EUGENICS--THE SCIENCE OF RACE CULTURE
The object of Eugenics is the conscious improvement of the human race by
the application of the laws of heredity to human mating. Eugenics is the
logical fruition of the progress in biologic science made during the
nineteenth century.
The laws of heredity, studied in minute detail, have been applied with
marvelous success in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. "Is there any good
reason," demands the eugenist, "why the formulas which have operated to
re-combine the physical properties of plants and animals, should not in
like measure operate to modify the physical properties of men and women?"
The studies which have been made of eye color, length of arm, head shape,
and other physical traits show that the same laws of heredity which apply
in the animal and vegetable kingdoms apply as well in the kingdom of man.
Since the species of plants and animals with which man has experimented
have been improved by selective breeding, there seems to be no good reason
why the human race should not be susceptible of similar improvement. What
intelligent farmer sows blighted potatoes? Where is the dog fancier who
would strive to rear a St. Bernard from a mongrel dam? Neither yesterday
nor yet to-morrow do men gather grapes of thorns. Those who have to do
with life in any form, aware of this fact, refuse to permit propagation
except among the best members of a species: hence with each succeeding
generation the ox increases in size and strength; the apple in color; the
sweet pea in perfume; and the horse in speed. Is this law of improving
species a universal law? Alas, no! it rarely if ever applies in the
selection of men and women for parenthood. The human species has not,
during historic times, improved either in physique, in mental capacity, in
aggressiveness, in concentration, in sympathy or in vision. Nay, there
are not wanting thoughtful students who affirm that in almost every one of
these respects the exact contrary holds true.
There appears to be some question as to whether the best of the Greek
athletes exceeded in strength and skill the modern professional athlete,
but there is no doubt at all that the average citizen of Athens was a more
perfect specimen physically than the average citizen of twentieth century
America.
Some students insist that the level of intellectual capacity has been
raised, yet Galton, after a careful survey of the field, concludes in his
_Hereditary Genius_ that the average citizen of Athens was at least two
degrees higher in the scale of intellectual attainment than the average
Englishman; Carl Snyder[4] boldly maintains that the intellectual ability
of scientific men is less to-day than it was in past centuries; while Mrs.
Martin,[5] in a study more novel than scientific, insists that the genius
of the modern world is on a level distinctly below that of the genius of
Greece.
Perhaps American commercial aggressiveness is equal to the military
aggressiveness of the Romans, the early Germans, and the followers of
Attila. We have concentrated most of our efforts upon industry, yet even
here, our concentration is no greater than that of the poets of the
Elizabethan era, or the religious zealots of the Middle Ages. Our sympathy
with beauty is at so low an ebb that we fail even to approach the standard
of past ages. Neither in art, in sculpture, nor in poetry do our
achievements compare with those of the earlier Mediterranean
civilizations; while our knowledge of men as revealed in our literature is
not above that of the Romans or the Athenians. As for vision, we still
accept and strive to fulfill the commandments of the Prophet of Nazareth.
In all of these fields, twentieth century America is equaled, if not
outdone by the past.
Thus the distinctive qualities of the Super Man appear in the past with an
intensity equal if not superior to that of the present. History records
the transmutation of vegetable and animal species, the revolution of
industry, the modification of social institutions, and the transformation
of governmental systems; but in all historic time, it affirms no
perceptible improvement in the qualities of man. "We must replace the man
by the Super Man," writes G. Bernard Shaw.[6] "It is frightful for the
citizen, as the years pass him, to see his own contemporaries so exactly
reproduced by the younger generation."
Nevertheless, the possibility of race improvement exists. "What now
characterizes the exceptionally high may be expected eventually to
characterize all, for that which the best human nature is capable of is
within the reach of human nature at large."[7] After years of intensive
study, Spencer thus confidently expressed himself. Since he ceased to
work, each bit of scientific data along eugenic lines serves to confirm
his opinion. Armed with such a belief and with the assurance which
scientific research has afforded, we are preparing in this eleventh hour
to fulfill Spencer's predictions.
There are two fields in which eugenics may be applied--the first,
Negative, the second, Positive. Through the establishment of Negative
Eugenics the unfit will be restrained from mating and perpetuating their
unfitness in the future. Through Positive Eugenics the fit may be induced
to mate, and by combining their fitness in their offspring, to raise up
each new generation out of the flower of the old. Negative Eugenics
eliminates the unfit; Positive Eugenics perpetuates the fit.
