con- 
tinue to develop, the woman as a rule more than the 
man, for it is as a child, physically and mentally unde- 
veloped, that a woman usually enters upon marriage. 
The old saying that “you must live with a man to 
really know him ” is true, and it is just as true in regard 
to a woman. It is a fact that the first few months after 
marriage is the critical period, so far as the attainment of 
happiness and success of the conjoints in their married 
life is concerned. Every intelligent person knows that 
most young girls enter into the marriage relation with- 
out any understanding of its true meaning, or even a MARITAL UNETHICS 
291 
serious thought regarding its responsibilities or duties. 
The duties of a wife and mother require intelligence 
which is rendered efficient only by experience. 
This much is certain, that it must be the aim of an 
enlightened system of education to devote all of its 
powers to effecting in the two sexes an early and parallel 
development of the internal and external factors of the 
effective life, the heart and the will, whereby the number 
of instances may be reduced in which the first love and 
the first lovers are not coincident. 
Mothers should approach this subject with tact and 
diplomacy, but they should nevertheless approach it with 
the firm intention of persuading their daughters to view 
the situation from a common-sense point of view. It 
is the mother’s duty to acquaint them with the truth. 
It cannot be doubted that throughout Christendom there 
has been a lamentable failure to recognize the supreme 
importance, not only erotically but morally, of the art 
of love. The art of love must be based on physiologic 
and psychologic knowledge; it is far too subtle, too com- 
plex, too personal, to be formulated in lectures and manu- 
als. It has heretofore been allowed to rest on ignorance, 
indifference, or worse. 
“Why is it,” asked de la Bretonne, toward the end of 
the eighteenth century, “that girls who have no morals 
are more seductive and more lovable than honest women? 
It is because that, like the Greek courtesans, grace and 
voluptuousness were taught, they have studied the art 
of pleasing. To-day the happiness of the human species 
is abandoned to chance; all of the experience of women 
is individual, like that of animals; it is lost with those 
women who being naturally amiable, might have taught 
others to become so. These mysteries were annihilated 
as infamous, but this may be considered as one of the 292 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
wrongs wrought by men of little enlightenment and 
bitter zeal; dangerous puritans who were the enemies of 
marriage.” 
It is now the consensus of opinion of the leading edu- 
cators in social science, that if the whole subject of the 
art of love, including sexual hygiene together with the 
erotic discipline of marriage, were properly taught and 
understood, and the details of its practical conduct be- 
came a part of the written social science, the mono- 
gamic marriage might attain a far more general success 
than is often found in actual life. 
Sexual Continence in Marriage.—When the intoxi- 
cation of the honeymoon is over, the continuance of 
conjugal happiness depends on an intimate adaptation of 
the two conjoints in sentiments, intelligence, and sexual 
appetite; an adaptation which purifies love on both sides. 
Work in common, a common ideal, mutual respect full 
of affection, but free from flattery, and a reciprocal edu- 
cation which does not degenerate into pedantry or tyr- 
anny, are the principle conditions for conjugal happiness. 
Marriage should be regarded as a means of satisfying 
the sexual appetite and be at the same time a moral and 
social school of life, not a refuge for egoism. Division 
of duties, absolute equality of rights, and social work in 
common, will solidify more and more the sexual bonds of 
the two conjoints. By the aid of a better understanding 
of human society the conjoints will learn how to overcome 
their egoistic sentiments, their polygamous inclinations, 
and their jealousies. Single beds have now become the 
rule for married people, but it is not yet so generally 
understood that every individual, married as well as 
single, should have a separate room, for hygienic as 
well as esthetic reasons. Love and admiration would 
certainly be more lasting. SEXUAL CONTINENCE IN MARRIAGE 
293 
No exact rule can be given for the frequency of coitus, 
for this is a matter of reciprocal arrangement; twice a 
week is the average given by modern physicians and 
physiologists. Individual desires and individual apti- 
tudes vary greatly within the limits of health. More- 
over, the restraint of the desire is essential during the 
menstrual period, illness, at least the last months of 
pregnancy, and the lying-in. Sexual needs are the needs 
of two persons, husband and wife, and the adjustment 
must be the harmonious one of these two groups of needs. 
Forel says: ‘‘No man has a right to compel his wife 
to intercourse, whenever he pleases. The question is 
a very delicate one; but by the aid of good will, a satis- 
factory solution of this problem can be obtained in 
most cases. Love and mutual respect will find a way out 
of the difficulty. It is equally essential to avoid extreme 
asceticism and unnatural idealism on the one hand; and 
excessive sexual indulgence on the other. A happy 
medium is the wisest course.” 
In the great majority of human beings to-day the 
manifestations of the love instinct assume a rude and 
primitive form. What man loves is not a woman, but 
women; that is to say, the females of his species. His 
chief desire is the act of physical union. Every woman is 
regarded as man’s predestined prey, unless deprived of 
value by age or some physical defect. 
The satisfaction of hunger in the love act does not in 
any way infringe on the basic principles of ethics; on the 
other hand, the satisfaction of sexual hunger by force is 
fundamentally unethical, within marriage no less than 
without. 
Such a conception as this naturally implies the con- 
demnation of licensed brothels and similar places, in 
which women have to submit themselves to all clients, 294 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
without any right to rebellion, either physical or moral. 
This moral law is not only ignored, but deliberately thrust 
aside, precisely in that variety of sexual relations which 
is the most elevated. In marriage the sexual law of 
inviolability is continually infringed, as the result of 
woman having been considered the property of the 
husband; it has survived the conception of marriage as a 
contract with equality of rights. 
In those cases where mutual affection has disappeared 
and even mutual esteem has vanished, yet divorce is 
impossible, the obligation of the wife to submit herself 
passively to the sexual orders of her husband, produces 
one of the most horrible features of prostitution. 
A peculiarity of the sexual appetite in man, vastly 
increased if not caused in great part by the double 
standard of morals or man’s unchastity before marriage, 
is his desire for change, so fatal to marital happiness and 
society at large. This desire is not only one of the chief 
causes of polygamy, but also of prostitution. It arises 
in the lack of sex attraction in what one is accustomed to, 
and from the stronger excitation of all that is new. On 
the average, the constitution of woman is much more 
monogamous than that of man. Such desires on the 
part of the husband may be overcome by a true and 
noble love, and by sentiments of duty, fidelity, and 
respect toward his wife. It is also important to re- 
member that superabundant feeding and idleness in- 
crease the sexual appetite, while hard physical work or 
sports carried to the point of fatigue and a frugal diet 
tend to diminish it. 
It is needless to say that the mental qualities act 
powerfully on the physical appetite. A quarrelsome 
temper, coldness, and repulsion on the part of the wife, 
cool the desires of the husband and also frequently drive THE INSTINCT OF PROCREATION 
295 
him elsewhere, while her love and tenderness tend to 
increase and maintain them. 
No one but a dullard will vaunt himself on the posses- 
sion of a frigid wife; no one else could fail to understand 
that a frigid wife is not always a frigid woman, and that 
frigidity, far from being a safeguard against infidelity, 
may on the contrary merely be its precusor. The sexual 
embrace, effected purely as a one-sided act and as an 
affair of routine, must in the long run prove repulsive to 
the man of fine sensibilities. A woman who is devoid of 
a certain measure of animality, and that in by no means 
a small measure, must be regarded as a degenerate. 
The salvation of married life is to be found not only in 
the multiple elements of a moral and economic order, 
but in addition in rendering the sexual life which married 
life implies less monotonous. Conjugal felicity becomes 
a more vital'affair when the sexual relations are more 
vivacious. Unless she possess a certain amount of 
eroticism, the wife will unconsciously tend to drive her 
husband to adultery. 
Among the propertied classes the wife not infrequently 
sinks to the level of the Greek woman; she becomes a 
mere apparatus for procuring children, a guardian for the 
house, and a sick nurse for the man. The husband finds 
amusement and gratification for his amatory passions 
with courtesans, whom we call mistresses, whose elegant 
houses are the best quarters of the two. 
The Instinct of Procreation.—An extremely important 
question in this connection is: “How can the best quality 
of children be procreated? The first condition is the good 
quality of the parents. Heredity, or the intellectual and 
physical value of their ancestry, is of paramount impor- 
tance, together with their moral traits and strength of 
character. The parents must, at the time of the pro- 296 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
creative act, be in good physical and mental condition; 
until the State makes some adequate provision for the 
care and education of the children of poor parents, they 
should not procreate more than they can give a good 
start in life. 
The necessity to eliminate the unfit and to prevent, 
so far as possible, the procreation of sickly children, as 
well as to be able to choose the time best adapted for 
conception in the interests of the mother and the child, 
necessitates the use of some harmless method for the 
prevention of conception at other times. It has been 
estimated by medical authorities that 90 per cent, of the 
young couples of the well-to-do classes do use preventives. 
It is now a well-recognized fact that excessive families 
are associated with degeneracy and abnormalities of 
every kind. There are certain cases where persons 
ought not to marry at all. There are other cases where 
marriage has taken place under more favorable circum- 
stances, but where it has become highly desirable that 
there should be no more children. This is the case where 
a first attack of insanity occurs after marriage. The 
same holds true if one of the parents becomes tubercular, 
or in the case of heart disease, etc. 
2. Failure in Domestic Economics; the Financial 
Squalls and Hurricanes.—If the husband were respon- 
sible for steering the matrimonial bark into the first 
danger zone, no less does the responsibility rest on the 
wife for directing its course into the second. The money 
question is the insidious poison which breaks up so 
many otherwise happy homes. As has already been 
hinted, if married life is to afford satisfaction to both hus- 
band and wife, not only must mutual respect and love 
be present, but also the assurance of possessing that 
portion of pleasure and normal recreation which is in- FAILURE IN DOMESTIC ECONOMICS 
297 
dispensable for them and for their children. Gnawing 
anxiety and the sharp struggle for existence drive the 
first nails and certainly the second into the coffin of 
marital happiness and content. The more fruitful the 
union, the more pressing does the anxiety become. 
The direct results of the complications and refine- 
ments of civilized life has made women as well as 
children objects of luxury. With the intention of making 
his family happy and distinguished, the father brings it 
up in luxury, and his daughters in idleness. This de- 
generates into an artificial desire for brilliancy and show. 
Men, but more especially women, do their best to eclipse 
each other in their tables, their toilettes, the comfort 
and luxury of their homes, their pleasures, their distrac- 
tions, their banquets, and their fetes. Daughters brought 
up in homes such as these become accustomed to a 
number of artificial wants, which make them increas- 
ingly hard to satisfy. They become social parasites, 
living on the life-blood of their fathers and, later on that 
of their husbands. 
In the great majority of cases daughters of the rich 
do not have their own bank accounts and monthly allow- 
ances, which would instill into their minds at least a few 
fundamental business facts. On the contrary, they are 
allowed to have accounts at the various large stores, 
which are sent monthly to the head of the house. The 
fathers frequently fume and storm; the wives and daugh- 
ters wheedle ‘the old man,’ and are fairly successful in 
this line of business. They always look forward to 
marriage as the time when they will have their own 
houses and all the money to spend that they wish. 
There are, to be sure, a very few exceptional mothers 
who train their daughters in domestic economy by giv- 
ing over the housekeeping into their hands on a certain 298 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
allowance, demanding that everything be paid for in 
cash and that they keep within this allowance. These 
same daughters are also given an allowance for dress, 
amusements, etc. The mother’s theory is that her 
daughters will naturally marry comparatively poor young 
men, just as she did; and probably her views on the wife’s 
duty in marriage had not a little to do with the fact that 
her husband became a multi-millionaire. There are now 
other wealthy girls taking systematic courses in domes- 
tic science; these are for the most part young college 
graduates, but they are all exceptional cases. For the 
most part the picture given above is the correct one, not 
only for wealthy girls but, what is still more criminal, 
for poor girls as well. 
It has rarely been for the woman, what she could 
put into the firm, but what she could get out of it. Now 
the average young man under thirty, whether in business 
or professional life, is making a very modest living, which 
will require the most careful expenditure on the part of 
his wife to keep the family budget well within the limit. 
Perhaps the wife does not know just what her husband’s 
income is; very often she never gives the matter a thought. 
She goes on with the same extravagances in which she 
indulged before marriage, or in the longings of which 
she indulged at that time. 
The husband, on his part, racks his brain to raise 
money to meet his wife’s squanderings. Often he is 
obliged to give up valuable research work, which brings 
in very little cash, but will eventually place him at the 
head of his profession, in order to do ordinary hack work 
for quick returns. It is the husband who has made all 
of the sacrifices, gradually giving up one after another 
of the luxuries and comforts of his bachelor days, but 
the day of reckoning is coming, and when it arrives this FAILURE IN DOMESTIC ECONOMICS 
299 
young couple, stripped of all their illusions, behold each 
other’s naked souls. The husband finds that his wife 
knows only in the most superficial way of his most vital 
life interests; that she is totally unaware that she is 
undermining all that is best and highest in his life; that 
to her he is a mere money-making machine, and the two 
are absolutely antagonistic. 
There is a companion piece to this picture of the 
financial tragedy of married life when the husband is a 
born miser, or that type of cave man who requires an 
accounting from his wife for every dollar which he gives 
her. She is sometimes allowed to run accounts at the 
stores, but he scans and criticizes her purchases critically 
and not infrequently demands that they be returned. 
Under these circumstances wives stoop to all sorts of 
subterfuges. Women sometimes bribe the tradesmen 
to make the bills larger than they should be and give 
them the difference in cash. If these men are compara- 
tively poor, their unfortunate wives slave out their lives 
doing domestic work and caring for their children, and 
the man thinks that she should be thankful for having 
such a good home and some one to provide for her. 
These women are really mendicants all of their lives. 
Not only are their bodies worn out, but their minds and 
souls are starved. When these wives have money of their 
own, the husbands try to get control of it. 
In the vast majority of cases we are justified in believ- 
ing that the motives leading to matrimony are seldom 
pure and unalloyed. Both the man and woman hope 
that by this union they will gain some advantage. Why 
shouldn’t they? If it is a square deal, each must sacrifice 
something of his or her independence and some of the 
former comforts of life. The man also generally counts 
upon the pecuniary advantages with the greatest ex- 300 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
actitude; it may be he expects that the comforts of a 
home will be on the whole greater than those of his 
bachelor life, with no great financial outlay. He counts 
on his wife being a good housekeeper, as well as a pleasant 
companion. If his wife has no definite vocation outside 
the home he is justified in thinking that she should, in 
some way, contribute to the running expenses of the firm. 
Woman’s economic dependence on man is a stigma to 
her sex. When a woman has to earn her living by being 
a wife, she is tolerably sure of being an unhappy wife, and 
she usually manages to make her husband who provides 
her with a living an unhappy man. This same economic 
dependence is a drawback to the woman; it stunts and 
stultifies her intellectual and moral development. If 
woman were relieved of her economic dependence it 
would remove one of her chief moral defects, that of cir- 
cumlocution, by which she gets around a man, whether 
during the delusion of the courtship or the rifling of his 
pockets after marriage. Place the work of wife and 
mother on the same financial footing as that of any other 
labor, and allot so much weekly or monthly on that 
account. 
The woman who has proved before marriage that she 
possesses an aptitude for her work and has her own pecul- 
iar talents, should continue in her vocation after mar- 
riage; besides the financial returns, she will bring into the 
married life a broadening atmosphere which comes from 
direct contact with the world and its work. A very 
sensible and highly cultured woman, the mother of five 
children, who had a very comfortable private income, 
one day said to me: “ I know that the time which I am 
giving to this great philanthropic work, by bringing me 
as it does into contact with so many broad and cultivated 
minds, is worth far more to my husband and children WIFE’S LACK OF DEFINITE VOCATION 
301 
because of this outside atmosphere which I am thus able 
to bring into the home than the same amount of time 
spent, for instance, in pushing my baby’s perambulator. ” 
The woman who had the intelligence to see that, far 
from neglecting her family, was a most systematic and 
exemplary housekeeper, wife, and mother. 
3. The Spirit of Martyrdom and Tyranny of Tears, 
due to the Wife’s Lack of Definite Vocation.—In the 
majority of cases the man marries for love. He so 
idealizes the woman of his choice that his greatest source 
of peril lies in his distorted vision. When his first amor- 
ous intoxication has subsided, the man returns to his 
usual mode of life; each expects much from the other 
and gives little in return. When some strange obscure 
element intrudes itself, turning their harmony into 
discord, and a rift shows itself in the ideals of both, the 
man feels helpless, bewildered, and frantic. The wife 
soon leaves off trying to please her husband when he in 
turn seeks his pleasure elsewhere and reserves his bad 
temper for his wife. Whereas nothing is more essential 
in the life of the home than the art of being amiable, this 
combined with the higher sentiments of respect and love 
will make sexual attraction more lasting and go far 
toward maintaining a happy union. 
A man cannot work efficiently and worry at the same 
time; modern business methods are conducted on such a 
strenuous basis that to keep in the ring a man needs every 
ounce of reserve that he can command. It is only the 
wife trained for a useful vocation before marriage who 
can appreciate the need of freedom of time, energy, inspira- 
tion, and encouragement. 
The young wife’s material success, as well as that of 
her husband, depends upon his efficiency; and a married 
man’s efficiency depends almost entirely upon his wife. 302 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
When a man attains a great material success, if he acknowl- 
edges the truth, as so many gladly do, he will say that 
his wife is deserving of most of the credit. The husbands 
of most good, sensible wives are successful. If a man, 
unfortunately married to a woman who is not a helpmate 
and a well-balanced wife and mother, achieves success, 
he does so by reason of his innate strength of character 
and in spite of the unjust draft upon his efficiency; but 
most men under these conditions lose heart and interest 
and become failures. 
It may interest young wives to know that a large num- 
ber of corporations have recently begun to systematically 
investigate the domestic environment of their employes. 
