The day book. [volume], November 14, 1913, Image 13

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

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'THE SUPER-BABY IS SOON TO BECOME
LIVING, BREATHING, SQUALLING FACT"
BY NIXOLA GREELEY-SMITH
(Copyright, 1913, by the Newspaper
Enterprise Association.)
The super-baby, that still imagin
ary infant who is to unite in one
small person all the mental, moral
and physical perfections of the hu
man race, has ceased suddenly to be
a theory of eugenics and, if a learned
body of physicians and sociologists
in New York is to have its way, will
soon become a living, breathing and,
it may be, squalifying fact!
The Sociological Fund of the Med
ical Review of Reviews has offered
a prize of $1,000 to the mother and
father who shall produce this 100
per cent infant
According to the mathematical
theory of eugenics, the 100 per cent
baby can result only from the mar
riage of a 100 per cent father and
an equally perfect mother. So any
young man or woman who wishes
to apply for the $1,000 prize it is to
be paid in two installments of $500
each, the first at the time of the
super-marriage, the second at the
birth of the super-baby must send,
with an application to Frederick H.
Robinson, 206 Broadway, a history
of his family for three generations.
To qualify for the price the applicant
must establish his mental, moral and
physical fitness.
"Beauty won't count," Mr. Robin
son observed when he outlined his
plan for the eugenic baby. Mr. Robin
son is the president of the fund with
the seven-league name. "What are
we seeking," he continued, "is health
moral, mental and physical. Of
course, after we have found a man
and woman who can meet all the re
quirements of the board of exam
iners, which will be made up of men
and women physicians, the problem
will still remain of making them fall
in love with each other. We will in
troduce them and hope for the best.
"If they don't like each other, that
will end matters, for love is a very
important factor in the production
of the super-baby.
"Is there any age limit to the con
test?" I inquired. "You know Dr:
Gorton, father of the 'eugenic twins,'
of Brooklyn, was more than eighty
at the time of his marriage."
"That was a freak of nature," Mr.
Robinson replied. "Generally speak
ing, the best age for marriage, from
a eugenic standpoint, is between 20
and 25 for a woman and between
25 and 30 for a man, but we won't
set any age limit in the eugenic baby
contest. Any man or woman, irre
spective of birthdays, who comes
nearest to passing a 100 per cent
examination will win the $1,000 prize.
I believe that a woman's choice of a
father for her children should be ab
solutely unhampered."
Mr. Robinson added earnestly: "At
the present time her selection is
hampered and limited by the fact
that she has to seek a good provider
as well as a good father. This has
done a great deal to injure the quality
of the human baby, because it not
only limits a woman's choice in the
first instance, hut It tends to restrict
her to that choice, no matter how
foolish it may prove to have been.
"Under prevailing social conditions
many children are born that should
never come into the world at all.
They are the offspring of drunkards
or moral imbeciles whose wives con
tinue to live with them through fear
or from their lack of training to make
a living for themselves. It is my opin
ion that, other things being equal, the
woman who earns her own living
makes the best mother, because she,
among all women, has the most un
fettered choice of a husband."
This must not be taken to mean
that the Sociological Fund Commit
tee will limit its choice of the super
mother to those applicants who earn
their own living. Provided she can
ai,