The field of Negative Eugenics has been well explored. No question exists
as to the transmission through heredity of feeble mindedness, idiocy,
insanity and certain forms of criminality. "There is one way, only one
way, out of this difficulty. Modern society ... must declare that there
shall be no unfit and defective citizens in the State."[8] The Greeks
eliminated unfitness by the destruction of defective children; though we
may deplore such a practice in the light of our modern ethical codes, we
recognize the end as one essential to race progress. By denying the right
of parenthood to any who have transmissible disease or defect, our modern
knowledge enables us to accomplish the same end without recourse to the
destruction of human life.
Sir Francis Galton, the founder of the science of Eugenics, writes, in his
last important work, "I think that stern compulsion ought to be exerted to
prevent the free propagation of the stock of those who are seriously
afflicted by lunacy, feeble-mindedness, habitual criminality and
pauperism."[9] Yet society, in dealing with hereditary defect, presents
some of its most grotesque inconsistencies. "It is a curious comment on
the artificiality of our social system that no stigma attaches to
preventable ill-health." An empty purse, or a ruined home may mean social
ostracism, but "break-down in person, whatever the cause, evokes
sympathy, subscription and silence."[10]
Certain defects are known to be transmissible by heredity from parent to
child, until the _cretin_ of Balzac's _Country Doctor_ is reproduced for
centuries. The remedy for this form of social self-torture lies in the
denial of parenthood to those who have transmissible defects.
Individually, such a denial works hardships in this generation: socially,
and to the future generations, it means comparative freedom from
individual, and hence from social defect.
The problem of Positive Eugenics presents an essentially different aspect.
As Ruskin so well observes--"It is a matter of no final concern, to any
parent, whether he shall have two children or four; but matter of quite
final concern whether those he has shall or shall not deserve to be
hanged." The quality is always the significant factor. Whether in family
or national progress, an effort must be made to insure against hanging, or
against any tendency that leads gallowsward.
Positive Eugenics is the science of race building through wise mating. "As
long as ability marries ability, a large proportion of able offspring is a
certainty."[11] What prospective parent does not fondly imagine that his
children will be at least near-great? Yet how many individuals, in their
choice of a mate, set out with the deliberate intention of securing a life
partner whose qualities, when combined with his own, must produce
greatness?
The Darwin-Galton-Wedgwood families boast sixteen men of world fame in
five generations; in the Bach family there were fifty-seven musicians of
note in eight generations; Wood's study of _Heredity in Royalty_ shows the
evident transmission of special ability; yet men and women of ability,
anxious for able offspring, mate without any rational effort to secure the
end which they desire. "Ninety-nine times out of a hundred our
mathematician marries a woman whose family did not count a single
astronomer, physicist or other mathematical mind among it members. The
result of such a union is what could be expected. Although genius does
not generally die out right away in the first generation, it decreases by
half, and further dilutions soon bring it down to nothingness."[12]
This, in brief, is the problem of Negative and of Positive Eugenics. Both
defect and ability are transmitted by heredity; both are the product of
the mating process known as marriage; since society can and does control
marriage, it may, through this control, exercise a real influence upon the
character of future generations.
The science of Eugenics is in its infancy, yet, widely established and
vigorously applied, it may revolutionize the human species. The Super Race
may come, because "looked at from the social standpoint, we see how
exceptional families, by careful marriages, can within even a few
generations, obtain an exceptional stock, and how directly this suggests
assortative mating as a moral duty for the highly endowed. On the other
hand, the exceptionally degenerate isolated in the slums of our modern
cities can easily produce permanent stock also: a stock which no change of
environment will permanently elevate, and which nothing but mixture with
better blood will improve. But this is an improvement of the bad by a
social waste of the better. We do not want to eliminate bad stock by
watering it with good, but by placing it under conditions where it is
relatively or absolutely infertile."[13]
"But what of love?" wails the sentimentalist; "in your scheme Eugenics
outweighs Cupid!" Perhaps, but what of it? Cupid has proved in the past a
sad bungler, whose mistakes and failures grimace from every page of our
divorce court records. Far from hindering his activities, however,
Eugenics will assist Cupid by bringing together persons truly
congenial--hence capable of an enduring love. Too many men have married a
natty Easter bonnet, or a cleverly tailored suit. Too many women have
fallen a prey to a tempting bank account or a pair of glorious
mustachios. Blind Cupid limps but lamely over the rugged path of
matrimonial bliss. The questionable success of his best efforts proves his
sure need of a guide.
Eugenics represents an effort to bring together those people who have
complementary qualities and complementary interests; who are capable of
maintaining congenial relationships in the present; and creating able
offspring in the future. Selection and parenthood are the cradle of the
future. Hence the individual who, in the exercise of his choice, overlooks
their significance overlooks one of his most important racial
responsibilities.
