LOVE MARRIAGES MADE EASY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 309, 30 December 1922, Page 17

LOVE MARRIAGES MADE EASY.

EUGENIC THEORY ON A CASH BASIS. Dr. Johnson was of opinion that there was a great deal of nonsense talked about love, courtship, and marriage. He believed that all marriages would be just as happy as they are now If they were arranged by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on a | purely cash basis. I Eugenlsts in Germany have not reacheeJj exactly the same conclusion, but they are | tending towards it. Recently Carl Lyst, gave in the "New Generation" a statement] of his views and these have been presented thus by a critic. Starting from the axiom that only a child born of a union based on true mutual preference. Irrespective of social or financial considerations, can Inherit the full sum nnd substance of tbe parental gifts, t'ae author proceeds to set forth a list ot proposals for the realisation of these views. The sum total of his propositions forms the basis of the new eugenic socialism, according to which the State would take measures to promote love marriages and prevent venial and sordid marriages. He details a scheme by which any employee desirous of marrying, but financially debarred from doing so (and consequently only too often driven to seek a girl more for her fortune than her favour), shall be able to apply to his employers for an advance up to 10 per ceiit on a five or tea years' salary, repayable in' yearly instalments plus 4 per cent Interest. Provision Is made for such advances as may lapse owing to the early death of th* husband or other misadventure. By such means alone, Lyst calculates that as many as 10,000 poor but biologically valuable girls. Instead of struggling drearily through life earning a living at some profession, would be able to become their own salvation, as well as that of as many high-grade men. He maintains that owing to the brutal cold-shouldering of portionless girls in favour of the often far inferior article endowed with a fortune, 300,000 children of superior biological value remain unborn, while the number of biologically secondrate offspring is continually on the increase.