are thus given a fair start by nature, so that to maintain them in health is by no means a hopeless task. Lastly, the argument that there are already too many is founded on erroneous economics. The true position is that each sound unit, instead of detracting from, adds to, the sum of human happiness, wealth, and efficiency, and is urgently needed to strengthen the scanty numbers of the imperial race.
It may be answered in reply that, though all this may be so in the abstract, there is no concrete proof, and can be no proof, that the family is now incapable on any broad scale, that therefore the call for outside interference is unwarrantable, and that the long roll of statutes already passed in favour of the young should now suffice. Yet there are overwhelming facts to be put honestly upon the other side.
For instance, there was published in 1910 the result of an inquiry, organised by the Board of Education, into the physical condition of our children as a whole. This was an undertaking unique in our history, and contained for the first time irrefragable evidence of the true condition of affairs affecting the six million children in the public elementary schools of England and Wales. The state of the children was shown to indicate a lamentable submission on the part of the parents throughout the country to filth and sluttishness absolutely incompatible with decency or selfrespect in the homes. That dirt and disease are