If it is found that it is not happy, that they do not enjoy 
a restful and congenial home life, they discharge them. 
They claim that the man who is worried cannot be effi- 
cient; and if he is not efficient he is not dependable to 
have in their employ. Some railroad companies will 
not allow an engineer to drive a passenger train after it 
is discovered that he is unhappily married. If the 
woman is guilty of conduct which is interfering with 
the earning capacity of her husband, she is erecting an 
insurmountable obstacle to happiness and success. 
The struggle of life has become so exhausting that 
almost everybody's nerves are at the explosive point. 
Any woman who has had long professional experience 
knows that there is simply no comparison between the 
burdens to be born in the contest, struggle, and competi- 
tion of the business world, and that of the housewife and 
homemaker; indeed many of these women make that 
their pleasant avocation. 
Don't experiment with a man. The trouble with 
women is that they think they understand men, whereas 
very few of them, unless they happen to have brothers WIFE’S LACK OF DEFINITE VOCATION 
303 
of their own, know anything about them until after 
marriage. Man says of his brother man: “Deep down 
every man is a brute. There is a certain elemental 
devil in every male animal. Don’t rouse it. You are 
only a woman; don’t invite quarrel; you will get the 
worst of it. Keep on the peaceful side of the street. 
Your tact, your silence will give a man time to think 
it over and will make him ashamed of himself.” 
We women know that deep down in every woman there 
is also a complementary elemental devil; different in 
kind and expression, but just as ugly a beast. The 
tongue is the woman’s weapon, even as the fist is the 
man’s, and it is a far deadlier one. Words break no 
bones; they break hearts instead. Yet, were men one- 
tenth so ready with their fists as their wives are with 
their tongues, what savage brutes they would be con- 
sidered. A woman is very often the creature of her 
temper; her husband, her children, and her servants are 
its victims. 
One of the young husband’s just complaints is that his 
wife makes too heavy demands upon his time, and wants 
him to give up all of his old associates and pleasures in 
which she cannot participate. There are two causes 
for this state of affairs: first, either the young woman 
has no resources within herself, or she has most unwisely 
given up her own vocation before marriage and has in a 
most misguided spirit cut loose from her old associates. 
Another and more fatal reason is the woman’s innate 
jealousy; she so ingenuously manages her husband as to 
antagonize all of his most intimate friends, men as well 
as women, even to his relatives, until a once most popular 
man suddenly faces the dismal fact that he has been cut 
off from the world and all that he holds dear. Even- 
tually there is a matrimonial storm. 304 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Then the wife weeps and grows morose, declaring 
that her husband does not love her any longer. She 
faces the world with the air of a martyr and never fails 
to put her husband in the wrong. These martyr wives, 
who have such command over their lacrimal ducts, are 
the ones whose eyes do not get red and their noses do not 
swell from weeping. 
Here is where the mother-in-law gets in her fine 
work. If the truth were known, doubtless it would be 
learned that the mother-in-law is responsible for as many 
suits brought for divorce as any other three causes put 
together. She fills her foolish daughter’s head with all 
sorts of poison that insidiously does its deadly work. 
That old saying of the Latins might be slightly changed so 
as to read, “ Beware lest the mother-in-law infuse 
poison into the marriage cup.” 
Sometimes, before the final tragedy, the wife wakes 
up to the awfulness of the part which she has played in 
the marriage pact, as is so vividly depicted by Wells, 
when the wife says: “ What are we women—half savages, 
half pets; unemployed things of greed and desire; and 
suddenly we want all of the rights and respect of souls! 
I’ve had your life in my hands from the moment we met 
together, if I had known. It isn’t that we can make you 
or guide you; I’m not pretending to be an inspiration; 
but we can release you. We needn’t press upon you; 
we can save you from the instincts and passions that 
try to waste you altogether on us.” 
The inborn rampant ego in the man finds outlet in 
wholesome, hard work, which further keeps it down; 
whereas, if the woman has not likewise some serious voca- 
tion outside of her home, her devouring egoism is likely 
to prove a troublesome factor, vouchsafing her little 
more peace than it does those in her immediate sur- 
charged vicinity. THE FIRST ARRIVAL 
305 
The young wife, unprepared, undisciplined, uncoun- 
seled, impatient of anything short of her dream phantasy 
of an ideal man, refuses even to try to adjust the yoke to 
her inexperienced shoulders; endeavoring instead to 
throw it off, glorying in the assertion of her egotistic 
self. She has not been told that no man and woman 
celebrate a golden wedding without having had a secret 
history of struggles and bitter disappointments; at 
times there has been for the spirits of both of them a 
period of loneliness, jealousy, and physical and mental 
agony, out of which love triumphant has arisen phcenix- 
like from the ashes. 
Complete self-mastery in matrimonial conflicts is a 
long and difficult acquisition. Happiness, contentment, 
and success are products of duty well done. They are 
the logical recompense of duty and sacrifice. Individual 
happiness is not the chief object of existence in this 
life. To work efficiently is the supreme obligation. It 
is natural to desire happiness and to work for it, but it is 
absurd to be annoyed and angry because we do not find 
it. Happiness through marriage is never attained except 
by never-ending self-abnegation and effort. 
4. The First Arrival and the Neglected Husband; the 
Spirit of Jealousy.—It must be remembered that not 
merely the too-rapid succession of children, but also the 
too-early birth of the first child after marriage may 
prevent the attainment in the life of the married pair of 
that minimum of happiness which is indispensable, if 
life is not to be felt as a burden. 
Marriage to-day provides neither for the gradual devel- 
opment of the virgin into the young wife, nor for that of 
the young wife into the mother. It may rather be said 
to skip the second stage; so that the young woman who 
was one day without sexual experience is found at the 306 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
next to be at the commencement of motherhood. It is a 
well-known fact that in a very large proportion of 
marriages the first pregnancy dates, if not from the 
wedding night, at least from the first week, month, or 
first quarter of married life. It is by no means uncom- 
mon for the bride to return from the honeymoon a 
pregnant woman. 
It must further be remembered that pregnancy, and 
especially the first one, involves the exercise of the great- 
est care during nine months; the renunciation of severe 
physical games and sports, as well as of dancing, and 
much of the gaiety of social life. It involves also an 
increasing incapacity and unwillingness for the sexual 
embrace, implying a period of sexual suspense, increasing 
nervous irritability on the part of the husband, which 
demands from him a large amount of affection for his 
wife, and powers of renunciation and sexual abstinence, 
together with strong healthy nerves. 
It is the opinion of Michel that “in 50 per cent, of 
unhappy marriages, the unhappiness dates from, and is 
dependent on, the long quasipathologic state of the young 
wife, which is associated with pregnancy; upon her 
consequent incapacity to be the man’s playmate, asso- 
ciate and traveling companion; and also upon the dis- 
inclination which she feels for erotic intercourse. All of 
these inconveniences, which at a later date the man might 
learn to support with greater equanimity, give rise when 
he finds himself inexperienced in conjugal life, to a pain- 
ful sense of disillusionment, which go far to disgust him 
with marriage.” 
For the young wife also, such a speedy oncoming of 
pregnancy involves very serious consequences. To 
woman marriage involves a complete revolution of her 
habits, an unduly sudden initiation into the mysteries THE FIRST ARRIVAL 
307 
of sexual life, the independent assumption of the cares 
of a household, with all of the responsibilities which this 
implies; a certain degree of social emancipation, with a 
relative freedom of movement; a reconstruction of her 
list of relatives, and finally the discharge of a certain 
amount of artistic duties in the furnishing and adorn- 
ment of her new home. 
If the young wife is to meet these complex demands 
successfully, she requires time for consideration; she 
needs to adapt herself to her new status; she needs peace 
and quiet; and in default of these things the basis of 
conjugal life will necessarily become insecure. Yet in 
most cases the young wife, on the morrow of her marriage, 
has to devote her attention to making ready for the 
expected baby; and in these c'ares her whole mind is 
concentrated. It is often impossible, in the long course 
of subsequent years, to make good the damage suffered 
by the marriage in those early months. 
In the first years of married life, what the young man 
wants, though often unconsciously, what he mainly 
desires, is that his wife should be his companion, his 
comrade, as well as his beloved. For this he has chosen 
her from among other women, but none of these demands 
can be adequately filled by the expectant mother, the 
parturient woman, the nursing mother, or the mother 
preoccupied by the cares of the little child. Thus this 
early motherhood deprives the husband of many of his 
finest hopes and often destroys the charm and attraction 
which the young wife possessed before marriage. 
From the psychic point of view the man also is united 
to his offspring by intimate bonds. In the woman's 
case, her life, her essence, are revolutionized by mother- 
hood, during the months which precede as well as those 
which follow her child’s birth. At this period the mother 308 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
is always absorbed by the care of the child and with its 
welfare, while the husband occupies only the second 
rank, whereas before this time it was the husband who 
received all of those attentions which are now given to the 
child. Many men do not know what to make of this 
sudden transformation in the affective sides of their 
wives; its motives are altogether beyond their compre- 
hension. Hence has arisen the legend that what woman 
seeks in marriage is not love but motherhood. She loves 
a man, we are told, not for his own sake, but simply as 
the only available means for the gratification of the 
feminine instinct of motherhood. 
Man is further confirmed in this erroneous view by the 
repellant or least expansive attitude of the young mother, 
wholly immersed for the time being in the worship of 
her infant. During the period of lactation the mother's 
whole body tends to be drawn toward her child and away 
from her husband; not away from him as the father of 
her child, whom precisely as such she will load with 
tenderness, but from her husband as a lover. 
Convention and education, acting primarily in the 
sexual interest of the egoism of the male, who wished 
to keep the female tied to the cradle in order to preserve 
the world and its joys for his own sex alone, have affected 
a concentration of his wife's attention on her child, 
physiologically grounded as that affection is, to a degree 
that is neither essential nor desirable. A married woman 
has hitherto been more highly esteemed as a mother than 
as a collaborator with her husband. 
If in the earlier stages of their marriage the husband 
has become accustomed to making certain intellectual 
demands upon his wife; if before the birth of their child 
the two were spiritual comrades, the cleavage in the 
woman's life between her duties as wife and mother will THE ZONE OF DARKNESS 
309 
have its difficulties redoubled. If the woman has been 
properly trained to do good vocational work, she has 
learned that to do efficient work she must be systematic. 
Very many clever professional women have solved the 
problem in this way; their day is charted out: so many 
hours being devoted to their professional work, which 
comes at such a time; so many hours to their children; 
so many hours to their husbands, so there is no hurry, no 
rushing about to keep appointments. These women 
practically cut out their social life and give the time which 
society women devote to its affairs to their professional 
ones. Of course they have trained nurses for their chil- 
dren when they are very young and trained nursery 
governesses for them later, so neither the husband nor the 
children suffer; indeed they are vastly better off than 
the husband and children of the average fashionable 
woman of America to-day. As a matter of fact it is a 
great exception for a woman in this country to share her 
husband's intellectual labors; their only common duties 
are their social ones. 
A much more serious problem is that of a woman with 
a more limited income, who cannot afford the trained 
nurse or nursery governess for her children. This prob- 
lem is now being studied and its solution seems about to 
be at hand in the creche and co-operative housekeeping 
schemes. 
5. The Zone of Darkness; Woman’s Spatial Separa- 
tion from Her Husband’s Vocational Interests.—Since 
the days when patriarchy assumed the reins of govern- 
ment woman has been placed spatially outside of the 
interests of man, so that their interests would appear 
to be as entirely separate as those of different races. 
The only places where they meet on common ground 
are at the domicile, which they call their home and for 
the propagation of the race. 310 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
It has been truly said that the husband sees much 
less of his wife than he does of his business partner, 
his fellow clerk, or whoever works beside him day by 
day. As a rule the woman knows nothing of the man's 
working life and he knows nothing of hers, which he 
calls the home life. 
It is remarkable that the very people who romance 
the most about the sacredness of the marriage tie are 
those who are most firmly convinced that the man's 
sphere and the woman’s sphere are so entirely separate 
that only in their leisure moments can they ever get 
together. Very frequently husband and wife never 
get together at all. Those of the leisured class attend 
social functions together, but there is no real vital 
family life. 
This state of affairs has come about through the fact 
that man so rarely selects his companion for life because 
of her allied intellectual qualities, and true friendship 
is essential for the ideal married life. A friendship 
that is not an inspiration, an incentive to higher 
thoughts and higher deeds does not ring true. Each 
one of the partners should be able to contribute some- 
thing of these qualities in their married life. Instinc- 
tively we can tell these people when we come into then- 
presence; we leave them with the feeling that they have 
brought out the best that is in us, as well as that they 
have inspired us to further and higher efforts. These 
moments of inspiration help us to keep at a higher level 
than we otherwise would; we climb a little higher, our 
vision becomes broader, and we begin to get a clearer 
idea of the meaning of life. We see life in a truer 
perspective and we are the better able to meet its dis- 
appointments and vexations. Sorrow is more easily 
borne and our joys are doubled in sharing them with THE ZONE OF DARKNESS 
311 
another. True friendship means confidence, affection, 
love, and harmony. 
If the wife hopes to maintain her position in the 
home and in the affection of her husband and gain the 
respect of her children, she must have her household 
and other duties so arranged that she can give a certain 
time every day to the culture of her mind. She must 
keep up in the politics and the current events of the day; 
she must attend systematic courses of lectures. Her 
husband may seriously need a working housekeeper 
when he is starting in life, but there have been physicians 
and young lawyers whose wives took in boarders and 
worked the flesh off their bones in order to support the 
family, until the husband should be self-sustaining and 
when he reached a position of comparative affluence he 
was beast enough to say to his wife: “ If it were not for 
you I could move in the best circles.” Even though 
the husband, on attaining the summit of his career, 
may be loyal to his wife for bearing with him the heat 
and burden of the day, he knows himself to be terribly 
handicapped because of his wife’s ignorance on every 
subject outside of the domestic one. She is ill at ease 
among her husband’s friends, and does not understand 
her children who have had the best modern education. 
Even though their social position and knowledge or, 
perhaps better, lack of knowledge was very well balanced 
when they started out on their matrimonial voyage, 
the husband always has two avenues of acquiring the 
broadest of educations; that given by coming in contact 
with superior and cultivated minds. In the course 
of his business or professional career he grows with his 
business as it increases; he becomes more important in 
the community. He mingles with keen, wide-awake 
business men, his wits are sharpened; his brain must be 312 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
alert and virile. A healthy, active mind always grows; 
it is responsive, it absorbs knowledge. As he climbs 
higher his rough, crude corners are worn off and he as- 
sumes a worldly cultivation, which men of sound sense 
can adapt to any social exigency. 
Now the misfortune of the wife has always been that 
her four walls comprised her world, and unless she has a 
true appreciation of the vital necessity of also mingling 
with the world and keeping pace with the general 
progress of the times, she remains stationary in point 
of intellect and culture, which no man or woman can 
afford to do, particularly at the present time, when the 
world is going forward intellectually, morally, and spirit- 
ually in leaps and bounds. Now that the Great War 
is over, it will probably be found that mankind has 
progressed further along these lines than in the preceding 
hundred years. 
Another important point is that the more refined and 
cultivated the husband’s tastes become, the more 
critical he is in the judgment of his wife’s crudeness and 
lack of refinement; it not only jars on his sensibilities 
in the seclusion of the home, but he is constantly morti- 
fied when she appears with him in the social world. 
Very few men have the courage to face such a social 
ordeal, with the result that the wife is left very much to 
herself. If the wife would remain her husband’s com- 
panion to the very end of the voyage, she must keep 
pace with his progress—intellectual, moral, and spiritual. 
; The man secretly wants a home to which he can 
invite and entertain his friends; he wants a wife who will 
shine socially at his side and hold her own in his hard- 
fought way in the social world. He forgets that it 
was by becoming his slave that his wife was carried down 
the current, too exhausted physically to fight up the THE ZONE OF DARKNESS 
313 
stream at his side; and that it was his wife who so freed 
him in those early days of financial struggles that he 
was so easily able to improve his higher nature. It, 
therefore, behooves the young wife to see to it that she 
keeps abreast of her husband and the times in which 
they live. Let him do a little more of the sacrificing of 
his comforts; let their expenditures for the good things 
of this life be a little better equalized. 
The average man of to-day retains many of the cave 
man’s instincts. His young wife comes to realize that 
there are two distinct natures in his being; and that 
while she rules in the emotional part of his mind, she 
is completely shut out from his intellectual and business 
pursuits. If her vision is very keen she soon realizes 
that his moral nature is less rugged than when she 
married him. The husband stoops as it were to put 
himself on a level with his wife, just as a little later he 
will stoop to place himself on a level with his children, 
which will afford a common meeting ground. 
It isn’t that the woman could or should take up her 
husband’s profession in order to be his companion, though 
there have been physicians who insisted on their wives 
studying medicine in order that they should be competent 
to help them in their studies and their work; but the 
thing that is demanded of the wife is that she shall work 
out her own personality, develop whatever talents of 
mind she may possess, and then “not bury her talents in 
a napkin,” but use them for the good of the home, the 
family, and the race. To remain on an equal intellectual 
footing with her husband, the wife must be something 
more than a mere wife and mother; just as the man is 
something more than a mere husband and father. We 
are constantly assured that man has a variegated taste, 
which he insists on gratifying; it is up to the wife to 314 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
have variegated interests in order to supply the 
demand. 
The existence of the ordinary housewife and mother is 
slavery in its most wretched form; the utter hopelessness 
of getting anywhere is its most depressing feature. The 
dull routine of daily life, and knowing that you are 
making no progress in your work, is the thing that tells 
on the woman's mentality and nerves. It is a well-known 
fact that in rehearsing for the public performance of 
Ben-Hur when it was staged many years ago, some 
valuable horses went stark mad and had to be shot, 
simply from the fact that, going at the tremendous pace 
that they did on the revolving platform, they realized 
that they were not getting along over the road. The 
deeper down in the rut the wife gets, the greater is the 
awful chasm which separates her from her husband. 
