n obtained in the same way.

When a girl marries she does not know what fate has in store for her, nor
is there any possible way of knowing under the present marriage system. If
she begets a sickly, puny child,--assuming she herself has providentially
escaped immediate disease,--she devotes all her mother love and devotion to
it, but she is fighting a hopeless fight, as I previously explained when I
stated that one-half of the total effort of one-third of the race is
expended in combating conditions against which no successful effort is
possible. Even her prayers are futile, because the wrong is implanted in
the constitution of the child, and the remedy is elsewhere. These are the
tragedies of life, which no words can adequately describe, and compared to
which the incidental troubles of the world are as nothing.

So long as these conditions exist need we not tremble for the future of the
race? Is not this future welfare a personal issue, or can we trust the
future of our daughters to the same indiscriminate fate that has written
the pages of history in the past?

This problem has been debated from every possible angle without our
reaching any seemingly practical solution. The promise of emancipation,
however, came with the dawn of eugenics. It is the only solution that gives
promise of immediate and reasonable success. For that reason alone it
should receive the active support of every good mother in all lands.

THE UTILITY OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES.--There would seem to be no question
as to the utility of marriage certificates. We must remember, however, that
there is a distinction between marriage and parenthood, and that [14]
eugenics is concerned only with parenthood. It is interested in the
institution of marriage to the extent only that it may, by some system of
regulation, be a positive and fixed factor in the production of exclusively
healthy children. The eugenist demands fit children. If society can ensure
fit children, as a consequence of any marriage system which may or may not
include medical certification, the eugenic aim is fully met. At the present
time the giving of a marriage certificate, which is really a permit to
marry, would seem to be the most practical way promptly to accomplish the
eugenic purpose. We should promptly question the honor of any prospective
husband disposed to evade the examination simply because he was not
compelled to obey by a legislative enactment.

We believe that when