There is a curious argument in circulation, which points out that mulattoes are almost always the offspring of Negro mothers and white fathers, not of Negro fathers and white mothers. Therefore, it is said, production of mulattoes does not mean at all a decrease in the number of white births, but merely substitutes a number of mulatto births for an equivalent number of pure Negro births. It is therefore alleged that the production of mulattoes is in the long run a benefit, elevating the Negro race without impairing the white race. But this argument assumes that most mulatto births are illegitimate,--a condition which eugenists do not sanction, because it tends to disintegrate the family. Rather than such a condition, the legitimate production of pure-blood Negroes is preferable, even though they be inferior in individual ability to the illegitimate mulattoes offered as a substitute. There are not at the present time enough desirable white fathers in the country. If desirable ones are set aside to produce mulattoes, it would be a great loss to the nation; while if the mulattoes are the offspring of eugenically undesirable white fathers, then the product is not likely to be anything America wants. From whatever standpoint we take, we see nothing good to be said for miscegenation.[141] We have discussed the problem as a particular one between the blacks and whites but the argument will hold good when applied to any two races between which the differences are so marked that one may be considered decidedly inferior to the other. Society,--white society,--long ago reached the instinctive conclusion, which seems to us a correct one, that it must put a ban on intermarriage between two such races. It has given expression to this feeling by passing laws to prohibit miscegenation in 22 states, while six other states prohibit it in their constitutions. There are thus 22 states which have attempted legally to prevent intermarriage of the white and black race. While in 20 states there is no law on the subject, it is needless to say that popular feeling about it is almost uniform, and that the legislators of New England for instance would refuse to give their daughters in marriage to Negroes, even though they might the day before have voted down a proposed law to prohibit intermarriage on the ground that it was an expression of race prejudice.