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Show iyRaceilewitliAtaCMCiata BY REV. JOHN HAYNE8 HOLMES, ROSE PASTOR STOKES, HEL6N CAMPBELL AND JOSEPH LORRBN, In Tho Aronfli 1 I V '. I believe tliat Rabbi's Schlndler's question: ques-tion: "Why race-suicide with advancing Civilization?" can most certainly be answered, and this on the basis or the I Very racts which ho hitnselr submits In his statement. He points out most aptly . the wonderful advances which have been nintlo in thin weBteru part or the world In the cabe or tho "child." He points out thai "tho clumsy midwife has been fqplaced by tho skilled physicians" that , ''hospitals for children abound;" that the kindergarten, the school, tho vacation chool, tho piaytrroitnd supervised by an Qxppri," are frcoly offoioil in every community; com-munity; that "blubs of all description Supply tho social needs of the growing clilidt" thaU"sdcielies for the prevention or CrUblty tb Chlldrtrt afc rtUlllorOUs;" hat "Child labor 18 regulated by laW end prohibited up to the age df fourteen 01 fifteen years," ele. And what do all theBe things tllcatl, if not thai OUr WObt-fel-il civilization has at last aWakOned td the fact that no effort tali safeiy be spared toward Making it posslwe foi every child born Into the world td ciijoy oddd physical health, adequato iriental and illoral training and sure Industrial opportunity? What do they mean, IT not that society has come to recognize that Its own security, secur-ity, If not Its sentiments or Justice and mercy, demands that no child shall Lo neglected or abused or exploited; and that ir poor parents cannot or will not rurnlsh adequate protection from neglect, abuse or exploitation, the state must? 'These facts mean, in short, that artcr long years or gross stupidity, to say nothing or cruelty, wc arc beginning to understand that tho conception, bearing and roaring ' or a child involve the most sorlous and solemn of responsibilities, however lightly assumed, must be seriously and solemnly 'discharged. this being tho case, it Is apparent, is It not. why race-suicide Is in this age a Universal accompaniment of advanclhg civilization. civ-ilization. To-day as never beroro In human history men and women aro tic timing to assume tho responsibilities or parentage which they know they cannot discharge. It is significant that it 1b the Upper and more cultured, and thercroro thb more self-conscious and self controlled con-trolled portion of tho community Which Is falling to pcrpotrato ttsoir, and not by any means the lower, more Ignorant and more Impulsive portion. Today the avcr-ogo avcr-ogo member or this upper or superior closs is unwilling to bring a boy or girl Into the world who cannot bo given the advantages or tho best physical and montal '.training, and thus so prepared ror lire's Ibattlo that success Is assured. "I propose pro-pose that my boy shall have a bettor start Ithan I had;" "I could not go to collogc, 'but my child shall" thoso arc tho expressions ex-pressions which aro heard whorovor the raising or a ramlly Is under discussion showing that latent In tho hearts or tho moro serious, sober and earnest members or society Is tho conscious determination not to produco moro chlldron than can bo saroly and adoquatoly reared. A cortaln (Indication or a high level or individual Culture and seir-mastory is tho anility to '"count tho cost" to live not moroly ror 'today but also Tor tomorrow to soo not only the prose but tho ruturc; and it is itho mon and omon who have roachod this lovol who ore responsible, gonorolly rrom tho best or motives, ror that race-Suicide race-Suicide which is so commonly doplorod. Thus consldorod, tho tondoncy toward decreasing tho blrth-rato Is wholly understandable under-standable and commondqblo. But Is this all? Does not this conclusion at once raise tho rurthar question: Why is it nccessar'' for pooplo to commit racc-suloldo racc-suloldo Li axAoy Jo Jive in decent comrort i and Obtain1 a fair share df opportunity? "I can't have bdt one dr tWo children," sjys tho hard-working", IritMllgent iliari of the great middle closs, "because 1 caii't afford any moro. If 1 have a larger rairi-Jly rairi-Jly than I have at present, I shall have to deny to all my chlldron tho advantages which I can give to the one or two advantages which every child ought to have and which I proposo they shall have." This is a common statement, nut what aro We to think, I a6k, or a social condition which forces a man or average ability, average Intelligence and average Industry to make deliberate choice between a smaller family (or perhaps no ramlly) and