rison sentences.

=Pauperism=

It may seem strange to discuss pauperism in relation to marriage and
to speak of it as a hereditary factor, but it is necessary to discuss
it, because considerable ignorance prevails on the subject, it being
generally confused with poverty. There is a radical difference between
pauperism and poverty. People may be poor for generations and
generations, even very poor, and still not be considered or classed
with paupers. Pauperism generally implies a lack of physical and
mental stamina, loss of _self-respect_ and unconquerable laziness. Of
course we know now that laziness often rests upon a physical basis,
being due to imperfect working of the internal glands. But whatever
the cause of the laziness may be, the fact is that it is one of the
characteristics of the pauper. And while we cannot speak of pauperism
being hereditary, the qualities that go to make up the pauper are
transmissible. No normal woman would marry a pauper, and the woman who
would marry a pauper is not amenable to any advice or to any book
knowledge. But men are sometimes tempted to marry daughters of paupers
if they happen to be pretty. They should consider the matter very
carefully, for some of the ancestral traits may become manifest in the
children.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

BIRTH CONTROL OR THE LIMITATION OF OFFSPRING

Knowledge of Prevention of Conception Essential--Misapprehensions
Concerning Birth-control Propaganda--Modern Contraceptives Not
Injurious to Health--Imperfection of Contraceptive Measures Due
to Secrecy--Prevention of Conception and Abortion Radically
Different--More Marriages Consummated if Birth-control
Information were Legally Obtainable--Demand for Prostitution
Would be Curtailed--Venereal Disease Due to Lack of
Knowledge--Another Phase of the Birth-control Problem--Knowledge
of Contraceptive Methods Where There Was a Taint of Insanity, and
the Happy Results.

No girl, and no man for that matter, should enter the bonds of
matrimony without learning the latest means of preventing conception,
of regulating the number of offspring. With people who consider any
attempt at regulating the number of children a sin, we have nothing to
argue, though we believe that there are very few people except among
the lowest dregs of society who do not use some measures of
regulation. Otherwise we would see most families with ten to twenty
children instead of two or three. Nor do I inte