In the average marriage of to-day love for awhile 
holds the partners together, while their purposes in life 
are almost antagonistic; and at some period of their lives 
most married people have felt the strain of the yoke. 
To bridge over this natural antagonism between the 
sexes is their common unity; from the fact that in their 
heredity there are some masculine traits in every woman 
and some feminine traits in every man. From the 
beginning of the human race, when men went hunting 
and fighting and women stayed at home and kept the 
hut, tended the children, and cultivated the soil close 
at hand, man was released from the small menial duties 
of life, and from his travels and adventures broadened, 
developed, and investigated the mysteries of life. It is 
only in recent years that woman has been in even a small 
measure released from her cramped position. At first 
she is like the slave set free, too timid to know what to do 
with her freedom; then when she fully realizes that her THE ZONE OF DARKNESS 
315 
shackles are broken, comes the insane frenzy to copy the 
ways of man and become a free lance in the world. 
The wife and mother has two distinct sets of duties: 
the first toward her own higher nature—the other toward 
her home and family. The more highly developed the 
first is before marriage, so much the happier will be the 
home; so much more capable will she be of guiding her 
children and standing at her husband’s side. It is the 
wife who creates the atmosphere of the home; she stands 
at the helm of the domestic economy that keeps the 
machinery running so smoothly that the outsider does 
not realize that it does not run automatically. It is 
her maternal love and sympathy which keep the family 
together after her sons are grown up, and makes them 
prefer to remain in the family circle rather than live at 
their club. It is their reverence of her and love for her 
that very often, in the storms and stress of temptation, 
keep her sons straight. Her keen intuition makes her 
sensitive to the feeling of weariness and mental depres- 
sion with which her husband opens the front door. She 
is there as his consoler and inspirer, encouraging him to 
brace up to meet the struggles of life. By having herself 
attained the art of self-mastery and a truly altruistic 
spirit, she irradiates a spirit of loving sympathy that is so 
soothing and uplifting to the depressed and weary 
wanderers from the home. “And her children rise up to 
call her blessed.” CHAPTER XII 
THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD; EUGENIC MAR- 
RIAGES; THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
The Child's Right to Choose Its Ancestry; the Right of the 
Child to Two Parents; Genetics and the Laws Governing 
Heredity; Active or Dominant Character Units; the 
Laws of Transmission of Temperament; Disease Trans- 
mission: Alcoholism; the Feeble-minded; Morons; Gal- 
ton’s Law of Inheritance; the Ethical Duty of Eugenic 
Selection to the Child and to the Race; Heredity and 
Race Culture; Love and Eugenic Marriages; Conjugal 
Procreation, Its Rights and Duties; the Limitation of 
Offspring in the Interests of the Child and of the Mother; 
Quality versus Quantity; a High Infant Mortality Goes 
with a High Birth-rate. 
There is no wealth but life. The true function of the govern- 
ment is the production and recognition of human worth. ... I 
hold that the two crowning and most accursed sins of society of 
the present day, are the carelessness with which it regards the 
betrayal of women; and the brutality with which it suffers the 
neglect of children.—Ruskin. 
At present the most important profession in the world, that of 
parenthood is almost entirely carried on by unskilled labor. 
Mothers should be in their children’s memories, forever a close and 
warm and tender presence; a garden of delight, a refuge, a tower of 
strength; a creature nearer than all other creatures, nearer than 
God, nearer than hands and feet.—Justus Miles Forman. 
The child brought into the world without any volition 
of its own has certain well-defined, inalienable rights; 
these are basically the rights of good heredity, good 
environment, and good education. By good heredity is THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE ITS ANCESTRY 
317 
meant that he should be born of good healthy stock, of 
good physical constitution, of an average good mentality 
for his class in life and of good morals. By good environ- 
ment is meant that he shall be properly cared for during 
infancy and childhood, properly housed, fed, and clothed, 
and have a suitable home atmosphere. By good educa- 
tion is meant, that he shall at least have the opportunity 
of completing a public school education. 
It is the duty of the State toward the child, as well as 
its privilege in considering its own highest interests, to 
have such laws passed as may be essential for the fulfil- 
ment of these high obligations, and to have the general 
public so educated as to insure the carrying out of these 
laws. The child is now recognized as the greatest single 
asset of the nation; three times in a century is the essen- 
tial wealth of the nation reduced to dust and raised again 
from helpless infancy. Our urgent business is therefore 
with the children of the nation. 
The Child’s Right to Choose Its Ancestry.—We are all 
what we are more because of heredity, the stream of life 
which has come down to us through the germ-plasm 
of our ancestors through eons of ages, than because of 
our environment. Our relative attitude toward all of 
the great questions of life has been shaped by this same 
mighty force. 
A man’s destiny stands not in the future but in the 
past; that rightly considered is the most vital of all facts. 
Thus must be admitted the justice of the child’s plea 
to choose his own ancestors; this of course he can only 
do vicariously through his parents. This duty of the 
future father to choose one-half of the ancestral, heredi- 
tary character of his future child is one of the most 
serious and most sacred of his duties in life; it is likewise 
the most serious and most sacred duty of the future 318 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
mother to make a similar wise choice. In choosing each 
other they have between them chosen the whole ancestry 
of their child; they have determined the stars which will 
rule his fate. 
In the past that fateful determination has usually 
been made helplessly, ignorantly, almost unconsciously. 
It has either been guided by an instinct which has worked 
out fairly well, or controlled by economic interests, or left 
to the risks of lower than bestial chances, which can pro- 
duce nothing but evil. It now becomes the imperative 
duty of statesmen, social economists, educators, and 
churchmen that in future the race will be molded by a 
more intelligent selection in its highest interests; the 
creative energy of nature becoming self-conscious in the 
brain of civilization. The problems of the individual 
life must always be linked with those of racial life, and at 
all points they converge toward one racial end. 
The Right of the Child to Two Parents.—This is such 
an obvious right of the child, that in a normal state of 
society its mere mention would be superfluous; but 
revolutionary doctrines are being promulgated in the 
name of “individual rights” and “social rights” which 
would, if generally accepted, undermine all the funda- 
mental principles upon which stable democracies must 
be founded, making it necessary to point out their evil 
tendencies. 
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that durable 
sexual relationships have generally followed the natural 
law tending toward monogamy, for the sake of the mother 
and child. This was partly because of the long period of 
helplessness of the child and his inability to take care of 
himself until a certain state of maturity should have been 
attained. Thus to childhood, helpless and beautiful, 
we owe marriage and all that growth of morality which THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD TO TWO PARENTS 
319 
has civilized mankind. The influence of childhood, it 
has been said, transformed mere animal attraction into 
unselfish affection; it substituted family life for animal 
life. The interests of childhood demand that marriage 
and its responsibilities shall be most seriously regarded. 
It is the children who constitute the real phylogenetic 
and psychologic bonds in marriage and the family; 
bonds which are deeply rooted in human nature. Two 
human beings who procreate others contract common du- 
ties and responsibilities of the highest importance. They 
are perhaps the highest social duties man can assume. 
Is it not then infamous and unnatural to liberate one of 
the procreators from all responsibilities? Outside of 
marriage is the man less responsible than the woman? 
The most elementary natural laws exact that all children 
should have the same social rights. 
In regard to the sufferings of illegitimate children, it 
lies in the very nature of the illicit bond that the child 
is deprived of all the benefits of the permanent family 
ties; this deprivation, with all its tragic consequences, 
will always throw a shadow over the parent. The 
sufferings of illegitimate children are therefore very 
closely bound up with free love; and the more lightly the 
matter is treated, the more children will be affected. 
Nothing could be more extraordinary than the facility 
of those who aim at loosening the ties of marriage to 
ignore this most fundamental right of the child to have 
two parents. They would have the State take over the 
care of the children, in order that men and women might 
be more at liberty in their sexual relationships, and more 
able, as they say, to satisfy the requirements of their 
individuality. 
That is to say that for the parents they demand indi- 
vidualism and the free development of their personality, 320 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
while for the children they advocate a governmental 
upbringing, which would tend in the highest degree 
toward uniformity and impersonal development, thus 
injuring in the deepest possible way the very cause in 
the name of which their theories are advanced. It is 
the small and intimate circle of the family which guards 
and develops such manifold deep feelings, and thus most 
simply and naturally prepares the individual for the 
larger social life. This must afford to the individual a 
much richer and more secure development than could be 
provided by the best possible State institutions and 
public education, for the latter has no power to produce 
the incomparable formative influences which attach to 
the closest of all relationships, with all its wealth of 
motive and experiences. 
It is precisely upon the firm foundation of the 
family that the education of men and women of great 
personality rests; not because all parents are such 
good educators, but because family life as such liberates 
and brings into play spiritual forces which would re- 
main undeveloped under any system of State up- 
bringing. The monogamous family must therefore 
always remain the permanent basis of all higher personal 
and social life. 
There are certain permanent conditions without which 
our social life cannot attain perfection; these conditions 
are independent of all social changes. They are the 
deepening of the sense of personal responsibility, 
the education of the individual in self-discipline, the 
development of patience and charity, the overcoming 
of selfishness, the preservation of the emotional liferfrom 
disintegration and from subjection to passing moods. 
These are the elements of the inner life which may be 
described as the absolute and permanent conditions of GENETICS 
321 
all higher social culture, incapable of being reversed by 
any economic alteration. 
The family has been called the cell of social life; it 
fulfils this function not only in a physical and economic 
sense, but it is also the center for all human training for 
social life; that is, for the responsibility, self-control, 
sympathy, mutual toleration, and mutual education. 
Life-long monogamic marriage might well be called the 
conscience of all human social life. Indissoluble mar- 
riage is the greatest of all educational forces in making 
for human earnestness. 
Genetics and the Laws Governing Heredity.—Within 
a generation the center of biologic interest has swung 
from the origin of the species to the origin of the indi- 
vidual—in other words, to genetics. It is not with the 
individual as a whole that genetics is interested, but 
rather with characteristics of the individual. 
Three factors determine the characteristics of an 
individual: heredity, environment, and training. The 
individual is the result of the interaction of these three 
factors, since he may be modified by changing any one 
of them. Of these three, the factor of the greatest 
importance is heredity; it is what he actually is before 
birth which determines whether he shall be a beast or a 
man. Environment and training, although indis- 
pensable, are secondary factors, while the absence of 
sufficient training, even when the environment is suitable 
and the endowment of heritage ample, will result in an 
individual who will fall short of his possibilities. On 
the other hand, no amount of education can develop a 
man out of the heritage of a beast. So in the long run 
what an individual is, is far more important to himself 
as well as to the race. Improved environment and 
education will improve the present generation already 322 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
born; improved blood will better every generation yet 
to come. 
In forms which reproduce sexually, there occurs 
theoretically a differentiation of the body substance 
into what Weismann terms somatoplasm and germ-plasm. 
The somatoplasm includes the body tissues or bulk of 
the individual, which is fated in the course of events 
to complete a life cycle and then die. The germ-plasm 
is, on the contrary, the immortal fragment freighted 
with the power to duplicate the whole organism and 
which, barring accident, is destined to live on and give 
rise to new individuals. The germ-plasm thus carries 
potencies for the development of both germ-plasm and 
somatoplasm, while according to this conception the 
somatoplasm has only the power to reproduce more 
of its own kind. 
From the point of view of genetics then the real 
mission of somatoplasm, which is so marvelously differ- 
entiated into all of the various forms which we call 
plants and animals, is simply to serve as a temporary 
domicile for the immortal germ-plasm. Thus the 
parent becomes “the trustee of the germ-plasm/’ but 
not the producer of the offspring. Heredity is a matter 
of continuity between succeeding generations of living 
organisms. 
An organism, although acting together as a physio- 
logic and morphologic whole, may be regarded from the 
point of view of heredity as consisting of a large number 
of independent, heritable unit characters. 
The characteristics which prevail in crossing pure 
stocks is known as the dominant character, while that 
which apparently disappears is called the recessive or 
latent character. In the germ-plasm there are certain 
determiners of unit characters which dominate others GENETICS 
323 
during the development of the somatoplasm; in other 
words they determine the apparent character of the 
organism by causing that character to become visible. 
The followers of Mendel hold that the individual is 
made up of unit characters, each of which is transmitted 
through inheritance, quite independently of the others. 
Organic resemblances based on descent are due 
principally to the fact that the offspring are the material 
continuations of their parents, and consequently may be 
expected to be like them. Hence the formula that like 
produces like. This does not always prove true; for 
example, two brown-eyed parents may produce a 
blue-eyed child, although brown-eyed children are 
more common from such heritage. 
Weismann believes that the cause of these variations, 
at least of heritable variations, are intrinsic or born in 
the germ-plasm. His conception for sexual reproduc- 
tion is that it is a device for doubling the possible varia- 
tions in the offspring by the mingling of two strains 
of germ-plasm. This belief is substantiated by a great 
number of observations. 
Since the character units of both parents are trans- 
mitted, it is the duty of each to become conservant 
before marriage with their respective or transmissible 
traits or character units, not only as existing in the 
immediate contracting parties, but, if possible, as they 
have existed in their ancestors. Further, since the 
character units do not blend, but co-exist, and if some are 
active or apparent and others are inactive or not appar- 
ent, it follows that the character and significance of a 
hidden (inactive or recessive) character unit may be 
determined by its previous manifestations in connection 
with the same germ-plasm in the previous generation. 
In other words, it is just here that pedigree comes to 324 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
have a serious meaning. If, by the conveyance and 
co-existence of known character units derived from 
parents, the character, physical, mental, and moral, of 
the offspring can even be approximately determined 
(and it can) the responsibility of parents, first to their 
offspring, next to themselves, and finally to the State 
and nation, becomes doubly acute. It is to this stand- 
ard of ethics and to this conception of morality that 
society is rapidly becoming educated, by both of which 
the parents of to-day will be estimated by their progeny 
of to-morrow. 
When two human sex cells, each in reality a half-cell, 
unite to form the fertilized ovum, two lines of descent 
are thus brought into relation, and, barring accident, 
their continuance is thus assured for another generation. 
The body or soma is merely the carrier of the sex cells 
with which rest the inheritance of all future individuals 
in a given line of descent. The human egg is very 
minute and the human sperm cell is but a fractional 
part as large. The marked difference in the size and 
shape is due to the fact that the egg contains a supply 
of food, while the sperm cell is so constructed as to have 
the power of locomotion. The nucleus of each is prac- 
tically identical; and this is the part of the cell with 
which we are concerned in heredity. 
The interesting, important, and accepted conclusion 
accordingly is that the child does not inherit anything 
from the body of the parent, but that the child and 
the parent resemble one another only because they 
have each inherited something from the same continuous 
stream of germ-plasm. 
The first principle of the Mendelian law is that the 
individual’s inheritance consists of various traits or 
unit characters, which are for the most part independ- GENETICS 
325 
ently inherited; characters that are structural, physio- 
logic, mental, and moral in nature, such as tallness, 
brown eye-pigment, strong lung tissue, etc. The second 
principle is that for a character to appear in a body it 
must previously be represented by a so-called determiner, 
in one or both of the sexual cells that united in the 
fertilization of the ovum. The third principle is that 
the various determiners present in the sperm and egg, 
which unite at fertilization, retain their identity, and 
when the sex cells are formed, they in turn receive the 
contribution from each ancestral line, independently 
of the other. 
A racial quality is therefore one that is inherited; one 
that has its basis in the germ-plasm. Since racial 
qualities or characters are then wholly dependent on 
the nature of the germ-plasm or sex cells, the improve- 
ment of the race will consist wholly in establishing a 
higher average of humanity. The only logical method 
of accomplishing this task is to bring about such social 
and economic conditions as will enable more germ-plasm 
of good quality to perpetuate itself and will prevent the 
continuance of germ-plasm which is known to have 
serious defects or very bad qualities. 
The person who receives a determiner from each 
parent for a character is said to be duplex in that respect; 
the person who receives a determiner from one parent 
only is said to be simplex; and the person who does not 
receive a determiner for a character is said to be nulli- 
plex. Thus in regard to a single characteristic that 
is dominant, or nearly so, the bodies of individuals are 
of two kinds: either they show or they do not show the 
character. 
Of an apparent pair of opposing characters, one 
belonging to either parent, that one is dominant which 326 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
appears in the offspring to the exclusion of the other. 
With some characters dominance is quite complete, as 
was the case with those peas with which Mendel experi- 
mented. He found, for example, that when a pure or 
duplex tall individual was mated with a dwarf variety, all 
of their offspring were tall, like the one parent. When 
two of the offspring mated, in this case they were allowed 
to be self-fertilized, the individuals of the second genera- 
tion were both tall and dwarf, in the proportion of three 
tall to one dwarf. The dwarf when mated with dwarf 
would produce only dwarf offspring. 
Barring a few sex-limited characters, as for example 
color-blindness, the two sexes are equal in their power 
to transmit heritable traits; and the inequality of a 
pair of parents is alone dependent on the fact that one 
comes from an inferior strain. Like does not of necessity 
produce like, since in a simplex person a recessive char- 
acter that does not appear in the body of the parent will 
nevertheless be passed on in that individual’s germ cells; 
hence it is necessary to know the history of at least three 
generations in order to form an idea of what an individual 
may transmit to offspring. 
Finally, the recent progress in determining the facts 
of heredity convince scientists that the human germ- 
plasm is already in possession of enough racial qualities 
of value to satisfy the most ardent eugenist. On the 
other hand, they are convinced that our greatest social 
evils, mental defectiveness, moral degeneracy, pauper- 
ism, drunkenness, and physical weakness, are likewise 
dependent on the nature of the germ-plasm. 
