The Eugenics of Marriage Licenses
A Tacoma humane officer proposes that the state test young women's child-rearing abilities before allowing them to wed.
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Humane Officer Van Voris stated today that the only way to manage the criminal juvenile problem is to force young women contemplating marriage to take an examination on their capability for raising children. Van Voris argues that the mother is at fault when children go astray, claiming many mothers today do not understand child culture or provide the proper environment. He believes such testing will eventually become mandatory. As an example, he cited a case where a young girl from Old Town was taken into custody after refusing to live at home, where she claimed her mother made life unbearable. Van Voris has been active in juvenile reform for several years.
“I firmly believe that it will eventually come to pass that the study of child culture will be imperative.”
This reflects the early 20th-century obsession with 'scientific' social engineering, where officials frequently blamed systemic juvenile issues on 'unfit' mothering. Today, such paternalistic rhetoric regarding parental fitness and state oversight of private family life remains a flashpoint in child welfare policy debates.
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