hrough ages of taboo control, and look at the problem
rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in
the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time,
however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that
is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the
customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the
recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain
of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity.
Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was
roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and
enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a
model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill
are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to
the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a
propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of
the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if
other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to
discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy
men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's
support.[1]

No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather
than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would
encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering
involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to
permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no
deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does
involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all
the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those
already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life.

The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general
tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown
that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's
emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both
father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both
parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional
reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social
situations