Hereditary resemblance is due to the derivation of the 
offspring from the same stock as the parent; and suc- 
cessive generations are therefore simply periodic expres- 
sions of the same continuous stream of germ-plasm. DOMINANT CHARACTER UNITS 
327 
Perfect inheritance or uniformity of generations does 
not exist, since variations always occur in successive 
generations. It is upon these variations that evolution 
depends; without them there would be no change of 
type and consequently no possibility of evolutionary 
advance. 
Active or Dominant Character Units.—General phys- 
ical energy is recognized by students of heredity as a 
transmissible trait. The following conclusions are 
justified: (1) Parents of high bodily energy have a 
progeny that range from medium to high; (2) parents 
of low bodily energy, and belonging to a family of low 
bodily energy, have a progeny that range from medium 
to low energy; (3) when one parent is high and the other 
low, but having a high energy ancestry, the children 
will be about 50 per cent, high and 50 per cent, 
medium to low energy. 
Mental ability is recognized as a transmissible trait; 
it is always relative to the age of the subject and to the 
average ability of that age. The following are confirmed 
generalizations: (1) When both parents are mentally 
defective, all of the children will be defective or degen- 
erate; (2) when both parents are mentally strong, but 
have a strain of ancestral weakness, one-fourth of their 
offspring will be defective; (3) when both parents are 
mentally strong and are themselves the offspring of 
mentally strong parents, all of the children will range 
from medium to very high mentality; (4) exceptional 
talents or genius, occurring in a generation of mediocrity 
with mediocre antecedents, is generally associated with 
some compensatory mental defect; (5) exceptional 
talents, genius, and a certain type of feeble-minded- 
ness (Mongolianism) occur more frequently in the oldest 
and youngest than in the intermediary children. 328 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Psychopathic Complex.—This is a temperamental 
type, generally characterized by great mental activity, 
with a tendency to slight mental perturbation. It is 
generally associated with the so-called nervous type. 
The marriage of normals to psychopaths is hazardous; 
the marriage of two psychopaths to each other should 
never occur. 
The Laws of the Transmission of Temperament.— 
Temperament is a transmissible unit. It is a permanent 
Condition of the individual which determines his manner 
of thought and actions. The nervous temperament is 
characterized by keen perceptions, quick mental proc- 
esses, and physical alertness, each tending to develop 
to an abnormal degree in which buoyancy tends to 
alternate with fits of depression of spirits. The phleg- 
matic character, on the other hand, is characterized by 
slow though by no means less accurate perceptions, 
more deliberate, probably more logical mental processes, 
and without precipitate physical activity; and with little 
or no tendency to either exaltation or depression of 
spirits. 
(1) When both parents are nervous the children will 
be nervous; (2) when both parents are phlegmatic, the 
children will tend toward the phlegmatic type; (3) when 
one parent is nervous and the other phlegmatic, the 
children will be preponderatingly nervous; (4) when 
both parents are nervous, with phlegmatic ancestry, 
probably one-fourth of the children will be phlegmatic. 
The extremes of temperament are agenic in tendency and 
marriage is not desirable. 
Consanguinity.—It is the hereditary transmissibility 
of certain predispositions to disease and malformations 
which constitute the danger of procreation among blood 
relations. Such procreation is not per se injurious, or CONSANGUINITY 
329 
only so when it is continued through many generations, 
in which case marriage may prove sterile. The dis- 
advantage lies in the fact that near relations possess 
the same inherited predispositions, and that a combina- 
tion of these injurious influences may attack the embryo. 
On the other hand, there is an unfavorable element in the 
union of two individuals who spring from races too widely 
separated, as is proved by the limited fruitfulness of 
such marriages; for example, those between Jews and 
Christians. 
Disease Transmission; Alcoholism.—When alcoholism 
runs in a family, it is probably due to the fact that the 
son is derived from the same strain of germ-plasm as his 
father or mother. The fact that the father succumbed 
to the alcohol habit is not the determining cause of alco- 
holism in the son; the same thing which caused the father 
to become alcoholic, namely weak germ-plasm, and not 
the resulting drunkenness in the parent, is the causal 
factor of alcoholism in the son. 
At the same time it is entirely probable that hereditary 
alcoholism may, in some cases, arise through “parallel 
induction,” that is to say, acquired alcoholism may end 
in the simultaneous poisoning and consequent modifica- 
tion of both the somatoplasm and the germ-plasm of the 
parent, with the result that the germ-plasm has less 
resistance to alcoholism in a succeeding generation. The 
offspring are consequently more likely to succumb to 
this disease. 
The Feeble-minded.—Mental defectives are not to be 
confused with the insane, epileptics, and others who may 
have reached a normal development and later have be- 
come diseased. At one extreme of the feeble-minded 
stands the idiot, who may be absolutely incapable of 
attending to his physical wants, and who is recognized 330 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
by all at a glance; while at the other extremity of this 
group stands the high-grade imbecile or moron, whose 
appearance may give no indication of his mentality, 
as he may even have likeable and pleasing features. 
In the matter of the mentally defective, there should 
be some means of recognizing this before the age of 
puberty. If the Binet-Simon test for determining in- 
telligence, which is adapted to children up to the age of 
fifteen years, were given to a high-grade imbecile, it 
would show him to be four years or more below the men- 
tality of the normal child of the same age. 
The high- and low-grade imbeciles constitute the class 
from which are recruited the juvenile offenders; those who 
start fires, commit petty thefts, repeatedly are moral 
offenders, and those who commit murder through their 
lack of self-control or at the suggestion of others. These 
are the ones who frequently intermarry with the lower 
strata of the self-supporting group, or otherwise mate 
with mentally normal people. Strains which have a 
normal mentality are thus contaminated. 
It is estimated that in the United States there are 
three hundred thousand persons who are feeble-minded. 
Fully two hundred thousand are sufficiently intelligent 
to earn a livelihood; this is probably a minimal figure. 
Moreover, in the tide of immigration which was allowed 
to pour into this country before the war, recent investiga- 
tions have shown that from 6 to 7 per cent, were 
feeble-minded. 
In the United States less than 10 per cent, are in 
institutions, and then only for the purpose of training 
them, or as charity, not as a protection to society, for 
it is frequently just about the time that they reach the 
reproductive age, that they leave those institutions. 
Consequently, of the 90 per cent, who are at large, CONSANGUINITY 
331 
many thousands of the younger ones are indiscriminately 
associated with normal children in our public schools, 
where they are a constant source of trouble to teachers, 
preventing normal children from progressing as rapidly 
as they otherwise would, if the school were free from the 
mental defectives. Much more serious than either of 
these effects is the very grave menace, not yet fully 
realized by the public, in the contamination of the 
moral habits of normal children through association with 
these degenerates. 
Two methods have been suggested for the permanent 
elimination of the unfit, which can be applied to the 
mentally defective; permanent custodial care by the 
State and sterilization. The Federal as well as the State 
government is not exempt from responsibility in these 
conditions. 
Morons.—This is, as has already been pointed out, a 
high-grade class of mental defectives which is so closely 
allied to feeble-mindedness that many experts insist 
that it cannot occur without its mental cognate, moral 
imbecility. Moral obliquity must affect character, 
whether we believe that nervous derangements or mental 
aberrations do or not. In the words of the Royal Com- 
mission: “The moral imbecile is a person who, by reason 
of arrested development or disease of the brain, dating 
from birth or early years, displays at an early age vicious 
or criminal propensities which are incorrigible or unusual 
in nature, and are generally associated with some slight 
limitation of intellect. ” 
The moral imbecile is as distinctive, as a type, as a 
mental imbecile; both are defective from birth. The 
moral imbecile may either be deficient in the moral sense, 
meaning by this that he cannot intuitively distinguish 
between right and wrong; or he may not have the mental 332 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
power to choose the right means to an ethical end; or 
lastly he may lack certain social impulses, so that he 
cannot by the utmost training be made fit for modern 
society. He is a born defective, just as if he lacked legs 
or arms. 
The girl may be attractive, healthy looking, with some 
pleasing qualities and accomplishments, but with a 
mental defect which makes it impossible to expect a 
wholly normal intellectual development. In a way, so 
far as society and the race are concerned, this class of 
morons is a serious menace, because they are often able 
to conceal their gross defects from their general acquaint- 
ances; their moral defects may be concealed by a com- 
pensatory brightness in some other direction, as in the 
fields of art or music. 
Galton’s Law of Inheritance.—(1) The two parents 
between them contribute, on the average, one-half of 
each inherited faculty; each one contributing one-fourth 
of it; (2) the four grandparents contribute between them 
one-fourth, or each individual one-sixteenth; (3) the 
eight great-grandparents contribute one-eighth, or 
each one of them about one-sixty-fourth, etc. 
So that in order to forecast a child’s destiny it is 
necessary to know about the stock from which the parents 
are descended, as well as about the parents themselves. 
This law of Galton’s is one of the most important 
generalizations that has been offered in human breeding, 
i.e., the germ cell is the summation of its racial antece- 
dents derived in certain more or less definite proportions, 
from each member of the preceding ancestral generations. 
From their study of heredity and insanity Rosanoff 
and Orr have arrived at the following conclusions: (1) 
Both parents being neuropathic, all of their children 
will be neuropathic. (2) One parent being normal, but EUGENIC SELECTION 
333 
with neuropathic taint from one grandparent, and the 
other parent being neuropathic; half of the children will 
be neuropathic and the other half normal, but with the 
capability of transmitting the neuropathic make-up 
to their progeny. (3) One parent being normal and of 
pure normal ancestry and the other being neuropathic, 
all of their children will be normal, but capable of trans- 
mitting the neuropathic make-up to their progeny. 
(4) Both parents being normal, but each with the neuro- 
pathic taint from one grandparent, one-fourth of the 
children will be normal and not capable of transmitting 
the neuropathic make-up to their progeny; one-half will 
be normal, but capable of transmitting the neuropathic 
make-up; and the remaining fourth will be neuropathic. 
(5) Both parents being normal, one of pure normal an- 
cestry and the other with a neuropathic taint from one 
grandparent, all of the children will be normal; half of 
them will be capable and half of them will be incapable 
of transmitting the neuropathic make-up to their pro- 
geny. (6) Both parents being normal and of pure normal 
ancestry all of the children will be normal and incapable 
of transmitting the neuropathic make-up to their progeny. 
In order to boast of good stock it is therefore necessary 
to have a history of at least three successive generations 
among whom there were no defective unit characters. 
The Ethical Duty of Eugenic Selection to the Child 
and to the Race.—Parenthood should be regarded as 
exercising the highest, holiest, and most important func- 
tion of the race. The past has been made for us by our 
ancestors, but we ourselves are responsible for the future 
of the race. The generations to come will have cause to 
bless or to curse us, according to the lives that we live 
and according to the care with which young men and 
young women select their life mates. 334 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Each individual is possessed of a multitude of heredi- 
tary characters, part of which are dominant, and so 
known to himself, and part of which are recessive or latent 
and so may be wholly unsuspected; with potentialities 
and abilities which only await a favorable means of 
development, together with other potentialities which 
must be struggled against. For this reason, in order to 
know ourselves, we must make a careful study of our 
ancestry and not be afraid to look the truth in the face. 
This is the only way in which a man will be able to master 
the beast which is in him. This is a duty which everyone 
owes to society and to himself. 
It is a social obligation of the fit, of those who have 
inherited good traits of constitution, of mentality, and 
morality, to transmit this hereditary germ-plasm, of which 
he is but the trustee, to succeeding generations. No man 
or woman with a splendid heritage has a moral right to 
cut off such possibilities from the heritage of the race. 
If, on the other hand, the heritage has been defective, 
he should make the best of it for himself; but it is fre- 
quently the most serious duty not to transmit any such 
defective germ-plasm to succeeding generations. 
Having solved this problem of one’s individual duty 
to himself and to the race, the next step, if one’s heredity 
is good, is that of selecting a life mate. Here is where so 
many men and women fail in their duty to themselves, as 
well as toward their prospective children. 
Dr. Victor C. Vaughan cites the following case as 
typical of the intermarriage of a healthy man with the 
moron type of girl: “The female moron is a kind of 
salamander, especially when of high grade, and in early 
womanhood is often very attractive. Her face has the 
doll-like loveliness so fatal to the susceptibilities of man. 
In form and carriage she is, to her admirer, a goddess. EUGENIC SELECTION 
335 
He interprets her weak-mindedness as maidenly inno- 
cence, and he says to himself and sometimes to others: 
‘She is the daintiest, sweetest and most innocent creature 
in the world. She never suspects any wrong, and she 
loves me so dearly that she would do anything that I 
might ask. She is my darling little girl., 
“ It is true that she is a little girl and she will never be 
anything more. She is an animated doll, and like her 
prototype, the bloom on her cheek will soon fade away 
and her gay raiment will soon become tawdry. Her vine- 
like, clinging love will entwine her admirer or any other 
post within her reach.” Then Dr. Vaughan goes on to 
speak of families going to pot because some of the sons 
marry silly girls. 
“Social duty has compelled me,” he says, “more than 
once to witness the marriage of such a butterfly to a 
high-grade man; and when the beautiful ceremony 
reached the words: ‘If any man can show just cause why 
they may not lawfully be joined together/ etc., I have 
been compelled to suppress a desire to cry out against 
the outrage. Every physician of years of experience 
knows how disastrously such marriages end.” He 
cites the following cases: 
“Some forty years ago a brilliant young man of high 
character met, admired, and wed such a girl as I have 
described. Both were poor; but this was an advantage 
rather than otherwise; for he was unusually equipped 
for his profession, both by nature and by education. 
He had bright dreams and the ability to weave the 
gossamer of their structure into a real fiber. But there 
was one picture in his dreams, as he stood at the altar 
with his fair bride, which no power on earth could bring 
to realization. He dreamed of winning a competency, 
if not a fortune; of becoming a leader amongst his fellow 336 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
men; of professional fame; of rendering the highest and 
best service to his fellowmen; and the central figure in 
all of these visions of the future was the wife of 
whom he should always be proud, who should stand 
at his side, at all times his equal; and who should 
bear to him strong, manly sons and fair, intelligent 
daughters. 
'‘He won more than competency; there was no official 
position within the gift of his state which was not within 
his reach; his professional services were sought both by 
rich and poor. Living he was honored, beloved; dead 
his memory is held in the highest esteem. All of these 
victories he won; and at the same time he carried a heavy 
load. His wife never grew mentally. He bought and 
read the choicest books. She dusted and arranged 
them on the shelves; but of their contents she was as 
ignorant as of Hebrew. Intelligent men and women sat 
at their table; but their conversation was beyond her 
comprehension. 
“To this union came three sons. The eldest, even 
with the help of a tutor, was never able to finish the high- 
school course. In early manhood he married a fellow 
moron; and they are now multiplying their kind on a 
farm given him by his father. The second is more in- 
telligent; after a university career, broken by drunken 
sprees, he managed to secure a degree; and he now oc- 
cupies his father’s office, but not his position in life. The 
third is hardly able to take care of himself.” 
“I speak with some feeling on this subject; because I 
have known former students of mine to tie this mill- 
stone about their necks and then try to keep on the sur- 
face of the sea of life. After vain struggles most of them 
sink out of sight. Shun the attractive, frivolous girl. 
She is to be found in every community. The object of EUGENIC SELECTION 
337 
the eugenist is not to multiply her kind, but to exter- 
minate her.” 
“ The Reformed (?) Rake.—The following picture, also 
taken from real life, shows the other side of the shield; 
where the judgment of the young woman and her parents 
was at fault. A young woman married a rich man, who 
had escaped from the rigid home discipline and sowed 
his wild oats with a prodigal hand in widely scattered 
fields. His dissipation did not stop with marriage, but 
he took this opportunity to add new transgressions to the 
list. The man ran through the whole gamut of vices, 
which eat through a wife's social veneer and let the world 
stare at her bare soul. Her face took on the hopeless 
look of the bound prisoner. Her woman's heart hunger 
for happiness suffered to the limit and then died. She 
neither sorrowed nor rejoiced when the man ran through 
one awful last debauch and escaped public disgrace by 
blowing out his diseased brains. 
“Then his widow turned wholly to her sons and saw 
them grow into two physically handsome boys, full of 
life and promise. But about twelve years of age, the 
oldest began to exhibit the first evidence that his mother 
had married a rich young man who had lead a wild life. 
The boy shirked study, became disobedient, forsook his 
rightful companions and sought out companionship 
with low fellows, black and white; played truant and 
finally developed an uncontrollable habit of stealing 
money. He himself said that ‘something seemed to 
make him take it.' Needless to say the money went for 
nothing good. 
“The wife's grief-deadened soul revived in the in- 
finitely sharper agonies of the mother. She found that 
fate could wring agony from new chords, when old ones 
ceased to vibrate. She learned that a girl who binds her 338 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
life to a man by human laws, at the same time binds by 
infinitely sterner laws beings for whom she would gladly 
later lay down her wretched life to set them free. This 
is the judgment of life upon men and women who marry 
only with the thought of their own immediate happiness.” 
Heredity and Race Culture.—The incontrovertible 
fact must always be borne in mind that like tends to 
produce like; and it is on this ground that young men 
and young women having the best hereditary qualities 
must not only regard it as their privilege but their duty 
to marry, and as the trustees of the highest gift in nature, 
to hand down through the ages that splendid inheritance 
which has come to them. Eugenics must further in- 
culcate the ideal of the fruitful marriages of our best 
stock. 
Many of our best young men and young women in the 
colleges and in their professional careers have their per- 
sonal ambitions so aroused as to seriously question if 
marriage and the raising of a family will not interfere 
with the highest realizations of their ambitions. This 
very subject was once the topic of discussion among a 
group of Harvard graduates seated around a dinner 
table, and a distinguished German professor who was 
present urgently advised against marriage for those who 
wished to gain preeminence in their professional careers. 
