to both sexes. The home must not be made a subordinate
interest, as some feminists desire, but it must be made a much richer,
deeper, more satisfying interest than it is too frequently at present.

OLD AGE PENSIONS

Pensions for aged people form an important part of the modern program of
social legislation. What their merits may be in relieving poverty will
not be discussed here. But beyond the direct effect, it is important to
inquire what indirect eugenic effect they would have, as compared with
the present system where the aged are most frequently supported by their
own children when they have failed through lack of thrift or for other
reasons to make provision for their old age.

The ordinary man, dependent on his daily work for a livelihood, can not
easily support his parents and his offspring at the same time. Aid given
to the one must be in some degree at the expense of the other. The
eugenic consequences will depend on what class of man is required to
contribute thus to parental support.

It is at once obvious that superior families will rarely encounter this
problem. The parents will, by their superior earning capacity and the
exercise of thrift and foresight, have provided for the wants of their
old age. A superior man will therefore seldom be under economic pressure
to limit the number of his own children because of the necessity of
supporting his parents. In inferior families, on the other hand, the
parents will have made no adequate provision for their old age. A son
will have to assume their support, and thus reduce the number of his own
children,--a eugenic result. With old age pensions from the state, the
economic pressure would be taken off these inferior families and the
children would thus be encouraged to marry earlier and have more
children,--a dysgenic result.

From this point of view, the most eugenic course would perhaps be to
make the support of parents by children compulsory, in cases where any
support was needed. Such a step would not handicap superior families,
but would hold back the inferior. A contributory system of old age
pensions, for which the money was provided out of the individual's
earnings, and laid aside for his old age, would also be satisfactory. A
system which led to the payment of old age pensions by the state would
be harmful.

The latter system would be evil in still another way because, as is the
case with most social legislation of this type, the funds for carryin