Society is interested in Eugenics, because it is through Eugenics that the
hereditary traits of the Super Race are perpetuated and perfected.
Eugenics, rightly understood and applied, is a social asset of unexcelled
value. How long, then, shall our society continue to feed on the husks,
neglecting the grain which lies everywhere ready at hand?
Eugenics is indeed one means of race salvation, yet what care do we take
to perfect eugenic measures? "If through sheer chance, some great
mathematician is evolved one day out of the crowd, the state--who should
be ever on the watch for such events and whose main care should be to
preserve and increase such sources of light, progress and national
glory--does nothing to protect the man of genius against care, disease or
anything likely to shorten life nor to multiply the splendid thinking
machine."[14] A great state must have for its component parts great men
and women. Did we truly seek greatness, how many measures for its
attainment lie neglected at our very doors!
Every well regulated state of antiquity eliminated defectives in the
interest of the group, and of the future. What more effective means of
social preservation could be imagined than some measure through whose
operation the defective classes in society would be eliminated, and the
social structure, bulwarked by stalwart manhood and womanhood, made proof
against the ravages of time. How serious a thing is the propagation of
defect! Murder is a crime, punishable by death, yet a murderer merely
eliminates one unit from the social group. The destruction of this one
life may cause sorrow; it may deprive society of a valued member; but it
is, after all, a comparatively insignificant offense. The perpetuation of
hereditary defect is infinitely worse than murder. Consider, for example,
a marriage, sanctioned by church and state, between two persons both
having in their blood hereditary feeble-mindedness.
Investigations of thousands of feeble-minded families show that, in such a
case, every one of the offspring may be and probably will be
feeble-minded--a curse to himself and a burden to society. Pauperism,
crime, social dependence, vice, all follow in the train of mental defect,
and the mentally defective parents hand on for untold generations their
taint--sometimes in more, sometimes in less virulent form, but always
bringing into the world beings not only incapable of caring for
themselves, but fatally capable of handing on their defect to the future.
The murderer robs society; the mentally defective parent curses society,
both in the present and in the future, with the taint of degeneracy. The
murderer takes away a life; but the feeble-minded parent passes on to the
future the seeds of racial decay.
The first step in Eugenics progress--the elimination of defect by
preventing the procreation of defectives--is easily stated, and may be
almost as easily attained. The price of six battleships ($50,000,000)
would probably provide homes for all of the seriously defective men, women
and children now at large in the United States. Thus could the scum of
society be removed, and a source of social contamination be effectively
regulated. Yet with tens of thousands of defectives, freely propagating
their kind, we continue to build battleships, fondly believing that rifled
cannon and steel armor plate will prove sufficient for national defense.
This is but a part, and by far the least important part, of the eugenic
programme. The elimination of defect prevents degeneracy, but does not
insure the physical normality, mental capacity, aggressiveness,
concentration, sympathy and vision of the Super Man. While the elimination
of defect is imperative, it is after all only the first step toward the
creation of positive qualities.
Positive Eugenics may be as obvious as Negative Eugenics, but the
promulgation of its doctrines is not equally easy. A series of legislative
enactments will prevent the mating of the hereditarily defective; nothing
but the most painstaking education can be relied upon to secure the mating
of those eugenically fit. Nevertheless for that modern state which seeks
to persist and dominate, no lesser measure will suffice. After all, why
should not society educate its youth to a sense of wisdom in mating? The
United States spends each year some four hundred millions of dollars in
public education, teaching children to read, to spell, to sew, to draw.
The importance of these studies is obvious, yet, from a social standpoint,
they cannot compare in significance with such training in the laws of
heredity and biology as will insure wise choice in mating. The state, in
its efforts at self preservation, cannot lay too much emphasis on the
training for eugenic choice.
Biology, through the laws of heredity, applied in the science of Eugenics,
holds out every hope for the coming of the Super Man and of the Super
Race. Not in our knowledge of its laws, but in the practice of its
precepts, are we lacking.
Eugenics, it is true, in its negative and positive phases, holds out a
great hope for the future. But Eugenics alone will not suffice. The
science of Eugenics must be coupled with the science of Social Adjustment
to insure the production of a Super Race. The necessity of this union is
well recognized by the students of heredity, while the students of Social
Adjustment found their theories on premises essentially biologic in
origin. One of the most widely known writers on heredity concludes a
recent book with the statement that--"At present, we can only indicate
that the future of our race depends on Eugenics (in some form or other),
combined with the simultaneous evolution of eutechnics and eutopias.
'Brave words,' of course; but surely not 'Eutopian'!"[15] Thus the
knowledge and practice of the laws of heredity must be supplemented by a
knowledge and practice of the laws of Social Adjustment.