Many an eminent man at the beginning of his life- 
work has vowed, as did Judge John Lowell, when he 
graduated from Harvard at the middle of the eighteenth 
century, that he would never marry. But nature was too 
strong for John Lowell, and he married three times. 
Among his descendants were many brilliant and illus- 
trious men, in every walk of life. If any man could 
look ahead and see such a heritage as this for his progeny, 
if he could see what they would accomplish for the race, LOVE AND EUGENIC MARRIAGES 
339 
surely he must be convinced that no matter how great 
a success he himself might attain; in his brief lifetime he 
could not accomplish an infinitesimal part as much for 
mankind. The greatest stimulant to the human in- 
tellect, to human energies, is the incentive of creative 
genius; not for the sake of that genius per se, but for the 
sake of the great masses of mankind, who will be in- 
fluenced and benefited by the work so accomplished. 
Invaluable as marriage is for the completion and ennoble- 
ment of the individual, its great function for society 
and the race is its relation to childhood. Among all the 
works of man, the greatest is himself. Man’s works dis- 
appear, but he himself endures. 
Love and Eugenic Marriages.—The logical conclusion 
of all that has gone before is that eugenic marriages, 
based on love, furnish the only certain means for the 
attainment of the durable love and happiness of the 
con joints, and the production of the best possible 
progeny. 
Marriage must always continue to be “for the mutual 
society, help and comfort, that the one ought to have 
of the other,” and for the propagation, not of any kind 
of children, but of the best possible progeny. This is in 
the highest interest of the family, the State, and of the 
race. Eugenics recognizes love as the highest and 
noblest quality, and as a cardinal factor in the achieve- 
ment of its ideal; but it would have love intelligent. 
An environment devoid of parental love is inadequate 
for the full development of the innate mental and moral 
possibilities; and so it has been urged that the matter of 
durable love should be taken into greater considera- 
tion and human parentage must be made conscious and 
deliberate. 
It is evident that as long as the institution of marriage 340 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
remains in human society, the stream of life must flow 
through this institution. Practically, therefore, the 
eugenic movement aims at the control of this institution, 
in order to improve the racial qualities of future genera- 
tions; thus securing wise marriages in society from the 
biologic standpoint. The stream of life can be polluted 
in two ways: at its source and along its course. 
To this end both young men and young women must 
at a very early age be given the right ideals of marriage 
and parenthood. The ideals that now exist of beauty, 
social position, and wealth, must be replaced by intel- 
lectual ability, good health, and high moral character. 
There must furthermore be an education for parenthood; 
not only practical training in the rearing of the young, 
but also instruction of the proper sort along lines of 
heredity, sex morality, and the importance of the family. 
Galton says: “The power of social opinion is apt to 
be underrated, rather than overrated. Like the atmos- 
phere which we breathe and by which we live, social 
opinion acts powerfully on us, without our being con- 
scious of its existence. Everyone knows that govern- 
ments, manners and beliefs, which were thought to be 
right, decorous, and true at one period, have been 
judged to be wrong, indecorous, and false at another; 
and that views which we have heard expressed by those 
in authority over us in childhood and early youth, tended 
to become axiomatic and unchangeable in mature life.” 
If a girl is taught to look upon a certain class of men 
as tabooed, whether owing to rank, creed, connections, 
or any other causes, she does not see among them a 
possible husband and turns her thoughts elsewhere. 
There can be no question that the eugenic purpose, 
as well as the happiness and welfare of the individuals, 
will be greatly served by whatever measures increase to LOVE AND EUGENIC MARRIAGES 
341 
the utmost possible extent the opportunities for choice 
in marriage afforded to both men and women. There 
is a eugenic argument in favor of community of sports 
and amusements among the young people of both 
sexes, because it tends to widen the field of choice in 
marriage. In so doing it also tends to favor the factors 
of selection, which would be for the welfare of the race; 
and the basis of selection which would be here made is 
incomparably higher than that made in the ball-room. 
It is undoubtedly true that the personal factors, physical 
and psychic, which determine the mutual attraction of 
young people, have dependent on them the whole of 
the human destiny. The young people should meet 
under conditions which make prominent the psychic, 
and place the merely physical or animal in the back- 
ground; for example, on the hockey field, on the ice, 
or in the literary circle, rather than in the ball-room. 
Since the majority of marriages are the result of propin- 
quity, parents should be most careful about the friend- 
ships which are formed by their sons and daughters; 
refinement of taste and high ideals will be the best 
safeguard in this respect. 
Finally, the more or less instinctive selection in 
marriage, now too much in vogue, should yield to a more 
intelligent choice of mates for the perpetuation of the 
race, which should be based on fortifying the hallowed 
sentiments of love on the ample basis of human experi- 
ence. The appeal to love should be broader and deeper 
and should be based quite as much, if not more, on those 
qualities, hidden or obvious, which have been bred into 
the individual, rather than upon mere beauty, wealth, 
or culture. Love must be big enough to embrace a 
consideration for the welfare and happiness of the 
unborn. 342 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Reason and conscience are great gifts, but as we have 
already noted, they are in need of training, purification, 
and liberation. Now if the ideal of which everyone is 
unconsciously in search, is built upon the solid founda- 
tion of common sense and a high sense of duty to the 
future offspring, men and women will not go very far 
afield in their selection of a life-mate. In the past it 
has been the intense selfishness of both men and women 
that has wrought so much havoc to the family and to the 
race; this must eventually react ruinously on the con- 
joints themselves. 
The application of the eugenic principles must apply 
primarily to the fitness or unfitness of the individual 
to marry anybody; and then the fitness or unfitness 
of two people to marry each other. That is to say, 
whether these two young people are physically, morally, 
socially, intellectually, and spiritually real affinities, 
whose two lives blended together in marriage will develop 
into one perfect whole. That is the first proposition. 
The second and equally vital proposition is the question 
of the heredity which the union of these two people will 
give to their offspring. 
In the majority of cases young people fall gradually 
in love; now, before this state of affairs has been reached, 
it is the duty of the parents to inquire not merely into 
the health, character, and capability of these respective 
young persons, but also in regard to their heredity. 
The “Keystone state” was wise in establishing the 
tradition that the first question asked in regard to a 
stranger is, “Who was her grandfather?” And before 
permitting a betrothal there should be an interchange of 
health certificates from a State medical examiner based 
on the history, present physical condition, and their 
heredity. THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
343 
The State should forbid the issuance of a marriage 
certificate without the production of these two health 
certificates. Eugenics is only effective if applied to 
normal stock, and if persons make use of its conclusions 
in selecting marriage mates. 
Conjugal Procreation: Its Rights and Duties.—We 
have now reached the trinity of father, mother, and child; 
the interest of each member of this group is now involved 
in the question of procreation. We will suppose that 
both father and mother are eugenically fit for the pro- 
creation of the species. The interests of the child are 
paramount and must first be considered; next in impor- 
tance come the interests of the mother as the center of 
the family life and stability, and finally the interests 
of the father as the one on whom rests the responsibility 
of providing for his family. 
1. The Limitation of Offspring in the Interests of the 
Child.—A new-born infant is one of the most perfect 
masterpieces of the eternal creative forces of nature. 
The first hours and the first days after the birth of a 
child mean to the father, who is really conscious of 
his fatherhood, the climax of parental feeling. To give 
life to a human being is so serious a matter that the 
mere thought of the responsibility thus admitted may 
well be profoundly alarming; although it must be admit- 
ted that few men of our own day are much preoccupied 
by such considerations. 
Eugenics stands for the principles of heredity, the 
principles that the right children shall be born. The 
campaign against infant mortality stands for a good 
environment, so that when children are born they may 
thrive as well as survive. No infant can thrive unless 
it is born in a good environment; the two campaigns 
are then strictly complementary. But the fact must be 344 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
well stamped on the human consciousness that the time 
for eugenics is before conception; for from this moment 
a new individual has been formed, a new, living, human 
individual; and this being is sacred and its destruction 
is murder. 
Here is the beginning of ethics. What right have we, 
with this law of cause and effect, with the law of human 
breeding, with the law of heredity to guide us; what 
right have we to bring into the world a progeny unfit for 
the struggle? What moral right have we to impose 
existence upon offspring, when by virtue of these laws, 
we know in advance that in the unequal conflict for 
existence such offspring is foredoomed to pain, misery, 
and abnormal death? If we allow ourselves to follow 
our primitive impulses, untempered and unguided by 
intelligence with which we are surrounded, we make 
ourselves responsible for sending such strains of degene- 
racy down through succeeding generations. 
Everywhere a cry of alarm goes up at the diminished 
birthrate, but again the pendulum has swung in 
the direction given it by Malthus, whose theory was the 
limitation of the population in accordance with the 
means of subsistence. He formulated the axiom that 
the best population was not necessarily the largest, 
any more than it was the smallest; but it was that 
population which was the best nourished, the most 
industrious, and the most moral. Increase in numbers 
was good, and it was only good so far as was consistent 
with the quality of the population. A number of writers 
believe that the diminished birth-rate is in the main due 
to the greater prudence of parents, and not because of 
their degenerated physique; that it is a necessary factor 
in the advance of civilization among nations. 
On the other hand it cannot be gainsaid that venereal THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
345 
disease is a very sensible factor; it is responsible for 
25 per cent, of the sterility in men and for more than 50 
per cent, of the involuntary sterility in women, to say 
nothing of the one-child sterility. These factors, which 
make for involuntary sterility are of serious importance, 
but the most potent reasons for the limitation of the 
birth-rate are to be found in the personal preferences of 
the individual and in economic compulsion. 
The pernicious results of improvident procreation are 
especially clear from the standpoint of racial hygiene 
and eugenics. A limitation of the number of offspring 
is essential to the economic equilibrium of the family. 
This applies, above all, to the poorer classes of the 
population. If the food supply of a household is barely 
sufficient for four persons, the increase of the family to 
eight will result in a definite insufficiency of nourishment. 
In such cases economic poverty also degenerates into 
moral poverty. Even in those families which are 
sufficiently well off to be independent of such considera- 
tions for their grosser material needs, the parents must 
not forget the responsibility to their children and their 
descendants which they may incur by a further division 
of their patrimony. 
Finally, so far as the interests of the children are 
concerned, a limitation of offspring must be further 
motived by a sense of responsibility aroused by the 
observations of the fact that when women have many 
children, child mortality becomes excessively high. 
2. The Limitation of Offspring in the Interests of the 
Mother.—A too-frequent or too-rapid succession of 
childbirth, especially in the proletariat, leads, to an 
excessive and premature decay of the woman concerned, 
while a diminution in the birth-rate leads often to a 
decline in the mortality. 346 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Moreover, the type of woman continually engaged in 
child-bearing is a primitive one, out of harmony with 
the needs and ideas of modern civilization. Even as 
few as six pregnancies that go to full term rob a woman 
of about ten of the best, most productive, and most 
enjoyable years of her life. Experience shows that 
“eternal mothers” rarely rise above a certain routine in 
the upbringing of their children and the care of their 
households. The reason is obvious; no time has been 
left them for the cultivation of such gifts as they may 
possess as educators or organizers. They rarely rise 
above the crudest and coarsest methods in their chil- 
drens’ education. It is evidently easier to provide a 
clear-sighted affection and a wisely conceived and indi- 
vidualized upbringing for two or three children than 
it is for eight or nine. 
All that weakens the organism of the parents reacts in 
the majority of cases in a deteriorating manner on the 
descendants also, particularly if the mother is delicate. 
This may have either one of two causes: the ovum pos- 
sesses little vitality, or the nutrition of the embryo is 
insufficient. The maternal organism suffers in a manner 
calculated to injure the descendants where the preg- 
nancies follow each other too rapidly, or where they are 
too numerous. 
Statistics of infant mortality show that on the average 
the third and fourth child of the same mother are the 
strongest; and beginning with the fifth, sometimes with 
the fourth, their vitality diminishes pretty rapidly. 
The unfavorable influences are especially great where the 
pregnancies follow each other more rapidly than at 
intervals of two and one-half years. Only thus is it 
possible for a mother to suckle her offspring sufficiently 
long. THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING 
347 
The fact that the younger children are weaker than 
the older ones is partly due to economic conditions. The 
greater the number of children, the more difficult it is to 
provide them with sufficient and good nourishment and 
bring them up with the necessary care. For this 
reason also the unrestrained procreation of children 
among the proletariat is open to objection. There 
should be no more children brought into the world than 
can presumably be fed and clothed. 
To the duty of the voluntary limitation of procreation, 
a duty imposed by a sense of responsibility, corresponds 
the right to the voluntary limitation of procreation as the 
complement to the right of the free development of 
one’s own personality. Every human being has the 
right to really live and enjoy some of the comforts and 
pleasures of life; in this we recognize the elementary law 
of humanity. The failure to procreate harms no one, 
and the parents can never lose their moral rights by the 
use of artificial means for the prevention of conception, 
to hinder an imaginary child from becoming actual. 
This follows in the last analysis from the elementary right 
each one has to regulate his own existence according to 
his own will. While in certain cases there exists a duty 
to prevent conception, there exists in every case the right 
to do so. 
In the great majority of cases the artificial limitation 
of the family will result from serious motives, such as 
the fear of procreating diseased children, from economic 
considerations, from the dread lest the too great number 
of children will so sap the vital energies of the parents 
that they will be compelled to renounce all the enjoy- 
ments of life, to which every human being has an incon- 
testable right. 
It is despicable to bring children into the world without 348 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
having provided guarantees for their living reception, 
and without securing the probability that they will have 
a tolerable existence. 
Quality versus Quantity.—The population of France 
some forty years ago consisted of so many millions of 
units. The figure does not matter; let us put it at 
thirty millions and one. Now that one was, so to say, 
Louis Pasteur; and from the point of view of statistics 
or those who think that they can predict history by 
counting heads, he was an almost infinitesimal fraction, 
about one-thirty millionth part of the French people. 
Yet, as Huxley long ago pointed out, his mind sufficed 
to pay the entire indemnity exacted from France after 
the Franco-Prussian war. This single unit was worth 
more than a host of soldiers of the merely mechanical 
kind. All history teaches that the quality of the indi- 
vidual is everything; and that quantity is nothing or 
far worse than nothing, except in so far as it is quantity 
of quality. 
As a general summary we may say that the diminution 
of the offspring is a three-fold gain to the species: (1) 
It lessens the vital drain upon the parent; (2) it enables 
the size and capacity of the limited number of offspring 
to be increased; (3) in the case of the higher parental 
care after birth it concentrates that attention upon a few 
instead of scattering it, thereby weakening its influence 
upon many. 
The human individual is being studied as if he were 
something worth while in himself. His happiness is 
seen to spring from what he is, not from what he owns. 
The child especially is assuming his place as the end and 
purpose of all social arrangements, and not as a painful 
incident in human growth. He is placed where nature 
placed him, as all-important; his care comes first; he INFANT MORTALITY AND BIRTH-RATE 
349 
must be well-born. A certain number of babies are 
healthy at birth; a certain other proportion was defi- 
nitely and obviously unhealthy at birth, while we kill 
outright hundreds of thousands every year and damage 
far more for life, including a very large proportion of 
those who still later become parents. 
A High Infant Mortality Habitually Goes with a 
High Birth-rate.—Not only is this so in all human society, 
but in all living species. Many people have yet to 
appreciate the fact that until we have learned how to 
keep alive all the healthy babies that are born; that is to 
say not less than 90 per cent, of all, the babies in the 
slums included; it is monstrous to cry for more children 
to be similarly slain. 
Education in its full sense, the provision of environ- 
ment, is a mighty and necessary force, for nothing but 
potentiality is given at birth; but no education will 
avail unless these potentialities are worthy. If then 
these babies at birth differ widely from each other as 
they do; if these differences are capable of prediction in 
terms of heredity; if the future state of mankind is 
involved in these differences, which in turn will be trans- 
mitted to the children of such of them as become parents; 
and if this business of parentage will be confined to only 
a small percentage of these babies, of whom one-third 
will he dead within five years; and these things are so; 
cannot these babies be chosen in anticipation, there being 
thus effected an enormous vital economy. What man 
can do for plants and animals cannot he do for himself? 
Obviously the effective means for multiplication is not a 
high birth-rate, but a low death-rate. Human popula- 
tion continues to increase, notwithstanding any decrease 
in the birth-rate. 
That poverty is the great underlying reason for the 350 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
death of approximately three hundred thousand babies 
yearly in the United States, is the general conclusion 
which stands out clearly from the first of a series of infant 
mortality studies in 1915, compiled under the Children's 
Bureau of the Department of Labor of which Miss Julia 
C. Lathrop is the head. 
The general indication from this first study is that 
poverty is at the bottom of this high infant mortality 
rate. There is a coincidence of the underpaid fathers, 
overworked and ignorant mothers, and those hazards to 
the life of babies which individual fathers and mothers 
cannot control or avoid, because they must be remedied 
by community action. It all points to an imperative 
need of ascertaining a standard of life for the American 
family which must rest on such betterment of the condi- 
tions of work and pay as will permit parents to safeguard 
their children within the home. This whole subject of 
infant mortality is of profound social importance; and 
we now know that it is preventable waste. 
In conclusion, in view of the fact that epoch-making 
research in genetics is in progress and there is such a 
general awakening to social conditions, the next few 
years seem to be a most critical time for the diffusion 
of accurate ideas concerning eugenics. Hence the over- 
whelming need of informing people generally concerning 
the present knowledge of heredity, and impressing upon 
them that eugenics is the study of human inheritance and 
the application of its principles through socially con- 
trolled agencies. This brings us back to the proposi- 
tion of Malthus: "Population is inevitably limited to 
the means of subsistence. Beyond a certain point, a 
rise in the birth-rate entails a rise in the death-rate and a 
fall in the average standard off living." CHAPTER XIII 
WOMAN’S ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 
AND THE DISINTEGRATION OF 
THE FAMILY 
The Tradition and Sanctity of the Family; the Status of 
the Mother of the Family; the State versus Paternal 
Authority; the Family in Relation to Property; the 
Effect on the Stability of the Family of Woman's Eco- 
nomic Dependence; Secondary Female Characteristics 
that Make for the Stability of the Family; the Maternal 
Instinct; Woman as the Mother of the Race; the Reflex 
Action of Woman’s Economic Independence on her 
Functions as Wife and Mother; the Critical or Dangerous 
Age; the Goal of Social Evolution in Respect to the 
Family. 
