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Show M PRESIDENT-. AND THE HERALD Is President's Logic Faulty or His Mean-t Mean-t ing Distorted? Race Suicide Means ' the Corruption of the Family A Revival of the Malthusian Doctrine The Well-to-Do Families The Supernatural EliminatedThe Elim-inatedThe Results. The Herald last Thursday morning editorially" takes exception to the president's well-known attitude atti-tude on the question of ract suicide. Two articles, which recently appeared in ihe Keview of Reviews, one a "Doctor in the Public Schools." maintained that there should be uo alarm as to the birth rate and the other by President Roosevelt taking exception excep-tion to the first article, were the cause of our esteemed es-teemed contemporary's comment. The president writes: "The greatest problem of civilization is to be found in the fact that the well-to-do families tend to die out; there results in consequence,' a tendency to the elimination, instead of ;fhe survival of the fittest, fit-test, and the moral attitude which helps on this tendency ten-dency is of course strengthened when it is apologized apolo-gized for and praised in a magazine like yours. . ' l,('or,( coul(i sti5l exist under all kinds of iniquities in government; under a debased currency; cur-rency; under official corruption ; under the rule of a socialistic proletariat, ot a wealthy oligarchy. "All these things would be, bad for us, but the couutry wonld still exist. . But it could not continue to exist if it paid heed to the expressed or implied teachings of such articles these." Tho above quotations a t;e the gravamen of the president's lack of logic arij knowledge of civilization civiliza-tion according to the edit 'ff the Herald. How conclude from the above -t ation. thatithc jrek,. dent's inajyi: px)pokv'A;JUuajit ib&t much' f ecumfi ty is the true mark of civilization. But the rabbit and the bug arc the most fertile animals. Ergo. In logic it is not fair to distort one's meaning, or furnish fur-nish him with false premises in order to reach an absurd conclusion. The president's well known position po-sition is that race suicide means the corruption of the family.' But the corruption of the family is the destruction of society. Ergo, race suicide means ultimately the destruction of society and the loss of civilization. He proves his major proposition by appealing to facts, .which are supported from our knowledge of renowned nations of antiquity who went out of existence when the family became corrupt. cor-rupt. Our modern civilization owes all its greatness great-ness and glory to the restoration of the family, through Christian marriage which is one, holy, and indissoluble, and which has for its principal end not merely sensual pleasure, but the procreation, raising, rais-ing, and education of children. The "lay mind," as might be expected excludes the supernatural and' follows the teaching and practice that is nopular. He assumes that there will be "an evolution of a strong race hy a reduction in the death rate, the enlargement of social opportunities, etc." This is a revival of the Malthusia doctrine made suitable to the spirit of the age. The Herald takes exception excep-tion to the utterance of the president regarding the extinction of "the well-to-do families," by slating slat-ing that the most virile men of the country, the very leaders of progress, have come from families which would not come within the vague term "well-to-do." What the president means by well-to-do families presumably has reference to the old stock who as patriots, incorruptible and Christian statesmen flourished in the past, and whose equals are not to be found. If no children, or only one or two are permitted to be born which seems to be the prevailing prevail-ing idea of the modern world, and endorsed by the Herald, the system which is now becoming general, will lead ultimately to the extinction of the race. The president sees it . in this light, and with him, as well as with all interested in Christian civilization, it is a serious question. Those who would abolish the sanctity, unity and indissolubility of Christian marriage, and introduce as a substitute free love, which is now practically carried out in bur free and easy divorce privileges consider children a nuisance; nui-sance; hence their births, by well known methods largely practiced are prevented. Those ardent defenders de-fenders of "women's rights" rail against man's tyranny ty-ranny because Christian marriage imposes on women wo-men the burden of child-bearing, and all the pains, aches and deprivations of maternity. Hence if not murdered in the foetal state, and allowed to see the i light of day, their care and raising are very often intrusted to utter strangers. The Herald views theV question from a purely natural point, and from the practice that is now so general. Regardless of -consequences the supernatural is entirely eliminated, yet we doubt if the Herald would, everdend its aid or encouragement to such malpractices as transmitting transmit-ting through the mails preventives ' of conception. An appeal to the fertility of our foreign for-eign population weakens his argument and strengthens strength-ens that of President Roosevelt, whose contention is that the old stock is becoming extinct. |