Quite an extraordinary article. ISR’s mission was a full education of the working class in service of its self-emancipation, with a wonderful variety of topics covered over its lifetime. In Puritan America real discussion, let alone education, of our sex lives–that very intimate meeting of the social and the individual–has been woeful. It is unsurprising that ISR would take a position for birth control and opens its pages to a serious talk about sex and children aimed at workers. It is also unsurprising that is was Dr. Antoinette F. Konikow who wrote it. A Russian-born Jewish revolutionary and women’s physician, Konikow joined Plekhanov’s Emancipation of Labor group in 1891 while in Switzerland, coming to the U.S. she became a member of the Boston Socialist Labor Party in 1893; left because of De Leon, became a founding member of Debs’ Social Democracy of American in 1897; was there at the formation of Socialist Party in 1901; helped to form the Socialist Party’s Women Commission in 1908 and inaugurate Women’s Day in 1909; a consistent voice on Boston’s strong proto-Communist wing, she worked with S.J. Rutgers and Louis Fraina in the Socialist Propaganda League of America; supported the Zimmerwald Left; was a charter member of the Communist Party of America in 1919; and original Left Oppositionist in the U.S., openly supporting the United Opposition’s struggle in 1926-7. Much of her work was around women’s liberation, health, and reproductive rights.

‘The Truth About the Babies’ by Dr. Antoinette Konikow from The International Socialist Review. Vol. 13 No. 4. October, 1912.

QUITE recently many societies have been organized by philanthropes, social workers and physicians to spread knowledge on sexual matters among parents and children with the conviction that most of the sexual transgressions and sins are due to ignorance on that problem. This endeavor is certainly praiseworthy, but, just like in the anti-tuberculosis crusade, the error is committed of laying the whole responsibility upon the lack of knowledge. We Socialists realize that the present economic conditions, closely connected and expressed in the many narrow legal aspects of our present marriage system, are factors of greater importance, responsible for prostitution, sexual diseases and the long chain of misery in sexlife.

Still the importance of information on this question ought not to be minimized. Not only will it help us to conquer many perplexing problems of today; it will arouse us to the great need of the revolution to come.

While paving the way to economic freedom, leading to greater individual liberty, we must prepare ourselves for the great change coming and give our helping hand to our children, who have yet to spend their lives among the turmoil and ignominy of the present system.

The new generation is knocking at our door. We must be ready to meet its inquiries in every field of life, especially the most important and striking one, the field of sexual mystery. Sexual education of children is a burning question which troubles thousands of parents. While the scope of this article cannot cover all practical issues connected with the problem, it might be of assistance and guidance to some and serve as an introduction to a series of more practical discussions later on.

The question of sex relations and origin of life has always been a sound point in the education of children. In that particular line of instruction children have been sinned against continually. But under the old regime of severe discipline and the healthy, invigorating country life of older days the child was less exposed to baneful influences than at present, where the street, the school, the moving pictures, open an entirely new vista of impressions and experiences.

Some parents realize the dangers surrounding their children, but utterly fail to find adequate means to counteract them; others do not comprehend even the far-reaching significance of the case and do not want to listen to facts describing the undercurrent of immorality in the lives of our children. Teachers who know more about such moral conditions of child-life dare not speak about it for fear of being misunderstood.

There is an element of impurity among school children which often does not stop at words only.

The little ones who transgress understand hardly what they are doing and are not to be blamed for it; they are only victims of tainted suggestions of older companions.

In their innocent desire for knowledge they turned at first to their parents with the old, old question: “Whence did I come? Where do little babies come from?” But their quest is in vain. At first they are told stories about “cabbages,” “doctors’ satchels,” the store, the stork, then when it is evident that the eager little mind is not satisfied any longer with such “baby stories,” father and mother try to postpone the answer, till slowly a conviction is formed in the mind of the child that something is hidden from him, which must be bad or vile, of which his own parents are ashamed. The child turns now to another source of information—either to an older child or a stranger—whose methods of instruction are usually so impure that the child receives his first moral shock. The world will never be as pure and beautiful to him as before. But this is not all. Something worse has happened: The child has reached its first serious estrangement from its parents. It understands now why they tried to avoid its questions. Life’s origin presents itself as something shameful and disgusting and the child hardly dares to meet the parents’ eyes without the color of shame ascending into his face.

