nts to
undertake such important duties. But duty means right, and it is
evident that we must place rights by the side of the duties which we
impose on parents.

True justice in this question can only be attained by the essential
progress of socialism. By socialism, I do not mean certain vague
communistic doctrines, nor the Utopias of anarchists who imagine that
"man was born good," but simply an essential social progress in the
struggle against the domination of individual capital, that is to say,
usury applied to the labor of others owing to the possession of means
of production, which is now left to speculators. Men should be enabled
to enjoy the product of their labor, so that they can lead a human
life worthy of the name, in sexual matters as in others. But this is
not all.

From the social point of view, it is absolutely unjust that men who
procreate children should alone bear the burden of the future
generation. We know the egoistic proverb of the celibates, who say: "I
have the right to take life easily, to enjoy myself and be idle, if I
renounce the happiness of having children, either of my own accord or
from necessity." This proverb, which may be transposed into "after me
the deluge," cannot be recognized by any healthy social legislation.
It is the duty of the State to relieve large families, to facilitate
the procreation of healthy children, and to impose more work and taxes
(for instance, artificial families) on sterile individuals. The old
laws were better than ours in this respect.

I have mentioned above the excellent custom, which exists at the
present day in Norway, of only charging half-price on the boats to
married women and other female members of the same family. I cannot
here enter into the details of this question, but if such reforms are
some day realized, if universal compulsory education, pensions for old
age, orphans and invalids, etc., are introduced, then no man will have
valid motives for escaping the duty of feeding his children and
bringing them up decently in family life. This will be left only to
the idle and vicious.

Moreover, I can support my propositions by facts. If we compare the
nature of delinquents, abandoned children, vagabonds, etc., in a
country where little or nothing has been done for the people (Russia,
Galicia, Vienna, etc.), with that of the same individuals in
Switzerland, for example, where much has already been done for the
poor, we find this result: In Switze