poverty? Here wc come right down lo tho stupendously tragic Tact or our day ami generation: that, In an ago or Unexampled material prosperity and practically inexhaustible material resources -lrt art age Urtparalled In history Tor Its accumulation of wealth, life Is still, for the great masses of the people, so expensive ex-pensive art operation as to make prohlb-Itive prohlb-Itive the roaring of a good-sized ramlly. Mere III art age Which, as Proressor Patten points out, In his New llasis or Civilization, is HO longer ail age of "deficit," but or "StirplUs,'1 ah age In Which there Is enough and to spare of the World's goods to keop every ilvlng soul lrt comfort and plenty, the ravored Tew. by somo inexcusable inex-cusable and iniquitous mal-adjustmcnt of our social systems , obtain practically everything and the many nothing. Here, In a country which Is literally riowlng with that "milk and honey" which seemed too Impossible or practical realization to tho ancient seer that he pictured It as one or tho perrect conditions or hcavon, you and 1 must deny ourselves the Joys or parentage, lest we and our children starve. Tho truth or tho matter Is. as Mr. II. G. Wells points out In his New Worlds ror Old, that "parentage which rightly under taken is a service as well as a duty to the world." Is actually penalllzed by our existing social system, and tho parent hopelessly handicapped In our remorselessly remorse-lessly competitive struggle ror existence. "Tho plain Tact Is," as ho says, "that tho bottor middle-class paronts servo tho state in this matter or child-rearing, tho less Is their roward, tho loss Is tholr security, tho greater their toll and anxiety. Is It any wondor then, that throughout this moro comrortablo but more rerinod and exacting class, the skilled artisan and middle class, there goes on something oven moro disastrous rrom the polnt-of-vlew of the state than the squalor, and that is a very evident strike apalnst parentage? par-entage? While the very poor continue to have children who dlo or grow up undorslzcd, crippled or hair-clvilizod, the middle class, which can contrive, with a struggle and sacrifice, to roar fairly woll-grown woll-grown and woll-oqulppod offspring, which has a consclonco ror the woll-bolng and happiness or the young, manifests a diminishing dim-inishing spirit Tor parentage, Its ramlllos rail to Tour, three, to two, and In an Increasing" In-creasing" number or lnstancos there are no chlldron at all." Hero, it seoms to mo, In this question of raco-suicldo, as in cvory other social question or our day and generation, wo como right down to tho question or the cost or living, which opens up tho acepor question or tho distribution or wealth, which in turn, oicns up tho doopest question ques-tion or all the wisdom and Justice or our existing social system. Hero In tliU quostlon or raco-suicldo wo havo simply one or that multitude of problems which aro threatening tho very pcrmnnonoy or our civilization and which can rind no solution until society makes up Its mind to soo that Justice is done. By what method Justlco shall bo done, men must Tor long havo tho widest dirroroncos or opinion; but the Important thing at the prosent moment, it seems to me, is to awaken society to a consciousness of existing ex-isting injustice ond to inspire It with a determination to act. I rejoice, therefor, that the Hubbi 1ms raised this perplexing question for discussion. dis-cussion. It is bdt one of tho many symptoms symp-toms of the disease Which has fastened upon the social organism To discuss this symptom is, as 1 have Just illustrated above, lo be led to the discussion 6f the disease; to discuss thd disease Is to bo led fo tho discussion of tho cure; to dl-Hiss dl-Hiss the euro is to take the1- first ' step towards health. p ,' JOHN HAY 1 HOLMES. Church or Messiah, New York City. II A great deal has beep written and said about raco-suicldo by those who deprecate the provalllng tendency tow'afd small fMnlllcs. It has como to be supposed by a good many people that thd deliberate restriction or the blrth-rato Is a very vicious thing, and that thosoiartlclpatlng In such restriction are guilty OT a heinous crime. Public attention has been so centered Upon tills aspect or the question that another, an-other, and in tho opinion or the writer, a more serious aspect or the question, has been completely ignored in the most current cur-rent discussions or tho subject. I refer to the appalling destruction of lire and equally appalling impairment or racial vigor due to tho heartless grind or our modern Industrial system. ' Three-quarters or a