By and by it gets hardened, begins to seek the society of children who discuss such questions, and secrets kept from his parents becomes a natural state of affairs.

A quotation from Judge Julian W. Mack of the Juvenile Court of Chicago will prove my contention:

“What strikes one in juvenile court work is the amount of sexual wrongdoing among the very young; girls and boys from seven and a half years up; girls diseased at nine years of age; girls in groups at a school; one group of seven or eight girls, from ten to thirteen years, led by one girl, indulging with the boys in that school; another group of six or eight high school girls in a suburban town or in the country inviting boys to their houses, when their mothers were out.”

He goes on to say: “But do not deceive yourselves for a moment; do not believe that it is only the children, we will say, in the stockyards district or some other district, whose people are massed together in great numbers because of their poverty, who do these things. They occur in the schools which your children are attending and on the streets on which your children are playing.”

A boy in a high school near Boston, whose mother speaks frankly on these forbidden subjects, told me of discussions among schoolboys which are beyond description. I tried to supply his friends with healthy, decent literature, which was eagerly read. What astonished these boys more than anything else was that his parents talk to him on such matters. “I would not dare to speak with my mother about it,” said one; “she would kill me.” At the same time these boys had tried to prove to him that immorality is a natural state, without any bad results, for “everybody is doing it.” I found out that experiments were made by boys upon their sisters, who also did not dare to talk about “such things” with their mothers. We will never know the real intimate life of our children, unless we meet all their questions with frank and sincere response. No menace, no punishment, no harsh word will open the child’s heart to you. Confidence is the most difficult gift to recover.

Let us confess that we also were brought up with very little knowledge on the sex question. In our times children were more sheltered from influences without and real life was not thrust upon us at the tender age of childhood, as it happens quite often now in our capitalistic state of society. The problem of sex relations is not quite clear to many of us; we look upon it as something unfortunately necessary, but at the same time beastly and degrading.

We have inherited this wrong conception probably from the ascetism of early Christianity, which in its time was a normal and healthy protest against the dissipations of the heathen world. We must shake off these prejudices; we must give access to the truth that sexual life is pure and beautiful, if not defiled by morbid and vile considerations. In extreme youth it awakens the poetry of life, the worshipping of the ideal; in riper years it evolutes into the expression of spiritual harmony and happiness.

To free ourselves from prejudices we must plunge into the great mystery of nature. Here we find enough material to shape anew a normal and healthy conception on this subject.

The study of Biology presents to us the slow evolution of sexual life from its first crude appearance in cell form to the complex development work all psychological attributes of animal and human life; to follow this evolution is absorbingly interesting; every normal, healthy mind is carried away by the wonderful work of nature and no place is left for any morbid or low considerations. At the dawn of the creation plants and animals presented in their sexual activity but the crude physico-chemical attraction of different cells; forced by the struggle for existence to give better protection to its offspring, sexual relations attained a higher grade of development. The male and female are brought into close contact. The care for the future generation brings about mother and father love, the beginning of a home.

In human life the material and spiritual blend together and evolute in the highest forms of sex relations—passion and love.

Two qualifications are necessary, according to my experience, for the teacher or parent who intends to guide the child through the labyrinths of the sexual problem. First, the instructor must himself have a high and lofty conception of these relations; second, he ought to have some knowledge of biology to introduce to the child the subject of sex life in the spirit of scientific research, instead of morbid curiosity.

I am endeavoring in the next pages to point out in short how such biological information can be imparted to the child by easy accessible demonstrations and explanations.

It is only natural that every bright child should be curious about the sudden appearance of a new baby in the family. The dangerous question therefore is often proposed at a very tender age. While I believe that fairy stories and myths are of great help in the education of children, I strongly oppose them in connection with this question for obvious reasons.

The truth, that the child grows, develops in the body of his mother in a soft, warm little bag, should be told to the child at once. This revelation will not disturb the child at all; it will only increase his affection towards his mother. While the parents reveal to the child this wonderful story of the baby’s life, they should not fail to impress the child that this little story must be kept secret. Quite often, a child who announces to others this to him so beautiful and charming story is deeply vexed by ignorant persons, who see in such statement of a child a sign of moral depravity. This explanation will satisfy the child for a while. Soon the two questions, Why the baby grows in mother’s body and how it leaves its abode, begins to trouble its mind.

