of a people is not in its
past history, but in its ever-existing motherhood; and that its battles, in
the future, must be fought, not on battlefields, but in its nurseries. When
we judge our national worth and wealth by the quality of our maternal
material, and estimate our greatness and our glory by the record of our
infant mortality, we will have carved an enduring niche in the celestial
scheme that will be unchangeable and for all time.

There are in Britain to-day over a million and a quarter females of
marriageable age in excess of the number of marriageable males. A war
between Britain and Germany would unquestionably be the bloodiest war in
all history, and it probably would be the last one, because it would only
end in the dominance of one power over all the others. If we concern
ourselves only with Britain--from the eugenic standpoint--who would dare
compute the ratio of marriageable females over the males after the war was
over? The consequence of such a war on posterity would be tragic. It would
mean the annihilation of the fittest for fatherhood for generations. Only
the unfit would be left from which to begin a new breed.

The multitude of females who would necessarily be left unable to
participate in the highest function of womanhood would have to be
self-supporting. The economic problem would, therefore, have a far-reaching
influence and even if solved adequately as an economic problem, it could
never be solved satisfactorily as a sociological, or as a problem in
eugenics.

Infant mortality is too high. Apart from the statistical proof which [8]
shows it, we may rightly construe as further proof of it, the widespread
effort being made in every civilized country in the world to ameliorate the
condition.

The laws and ethics of marriage are inadequate. Its true purpose is
frustrated and racial and individual injustice and imperfection are the
products of existing conditions.

Motherhood, in its every aspect is not, and has not in the past, been
elevated to the plane which a true estimate of its supreme importance to
the race justifies.

Heredity as a scientific principle is undeveloped, and because of
maladministration in past generations, the present generation is
endeavoring to do the work, the fruits of which it should be enjoying.

Environment in its highest sense is impossible because of inadequate laws,
imperfect hygienic and sanitary knowledge, incomplete education, vice and
disease.

I