ical certificate should be subjected to a penalty which would be in
effect prohibitive. In certain cases asexualisation and sterilisation
should be applicable under special safeguards and conditions."[951]

Free love has apparently its limitations and its dangers. The
procreation inspector might make an irreparable mistake.

There are, of course, Socialists who think that the family ought to be
preserved, and who oppose State nurseries. One of them writes: "The
State, in its own interests, will do everything it can to develop
individuality in its children. The barrack school and State
nursery--never much more than the Utopian dreams of amiable
people--are condemned by up-to-date psychologists. The personal touch
and affection of the mother, the surroundings and ethics of a small
community, the sense of continuity which comes to the maturing child's
mind from a personal organisation like the family, are all invaluable
to a State which must take as much care of its citizens of to-morrow
as it does of its citizens of to-day."[952] Mr. Macdonald's views on
Socialism are hardly orthodox, and he has been denounced by
thorough-going Socialists as an agent of the bourgeoisie.

As women may be the strongest opponents to the dissolution of the
family, Socialists addressing themselves to women try to persuade them
that they are forced into matrimony by necessity, that marriage is a
degradation to them and to their children, and that Socialism will
elevate them and make them free and happy. "The average young woman of
the working class, who is not herself employed in some well-paid
occupation, has nothing but marriage to which to look forward. She
gives herself and all she has or is in exchange for such board as her
husband's means permit."[953] "For the sake of bread and shelter she
marries and becomes the unpaid cook and housekeeper of a husband and
the mother of his children."[954] "Woman has been degraded, the mother
has been kept down; so the children have been born with slavish
instincts, ready to creep for any favour, and only just awakening to
the need for self-assertion and independence of action."[955]
Socialism will change all that, for "Socialism means freedom for
women, just as it does for men."[956]

What is the Socialistic conception of "freedom for women"? What are
its privileges and its advantages? "In considering the position of the
woman Socialist, one great central fact must be borne constantly in
mind. What