1.  LESSENING PAUPERISM.—­Many of the agencies for lessening pauperism are afraid of tracing back its growth to the frequency of births under wretched conditions.  One begins to question whether after all sweet charity or dignified philanthropy has not acted with an unwise reticence.  Among the problems which defy practical handling this is the most complicated.  The pauperism which arises from marriage is the result of the worst elements of character legalized.  In America, where the boundaries of wedlock are practically boundless, it is not desirable, even were it possible, that the state should regulate marriage much further than it now does; therefore must the sociologist turn for aid to society in his struggle with pauperism.

2.  RIGHT PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS OF BIRTH.—­Society should insist upon the right spiritual and physical conditions for birth.  It should be considered more than “a pity” when another child is born into a home too poor to receive it.  The underlying selfishness of such an event should be recognized, for it brings motherhood under wrong conditions of health and money.  Instead of each birth being the result of mature consideration and hallowed loves children are too often born as animals are born.  To be sure the child has a father whom he can call by name.  Better that there had never been a child.

3.  WRONG RESULTS.—­No one hesitates to declare that if is want of self-respect and morality which brings wrong results outside of marriage, but it is also the want of them which begets evil inside the marriage relation.  Though there is nothing more difficult than to find the equilibrium between self-respect and self-sacrifice, yet on success in finding it depends individual and national preservation.  The fact of being wife and mother or husband and father should imply dignity and joyousness, no matter how humble the home.

4.  DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AMONGST PHYSICIANS.—­In regard to teaching, the difficulties are great.  As soon as one advances beyond the simplest subjects of hygiene, one is met with the difference of opinions among physicians.  When each one has a different way of making a mustard plaster, no wonder that each has his own notions about everything else.  One doctor recommends frequent births, another advises against them.

5.  DIFFERENT NATURES.—­If physiological facts are taught to a large class, there are sure to be some in it whose impressionable natures are excited by too much plain speaking, while there are others who need the most open teaching in order to gain any benefit.  Talks to a few persons generally are wiser than popular lectures.  Especially are talks needed by mothers and unmothered girls who come from everywhere to the city.