se of that
mutual relationship, could surely be good neither for the men and
women involved nor for any child or children thus legitimatized by
force of arms, as it were.

=Illicit Unions of Men and Women in Divergent Social Position.=--On
the other hand, in cases where the illegitimate parenthood is the
fruit of a union between a man of a high and a woman or girl of a very
low grade of intelligence and of social position a legal prohibition
which would work automatically to prevent any later and legal marriage
with a woman of higher grade (because of the existence of a child by
the extra-marital relation) would not be wholly satisfactory.
Although such a regulation would prevent any legitimate children being
born of that father, it would not necessarily legitimatize the child
or children of the first relation. The social value of either of these
plans is extremely doubtful.

=Shall We Return to Polygamy?=--Again, in such cases as have been
indicated, should the first mother be ignored and the child or
children of the irregular union be adopted into the legal home of the
father and added to the registered children of the second mother? Some
such plan has been adopted in some countries and at certain periods of
family development. Such a course undertaken now, however, in modern
conditions would, in addition to the possible suffering of the adopted
children, be most unjust to the unmarried mother. Or, again, would it
be advised that the first mother with her child or children be
accepted as a legal part of the home in which the second mother is
legally installed? That would be a frank return to polygamy in cases
where there have been irregular pre-marital relations outside of the
monogamic bond. Or do all those who advocate the abolition of
illegitimacy take the ground, which some of them definitely do, that
the monogamic family is obsolete and that the state in its corporate
capacity should take full charge of all children? Or, when the demand
is sifted to its ultimate elements, is it merely that the unjust
conditions attending the lives of children born out of wedlock must be
ameliorated by a larger charity of feeling, a better understanding of
human weakness and the effect of bad social conditions, and the
constant effort to give all children as nearly equal chance at the
best things of life as can be made possible by social feeling and wise
social care?

=All Children Entitled to Best Development Possible.=--If t