million people die each year in the United States from causes othor than old age; and the large majority of those deaths arc duo to the ract that nearly the entire working class or our country urc precluded rrom tho possibility or seir-support except under conditions destructive or health and vigor. The conditions of employment today arc determined with little regard for the wci-rare wci-rare of the workers, but almost wholly with the view or obtaining the greatest posslblo amount or private profit ror their emnlovers. ir It were to add to tho tale or physical destruction due to the present harsh and needlessly cruel struggle Tor existence, the tolo or those who, through inability to live decently In this land or plenty, sink Into the mire of despondency and despair des-pair and because vicious and depraved; and or thoso who, driven Dy desperate want to "steal" their neighbors goods pass through penal Institutions to a lire or habitual crime; and or those in tho groat army or the unemployed who, un-proritable un-proritable to private owners or industry, deprived or opportunity ror home lire and the rearing of romilles, sink low in the scale or human worth; and, ir we were to odd to theso the talc or Soclcty-as-a-Whole Inevitably leveled down by its neglected, vitiated elements, It would be seen that race-suicide, under present industrial in-dustrial conditions, proceeds at an appalling ap-palling pace not merely on the physical piano, but on tho moral piano as well. And who would say that racc-quailty Is less Important than race-quantity? furthermore, lot us consider the hun dreds of thousands or women rendered M unfit for motherhood by tho ' infirmities 1H due to excessive hours of labor under IjH conditions least conducive to physical H health though the most conducive to un- fM corned incomes; add also the long list or jH thoso women who, forced by a starva- M tlon wage sell their bodies under circuin- mU stances that make motherhood and the H rearing of children impossible. JH Recently an Intimate rrlcnd or the hH writer was told by a merchant prince or H Cb ago jthat his department store in that fl eft. had netted him approximately one M million dollars a year for the previous B ton years; yet hundreds or his girl em- M ployes wore receiving wages so small a Wm to gender decent seir-support Impossible. 9H Hundreds or thousands or girls, working m under similar conditions, throughout tho M country, are thus forced into lives or M shame. If it be a sin Tor one mother to MM limit the birth-rate by a row children, mM what should be said or one such employer or women? tM Race-suicide, Indeed! If It be a crime IMM against the race to prevent children being H hern into tho world, how infinitely more fl criminal it Is to destroy children artcr1 M they are born! Tho very term "suicide" M denotes destruction of lire, not merely m its prevention. H IT wc would check race-suicide we must H check the grinding or little children into M prorits; the killing or little inrants through unavoidable neglect by parents too hcav-j MM lly burdened by an industrial oligarchy; M the thrusting or young girls and women H into the abyss, and the destruction or lire yM and limb or the adult workers Or our JM country under the ruthless, anarchistic jH struggle ror unearned wealth. It may readily bo seen by those who H study our social problems and their causes mMM that our present system or Industry, un- mf. der which wealth is produced not prlmar-f WU lly ror social use but for private gain, Is H responsible Tor an Immeasurably "greater H amount or race-suicide than any other H factor; Is, In Tact, the basic cause or race-' m suicide, both as regards quality and quan- H tlty; and that such destruction is wrought H most widely, not among those parent H who deliberately restrict the blrth-rato, H but among those helpless victims or our B industrial system who arc either denied H opportunities ror ramlly lire, or who, bav- H lng large families, cannot roar tholr chll- mM dren to manhood and wornannood; and IH who arc themselves promaturoly ex- H haustcd, and sink to early graves. H ir wo would errcctually check race- H suicide, wo must first study those laws H and other institutions of our country H which "Justiry" the destruction or the H millions, body and soul, that the few may H rovel in unearned wealth; and we must jH so modify or completely change these H laws and other institutions as to render H them operative for the material and moral H welTaro or all tho people rather than, as H now, In the material Interests or the few. H ROSE PASTOR STOKES. M Now York City. H |