I fear that point of view is not always accepted in England and still
less in America. It is widely held throughout the world that America is
not only the land of Feminism, but the land in which laws are passed on
every possible subject, and with considerable indifference as to whether
they are carried out, or even whether they could be carried out. This
tendency is certainly well illustrated by eugenic legislation in the
United States. In the single point of sterilisation for eugenic ends--and
I select a point which is admirable in itself and for which legislation
is perhaps desirable--at least twelve States have passed laws. Yet most
of these laws are a dead letter; every one of them is by the best experts
considered at some point unwise; and the remarkable fact remains that the
total number of eugenical sterilising operations performed in the States
_without any law at all_ is greater than the total of those performed
under the laws. So that the laws really seem to have themselves a
sterilising effect on a most useful eugenic operation.[4]
I refrain from mentioning the muddles and undesigned evils produced by
other legislation of a much less admirable nature.[5] But I may perhaps
be allowed to mention that it has seemed to some observers that there is
a connection between the Feminism of America and the American mania for
hasty laws which will not, and often cannot, be carried out in practice.
Certainly there is no reason to suppose that women are firmly
antagonistic to such legislation.
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