How Shall We Get Them? [photo of two children, right side] People here offers a discussion by four experts on how to widen the margin. to obtain a larger state benefit, an intelligence test could be provided by civil service boards. His wife would likewise have the same opportunity. The entire theory here is that the state benefits from the birth of children from parents of high intelligence and therefore would be interested in offering such financial assistance as would help encourage such parenthood (Concluded on page 48) [hairline rule] Ray Erwin Baber New York University The income tax graduated inversely to the size of family may possibly have a slight influence on the birth rate, but is it discriminating? The argument that such a tax is eugenic because, without affecting small-income families who would not pay taxes anyway it may encourage large-income families to have more children, rests upon the unsafe assumption that large-income families are eugenically more worthy of perpetuation than are small-income families. Even if this risky assumption could be [italics]partially[end italics] substantiated there would remain too many exceptions in both directions for the measure to claim much eugenic merit. Furthermore, the tax exemption for each child is negligible compared with the annual cost of support. A graduated inheritance tax might conceivably have a slightly greater effect on the birth rate of the wealthy than does the income tax, but it would be subject to the same eugenic limitations mentioned above. Even then it could apply only to those who [italics]inherit[end italics] rather than [italics]make[end italics] their fortune, for by the time a man has [italics]made[end italics] a fortune great enough to worry him about the inheritance tax, it is too late to decide what sized family he wants! The practice of offering a straight bonus to families of a certain size, or a lump sum for the birth of each child, seems definitely dysgenic. Thus far I have been unable to find that any of the countries using this plan make [italics]quality[end italics] a prerequisite to claiming such aid; they seem to be chiefly interested in [italics]numbers[end italics]. If, for the sake of argument, we assume that such inducements would have some influence on the birth rate, there is every reason (Concluded on page 48) Maurice R. Davie Yale University The family allowance proposal, involving automatic salary increments according to the number of dependent children, runs counter to economic principles and contains no guarantees of eugenic value. Salaries, to be sure, are low, especially in the teaching profession --- and intelligent people do not have families larger than their incomes --- but what is needed is measures which will raise the salary scale, and not the charitable makeshift of a bonus plan. Insurance is a grand device for equalizing financial burdens. It might well be applied, by the individual himself, to the field of child bearing and rearing. This special type of insurance would relieve the heavy temporary strain of child dependency. A social scheme of this nature, however, is questionable. It is not strictly comparable to insurance against sickness, accident, old age and unemployment. It can be justified, if at all, only on the basis of a direct service rendered to society. The closest parallel is offered by the so-called "widows' pensions" system, which recognizes the social value of home care for the child, but this is really a substitute for other charitable methods of child care. Subsidizing parenthood might easily demoralize some individuals by relieving them of full responsibility for the support of their families. Powerful safeguards, especially of a eugenic nature, would be necessary, but these are lacking. Wage earners are a useful social group, but their great need is for more knowledge of birth control rather than for aids to procreation. The allegedly superior classes, whose birth rates the proposal is especially designed to foster, are not like to have more children on this account; (Concluded on page 48) [photograph of standing boy in sailor suit] [end]