present conditions are grossly unjust to women,
we must modify those conditions so that, at the very least, the wife and
mother shall not have the worst of them.

Finally, whatever we may fail to achieve because, for instance, of some
fundamental facts of human nature against which it is vain to legislate,
at least we have economic conditions under our control, and control them
we must, so that, whoever shall be in a position of economic insecurity,
at least it shall not be the mothers of the future. Our first concern
must be to safeguard them, whosoever else is inconvenienced. In deciding
how this is effected we are to be guided by that great fact of
increasing paternal responsibility which is demonstrated by the history
of animal evolution since the appearance of the earliest vertebrates,
and of which marriage, in all its forms, is at bottom the human and
social expression. We are to recognize that if sub-human fathers are in
any degree held by nature responsible with their mates for the care of
their offspring, much more should this be true of man, "made with such
large discourse, looking before and after," who is to be held
responsible for all his acts, and most of all for those most charged
with consequence. The man who brings children into the world is
responsible to their mother and through her to society at large, which
must see to it that that responsibility is not evaded. At present in
England the working man spends on the average not less than one-sixth
of his entire income on alcoholic drinks, whilst society yearly pays for
the feeding of more of his children. But it is not good enough that the
father shall swallow the interests of the future in this fashion. As the
State in Germany takes a percentage of his earnings in order to protect
him against the risks of the future, so we must see to it that the
necessary proportion of his earnings is devoted towards discharging the
responsibilities which he has incurred.

A notable consequence must follow from many such reforms as this chapter
suggests. The marriage rate must fall, and the birth-rate, already
falling, must fall much further; and so assuredly in any case they will;
nor need anyone be alarmed at such a prospect. Even from the point of
view of quantity, the future supply of "food for powder," and so forth,
the question is not how many babies are born, as people persist in
thinking, but how many babies survive. For seven years past I have been
preaching