Is the Family DOOMED?

One way of looking at the change of attitude toward the problem, the family is doomed. The family is not doomed quite yet, though certain views with respect to the family are, and long ought to have been, extinct. The problem of parental contact need not longer be considered, seeing that the family is on the verge of dissolution, is almost as simple as the proposal of the seven-year-old colored boy in the children's court, in answer to the kindly inquiry of the Judge: "You have heard what your parents have to say about you. Now, what can you say for yourself?" "Mistah Judge, I'se only got dis here to say: I'd be all right if I jes had another set of parents."

For the problem persists and is bound to persist as long as the relationships of the family-home continue. The social changes which have so markedly affected marriage have come over the home. It is as true as it ever was that the private home is the public hope. A nation is what its homes are. With these it rises and falls, and it can rise no higher than the level of its home-life. Marriage, said Goethe, is the origin and summit of civilization. Assuming that the family which is the cellular unit of civilization will survive modern conditions, the question is what burdens can the home be made to assume which properly rest upon it, if it is to remain worth while as well as be saved?