The parents must be ready to meet such inquiry by beginning their little stories of biology when the child is yet quite young. Some children will accept them at the age of six; others have to be more mature.

In dealing with the small child everything abstract ought to be avoided, as far as possible.

Examples of such plant and animal life ought to be given, of which the child has sufficient experience.

The fish depositing its spawn and milt in shallow water is an example easily understood by children, for every child has paid attention to the found ovi of the spawn, and they can be easily demonstrated in the kitchen. In telling the story how little fishes are brought into the world, the fact should be pointed out that the mother throws the spawn into the water and the male fish follows suit with the milt ; that in the water the little ovi and sperms (tiny parts of the milt) unite, melt together; that out of this new little part the little fish is formed—at first only a large head and transparent tail to be recognized, slowly growing to look like all other fishes. (The New York aquarium is a splendid place to demonstrate this story.) I think it important that the words “ovum” and “sperm” should be used from the beginning. If the child is once used to have these words upon his lips in describing biological facts the same terms will keep their dignity when applied later on to human life. Here, then, the child is introduced to the presence of two elements in the creation of the offspring. After the story about fishes, the flower story can follow. “Where do the little seeds come from?” Like in the fish, two parts are needed, the stamen and the pistil. The stamen supplies the male (father) element, the pollen; the pistil is the mother, preparing the little ovi. The tulip or apple blossom or any plain flower can be used for demonstration. Here we can dwell upon the fact that the pollen bag enters into the little visible green ovary of the flower, melts like sugar in the ovum and is followed by formation of little seeds.

Here the importance of the wind and the bee in the promotion of plant life should be explained.

Artificial fertilization of plants can be demonstrated to some children. I mean the fact that the pollen of one variety of a flower can be carried to the pistil of another variety to produce a new flower. This would still more impress upon the child’s mind the role of the two elements in reproduction. The great waste of valuable elements in the form of milt and spawn and pollen can now be pointed out: Millions of sperms and ovi of fishes are swallowed by larger fishes, millions of pollen bags are lost, carried away by wind or insects.

Also the fact that the little fishes and seeds are not cared for by their parents ought to be discussed. The tiny baby fish does not know his mother and has to take care of himself. Millions of these fishes are therefore destroyed and lost. It is good that each mother produces so many eggs. But it is a pity that such a great number is simply wasted.

The coming into the world of the little fish and flower is quite wonderful, but there are other ways, where nature proves more saving. Nature tried all kinds of ways and is improving all the time.

The mother bird has another way of bringing her little babies into the world. She has little ovi just like the fish and the flower, and the father has spermas growing in him, but instead of throwing them, like the fish, into the water or leaving them to the mercy of the wind or the bee, the male bird throws his sperm directly into the body of the female bird. There the little sperma swarm around till they reach the ovi, where they melt and from the two little bags the new little bird is formed. First it is so tiny one cannot see it, then it grows to a little speck. The bird is so small it cannot keep it for a long time in its body. It has to remove it from its body, “lay it,” but it tries to protect it. A strong shell with a lot of soft food surrounds the tiny little speck, which is going to be the baby bird — and that is the little egg we know about.

Then we can describe how long it takes the mother bird to hatch the egg. All the dangers to which the eggs are exposed should be mentioned to impress the child that this form of reproduction also has its drawbacks. Mother has to leave the eggs to get food, someone in her absence might remove the eggs and use them for food.

The egg should be demonstrated to the child in the state where the little chick appears as a little speck supplied with blood vessels. If an incubator is available, the child should be allowed to help about it till it sees the appearance of the chicken. The care of the incubator will furnish a good illustration as to the difficulties of protecting the egg and keeping it steadily at a certain temperature. The fact that the father introduces sperma into the mother’s body will appear natural to the child as long as it comprehends the great principle of saving life-matter by it.

Now it can be pointed out that the father and mother bird know their offspring, also that the father bird knows well and is quite attached to the mother bird, and vice versa. That we find among birds a complete family life, a home, where babies are well taken care of by the mutual effort of father and mother. Many bird stories can be furnished to the children to illustrate these relations.

