STABLE MARRIED LIFE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 107, 6 May 1916, Page 10

STABLE MARRIED LIFE

In the opinion of Major Leonard Darwin, the birth-rate can be increased effectively only by the reduction of mortality among infants. It is not the gross number born but the net survival of healthy children that matters to the

State. He writes: —

"Arguments in favour of an increase in mere numbers are, however, certain to be heard, and there are indications that changes in our marriage customs wiU be advocated with this, object in view. In the hope of increasing the birth-rate, attempts seem likely to ■be made to justify or to exalt the 'unmarried wife'—a detestable, term against which all true wives should protest— and if this propaganda is not a mere temporary aberration due to excitement, the immediate moral consequences are. likely to be grave.

"The whole basis of our ethical code concerning marriage seems to be founded on the fact that the most valuablepart of a child's education, namely, its borne education, must, in order to secure the best results, be given under conditions of stable married life, a fact which justifies the sweeping aside of all minor, issues."