WOMEN WHO SHUN MOTHERHOOD.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1925, Page 4

WOMEN WHO SHUN MOTHERHOOD.

HOW RACKS DEGENERATE. LONDON. Sept. 5.

That England and the United States are 011 the direct road to perdition is the gist of .Mr R. 11. Towner's vigorous work, “The Philosophy of Civilisation.” Mr Towner is an American, and ho assails his own country with extreme fury, but many of those who begin by scoffing at his bold assertions will end by admiring the power of bis argument and sweep of his imagination. It is a

notable book that he has given the world, though its theories require careful examination by biologists before they ran lx? admitted, fi lilts with refreshing virility against most "highbrow” dogmas. Tie contends that “civilisation is the result of the augmentation of the spirit of mankind.” and that its maintenance and development depend mainly on the right selection of mothers. M here women to whom marriage and motherhood are repugnant are allowed by social aml economic I actors to escape child-bearing, there, he argues, degeneration of the race swiftly sets in. He takes historic instance alter instance to prove bis thesis:. MOTHERHOOD.

Tile highest and best civilisation is intimately connected w ith “nionogt atnoiis marriage, religious. ceremonial, and indissoluble.” because with this form ol" marriage:— Motherhood, instead of being limited only to those women who sought- it from desire, was extended to those wlio accepted it by dedication, obeyed a will other than their own. and were made prolific by obedience, rather than by desire. Tims there was added to their posterity a new strain, unknown to animals, to primitive man.

ami 111 savages, but peculiar to civilisation. ami exalting the spiritual stature of posterity. Such a form of marriage was lound in early Rome and in England Indore divorce became prevalent. For with easy divorce, lie insists, “civilisation becomes polygamous in its oliarncterisI ies ■ it can no longer rise and il must fall.” . , The change in the English attitude to marriage be ascribes in large part to English fiction: For two generations tiller 183(1 English love stories were usually marked hv decency am! restrain!, attributable to a long hack-ground of a favourable selection of mothers. Love was elevated above passion, and its spiritual qualities were uppermost. In the third generation this has (banged, and English love stories grow more and more alike the love tales of the Arabian nights. Almost as important a factor in civilisation is freedom to consume alcohol. because abuse of drink kills oil the weaklings and feeble-minded. and thus protects the strong. "DRY” NATIONS WEAKEST. Air Towner shows that the prohibitionist nations and races have been the weak and unsuccessful nations and races. The intimate assoeiat ion of drink and sonpower may lie seen in all history. Non-drinking navies have never been able to cope with drinking navies: and if a non-drinking navy succeeded in capturing a hostile port where drink could he obtained, it would he a barren victory, for (lie vanquished would soon overi.'onie 1 hell- conquerors by offering them drink. The sea-power of both Holland and England rose to its height, when lint h had cheap and abundant spirits and rum was a regular part of the navy’s ration. Possibly the “bootlegging (nisi” will preserve the Fnited Slates from the fearful fate with which Mr Towner j threatens “the apostate States of Rus- , sia. America, and Canada, which have j followed Buddhists and Moslems ill : making wine taboo-” Private property and liability to alcoholic tenipiaiion are the two factors which more than any others favour *h oiitiniifius rise of spiritual stature,” and lx it 1 1 an- in , peril in Ihe modern democracy wl l i <l In' declared is dimmed by “universal and eternal law” been use “given the same factors tnal hemiil ieal law always brings out the same results.”