The rabbit and all other animals of that kind, called mammals, have a still better way of taking care of their babies. After the father rabbit has chosen his mate, the future mother, he pours his sperma into her body to give a chance to her ovi to unite with them and begin to grow. The rabbit-mother has a soft little bag, where she keeps the tiny little ovi, impregnated with the sperma. It takes them a long time to grow till they look like little rabbits, but all the time they lay sheltered in the body of the mother. The motherrabbit has them always with her. Not for a moment are they left exposed all alone, and when at last they grow so big that it is too hard and heavy to carry them around, the babies are put out into the world and both rabbits take care of them till they grow big enough to be left alone. That is why it happens that a rabbit or a cat bring only five or six babies into the world and they all live, while a fish breeds millions and only a few are left alive. In the case of the fish the babies do not get the care of their parents.

The cat and her kittens furnish plenty of illustration to the child as to the way the babies are carried in mother’s body to be born and taken care of. Here it can be pointed out that some fathers in the animal world do care but little about their offspring, while others care more.

Every time a child has a chance to see the birth of any animal (kittens, dogs, calves, etc.) this chance should be given to him and the subject treated not with levity, as is usual, but with deep reverence. The child should get used to look upon the act of reproduction even in animals as a mystery to be admired. Animals which so often copulate in our presence should not be punished or treated with contempt. On the contrary, the act, which anyway is always noticed by the child, should be explained in a matter-of-fact voice, without the exhibition of embarrassment or needless shame.

When a little friend of mine, now a big, clean young man, was about twelve years of age, he was the happy possessor of a family of white rats. The mother had a litter of the most cunning little babies. She was self-sacrificing in her devotion and was dwindling away from the exertion of nursing a dozen strong little babes. At that time the father started to show sexual attention to her. The boy became very indignant. He discussed the question of protecting the mother from both babies and father in the most earnest way. No levity of tone could be discovered. The sexual act was recognized as a matter-of-fact affair, but his sympathy went out to the overworked mother, whom he separated from her flock and husband and thus probably saved her life.

This example I give only to point out that children accept sexual relations of animals, and later on men’s, just in the spirit they are given to him. With older children different instruction can be followed. To them the idea of cell-life must be explained and then the sexual life of lower plants and animals described. The picture of the ovi and sperma of different animals should be drawn for them or pointed out in books, also the different stages of development of the animal and human being in the uterus.

If a child has acquired such knowledge gradually, under the guidance of parents or teachers, it will be prepared to accept the truth of the sexual life in man without any shock or embarrassment.

While ignorance in sex matters means a great deal in child life, it becomes of tremendous significance in the life of the grown-up boy and girl. The future responsibilities of a father and mother, the serious aspect of sex relations, should be deeply impressed upon them. The instruction must have the character of friendly discussions, not moral or religious persuasions, for only then the young man or woman will turn to the parents in time of trouble and misfortune. Nothing is more perplexing to the physician than the young girl in trouble imploring him to keep it a secret from her parents.

Many a daughter has turned in my presence to her mother with the bitter words: “It is your fault; you never told me anything.”

There is a wrong conception in the mind of the public that a virtuous, innocent girl is prompted by intuition how to act in all kinds of perplexing situations; that her very innocence appeals to the chivalry of man.

I claim that the very modesty and ignorance of the girl is used as a weapon against her. Our young girls are exposed to unscrupulous advances in the shops, factories and streets; it is a question of the greatest importance to instruct them, for knowledge will be their best protector.

The pitfalls of life open to young boys in the form of prostitution is also worthy of deep consideration. The baneful results affect not only the man, but his wife and children.

It is a well-known fact that married women are just as much afflicted by sexual diseases as inmates of houses of prostitution. Thousands of children owe their blindness, their crippled limbs, their incurable mental affections, to the ignorance of their fathers.

We would not dream of permitting our children to study the laws of gravitation by experimenting upon themselves, but we consider it proper for our sons and daughters to learn the laws of sexual life by personal experiments; we expose them to graver dangers, without a word of warning.

In conclusion, I acknowledge that detailed instruction for parents is very desirable. My few suggestions I consider only as a stimulus for deeper and more thorough investigations.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by AM Simons and later Charles H. Kerr and loyal to the Socialist Party of America and is one of the essential publications in US left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n04-oct-1912-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf