Our first concern
must be to safeguard them, whosoever else is inconvenienced. In deciding
how this is effected we are to be guided by that great fact of
increasing paternal responsibility which is demonstrated by the history
of animal evolution since the appearance of the earliest vertebrates,
and of which marriage, in all its forms, is at bottom the human and
social expression. We are to recognize that if sub-human fathers are in
any degree held by nature responsible with their mates for the care of
their offspring, much more should this be true of man, "made with such
large discourse, looking before and after," who is to be held
responsible for all his acts, and most of all for those most charged
with consequence. The man who brings children into the world is
responsible to their mother and through her to society at large, which
must see to it that that responsibility is not evaded. At present in
England the working man spends on the average not less than one-sixth
of his entire income on alcoholic drinks, whilst society yearly pays for
the feeding of more of his children. But it is not good enough that the
father shall swallow the interests of the future in this fashion. As the
State in Germany takes a percentage of his earnings in order to protect
him against the risks of the future, so we must see to it that the
necessary proportion of his earnings is devoted towards discharging the
responsibilities which he has incurred.
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