y would not be affected could that theory be conclusively
proved or conclusively disproved.

[113] We even find the demand that bachelors and spinsters shall be taxed.
This proposal has been actually accepted (1911) by the Landtag of the
little Principality of Reuss, which proposes to tax bachelors and
spinsters over thirty years of age. Putting aside the arguable questions
as to whether a State is entitled to place such pressure on its
citizens, it must be pointed out that it is not marriage but the child
which concerns the State. It is possible to have children without
marriage, and marriage does not ensure the procreation of children.
Therefore it would be more to the point to tax the childless. In that
case, it would be necessary to remit the tax in the case of unmarried
people with children, and to levy it in the case of married people
without children. But it has further to be remembered that not all
persons are fitted to have sound children, and as unsound children are a
burden and not a benefit to the State, the State ought to reward rather
than to fine those conscientious persons who refrain from procreation
when they are too poor, or with too defective a heredity, to be likely
to produce, or to bring up, sound children. Moreover, some persons are
sterile, and thorough medical investigation would be required before
they could fairly be taxed. As soon as we begin to analyse such a
proposal we cannot fail to see that, even granting that the aim of such
legislation is legitimate and desirable, the method of attaining it is
thoroughly mischievous and unjustifiable.

[114] J.G. Engelmann, "Decreasing Fecundity," _Philadelphia Medical
Journal_, January 18, 1902.

[115] It has, further, been frequently denied that Neo-Malthusian
practices can affect Roman Catholic countries, since the Church is
precluded from approving of them. That is true. But it is also true
that, as Lagneau long since pointed out, the Protestants of Europe have
increased at more than double the annual rate of the Catholics, though
this relationship has now ceased to be exact. Dumont states
(_Depopulation et Civilisation_, chap. XVIII) that there is not the
slightest reason to suppose that (apart from the question of poverty)
the faithful have more children than the irreligious; moreover, in
dealing with its more educated members, it is not the policy of the
Church to make indiscreet inquiries (see Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the
Psychology of S