Page:Contraception; 1st ed. (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.94163).pdf/36

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CONTRACEPTION

well expressed in the following quotation. from Holmes[1] (p. 139): "We are losing the elements of our population that have achieved success financially, socially, or in the field of intellectual achievement. Speaking generally, none of these classes is reproducing itself." [They are now taxed into relative penury in comparison with the demands on them.] This condition is quite as bad in Europe, at least in several countries, as in the United States. It constitutes a very serious menace to our present social welfare, and one which is striking at the very roots of our civilization. The menace is all the more dangerous because its effects do not, like those of war, pestilence, or famine, obtrude themselves upon our notice. The forces for evil that work insidiously are the most to be feared because they may produce great havoc before they are detected, or at least before the extent of their damage is adequately realized. The elements of the population that are of subnormal mentality exhibit at present the highest degree of fecundity."

Professor E. Alsworth Ross, one of

  1. S. J. Holmes (1921): "The Trend of the Race, a Study of Present Tendencies in the Biological Development of Civilized Mankind." Pp. v, 396. London.

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