tions with which to weight the wings of a young
man's or a young woman's fancy. But the attraction which cannot stand
before them is not safe as a basis for marriage. Many a young man or
woman has willfully turned closed eyes to the selfishness or the
irresponsibility which will later wreck a home, because attraction
blinded common sense.

Barter, the lowest form of marriage, exists and has always existed
whenever the material benefits that either husband or wife expects to
derive from the connection are the impelling forces in the union. The
woman desires wealth, social position, a title--or perhaps nothing
more than security from poverty or the necessity of work outside the
home, or perhaps no more than the mere security of a home itself. The
man in other cases desires wealth, or social position, or a wife who
will grace his fine home, or some business connection which the
marriage will afford. And upon these things men and women build, or
attempt to build, the foundations of home life.

It is not true of course that every girl of moderate means, or without
means, who marries a man of wealth does so because of his money. Nor
is it always true when the cases are reversed. Love may be as real
between those two as between any others. But when it is true that the
marriage is an exchange of commodities, it is no different from
prostitution under other circumstances. In fact, it is prostitution
under cover, without acceptance of the stigma which for centuries has
been the portion of voluntary selling of the body to him who cares to
buy.

[Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood
JULIA WARD HOWE AND HER GRANDDAUGHTER
In the life of Mrs. Howe was exemplified the identity of ideals of
husband and wife. They worked side by side in the literary field and
in their philanthropic and reform work]

Eugenics, a modern science which aims at race regeneration, lays down
many laws and restrictions for those who are selecting their mates. By
the following of these laws and restrictions in the selection of
husbands and wives, undesirable traits in the offspring are to be
weeded out and desirable; ones are to be fostered and increased.
That these laws should be studied with the care used by breeders of
plants and animals goes without saying. That if they are followed
strictly the number of marriages would be materially reduced, at least
for a considerable time, is doubtless true. That marriages in which
eugenics has played th