Mothers! the Mothers!
Ye are all one!"

--From the Letters of William James

Motherhood, which is not only the oldest but the most important
profession in the world, has received few of the benefits of
civilization. It is a curious fact that a civilization devoted to
mother-worship, that publicly professes a worship of mother and child,
should close its eyes to the appalling waste of human life and human
energy resulting from those dire consequences of leaving the whole
problem of child-bearing to chance and blind instinct. It would be
untrue to say that among the civilized nations of the world to-day, the
profession of motherhood remains in a barbarous state. The bitter truth
is that motherhood, among the larger part of our population, does not
rise to the level of the barbarous or the primitive. Conditions of life
among the primitive tribes were rude enough and severe enough to
prevent the unhealthy growth of sentimentality, and to discourage the
irresponsible production of defective children. Moreover, there is ample
evidence to indicate that even among the most primitive peoples
the function of maternity was recognized as of primary and central
importance to the community.

If we define civilization as increased and increasing responsibility
based on vision and foresight, it becomes painfully evident that the
profession of motherhood as practised to-day is in no sense civilized.
Educated people derive their ideas of maternity for the most part,
either from the experience of their own set, or from visits to
impressive hospitals where women of the upper classes receive the
advantages of modern science and modern nursing. From these charming
pictures they derive their complacent views of the beauty of motherhood
and their confidence for the future of the race. The other side of the
picture is revealed only to the trained investigator, to the patient and
impartial observer who visits not merely one or two "homes of the poor,"
but makes detailed studies of town after town, obtains the history of
each mother, and finally correlates and analyzes this evidence. Upon
such a basis are we able to draw conclusions concerning this strange
business of bringing children into the world.

Every year I receive thousands of letters from women in all parts of
America, desperate appeals to aid them to extricate themselves from the
trap of compulsory maternity. Lest I be accused of bias and exaggeration
in drawing my conc