continuous multiplication of the worst type of citizen, the general standard of efficiency, enterprise and executive skill of the nation would be seriously impaired. Such, briefly stated, is the problem before the public at the present time.

CHAPTER II

ToC

THE DEMAND FOR KNOWLEDGE AND FROM WHOM TO OBTAIN IT

Even the brief survey given in the first chapter will have suggested to the reader that the people who ask for knowledge seek it for various reasons. Indeed, the first thing that strikes anyone who gives consideration to the subject is the difference in type and circumstance of the people for whom relief is claimed. We begin to realise at once that the subject of conception control is an intimate and individual one, and can only really be dealt with by advice which is given to the individual and not to the public at large.

This is perhaps most obvious in the first group mentioned on page 17, where the woman is suffering from chronic or acute disease, and the necessity for preventing conception is clear to her medical adviser. If disease renders child-bearing a danger to the life and health of the mother, it becomes a positive duty of her doctor to prevent such a catastrophe—but the method advised will differ according to the special nature of the case.

Again, where in the case of husband or wife there is a serious inheritance of mental or physical disease, and especially when the same weakness exists in both families, it is justly regarded as a duty by the married pair not to bring children into the world. It may be contended that men and women with such an inheritance should not marry, but that is a matter for the decision of the individuals concerned. It not infrequently happens that marriage has taken place before they know of the inherited tendency. In such cases clearly the advice of the family doctor should be given as to the best course to pursue in order to avoid conception.

The case of the overworked and burdened mother with a large and increasing family is nearly allied to that of a woman with disease, though in her case the causes for ill-health are more complicated.

While it is true that ill-health and premature ageing in working women are the result of many causes, yet where child-bearing still further injures health it is essential that she should consult her medical adviser on this point, for she not only needs treatment to restore her health, but also advice specially suitable to her own case, as to the best method to avoid conception for the time being, and such advice will vary according as the disability is temporary or permanent.

It is, happily, as possible for the poor woman to obtain advice in all matters of health as it is for the rich. The mothers of the country are in touch everywhere with maternity clinics, where doctors advise them on all questions of health relating to pregnancy, and treat each woman as a separate individual.

But the case of the poor working woman overburdened with work which she cannot accomplish—yet with the added burden of bearing more children than her more fortunate sisters, deserves some further consideration.

What is it that prematurely ages so many of these women of the slums—is it child-bearing alone?

The answer to that is immediately in the negative, for women in comfortable circumstances may have large families, with no sign of weariness and dejection. No, the causes of ill-health and debility are diverse, and to pretend to solve the question by conception control is a mockery, for it salves the conscience of the community without really dealing with the question of the disabilities of the working woman, or the true cause of her excessive fertility.

Ill-health in working-class mothers often has its origin in inherited weakness and lack of care in childhood. It is further accentuated by overwork, with no labour-saving devices; lack of suitable food; too few, if any, hours of recreation, and hence very little out-door exercise. Badly ventilated homes deprive the mother of necessary supplies of oxygen, and insufficient sleep is often the last straw which breaks down the patient burden bearer. A true and haunting picture is given in a recently published book called The Woman in the Little House (which first appeared in a series of articles in the journal "Time and Tide"), describing the anxiety of a working woman at night to keep her baby quiet that the husband may sleep.

Now it is quite true that a small family instead of a large one will diminish the work and anxieties of such a mother, but it will not give her the remedies which she needs, nor will it diminish the excessive sexual demands made upon her.

Everyone who knows these women intimately realises what an exhausting feature is this habit of excess due to lack of knowledge or self-restraint on the part of the husband.

I believe if facilities were provided whereby the woman could do her laundry with modern appliances outside her own home, if family meals were arranged in service rooms equivalent to the arrangements in service flats, and if there were crêche rooms where children might be left for an hour or two in safety while necessary work was done—we should find a greatly increased standard of comfort even in existing homes, and a great improvement in dietary for the whole family. Such relief, added to teaching both to husband and wife as to the times of conception, would revolutionise the life of women more than any teaching of artificial birth control, and would lift it up to a higher level instead of degrading it to the grossly physical.

We come to very different considerations in group 4, p. 18, where choice rather than necessity impels the parents to limitation of the family. The teaching now being advocated by certain books and pamphlets advises deliberate delay in child-bearing for a period after marriage, and the spacing of certain periods between the births of such children as are allowed to come into the world, with limitation of the number in each family.

Teaching on these lines, if followed, would involve an artificial mode of sex life always—natural spontaneous union would find no place. Already young wives are seeking advice for some relief from methods of preparation which they say have destroyed in them all spontaneous desire. The tragedy of it all is that even to attain the end in view—moderation in the size of families—such methods are to a large extent unnecessary. Not to every young married couple does a child arrive at the end of a year. Some, using no artificial checks, wait two or three years before the first baby comes. Even if it does come, however, at the end of a year, there are many advantages to counterbalance the small means and perhaps hard living of the young pair. For when people are young they can put up with small means, because they are strong enough to work hard and help each other; indeed, the demand for little work and many luxuries in youth is not a healthy one, it is a sign of decadence in the race.

Moreover, even though an early family involve real hardship for awhile, it has the great advantage that parents and children later on are still young together, and that means far more to the child in understanding friendship and helpfulness during the most critical period of life than extra comforts or pleasures would have meant to the parents, and if young parents realised this, would they not put the child first?

The so-called advantages of a few years between