I never knew a virture or a vice which had a gender. The old 
passion for defining woman’s sphere as something different from 
man’s is growing obsolete. In place is the growing recognition 
of the close kinship of the sexes. Woman to reach the highest 
type of her development needs something of the masculine super- 
added to her feminity, just as man if he would sound the best 
chords that are in him, needs something of the feminine. I mean 
that the ideal woman should have her gentleness, her patience, 
her motherliness, clothed with the strength, the high sense of 
honor, the intelligence, the rectitude of the male. And on the 
other hand what man is there who does not fall short of his highest 
development if his nature is lacking in tenderness, the patience, the 
trustfulness, that are considered by the old idealists purely 
feminine qualities?—Mrs. Francis Hodgson Burnett. 
The most important work in life for which men felt themselves 
unequal, they left to women, the work of training the mind and 
character of generation after generation through the most impres- 352 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
sionable years. Then for fear their power would slip from them 
entirely, they took the reins of government and kept them jeal- 
ously in their own hands. Throughout history superior brute 
force alone has ever won the right of a voice in the ruling of a 
nation; and this is one quality that woman lacks because of the 
reason of her sex. 
The fallacy that woman’s economic independence 
would lead to the disintegration of the family has been 
assumed by man, not because experience has proved such 
to be the case, but because of man’s failure to grasp the 
fundamental basis of woman’s nature of which the strong 
sexual and maternal instincts are the most characteristic 
and ineradicable by any process of training or work, 
whether intellectual, professional, scientific, or voca- 
tional; or by the attainment of any height of economic 
independence. 
Since science and the Great War have united to break 
down primitive man’s untenable syllogisms as to woman’s 
physical, intellectual, religious, and political inabilities, 
the inevitable result must be woman’s enfranchisement 
and economic independence. 
One of the basic questions for early consideration and 
settlement in the New Democracy will be the readjust- 
ment of the relations of the sexes along rational and 
normal lines. Are marriage and the family slated for 
disintegration, as institutions peculiar to an effete civiliza- 
tion? That will depend on whether marriage and the 
family are artificial products of man’s autocratic rule or 
whether they constitute an integral and fundamental 
expression of the relation of the sexes to each other and 
their progeny. 
The Tradition and Sanctity of the Family.—A brief 
r6sum6 of the origin of marriage and the family among 
primitive peoples reminds us that these two were thus THE TRADITION AND SANCTITY OF THE FAMILY 
353 
intimately associated with each other, because of the 
benefits to the young which resulted from the male and 
female continuing to live together. Consequently mar- 
riage is rooted in the family, rather than the family in 
marriage, because of the dependence of the weak upon 
the strong. This in turn created the necessity for its 
responsible head to produce more sustenance than was 
needed for himself alone. This is an economic condition 
of the very highest importance, and one which no other 
institution except that of the family or slavery can insure. 
It is in accordance with the laws of nature that to the 
mother belongs the immediate care of the children; 
and the natural corollary of this throws the necessity for 
providing for the family on the father. 
Two widely different reasons are given for the origin 
of the monogamic family, both of which doubtless con- 
tributed to its widespread adoption, and ultimately to 
the exclusion of all other forms of marriage. First, 
that women, weary of being exposed to the lust and sexual 
tyranny of men, arose en masse and successfully revolted 
against the bondage of unbridled hetairism; and second, 
that man, because of his innate jealousy and changed 
economic conditions willingly acquiesced, upon a certain 
proviso which left the door open for the iniquitous insti- 
tution of prostitution. 
Intense individualism, such as that which threatens 
to strike at the very foundation of the family to-day 
through the teachings of the extreme wing of feminists 
and radical socialists, as well as the doctrines of socialism 
and communism, are the primary instincts of primitive 
peoples, which history show were tried out and aban- 
doned in the early stages of the development of the 
human race. It has been adequately proven that it is 
the highest form of organization and co-operation that 354 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
makes for the stability of the family and of the State, 
as well as for the economic progress and continued 
development of the race. 
We have found that the oldest family of civilization 
was based on the belief in immortality, ancestor worship, 
and the sanctity of the home; substituting the pride of 
ancestry for ancestor worship, and the duty to our descend- 
ants, for the duty to our ancestors, these beliefs constitute 
to-day the only solid foundation on which the modern 
stable family can be built. We recognize just as real a 
duty to our ancestors though a very different one, which 
is to hand down to posterity unsullied their pure stream 
of life, enhanced by new acquisitions; and further we 
owe it to posterity to raise the standards of living, of 
good health, purity of morals, and the consciousness of 
the great brotherhood of man; all of which doctrines 
are embraced in the Christian religion. 
The Constituent Parts: the Man in the Family.—The 
essential idea in regard to the institution of the family 
has remained: the supremacy of the father in the family; 
while the limitations imposed upon the power of the 
father have been partly those of the State, partly of 
custom. The very striking difference in the institution 
of the modern family consists in the freedom of sons to 
start independent households during the lifetime of 
their fathers; the freedom of children to acquire inde- 
pendent property; the freedom of children, on reaching 
maturity, to order their own lives; their freedom on 
majority to marry as they choose; the right of children 
to the protection of the State against cruelty on the part 
of their parents; "and the greater freedom of the father 
in regard to the bequest of the family property. 
Again, the organization of the family under one 
controlling head enables that co-operation in every depart- THE STATUS OF THE MOTHER OF THE FAMILY 
355 
ment which makes for the highest good of each and the 
stability of the whole. The variety of occupations open 
to the various members of the family also determines how 
far they will be forced to hold together and how far be 
able to exert their individual freedom. 
Another reason for the authority of the father is the 
fact that he continues to represent it to the outside 
world as its recognized head. He acts for the family, 
stands for the family, and is its authorized represen- 
tative. He is also held responsible by the community 
of which he is a member for the proper maintenance, 
conduct, and upbringing of the family which he called 
into existence. 
The Status of the Mother of the Family.—With respect 
to the proper position of the woman or mother of the 
family, there is a general agreement up to a certain 
point. If the husband is the head of the family, the 
wife is the center. It is she who is primarily re- 
sponsible for the care of the children, to the utmost 
extent which the family means will allow; it is her 
duty to see that they are well cared for, both physically 
and morally. 
In general it is by will power that woman is superior 
to man; and it is in the domain of love that this supe- 
riority shines in all of its glory. As the general rule, it 
is the woman who sustains the family. Among the 
poorer classes it is she who economizes; she who watches 
carefully over all and corrects the failings, the passionate 
and impulsive acts and as well supports her husband in 
his frequent discouragements. 
It follows from these facts that the modern tendency 
of women to become mere pleasure-seekers and to take 
a dislike to maternity leads to a complete degeneration 
of society. This is a grave social evil, which rapidly 356 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
causes the deterioration of the qualities and powers 
of expansion of a race. 
The Status of the Child.—An immediate consequence 
of education has been a change in the status of the 
chilch It is no longer property. The parent no longer 
says, “I am master,” but, “I am responsible.” He 
desires to develop his child’s personality; and in its 
early years it is taught that it has certain duties as well 
as privileges. 
The modern mother has begun to consider herself a 
human being as well as a mother; she is less animal and 
much more intellectual, and a broader view of life has 
made her more critical of her children’s failings. The 
developing child has something to work for if it is to 
earn its parents’ approval; for modern parents have 
become fair judges of excellence. There is also very 
much more of comradeship between modern parents 
and their children. 
The unique sense of the parental feeling of possession, 
love, and responsibility for its offspring; the natural 
pride in the development, education, and training of 
their children; the shielding influence of the home 
during their infancy, childhood, and immaturity, have 
been the highest functions of the family. Such effective 
family training brings out and develops the best family 
characteristics, while the knowledge of the possible 
undesirable and really bad traits are suppressed by 
every known method. 
The State versus Paternal Authority.—Particularly 
in the United States is there a growing tendency for 
the bonds of paternal authority to become looser, and 
even for youth wholly to cut the parental moorings. 
Further, the State has intervened to abridge the parental 
authority. Minor children are no longer looked upon THE FAMILY IN RELATION TO PROPERTY 
357 
as the absolute property of their father. For the pur- 
pose of education the State removes children from their 
parents during a number of years for the greater part of 
the day; and it further forbids their employment in 
mines, factories, or other injurious vocations during 
their tender years. If they are cruelly treated and 
exposed to vicious influences, they may be removed 
from home and placed under the protection of the 
State. The family becomes therefore less a coercive 
institution where the children serve their parents, and 
more a spiritual and psychic association of parent and 
child, based on persuasion. A large part of the un- 
limited coercive power has been removed from the 
parents and annexed to various State institutions, where 
it is guided by the conceptions of children’s rights. Thus 
the removal of the paternal as well as the marital coer- 
cive power has cleared the way for a higher and more 
spiritual domestic life. 
The Family in Relation to Property.—It was to a 
great degree the relation of the patriarchal family to its 
property, quite as much as to the authority of the 
patriarch, which gave it such a concrete solidarity and 
strength. Here the power of “the dead hand” was no 
figure of speech or legal fiction; rather it was the living 
hand of the dead, maintaining its grip upon the family 
goods and stretching through the shadowy past to claim 
its share in the present. Even the unborn generations, 
by their indissoluble connection with the family property, 
anticipate their life, and so become a living force. 
The essential factors for the effective family of the 
stable type, according to Le Play, are first sufficient 
private property to insure the occupation and mainte- 
nance of the family; and second, the authority of the 
father which enables him not only to handle the property 358 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
so as to conduce to the best interests of the family, but 
also to control and direct his children until they have 
learned to guide their own lives and are fitted to fulfil 
their duties. In order to establish this authority, not 
only must the father have full control over the property 
during his lifetime, but also have freedom of bequest, 
so as to insure that the property will remain intact for the 
future support of his family. It is chiefly through their 
fear of disinheritance that he can maintain his supremacy 
over his children. 
To be tolerably well assured that our property will be 
enjoyed and well administered by our own children, 
instead of passing into the hands of strangers, is doubtless 
a great inducement to refrain from consuming it too 
freely on our own immediate, personal gratification. 
Above and beyond this, the family is a very real and 
spiritual entity, comprising far more than the human 
individuals who may happen to be in existence at any 
particular moment. For them the long line of ancestors 
still live, in a life of great deeds and noble achievements, 
or unstained reputation still echoes in the souls of their 
descendants, molding their characters, influencing their 
wills, and through them continuing, long after the death 
of the body, to be a great living force. It is this inherit- 
ance, far more than any material wealth, which the 
noblest desire to preserve, not only for their own de- 
scendants, but also for the State. It is an inheritance 
which can never be wholly alienated or dissipated; we 
cannot, if we would, shake ourselves free from those who 
have preceded us. The great loss for the man who knows 
nothing of his ancestors is that his character has not 
been molded by the knowledge of the strength derived 
from them, nor his emulation fired by the desire to be 
worthy of them; nor do their failures warn him where WOMAN’S ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE 
359 
his own peculiar dangers lie. His inheritance is there, 
but he is unconscious of it; and being unconscious of it 
he can neither control it, nor benefit from it, as may the 
man to whom it is a living reality. 
We have now followed the development of the family 
from the infancy of the human race, and have found that 
the general tendency has always been toward a higher, 
more clearly differentiated type of the single pairing 
family. Quite aside from the question of the attitude 
of the Church upon this institution, the healthiest social 
sentiments have increasingly demanded that this “ pair- 
ing” should be a life-long partnership. Thus the stream 
of evolution has always proceded, gaining in purity 
and strength. 
We now come to consider the grave question of the 
future of the family. In order to intelligently forecast 
the effect that the economic independence of woman, 
which presupposes her higher education, vocational 
training, and enfranchisement, will have on the stability 
of the home, it is essential to turn our attention to her 
secondary sexual characteristics of love, the maternal 
instincts, and her monogamic tendencies; as well as what 
has been the effect of her economic dependence on the 
stability of the family in the past, and what has already 
been found to be the reflex action of woman’s broader 
sphere of usefulness on her functions of wife and mother. 
Before considering this part of our subject it will be 
helpful to recall some of the effects of woman’s economic 
dependence on the stability of the family. 
The Effect on the Stability of the Family of Woman’s 
Economic Dependence.—It is singular what acute 
anxiety was felt in the past by students of the old regime, 
lest woman’s broader intellectual life should prove disas- 
trous to her physical constitution, unmindful of the fact 360 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
that even now for the majority of married women the 
burdens of the orthodox natural sphere are far more 
harmful. Still further the evidence is rapidly accumulat- 
ing which makes it impossible to deny that during the 
long ages of patriarchal rule the feminine constitution 
was most disastrously injured, and this much vaunted 
“sphere of woman,” where she was thought so safe and 
happy, has been in fact a very hotbed of disease, misery, 
and wrong. The cumulative effect of the repression of 
the normal physical, psychic, intellectual, and vocational 
activities through thousands of years has resulted in the 
more or less ailing and diseased state into which woman 
has fallen; and upon her shoulders has been laid the 
penalty of the injustice and selfishness of men. 
Further than this, woman’s subjugation and economic 
dependence have reacted most seriously on her husband 
and children, and on the progress of the race as a whole. 
We have seen that the natural result of woman’s re- 
pression has been to develop most undesirable secondary 
characteristics, which together with her narrowness of 
vision and personal ego, the only thing to be considered, 
has caused man to find life in the home anything but 
happy. The woman, having gone into marriage only 
for what she could get out of it, has harassed her husband 
by her intolerable extravagance and her heavy demands 
upon his time, and has often so wrought upon his physical 
and mental life as to render him wholly incapable for 
the efficient pursuit of his professional or vocational 
work. So has come about the old saying, “A man 
that’s married is a man that’s marred.” 
The great increase in the divorce-rate in recent years, 
which has given the United States the unenviable dis- 
tinction of having one out of every twelve marriages 
end in the divorce court, is evidence of two things: WOMAN’S ECONOMIC DEPENDENCE 
361 
that woman will no longer stand for the overpowering 
tyranny of man, because she is now economically inde- 
pendent and is therefore not obliged to; and that man on 
his part will no longer stand for the petty tyrannies of 
woman, which render life almost intolerable. 
In transition stages of any kind, repressed anarchists 
always prove a menace to any sort of stable government, 
because it gives them an opportunity to sow their deadly 
seeds of propaganda among ignorant and unthinking 
people. So in this transition stage of economic inde- 
pendence and enfranchisement of women, so essential 
for the progress of the race, there have appeared on the 
scene the radical wings of feminists and socialists, who 
would have monogamic marriages abolished in order to 
indulge in the lusts which have been the natural result 
of eons of the exaggeration of the sexual ego. There 
is no justification in the whole history of the human 
race for the care of children by the state, so that men 
and women may be free to enter into or abandon mar- 
riage as their passing fancy may dictate. If it should 
ever come to pass that men and women will be content 
to abandon their children merely for the sake of their 
own greater ease and freedom of movement, it will 
mean the breaking up of the whole moral nature of the 
race, and not the family alone but the State itself will be 
shattered to its very foundations. 
Paraphrasing Napoleon, the child may say: “I 
am the family; the family is the State; the State is 
the Nation; the Nation is the race. I am the race.” 
Great statesmen have always fully realized how inti- 
mately the welfare of the State depended upon the 
influence and welfare of the family of which it was 
constituted, and so have endeavored by a systematic 
exposition of laws upon this subject to endeavor to 
mold and influence the family to its own purpose. 362 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Secondary Female Characteristics which Make for 
the Stability of the Family.—First, we have seen that 
sexual desire, in the force of its strength, is second 
only to hunger itself, with this essential difference, that 
in the normal state it is intermittent. There may even 
be long periods of time in which it is not consciously 
manifest, but it is nevertheless a universal human 
characteristic, and its irradiations are the underlying 
cause of much of human happiness. 
Man has from time to time varied his demands upon 
woman, to fit in with the current conditions of the age. 
Twenty-five years ago it would not only have been 
shockingly immodest, but beyond the pale of good 
society, for woman to have admitted that she possessed 
so human a trait as sexual instinct; for at that particular 
age it was demanded of her that she possess not only the 
chastity but also the virginal coldness of the lily, until 
man, the master, struck the chords which were then to 
respond to the masculine touch on the human instinct. 
To-day man charges that woman’s sexual instinct is 
as little a part of her fundamental nature as last season’s 
gowns, which are laid aside because no longer the mode; 
in other words, that when she shall have reached the 
stage of economic independence her feminine nature 
will be wholly submerged in her vocational career; 
that she will no longer desire to marry and bring up a 
family. 
That same objection was urged against the higher 
education of women, but it has not proved true; and the 
opponents of that movement have been compelled to 
admit that it has not been proved true. It has not 
been so in the case of man, whose economic independence 
on the contrary has led him to desire to found a family. 
We have just seen that the distortion of woman’s nature, SECONDARY FEMALE CHARACTERISTICS 
363 
from the lack of education and vocational occupation, 
has greatly intensified her sexual characteristics, to the 
undermining of her health and moral nature. 
The instinct to leave our impress on the world and 
the succeeding generations is one of the most powerful 
impelling motives in the work of every man and woman 
worth while in the world to-day. Sex instinct is but 
another name for creative instinct. There is no lack 
of love or the maternal instinct among the educated and 
vocationally and economically independent classes of 
women to-day; but these women have certain standards 
to which men must measure up. They do not regard 
marriage in the light of an experiment to be dissolved 
if not happy; neither do they contemplate bringing into 
the world a family of degenerates, as adding anything 
to their own happiness or to the benefit of the state. 
