[page number] 2. [end page number] or what sort of person he ought to marry in order to counteract his own weakness. Marriage does not alone concern the individuals immediately concerned - it is a social concern - it has a social and racial aspect. The origin basis and reason of marriage is the perpetuation of the race and the science of eugenics seeks to bring about conditions that will bring about the birth of better children. America needs today, not more babies, but BETTER BABIES. Parents are rapidly becoming more intelligent in the care of children after they come into the world, but in the past, the control of the forces of life prior to birth has been left to chance and when anything is left to chance degeneration is inevitable. America has been guilty of criminal negligence in this matter that affects her very life. Why, in God's name, should we give more time and attention and spend more money on the improvement of sheep and hogs, horses and cattle than on the improvement of the race? The trouble with us is that we think baseball, horse-racing, and the movies of far more importance than the production of strong, healthy children. The great need. The babies born each year constitute the world's most valuable crop. Probable [sic] about 50 million children are born each year. About two and a half million are born annually in the United States. Nearly half a million die before they attain the age of one year. Many of them are born with physical or mental defects that will handicap them for life. It is a reproach to our intelligence that we have to support half a million insane, feeble-minded, epileptic, blind and deaf, 80,000 prisoners, and 100,000 paupers at a cost of over $100,000,000.00 per year and it is a still greater disgrace that generally speaking we are doing nothing to prevent this great army from perpetuating their kind. Two feeble-minded parents have