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Show REGIMENTING BABIES. Nearly (veryth:ng seems to be regimented regi-mented and controlled by the government govern-ment now except the official stork. But this is not long to be neglected if the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control has rU way, for there aie now in committers in both Iiouscb of congress, bills which would take up the question of babies, when and how often they ought to be born, if at all. ' The president of this organization is Margaret Sanger, long an advocate of birth control. Mrs. Sanger believes that births should be regulated according ac-cording to the ability of parents to care properly for children, and she thinks that the number of births in American families ought to vary in ratio to the ability of the families to care for the children. It is to be feared that Si:tcr Sanger San-ger is a little too visionary. We doubt whether such a ratio could be put into' effect even under a code. First, of course, we would have to have a stan- J dnrd or unit, as to what amount of j means entitled a family to one baby. Suppose, for example, that in order to warrant one visit from the stork to his home a man had to have an income in-come of $2,000 a year. If you regulated regu-lated "the number of children- in the ratio of parental ability to care forj them, what a gigantic task would be put up to our captains of industry! Take some of our prominent automobile, auto-mobile, oil and steel magnates for instance. in-stance. We hesitate to mention names. On the basis of one child for each $2,000 in income, think what broods they would be compelled to have. And we believe that some of them are now arrived at the age which makes Mrs. Sanger's suggestion not only impracticable, imprac-ticable, but impossible, even by legislative legis-lative fiat. And it would be just as difficult to get Tony, the fruit man, to live down to the code, as it would be to induce the barons of big business to live up to it. But since the chief interest of the birth controllists is in having fewer, few-er, babies among the poor than more among the rich, if other methods fail Mrs. Sanger believes that it may even be necessary, in order to curb the babies, ba-bies, that husband and wife be compelled com-pelled to take out a birth permit before be-fore they are entitled to' a visit from the stork. Here is something we can understand, because we have read a great deal about codes and legal permits per-mits during the past year or two. But there is one perplexing question even here. Suppose John and Mamie getj a permit good only for one baby, and! then the stork brings John and Mamie twins, or even triplets. What would j Mrs. Sanger do in a case like that?i Would she borrow a leaf from the AAA book, and instead of burning 'em or plowing 'em under, keep the best looking one and drown the rest? |