They have, by education and long years of self-control, 
learned to bridle their passions and find a healthy outlet 
for them in useful labor, the most satisfactory of which 
is creative work; something on which they can place their 
own stamp. 
The fundamental preference of every normal and 
healthy woman is for a happy marriage with children, 
but it takes two people to complete the marriage contract. 
If the number of spinsters among educated women is 
increasing, it would be well to inquire what the men are 
doing. If people would only study history and social 
economics instead of rambling so far afield, there 
would be a great saving of pen and ink and the world 
might arrive at some just conclusions. 
It is not that education and learning diminish sex 
feeling, but there does result a power of transformation, 
of sublimation in the Freudian sense, which keeps it 
under control. The fact that men or women succeed 
in what they undertake is proof of their sex energy. 364 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
The Maternal Instinct: Woman as the Mother of 
the Race.—The most profound and normal irradiation 
of the sexual appetite in woman is maternal love. A 
woman who does not love her child is an abnormal 
being. Further than this, collateral evidence supports 
the conclusion that the relation of mother and child is 
the natural germinating point of altruistic sympathy, 
and through it there may be associated the entire range 
of family relationship that comes from and with the 
sharing of the same nest. The group relation is thus 
established and may well be the model for the wider 
group relation that human society has at all times 
developed. 
In the early social organization, as we have seen, the 
woman there, as everywhere, represents the center of 
social stability, the point of return of the provider to his 
own, the indisputable basis of kinship, and through it of 
family unity and tribal consanguinity; the nucleus of 
conservative tendencies, the cradle of the effective life in 
the reciprocal relations of mother and child, and equally 
the primary school of discipline and tradition. The 
reproductive function is thus made the central condition 
of the social structure, not only in primitive times but 
throughout all the ages. 
Man’s sexual ardor is stronger, and through its stress 
in primitive times he developed in courtship the struggle 
for mates and the assertive quality of his nature. His 
activities and the resulting interests have always been 
more variable, while woman has a larger and more rigid 
determination, owing to the dominance of her organiza- 
tion, which makes her reproductive interests larger, 
and gives her functional activities, once adjusted, a 
steadier and more regular orbit. The greater morality 
of woman, bringing her nearer the race norm, is related to THE MATERNAL INSTINCT 
365 
her anabolic habits; that in turn is a piece of her lesser 
variability. The stronger hold of the family ties upon 
woman, the intensity of the maternal concern, may 
account for the readier emergency in the feminine nature 
for the altruistic flavor of sympathy, and the stronger 
hold upon man of the objective co-operation, making for 
mutual benefit and leadership. 
That the family of the future will be increased in 
quality and diminished in numbers must necessarily 
follow; if this could be brought about through all layers 
of society, it would be a desideratum devoutly to be 
wished for. All reproduction involves an expenditure of 
energy in some degree on the part of the parents, and 
more specifically on the part of the mother. Now the 
energy available by any individual is finite; if it is all 
spent upon reproduction, the individual development of 
the mother must cease. 
Spencer’s principle is that there is an antagonism, or 
as we may say an inverse ratio, between individuation 
and genesis, between the proportion of energy expended 
upon the individual and the proportion expended upon 
the continuance of the race. Every higher degree of 
individual evolution is followed by a lower degree of race 
multiplication, and vice versd. 
Spencer also teaches that individuality compensates a 
race for loss of higher fertility. Progress is the replace- 
ment of the lower by the higher life; the supersession of 
the quantitative by the qualitative criterion of the sur- 
vival values; the increasing dominance of mind over 
matter; the substitution of the intensive for the merely 
extensive cultivation of life. 
Primarily the body of woman is the temple of the life 
to come, and therefore the holy of holies. This involves 
many cardinal principles of the highest importance. 366 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
First is the higher individual development of women; 
their higher education, and their self-expression. 
The proposition that all progress in the psychic world 
depends upon individuality, just as all organic progress 
and organic evolution depend upon the physical indi- 
viduality which biologists call variation, may suggest 
to the reader the importance which must be attached to 
the study of talent and genius, in the possibility of aug- 
menting their production. 
Just in proportion as the education of woman is better, 
wider, and more thorough, the home loses the aspect of 
narrowness, self-absorption, and conventionality which 
has been too apt to characterize it in the past, becoming 
a fitting nursery for a nobler generation to follow. 
The Reflex Action of Woman’s Economic Independ- 
ence on Her Functions as Wife and Mother.—A curi- 
ous short-sightedness seems to have affected men when- 
ever they have turned their attention to considering 
woman. They complain, and with justice, of her narrow- 
mindedness, her lack of intelligent interests, her uncertain 
temper, and her frivolity. All these characteristics tend 
to make her a most trying partner to live with. The 
strange thing is that man has so seldom recognized that 
the remedy lies not in the complaint, but in admitting 
woman into the higher interests and more invigorating 
intellectual and vocational life. The new ideal is that 
the devotion of women would be greater, not less, if they 
had richer minds and wiser hearts to give; that the 
noblest harmonies of life arise when two disciplined and 
independent minds combine, and that the truest com- 
radeship is found when man and woman meet on the 
common grounds of intellectual respect. Innumerable 
happy homes bear witness to the truth of this ideal, and 
so the battle has been won, in principle at least. WOMAN’S ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 
367 
When woman was wholly dependent on marriage for 
a livelihood she was obliged to cultivate those attractions 
which depend on sex, preventing her from engaging in 
various physical activities and gainful pursuits that 
develop both physical and mental vigor, and her own 
resulting weakened bodily and mental condition reacted 
most unfavorably upon her offspring. Men are mani- 
festly less healthful and vigorous than they would have 
been if they had been born of robust and vigorous 
mothers. 
Very many years ago Mrs. John Stuart Mill, realizing 
the deteriorating influence on the race of woman's 
intellectual inferiority, contended that in order to render 
woman a real companion to man in his struggle for 
existence, intellectual training and economic emancipa- 
tion were necessary, instead of subjection and ignorance, 
which always degrade the character of the husband as 
well as her own, since there is hardly any situation more 
unfavorable to character or force of intellect than living 
in the society and seeking by preference the sympathy of 
mental inferiors. 
Affection depends to a very high degree upon sympathy, 
each mutually strengthening the other. Community of 
interests, sentiments, culture, and mode of life are 
essential to close sympathy and therefore favorable to 
warm affection. 
When, through the broadening forces of the powers of 
generalization, philosophic reasoning, logic, initiative, 
and the life, which are now termed masculine, women will 
be stimulated to greater intellectual activity and more 
creative work, they will not only be more attractive and 
companionable for their husbands, but will also be far 
more competent teachers for their children. Their 
enlarged range of thought will inspire greater confidence 368 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
in their sons and stimulate higher ideals in both sons and 
daughters. It is a common observation that great 
men are usually born of highly endowed mothers. It 
follows that the greater the opportunities open to women, 
the wider will be the mental range and activities of their 
children, and the larger the intellectual equipment of the 
mothers, the finer and stronger will be the nature of their 
sons and daughters. It is thus seen that to increase 
woman’s intellectual, economic, and political oppor- 
tunities is as important to men as it is to women, for it 
is obvious that whatever tends to uplift marriage and 
promote matehood is directly in line with social progress. 
Women who have become efficient in vocational or 
professional work which brings them economic inde- 
pendence, though they may gladly lay it aside for a time 
for the duties of maternity, find it difficult to believe that 
marriage and a few children, who all too soon leave the 
nest in search of education, must be paid for by life-long 
abstinence from economic productiveness, and from the 
practice of a craft that has grown dear to them. 
This was the last and seemed the most insurmountable 
obstacle which woman had to overcome; that marriage 
and child-bearing would be a serious menace to woman’s 
continuous and hard professional labor. In the case of 
school teachers it is still, in many places, equivalent to 
sending in her resignation, for the woman to get married. 
In the earlier days of woman’s entrance into the medical 
profession, many of them, with their Puritanic and 
Calvinistic consciences, fearing that the duties of these 
two apparently all-absorbing professions of medicine and 
maternity might clash, to the serious detriment of one of 
them, forebore the happiness of married life, to the ex- 
clusion of all desirable male suitors, ancl married their 
professions instead. It speaks well for their devotion to WOMAN’S ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE 
369 
a noble cause and their spirit of renunciation; but it was 
most unnecessary, as the large experience of a number 
of married professional women has since proved. The 
period of child-bearing is not only not continuous through 
life, but it is not serious from the standpoint of time lost. 
No work is without interruption; and childbirth is an 
incident in the life of the normal woman of no more sig- 
nificance, when viewed in the aggregate and from the 
standpoint of time lost, than the interruption in the 
work of men caused by one reason or another. The im- 
portant point in all work is not that it shall not be inter- 
rupted, but that it shall be taken up again. 
Then, too, the professional woman has learned to 
systematize her time. She has become methodic and 
can and very often does give better care to her home and 
family than a very great many society women. She has 
mastered household economics, the value of money, the 
need of freedom from all petty cares for professional life, 
and consequently makes a much more efficient wife for 
her husband. 
It is generally conceded by educators that women who 
are not engaged in the duties of piaternity need the same 
intellectual and industrial activities as men. But have 
we any ground for concluding that women who are filling 
the duties of maternity are thereby excluded from exer- 
cising full mental and physical activities in other direc- 
tions? Even under the restricted conditions which 
have prevailed in civilization, large numbers of women 
who have borne children and successfully reared them 
have, at the same time, been eminent in intellectual and 
artistic pursuits. 
Furthermore, because of the physiologic changes in 
woman's life toward the end of the child-bearing period, 
which cause certain psychologic alterations in her nature, 370 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
it is most essential, for every reason, that her mind shall 
be occupied at this time with absorbing intellectual or 
vocational work. 
That the higher education of woman is proving to be a 
powerful factor in increasing the stability of the family 
is emphasized by the fact that calculations based on the 
records of the graduates of Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Smith, 
Wellesley, Radcliffe and Wells Colleges, and of North- 
western University, give as the ratio of college women and 
divorce as one to fifty-seven; as against the general ratio 
in the United States, which is one in twelve. 
The Critical or Dangerous Age.—This age may be 
properly so-called from the presence of pathologic con- 
ditions consequent upon injuries which took place at 
childbirth and were never properly repaired; or simply 
from an intense congestion of the female pelvic organs, 
due to the oncoming of the menopause or the cessation 
of the periodic menstrual flow, which frequently occasions 
serious psychic changes; or it may be a feeling of a great 
void in the woman’s life, caused by the departure of her 
children from the home. The first condition requires 
surgical interference, which is generally curative. 
The marked change in woman’s psychic nature at 
this time, which is often nothing less than revolutionary 
in her attitude toward sexual life, is the thing which 
makes for undermining of her character and is a real 
menace in many instances toward her family and 
society. 
There is a very real physiologic foundation for this 
state of mind. The pelvic congestion, normally relieved 
by the periodic flow of blood, becomes more or less cumu- 
lative, and this pathologic congestion in turn is respon- 
sible for voluptuous sensations and desires, which, if 
not suppressed by proper medical treatment and intel- THE GOAL OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
371 
lectual or vocational pursuits, pre-empting the entire 
consciousness, frequently lead to social disasters. A 
woman at this age and in this psychic condition is danger- 
ously fascinating for young men, just as the man of 
this age is for young girls. Like the man, she is a serious 
rival for youth, and is very apt to blacken her sex in the 
man’s eyes. For both men and women, the autumn of 
life is the high tide of passion, as is so well illustrated by 
Anthony and Cleopatra. 
At this period there tends to be an abnormal nervous 
instability and irritability, which in normal women, who 
have had themselves under sharp self-control, and their 
superfluous energies more than taxed with their life- 
work, can at least be held in abeyance until the active 
conditions which were its cause have subsided. 
Generally speaking, passion in woman is more intense 
toward the close than at the beginning of menstrual life; 
fortunately it is very often caused by well-defined patho- 
logic conditions, which are wholly remediable. Al- 
though neither sexual appetite nor voluptuous sensations 
disappear at the time of the menopause; desire does 
normally diminish as age advances. 
The Goal of Social Evolution in Respect to the Family. 
—If woman’s equal partnership with man in the nurture 
of the family and in facing the exigencies of external life 
depended mainly on equal education, never was such an 
education more urgently needed than at the present 
time. Social and industrial problems are constantly 
demanding higher and higher mental training for their 
solution. Clearly then husband and wife have great 
need of intellectual sympathy and counsel in the dis- 
charge of their joint yet partially differentiated tasks. 
Educational equality is however but one phase of the 
movement for woman’s liberation. There are other 372 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
factors in the ideal partnership of the sexes for the uplift- 
ing of society. Intellectual emancipation is proceeding 
hand in hand with political and economic emancipation. 
The three movements are in a large measure blended and 
interdependent. The participation of women in new 
vocations, industrial, artistic, professional, or administra- 
tive, implies a great advance in mental training; it means 
a distinct unfolding of faculties and character. No 
sociologic change equal in importance to this clearly 
marked improvement of an entire sex has ever taken 
place within one century. It is a revolution in which one- 
half of the human race is becoming an equal factor with 
the other, in intellectual and economic production. 
With far greater justice it was complained a century ago 
that ‘‘the intrusion of men traders into woman's work 
was driving her to destitution and thus fostering the 
social evil.” The callings in which women are charged 
with intruding were many of them women's callings 
before they were men’s. 
Neither mother-right alone or father-right alone can 
satisfy the new ideals of the true relationship of the 
sexes. The spiritual force slowly unfolding, that has 
uplifted and is still uplifting womanhood, is the founda- 
tion of woman’s claim that the further progress of hu- 
manity is bound up with her restoration to a position 
of freedom and human equality. This position she must 
not take from man, as that would be a step backward; 
she is to share it with him; and more than all for the 
sake of their children and all the children of the race. 
This replacement of the mother, side by side with the 
father, in the home and in the larger home of the State, 
is the true work of the woman’s movement. 
Mr. Spencer’s conclusions of the whole subject is that 
the monogamic form of the sexual relation is manifestly THE GOAL OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION 
373 
the ultimate one. Future evolution along the lines so 
far followed may be expected to extend the monogamic 
relations by extinguishing promiscuity, and by suppress- 
ing such crimes as bigamy and adultery. Already a 
growing disapproval of those who marry for money and 
position is expressed; and this growing disapproval may 
be expected to purify the monogamic union by making 
it real instead of nominal. 
Marriage contracted upon the basis of mutual attrac- 
tion and choice of companionship; of reciprocal rights 
and privileges; and of equal standard of morals, is far 
more likely to survive than the coercive marriage with 
its inequality, economic dependence, and dual standard 
of morals. 
Love is a far more powerful and permanent element 
than force. Freed from physical, economic, or legal 
compulsion, women, on the ground of purely voluntary 
affection, will be willing and desirous of entering into 
marriage as their normal life condition; and with far 
greater prospect that the union will be happy and lasting. 
On the basis of mutual respect and affection the chances 
of permanency are greatly enhanced. 
When the husband comes to realize that the only 
power by which he can retain his wife is that by which 
he won her, he is not likely to assert an authority and 
assume an attitude which is repugnant to her, but will 
continue to pay deference to her wishes and concede to 
her the responsibility for her own personality. When 
the wife in turn realizes that she may not call upon legal 
aid to retain her husband's affection, she will endeavor 
to retain the qualities which made her attractive to 
him before marriage. 
Such an attitude on the part of the married couple does 
not guarantee congeniality, nor annihilate the extreme 
difficulties which beset marriage, but it does immensely 374 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
increase the probability of permanence, and that con- 
jugal affection will have far greater chance of survival. 
Spiritual ties are stronger than legal ones. Thrown 
upon these resources there will be the largest possible 
opportunity for the realization of the social ideal; a 
permanent monogamous union, motherhood of choice, 
and a parenthood of affection. 
The duration of the monogamous union tends to be 
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in all others, will not be irremediable. The homes 
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London and New York, 1891; 2d ed., 1894. 376 
THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
Adler, Felix: Marriage and Divorce. New York, 1915. 
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Carson, William E.: The Marriage Revolt: A Study of Mar- 
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Dumas, Alexandre, fils: La Question du Divorce. Paris, 1879; 
5th ed., 1880. 
Gamier, le Dr. P.: Le Marriage, Dans ses Devoirs, ses Rapports 
et ses Effets Conjug aux. 1 7th ed., Paris, 1912. 
Kitchin, S. B.: A History of Divorce. London, 1912. 
Leathlen, S. A.: The History of Marriage and Divorce. 
Leeky, W. E. H.: Democracy and Liberty. 1896. 
Leeky, W. E. H.: History of European Morals. 1902. 
Lichtenberger, James P.: Divorce: A Study in Social Causa- 
tion. New York, 1910. 
National Congress on Divorce Laws, Harrisburg, Penna., 1905. 
Post. L. F.: Ethical Principles of Marriage and Divorce. 
Ringrose, Hyacinthe: Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World. 
London and New York, 1911. 
United States Census Bureau: Statistics of Divorce. 1907. 
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MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 
SEX CHARACTERISTICS AND SEX CUSTOMS; HOW THEY 
REACT ON THE FAMILY AND THE RACE 
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Letourneau, Charles: La Femme a Travers les Ages. Ecole 
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Ploss, H.: Das Weib. vol. i. 4th ed., Leipzig, 1895. 
Reich, Emil: Woman Through the Ages. 2 vols., London, 
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Thomas, William I.: Sex and Society. Studies in the Social 
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Westermarck, Edward: The Position of Woman in Early 
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Hankey, Donald: A Student in Arms. New York, 1917. 
