Eugenics is that science which studies the inborn qualities - physical, mental and spiritual - in man, with a view to their improvement.

Nothing is more evident in the history of families, communities and nations than that, in the change of individuals from generation to generation, some families, some races, and the people of some nations, improve greatly in physical soundness, in intelligence and in character, industry, leadership, and other qualities which make for human breed improvement while other racial, national, and family stocks die out - they decline in physical stamina, in intellectual capacity and in moral force.

Both good and bad qualities are hereditary. It follows that every family and every race, as well as every nation, has its own eugenic problems. When the new generation is produced by sound and capable families "the breed of man tends to improve." If, however, the more degenerate members of the community produce the greater number of children, then "the breed of man degenerates."

The eugenical future of your community - and in parallel fashion of your family and your nation - depends upon (a) who moves into your community to become the ancestors of a portion of its future citizens, (b) how the present members of the community - both native and adopted - marry, and (c) how many children the different families have in relation to the "excellence of the hereditary stuff out of which they are made."

Eugenics, then, concerns improvement in the breed of man. Obviously it is closely parallel, in essential nature, to the improvement in domestic plants and animals; but it is clear that in man the methods of mate-selection, and of reproducing from the best and forbidding reproduction by the most inferior, must be different from the methods employed in plant and animal breeding. Applied eugenics works essentially through long-time education, in which young people build up an appreciation of the importance of "blood" and "breed" - that is of the hereditary foundations of individual and family success. In the long run, the appreciation of good blood is counted on to influence mate-selection and "family-size ideals" - unconsciously perhaps, but just as really and as powerfully as wealth, social position and charming personal qualities.

DESCRIPTIVE WALL PANEL: Exhibited by Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York