my duty to marry?" is very much like the
answer to a question which you might ask if you were a guest at a
delightful summer resort. "Is it my duty to go swimming, play tennis,
go yachting, and have a good time?" Assuming that you are physically
fit, it certainly is your duty if your presence will cause your hosts
and the rest to enjoy themselves. But why ask such a silly question? You
will do all those things just because you want to. You would be an awful
fool to pass up the chance of having all sorts of fun when everything is
just right for it. And you would be an awful fool to give up marriage if
the conditions for that were equally favorable.

Of course there is a very important personal element in all this. Some
minor crudity in him or her, some ideal diverse from yours, some
unfortunate habit or tendency, may be more than you can adjust yourself
to. You alone can decide that. All that we can do here is point out what
the marriages and families of thoughtful, conscientious people mean to
the world.

The essence of the whole matter, as has been said a thousand times, is
the extremely rapid fall of the birthrate, especially among intelligent,
farsighted, industrious, progressive people whose ideals of family life
are high. The majority of the young people who read this article
probably belong to this class. Therefore you represent a type of family
whose loss or diminution is a very serious matter. Unless your type of
family averages more than three children, the country suffers two great
losses. It suffers these losses because under the present conditions it
takes more than three children per family on an average to provide two
who become parents and thus replace their father and mother. So unless
your grandparents have at least ten grandchildren, your family stock is
dying out, and the country is suffering two great losses. One loss is
your good biological inheritance. This does not mean that you are
anything wonderful. It simply means that you belong to a group which on
the whole inherits more than the average capacity. Therefore, unless you
have more than three children, the biological inheritance of America
will be lowered.

The second great loss is cultural. It is all very well to talk about
sending every competent boy and girl to college, and giving every one
the fullest chance to develop, but this does not solve the problem. No
other institution comes anywhere near the home as a place in which to
establish