Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 76.djvu/67

Rh under the present economic disadvantage by the mere enlargement of circles of acquaintance. All social functions that are not merely formal, but give opportunity for real acquaintanceship should be encouraged, in order that young people of both sexes may meet under favorable cir- cumstances and frequently enough to admit of knowledge of and friend- ship with many individuals. Intelligent opposition to such functions is largely because of their restriction to narrow circles and their excesses in late hours, dress, food and decorations, none of these being essential accompaniments of social intercourse. The churches have hitherto done excellent work in this direction of social mingling, and the same may be said of the various organizations in which young men and women meet together for definite purposes.

That social intercourse is definitely recognized by the public as a means for rational sexual selection is shown in the series of letters to the New York Times through October, 1908, resulting in the proposed formation of the Lonely Club.

Since the college at its best is one of the last bulwarks of social and economic democracy, and affords our nearest approach to an environ- ment unspoiled by convention, where individuals are given opportunity to display their true moral, mental and physical mettle, much may be expected from coeducation in the selection of the future. In the west, where coeducation is comparatively wide-spread, there is apparent a higher marriage rate among educated women than in the east, and a thorough investigation of such rates in educational institutions of both classes is needed to bring the attention of educators to this important matter.

The character of the college courses desirable for women is another point that must soon be considered in the educational world. It is quite possible that their too academic nature at present is partly responsible for the low marriage rate of women graduates, and that training more adapted to the needs of wives and mothers than to those of scholars and teachers should be adopted. The preponderance of women teachers in girls' colleges may be another contributing cause, in its setting up of ideals other than domestic.

Clerical celibacy in former times, continuing at present in the Roman Catholic Church, though instituted in the interest of the spirit- ual, has worked rather to the weeding-out of the gentle, the spiritual and the intellectual. Much of the decline in modern Spain and Italy may be ascribed to this custom, together with the prevalence in the past of religious persecution. It may not be wholly useless for the eugenicist to lift up his voice against this suicidal institution, for, soon some progressive pope, seeing that the practise is clearly detrimental to the interests of his institution, will set himself against it.

To the degenerating effect of modern warfare already mentioned