misery, in intensifying the evils of overcrowding, the proletariat
itself increases the burden of organized labor; even of the Socialist
and Syndicalist organizations themselves with a surplus of the docilely
inefficient, with those great uneducable and unorganizable masses. With
surprisingly few exceptions, Marxians of all countries have docilely
followed their master in rejecting, with bitterness and vindictiveness
that is difficult to explain, the principles and teachings of Birth
Control.
Hunger alone is not responsible for the bitter struggle for existence we
witness to-day in our over-advertised civilization. Sex, uncontrolled,
misdirected, over-stimulated and misunderstood, has run riot at the
instigation of priest, militarist and exploiter. Uncontrolled sex has
rendered the proletariat prostrate, the capitalist powerful. In this
continuous, unceasing alliance of sexual instinct and hunger we find the
reason for the decline of all the finer sentiments. These instincts tear
asunder the thin veils of culture and hypocrisy and expose to our gaze
the dark sufferings of gaunt humanity. So have we become familiar with
the everyday spectacle of distorted bodies, of harsh and frightful
diseases stalking abroad in the light of day; of misshapen heads and
visages of moron and imbecile; of starving children in city streets
and schools. This is the true soil of unspeakable crimes. Defect and
delinquency join hands with disease, and accounts of inconceivable and
revolting vices are dished up in the daily press. When the majority
of men and women are driven by the grim lash of sex and hunger in the
unending struggle to feed themselves and to carry the dead-weight of
dead and dying progeny, when little children are forced into factories,
streets, and shops, education--including even education in the Marxian
dogmas--is quite impossible; and civilization is more completely
threatened than it ever could be by pestilence or war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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