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SEX HYGIENE, ETHICS AND CONDUCT 
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THE FAMILY AND THE NEW DEMOCRACY 
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Fournier, Alfred: Syphilis und Ehe. Tr. P. Michelson, Berlin, 
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Wrench, G. T.: The Healthy Marriage. 2d ed., 1917. INDEX 
Alcohol, 96 
and heredity, 103 
and moral degeneration, 106 
and prostitution, 108 
and race degeneracy, 102 
and sexual immorality, 107 
and sterility, 104 
and the Great War, 110 
in history, 96 
European scientific hygi- 
enic movement of 
1873, 100 
social reform movement, 
105 
Revolutionary war and 
ethical temperance 
movement, 97 
war and temperance move- 
ment in Great Britain, 99 
Women’s Christian Tem- 
perance Union of 1874, 
99 
prohibition in Russia, 112 
psychic reaction and effi- 
ciency, 101 
United States and prohibi- 
tion, 113 
Bachofen’s theory of 3 cul- 
tural stages of human race, 24 
Bentham on divorce, 54 
Betrothal and marriage, 263 
and syphilis, 91 
as a contract, 264 
Betrothal, choosing life mate, 
230 
economic independence 
of both parties, 233 
of same social class, 
234 
temperamentally 
adapted to each 
other, 235 
civil, history of, 263 
disadvantages of late mar- 
riage, 245 
ethical and physiologic dis- 
advantage of disproportion 
of age, 247 
history of, 263 
ideal age for marriage, 3 
points of view, 241 
effect of age on vitality 
and mortality of 
children, 244 
higher mortality of 
women in youthful 
marriages, 243 
psychologic, 241 
interchange of health certifi- 
cates before, 248 
marriage as magic spell, 251 
mutual understanding of 
sexual ethics of marriage, 
250 
portion in New England 
colonies, 267 
problems of, 230 380 
INDEX 
Betrothal, ring, 266 
trial, versus breach of prom- 
ise cases, 272 
Breach of promise in New 
England colonies, 267 
laws, 273 
suits, 274-277 
Brain weight, relative in two 
sexes, 135 
Canon law, 30 
Celibacy an excrescence of 
modern civilization, 181 
economic conditions, one of 
chief factors of, 186 
effects on, of higher educa- 
tion and culture of women, 
191 
in New England colonies, 183 
reflex action of, on commu- 
nity, 198 
Chastity in woman, 147 
of wife, demanded,21,153, 365 
prenuptial, both an ethical 
and race obligation, 80, 
170, 365 
Child and the race, 361 
duty of state toward, 317 
in the family, 12, 282 
rights of, 295, 316 
to choose its ancestry, 317 
to two parents, 318 
Children, illegitimate, 319 
institution, 13 
limitations of, 296 
Courtship and coquetry, 133, 
149, 217, 230 
psychology of, 226 
Divorce, ancient codes of mar- 
riage and, in primitive 
society, 31 
Divorce, causation of increase 
of, 61, 360 
artificial standards of 
living, 65 
changed economic con- 
ditions, 63 
economic emancipation 
of women, 67 
ethical readjustments, 68 
industrial revolution of 
19th century, 64 
passing of economic 
function of family, 
67 
stress of modern eco- 
nomic life, 64 
English divorce laws of 1857, 
53 
established in interest of 
women, 36, 40 
frequency of, 11 
German Imperial code, 1876, 
56 
grounds for, 42, 48, 50 
adultery on part of hus- 
band, 46, 53, 55 
of wife, 53, 55 
in American colonies, 57 
interstate comity, 60 
laws among ancient Greeks, 
37 
Hebrews, 36 
Romans, 39 
Babylonians, 35 
in United States, 58 
of ancient civilizations, 
stages of evolu- 
tion of, 39 
Civil Code of 
Napoleon, 48 
ecclesiastic and 
Canon law, 41 INDEX 
381 
Divorce laws of ancient French 
Revolution of 
1792, 47 
Reformation in 
England, 49 
legislation in various states, 
59 
present English laws, 55 
prostitution and, 80 
syphilis and, 93 
statistics of United States, 
161, 360 
trend toward uniform laws 
on, 52 
Domestic economics, failure of, 
296 
Dowry, American system, 270 
arguments for, 35, 36, 270 
Babylonian, 35 
custom and underlying prin- 
ciples of, 268 
genesis of, 264 
in ancient Egypt, 269 
Greece, 39 
in New England colonies, 
268 
on European continent, 56, 
269 
Dress in new Democracy, 224 
in Renaissance, 221 
of ancient Greeks, 219 
of present day, 222 
psychology of, 216, 222 
woman’s, and adornments in 
ancient civilizations, 218 
Drummond on divorce, 54 
Education, double standard of, 
for two sexes, 193, 314 
Ethics and sex education, 154 
Eugenic marriages, 316, 339 
principles, 342 
Eugenic selection, 342 
ethical duty to child and 
race, 333 
Exogamy, 25 
Family, cell of social life, 321 
child in, 12, 361 
disintegration of, causes of, 
61, 191 
artificial standards of 
living, 65 
economic emancipation 
of women, 67 
ethical readjustments, 68 
industrial revolution of 
19th century, 64 
passing of economic 
function of, 67 
stress of modem eco- 
nomic life, 64 
economic forces, influence on 
marriage and, 28 
point of view of, 28 
existence of, threatened, 15 
function of, 13 
future of, 359, 371 
goal of social evolution in 
regard to, 371-374 
in relation to property, 
357 
institution of, 14 
man in, status of, 354 
marriage and, 18 
mother in, status of, 355 
patriarchal, 39 
readjustment of, to changed 
economic conditions, 63 
social hygiene, basis of family 
and national life, 16 
stability of, as affected by 
woman’s economic de- 
pendence, 359 382 
INDEX 
Family, stability of, secondary 
female characteristics 
which make for, 133, 362 
state versus paternal au- 
thority, 356 
tradition and sanctity of, 318, 
352 
Flirtation, 229, 254 
Galton’s law of inheritance, 
332 
Genetics, laws governing, 321 
Gladstone on divorce, 53 
Glands, sexual, development of, 
117 
Gonorrhea, 84 
influence on pregnancy, 85-86 
risks to life and health of 
women, 85 
Gynocracy, 27 
Heredity and alcohol, 103 
and race culture, 38, 321, 338 
character units of, 323, 327 
active or dominant, 322, 
327 
consanguinity in, 328-329 
crossing pure stock, 322 
disease transmission in, 327, 
329 
alcoholism, 102-103, 329 
feeble-mindedness, 329 
morons, 300, 330 
Galton’s law of inheritance, 
332 
genetics and laws governing, 
321 
germ-plasm, 322 
good, 316 
laws of, 127 
mental ability, 327 
psychopathic complex, 328 
Heredity, laws of, secondary 
intellectual char- 
acteristics, 135 
brain weight, 135 
inventive genius, 138 
variational tendency 
in men, 139 
will power, 141 
physical characteristics 
of man and woman 
, contrasted, 129 
physiological character- 
istics, 132 
somatoplasm, 322 
stream of life, 317, 324, 
326 
transmission of tempera- 
ment, 328 
Iletaerae, social position of, 
73 
Illegitimate children, 319 
Infant mortality, and high 
birth-rate, 343 
poverty great reason for, 
350 
Inheritance, Galton’s law of, 33 
Jealousy, irradiation of love, 
208, 303 
Laws, divorce, Civil Code of 
Napoleon, 48 
English act of 1857, 53 
present, 55 
in United States, 58 
marriage, English, 30 
German Imperial Code, 56 
laxity of, 69 
Life, stream of, 14, 333, 340, 
358 
trustee of, 160 INDEX 
383 
Love, amorous intoxication in, 
150, 200, 205 
and eugenic marriages, 339 
art of, 288 
dualism of woman in primary, 
253 
durable, 151, 206, 232, 310, 
339, 367, 373 
free, argument against theory 
of, 176, 319 
jealousy, irradiation of, 208 
psychology of, contrasted in 
two sexes, 151 
rut and, 200 
Maidenhood, chaperons in, 
necessity for, 260 
damaged lives of girls, 257 
safeguarding of, 257 
vocational education of, 
259 
Malthus, theory of, 344, 350 
Man, cave, 313 
success of, influenced by mar- 
riage, 301 
variational tendency in, 139 
why is a man a man, 116 
Marital life, danger zones of, 
287 
depressing effects of 
routine, 314 
failure in domestic 
economics; financial 
squalls and hurri- 
canes, 296 
first arrival and neg- 
lected husband; 
spirit of jealousy, 
152, 188 
ideal time for first 
pregnancy, 153, 305 
Marital life, marital unethics, 
man’s masterful 
spirit and assertion 
of rights, 288 
necessity for wife to 
keep abreast of 
times, 311 
spirit of martyrdom 
and tyranny of 
tears, 301 
zone of darkness; 
woman’s spatial 
separation from her 
husband's voca- 
tional interests, 309 
Marriage, 230, 278, 280 
a civil contract, 35, 40, 45, 
47, 51, 56, 280 
a duty to race, 181 
among Spartans, 38 
ancient codes of, and divorce, 
34 
and celibacy, 181 
and divorce laws of ancient 
civilizations, 35 
stages of evolution of, 
among ancient 
Greeks, 37 
Hebrews, 36 
Romans, 39 
Babylonians, 35 
declared a sacra- 
ment, 1563, 44,280 
development of civil 
contract theory, 
35, 40, 45, 51, 56 
ecclesiastic and 
Canon law, 41 
French Revolution 
of 1792 and Civil 
Code of Napoleon, 
47 384 
INDEX 
Marriage, and stages of evolu- 
tion of, Mosaic 
law, 36 
rise of ecclesiastic 
marriage, 43 
and English law, 30 
and family, founded on bio- 
logic, economic and physio- 
logic laws, 18 
and parenthood, ideals of, 340 
and science, 342 
as sacrament, 280 
as trade, 284 
as vocation for women, 66 
based on economic condi- 
tions, 272 
by capture and purchase, 25, 
32 
by purchase, 263 
civil in New England, 51 
classification of, 283 
de convenance, 284 
for profit, 283 
of inclination or love, 283 
considered as contract, 30,266 
disadvantages of late, 245 
duration of life and, 181 
economic forces, influence on, 
28 
essence and characteristics of, 
279) 
essentials to, 59 
ethical and physiologic dis- 
advantages of dispropor- 
tion of age, 247 
eugenic principles in, 342 
selection, 342 
ethical duty to child and 
race, 333 
eugenics and love, 339 
exogamy, or prohibition of 
marriage among kindred, 25 
Marriage, form of, and its 
effect on divorce, 33 
German Imperial Code of, 56 
ideal, 34, 63, 69, 195 
age for, 3 points of view, 
241 
effects of age on 
vitality and 
mortality of 
children, 244 
effects of mater- 
nity on moth- 
er’s health, 243 
psycholgic or 
temperamental, 
241 
impediments to, 37 
influence of woman on man, 
281 
intermarriage with morons 
in, 334 
laws, laxity of, 275 
monogamous, evolution of, 
Bachofen’s theory 
of, 24 
arguments against, 
19, 23 
physiologic, 21 
psychologic, 21 
zoologic, 20 
hetairism and lim- 
ited promis- 
cuity, 24, 26 
matriarchate and 
polyandry, 26 
patriarchate and 
polygyny, 27 
polygny versus poly- 
andry, 27 
founded on, 28, 318 
legalized, 37 
bagging and, 286, 301 INDEX 
385 
Morality and law in New 
England colonies, 185 
evolution of, 178 
Morals, chastity of wife de- 
manded, 21, 153, 365 
of women demanded, 147 
double standard of, 46, 53, 55, 
72, 76, 82, 143, 162, 189 
education as solvent for, 
147 
man’s code of honor, 148 
continence and mode of 
individual life, 167 
prenuptial chastity, both an 
ethical and race obli- 
gation, 80, 170, 365 
ethical point of view, as 
custodian of stream of 
life, 170 
extreme danger of in- 
fection by venereal 
diseases, 174 
for discipline and forma- 
tion of character, 171, 
172 
physiologic point of 
view, 171 
to insure martial fidelity, 
172 
rules for, 168 
woman’s attitude toward, 
162, 174, 253 
Morons, 330 
intermarriage with, 334 
Mothers, 316 
Nagging, habit of, 286, 301 
Offspring, limitation of, high 
infant mortality goes 
with high birth-rate, 
346, 350 
Marriage, primitive man’s, 18, 
20 
problems of, 279 
prostitution, social diseases, 
and, 71, 80 
science and, 285 
sexual continence in, 292 
ethics in, 288 
solemnization of, 37, 43 
stable, 310 
syphilis and, 89 
unhappy, causes of, 303 
woman’s dual nature and, 237 
economically depend- 
ent women whose 
sole vocation is mar- 
riage, 235, 237, 303 
highly educated and 
economically inde- 
pendent women, 236 
240 
women culturally 
educated, but eco- 
nomically depen- 
dent, 239 
Maternal instinct, 364 
Matriarchate, 26 
Mendelian law, 324 
Mendel’s views on heredity, 
326 
Menstruation, function of, 118 
Modesty and dress, evolution 
of, 209 
clothing as protection 
against lust of men, 
211 
husband’s jealousy cause 
of adoption of clothes, 
212 
man, the modest sex, 214 
simply the result of 
clothing, 210 386 
INDEX 
Offspring, limitation of, in 
interest of child, 343 
of mother, 345 
quality versus quantity, 
348j 
Polyandry, 26 
Polygyny versus polyandry, 27 
Pregnancy, ideal time for, 153, 
305 
Procreation, 28 
and ethics, 344 
and venereal diseases, 344 
conjugal, its rights and duties, 
343 
instinct of, 295 
Prostitution, 11 
and alcohol, 108 
and gonorrhea, 84 
and syphilis, 92 
chief causes of, at present 
day, 78 
biologic predisposi- 
tion, 79 
civilization value, 81 
economic necessity, 
78, 190 
man’s physiologic 
necessity, 80 
masculine unchas- 
tity and double 
standard of morals, 
82 
instituted, 71 
as requirement of man’s 
physical needs, 72 
law of Middle Ages, 76 
to avenge anger of gods, 71 
to preserve sanctity of 
home, 72 
effects of Christi- 
anity on, 75 
Prostitution, instituted, to pre- 
serve, Greek legis- 
lation on, 72 
in ancient Rome, 75 
legalization of, 72 
regulation and organization 
of, 72, 77 
Psychology, contrasted in men 
and women, 115 
Reformed (?) rake, inter- 
marriage with, 337 
Responsibility, personal, 14 
of women, 17 
Ring, betrothal, 266 
wedding, 266 
Rut, 19 
Sex characteristics, secondary 
in men and 
women con- 
trasted, 129 
intellectual, 135 
brain weight, 
135 
inventive gen- 
ius, 138 
variational 
tendencies, 
139 
will power, 141 
physical, 129-132 
physiological, 
132-135 
education and ethics, 154 
on social hygiene, 161 
physical and mental devel- 
opment as motive for 
purity, 159 
morality, problems of, 
155 INDEX 
387 
Sex education and ethics, 
physiologic value of secre- 
tion of sexual glands, 158 
psychology of dress, 216, 
222 
relation of, to nutrition, 
120, 121 
self-control for young men, 
problem of, 157 
trustee of stream of life, 160 
thyroid gland in, function of, 
119 
Sexes, distinctive pathologic 
liability of, 122 
natality and mortality of two, 
121 
Sexual abstinence, life-long, 
problem of, 196 
appetite in man, 151, 294 
in woman, 151, 163, 196, 
204 
coitus, frequency of, 293 
continence in marriage, 292 
immorality and alcohol, 107 
life, psychology of, 149 
selection, 142 
based on love and calcula- 
tion, 201 
importance of, on develop- 
ment of race, 123 
prerogative of woman, 230 
Syphilis, 86 
and divorce, 93 
and engagements to marry, 
91 
and prostitution, 92 
blood test for, 88 
defined, 86 
effects of, on child-bearing 
women, 89 
modes of transmission, 90 
prevalence of, 87 
Syphilis, symptomatic or in- 
complete cures, 88 
time principle and five year 
rule, 91 
Wassermann reaction, 88 
Spinsters, 184 
Sterility, causes of, 114 
Thyroid gland, function of, 119 
Vaughan, on mesalliance, 334 
Venereal diseases, 84 
gonorrhea, 84 
public efforts against, 95 
syphilis, 86 
War, Great, moral and spiritual 
benefits of, 11, 16, 180 
Wedding ring, 266 
Wife and mother, duties of, 311 
capture, 25, 32, 125 
chastity of, demanded, 21 
fidelity of, demanded, 153 
lack of definite vocation of, 
danger in, 303 
purchase, 32, 142, 217 
Will, development of, 14 
Woman, adventitious character 
of, 142 
as mother of race, 364 
as property, 36 
atypic type and free love, 
175 
chastity in demanded, 21 
critical or dangerous age of, 
• 370 
dualism of, in primary sexual 
love, 253 
economic dependence of, on 
man, 300 
effect of, on her chil- 
dren, 367 388 
INDEX 
Woman, economic dependence 
of, effect of, on 
stability of fam- 
ily, 359 
reflex action of, on 
her functions as wife 
and mother, 300 
independence of, and dis- 
integration of family, 
351 
effect on her functions as 
wife and mother, 366 
on stability of family, 
300, 309, 315 
education of, 115 
emancipation of, 67-68 
Woman, eroticism of, 163 
higher education of, 367 
position of under Canon law, 
43, 46 
psychology of dress, 216, 222 
reflex action of her educa- 
tional, economic and voca- 
tional suppression on her 
physical, moral and intel- 
lectual development, 142, 
311 
subjugation, causes of, 117 
status of, among ancient 
Hebrews, 36 
in ancient Rome, 75 
why is a woman a woman, 115