Is it then good business, to
say nothing of the humane aspects of the situation, to compel the
writer of the following letter to go on adding to the number of the
tubercular? Which is the guardian of public welfare here--the mother
instinct which wishes to avoid bearing tubercular children, or the
statute which forbids her to know how to avoid adding to the census of
"white plague" victims? The letter reads:
"Kindly pardon me for writing this to you, not knowing what trouble
this may cause you. But I've heard of you through a friend and realize
you are a friend of humanity. If people would see with your light, the
world would be healthy. I married the first time when I was eighteen
years old, a drinking man. I became mother to five children. In 1908
my husband died of consumption. I lost two of my oldest children from
the same disease, one at 16 and the other at 23. The youngest of them
all, a sweet girl of nineteen, now lies at ---- sanatorium expecting
to leave us at any time. The other sister and brother look very
poorly.
"I have always worked very hard, because I had to. In 1913 I married
again, a good man this time, but a laboring man, and our constant fear
and trouble is what may happen if we bring children into the world.
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