Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: My subject is "The Children's Era." The Children's Era! This makes me think of Ellen Key's book -- The Century of the Child. Ellen Key hoped that this twentieth century was to be the century of the child. The twentieth century, she said, would see this old world of ours converted into a beautiful garden of children. Well, we have already lived through a quarter of this twentieth century. What steps have we taken toward making it the century of the child? So far, very, very few. 主席先生，女士们，先生们：我的主题是"儿童的时代"。儿童的时代！这让我想到了艾伦·凯的著作——《儿童的世纪》。艾伦·凯希望二十世纪能成为儿童的世纪。她说，二十世纪将会见证我们这个旧世界被改造为一座美丽的儿童花园。那么，我们已经走过了二十世纪的四分之一。我们已经采取了哪些步骤来使其成为儿童的世纪呢？到目前为止，非常非常少。
Why does the Children's Era still remain a dream of the dim and the distant future? Why has so little been accomplished? -- in spite of all our acknowledged love of children, all our generosity, all our good-will, all the enormous spending of millions on philanthropy and charities, all our warm-hearted sentiment, all our incessant activity and social consciousness? Why? 为什么儿童的时代仍然是一个遥不可及的梦想？为什么我们成就如此之小？——尽管我们都承认爱孩子，尽管我们慷慨大方，尽管我们有良好的意愿，尽管我们在慈善事业上花费了数百万巨资，尽管我们有热心的情怀，尽管我们不懈的活动和社会意识？为什么？
Before you can cultivate a garden, you must know something about gardening. You have got to give your seeds a proper soil in which to grow. You have got to give them sunlight and fresh air. You have got to give them space and the opportunity (if they are to lift their flowers to the sun), to strike their roots deep into that soil. And always -- do not forget this -- you have got to fight weeds. You cannot have a garden, if you let weeds overrun it. So, if we want to make this world a garden for children, we must first of all learn the lesson of the gardener. 在你开垦一座花园之前，你必须懂得一些园艺知识。你必须给你的种子提供合适的土壤，让它们在其中生长。你必须给它们阳光和新鲜空气。你必须给它们空间和机会（如果它们要把花朵伸向太阳），让它们把根深深扎入土壤。永远不要忘记这一点——你必须与杂草斗争。如果你让杂草泛滥，你就不可能拥有一座花园。所以，如果我们想把这个世界变成儿童的花园，我们必须首先学习园丁的教训。
So far we have not been gardeners. We have only been a sort of silly reception committee, a reception committee at the Grand Central Station of life. Trainload after trainload of children are coming in, day and night -- nameless refugees arriving out of the Nowhere into the Here. 到目前为止，我们还不是园丁。我们只是某种愚蠢的接待委员会，一个在中央大车站的生命接待委员会。一列又一列的孩子正在到来，日日夜夜——无名的难民从虚无来到此地。
Trainload after trainload -- many unwelcome, unwanted, unprepared for, unknown, without baggage, without passports, most of them without pedigrees. 一列又一列——许多不受欢迎的、不被需要的、未被准备的、未知的，没有行李，没有护照，其中大多数没有血统。
These unlimited hordes of refugees arrive in such numbers that the reception committee is thrown into a panic -- a panic of activity. The reception committee arouses itself heroically, establishes emergency measures: milk stations, maternity centers, settlement houses, playgrounds, orphanages, welfare leagues, and every conceivable kind of charitable effort. 这些源源不断的难民蜂拥而至，人数如此之多，以至于接待委员会陷入恐慌——一种活动的恐慌。接待委员会奋起英勇地行动，建立紧急措施：牛奶站，妇产中心，安置所，游乐场，孤儿院，福利联盟，以及每一种可以想象的慈善努力。
But still trainloads of children keep on coming -- human weed crop up that spread so fast in this sinister struggle for existence, that the overworked committee becomes exhausted, inefficient, and can think of no way out. 但一车车的孩子仍在继续到来——人类的杂草在这场险恶的生存斗争中如此迅速地蔓延，以至于过度劳累的委员会变得筋疲力尽、效率低下，并且想不出解决办法。
When we protest against this immeasurable, meaningless waste of motherhood and child-life; when we protest against the ever-mounting cost to the world of asylums, prisons, homes for the feeble-minded, and such institutions for the unfit, when we protest against the disorder and chaos and tragedy of modern life, when we point out the biological corruption that is destroying the very heart of American life, we are told that we are making merely an "emotional" appeal. 当我们抗议这种无法估量的、毫无意义的母性和儿童生命的浪费时；当我们抗议为收容所、监狱、弱智人士收容院以及这类不适应者机构所付出的不断攀升的代价时；当我们抗议现代生活的混乱、混乱和悲剧时；当我们指出正在摧毁美国生活核心的生物退化时，我们被告知我们只是在诉诸"情感"。
When we point the one immediate practical way toward order and beauty in society, the only way to lay the foundations of a society composed of happy children, happy women, and happy men, they call this idea indecent and immoral. 当我们指出通往社会秩序与美的一个直接可行的途径时，这是建立一个由幸福的儿童、幸福的妇女和幸福的男人组成的社会的唯一基础，他们称这个想法为不道德和不体面的。
It is not enough to clean up the filth and disorder of our overcrowded cities. It is not enough to stop the evil of Child Labor -- even if we could! It is not enough to decrease the rate of infantile mortality. It is not enough to open playgrounds, and build more public schools in which we can standardize the mind of the young. It is not enough to throw millions upon millions of dollars into charities and philanthropies. Don't deceive ourselves that by so doing we are making the world "Safe for Children." 仅仅清理我们过度拥挤城市中的污垢和混乱是不够的。仅仅停止童工的罪恶——即使我们能够做到！——也是不够的。仅仅降低婴儿死亡率是不够的。仅仅开设游乐场，建造更多的公立学校来标准化青少年的思想是不够的。仅仅把数以百万计的美元投入慈善和公益事业是不够的。不要欺骗自己，以为这样做我们就能让世界"为儿童而安"。
Those of you who have followed the sessions of this Conference must, I am sure, agree with me that the first real stop toward the creation of a Children's Era must lie in providing the conditions of healthy life for children not only before birth but even more imperatively before conception. Human society must protect its children -- yes, but prenatal care is most essential! The child-to-be, as yet not called into being, has rights no less imperative. 你们中参加过本次会议的那些人肯定会同意我的观点，即创建儿童时代的第一个真正步骤必须在于为儿童提供健康生活的条件——不仅在出生前，而且更迫切的是在受孕之前。人类社会必须保护其儿童——是的，但产前护理是最重要的！尚未出生的孩子，还未被召唤到这个世界上的孩子，拥有不那么迫切的权利。
We have learned in the preceding sessions of this Conference that, if we wish to produce strong and sturdy children, the embryo must grow in a chemically healthy medium. The blood stream of the mother must be chemically normal. Worry, strain, shock, unhappiness, enforced maternity, may all poison the blood of the enslaved mother. This chemically poisoned blood may produce a defective baby -- a child foredoomed to idiocy, or feeble-mindedness, crime, or failure. 我们在本次会议前几届会议上了解到，如果我们希望生出强壮健康的孩子，胚胎必须在化学上健康的介质中生长。母亲的血液必须在化学上是正常的。忧虑、紧张、震惊、不幸福、强制孕产，都可能毒害被奴役母亲的血液。这种化学上被毒害的血液可能孕育出一个有缺陷的婴儿——一个注定弱智、低能、犯罪或失败的孩子。
Do I exaggerate? Am I taking a rare exception and making it a general rule? Our opponents declare that children are conceived in love, and that every new-born baby converts its parents to love and unselfishness. 是我夸大其词了吗？我是在拿一个罕见的例外来当作普遍规律吗？我们的对手宣称，孩子是在爱中受孕的，每个新生儿都会把父母转变为爱和无私。
My answer is to point to the asylums, the hospitals, the ever-growing institutions for the unfit. Look into the family history of those who are feeble-minded; or behind the bars of jails and prisons. Trace the family histories; find out the conditions under which they were conceived and born, before you attempt to persuade us that reckless breeding has nothing to do with these grave questions. 我的回答是，请看看收容所、医院、为不适应者设立的不断增加的机构。看看那些弱智人士的家族史；或者那些在监狱铁栏后面的人的家族史。追溯家族史；查明他们受孕和出生时的条件，然后再试图说服我们，鲁莽的生育与这些严重问题无关。
There is only one way out. We have got to fight for the health and happiness of the Unborn Child. And to do that in a practical, tangible way, we have got to free women from enforced, enslaved maternity. 只有一条出路。我们必须为未出生孩子的健康和幸福而斗争。要以实际、具体的方式做到这一点，我们必须将妇女从强制的、被奴役的孕产中解放出来。
There can be no hope for the future of civilization, no certainty of racial salvation, until every woman can decide for herself whether she will or will not become a mother, and when and how many children she cares to bring into the world. That is the first step. 在每个妇女都能自己决定是否要成为母亲、何时要成为母亲以及要生多少孩子之前，文明的未来没有希望，种族的拯救没有把握。这是第一步。
I would like to suggest Civil Service examinations for parenthood! Prospective parents after such an examination would be given a parenthood license, proving that they are physically and mentally fit to be the fathers and mothers of the next generation. 我想建议为人父母设立公务员考试！准父母在通过这样的考试后将获得为人父母的执照，证明他们在身体上和精神上都适合成为下一代的父亲和母亲。
This is an interesting idea -- but then arises the questions "Who is to decide?" "Would there be a jury, like a play jury?" Would a Republican administration give parenthood permits only to Republicans -- or perhaps only to Democrats? The more you think of governmental interference, the less it works out. Take this plan of civil service examination for parenthood. It suggests Prohibition: there might even be bootlegging in babies! 这是一个有趣的想法——但随之而来的问题是"谁来决定？""会有一个陪审团吗，像戏剧陪审团那样？"共和党政府会只给共和党人发放为人父母的许可证吗——或者也许只给民主党人？你越想政府干预，它就越行不通。以这个为人父母的公务员考试计划为例。它让人想起禁酒令：甚至可能出现婴儿走私！
No, I doubt the advisability of governmental sanction. The problem of bringing children into the world ought to be decided by those most seriously involved -- those who run the greatest risks; in the last analysis -- by the mother and the child. If there is going to be any Civil Service examination, let it be conducted by the Unborn Child, the Child-to-be. 不，我怀疑政府批准的可取性。将孩子带到这个世界的决定应该由最密切相关的人来做出——那些承担最大风险的人；归根结底——由母亲和孩子来做出。如果要进行任何公务员考试，那就让它由未出生的孩子、未来的孩子来进行。
Just try for a moment to picture the possibilities of such an examination. When you want a cook or housemaid, you go to an employment bureau. You have to answer questions. You have to exchange references. You have to persuade the talented cook that you conduct a proper well-run household. Children ought to have at least the same privilege as cooks. 试着想象一下这种考试的可能性。当你需要一个厨师或女佣时，你去职业介绍所。你必须回答问题。你必须交换推荐信。你必须说服有才能的厨师，你管理的是一个规矩的家庭。孩子至少应该享有与厨师相同的特权。
Sometimes in idle moments I like to think it would be a very good scheme to have a bureau of the Child-to-be. At such a bureau of the unborn, the wise child might be able to find out a few things about its father -- and its mother. Just think for a moment of this bureau where prospective parents might apply for a baby. Think of the questions they would be asked by the agent of the unborn or by the baby itself. 有时在闲暇时我会想，设立一个未来孩子局会是一个很好的计划。在这样一个未出生孩子的局里，聪明的孩子也许能发现一些关于它的父亲——和母亲的事情。想想这个局，准父母可能会在那里申请一个宝宝。想想他们会被问到的问题，由未出生孩子的代理人，或由宝宝本身提出。
"Mr. Father, a baby is an expensive luxury. Can you really afford one?" "Have you paid for your last baby yet?" "How many children have you already? Six? You must have your hands full. Can you take care of so many?" "Do you look upon children as a reward -- or a penalty?" "How are you ductless glands -- well balanced?" "Can you provide a happy home for one! A sunny nursery? Proper food?" "What's that you say? Ten children already? Two dark rooms in the slums?" "No, thank you! I don't care to be born at all if I cannot be well-born. Good-bye!" "父亲先生，宝宝是一种昂贵的奢侈品。你真的能负担得起吗？""你付得起上一个宝宝的费用了吗？""你已经有多少个孩子了？六个？你一定手忙脚乱了。你能照顾这么多吗？""你把孩子看作是一种奖励——还是一种惩罚？""你的无管腺怎么样——平衡吗？""你能为一个孩子提供一个幸福的家吗！一个阳光的婴儿室？适当的食物？""你说什么？已经有十个孩子了？两个贫民窟的黑暗房间？""不，谢谢你！如果我不能出生得好，我宁愿不出生。再见！"
And if we could organize a society for the prevention of cruelty to unborn children, we would make it a law that children should be brought into the world only when they were welcome, invited, and wanted; that they would arrive with a clean bill of health and heritage; that they would possess healthy, happy, well-mated, and mature parents. 如果我们能组织一个预防虐待未出生孩子的协会，我们会制定一项法律，规定孩子只有在他们受欢迎、被邀请、被需要时才应该被带到这个世界上来；他们应该带着健康的身体和遗传来到这个世界；他们应该拥有健康、幸福、婚姻美满且成熟的父母。
And there would be certain conditions of circumstances which would preclude parenthood. These conditions, the presence of which would make parenthood a crime, are the following: 1. Transmissible disease; 2. Temporary disease; 3. Subnormal children already in the family; 4. Space out between births; 5. Twenty-three years as a minimum age for parents; 6. Economic circumstances adequate; 7. Spiritual harmony between parents. 某些环境条件会排除为人父母的可能性。这些条件，存在时会使为人父母成为一种犯罪，如下所述：1. 传染性疾病；2. 临时性疾病；3. 家庭中已有弱智儿童；4. 生育间隔；5. 父母最低年龄为二十三岁；6. 经济状况充足；7. 父母之间的精神和谐。
In conclusion, let me repeat: We are not trying to establish a dictatorship over parents. We want to free women from enslavery and unwilling motherhood. We are fighting for the emancipation for the mothers of the world, of the children of the world, and the children to be. 总之，让我重申：我们不是在试图建立对父母的独裁。我们想将妇女从奴役和不情愿的母性中解放出来。我们正在为全世界的母亲、全世界的儿童和未来的儿童而斗争。
We want to create a real Century of the Child -- usher in a Children's Era. We can do this by handling the terrific gift of life in bodies fit and perfect as can be fashioned. Help us to make this Conference, which as aroused so much interest, the turning point toward this era. Only so can you help in the creation of the future. 我们想创造一个真正的儿童世纪——开创一个儿童的时代。我们可以通过以尽可能完美的身体传递生命这份非凡的礼物来实现这一点。帮助我们使这次引起如此大兴趣的会议成为迈向这个时代的转折点。只有这样，你们才能帮助创造未来。