Science and practical experience are rapidly evolving plans of so breeding plants and animals as to discard the undesirable and perpetuate only the desirable. Much of this work consists simply of selecting the best species nature has provided, and of selecting within these species so as to secure and perpetuate as useful varieties those types into which nature has divided the species. In many cases this means that marked economic mutations are discovered, the progeny of which are so far superior that the old stocks are entirely discarded for the new. Again, the best native and improved stocks each of which has specially desirable characters are cross-bred and from the resultant hybrids those in which occur recombinations of the highest value are secured by selective breeding and are multiplied. And again, from among those recombined stocks, mutations are sought and these are multiplied into varieties, again placing the values higher than before. Thus by these processes, step by step, controlled evolution produces types better fitted to the needs of man in the production of his food and clothing. And each year the genetic scientists and the breeders of plants and animals add new facts, clarify their philosophy, and create new bases in the forms of better foundation varieties and breeds upon which to build the next story in the achievements of breeding.

The truth is being developed that the facts and technique, the sensible philosophy and practice which all this work is bringing forward, have a relation to the heredity of man. And while the problem of the improvement of heredity in the human species seems radically different from the problem of improving plants and animals, our plant and animal specialists call our attention to the fact that the breeders of each class of plants and of each species and even of each breed of animals have new problems to be solved. And those who are experienced in the developing of methods of improving the heredity of the numerous species of plants and of the numerous species or breeds of domestic animals, see in eugenics only another set of difficulties such as are being solved yearly by the genetic scientists and practical breeders who deal with plants and animals.

It must be admitted that the difficulties are more stupendous in the case of man, but the results are of such paramount importance that even minor improvement of the human heredity would yield high return on the cost of any sensible efforts made in that direction. That wonderful social institution, monogamy, the comparatively long life of the individual, the one child at a birth, and the relatively few children born to the parents, are all limiting factors. Those seem to be great obstacles as compared with the advantages arising in the plant kingdom from large numbers and from the brevity of the life of each generation, as in the breeding of wheat or corn. Yet there is in eugenics opportunity not only for the application of selective breeding, with fair prospects of not unduly delayed results, but also for multiplication of the progeny of human mutants and improvement by the recombination of desirable characters from separate families and separate, similar, races.

Much of the discussion of eugenics has been confined to a study of the defective classes. The eugenic problems concerning the feebleminded, the insane, the immoral, and those non-resistant to such diseases as tuberculosis have seemed to be the problems first to be attempted. The methods of investigation devised by Darwin, Mendel, and others seem to be especially adapted to a consideration of the heredity of these classes of unfortunate people. The elimination from the human network of descent of the characteristics which produce these inefficient people is alone a problem worth many times any possible cost that can reasonably be used in the improvement of the heredity of man. The presentation of the facts concerning the heredity of human families is fast leading intelligent people past any prudishness in the scientific discussion of eugenics. And research shows that beyond and above the elimination of the least efficient of the race is the substantial improvement, through the centuries to come, of the 90 per cent who can not be classed as defective.

Speaking broadly, the eugenic problems are much the same throughout as the problems of plant breeding and animal improvement.

(1) How can we select the genetically best and by more rapidly multiplying them have the best blood eventually dominant in the whole of the race?

(2) How can we so recombine the strongest characters of families and of similar races as to secure from among large numbers of these recombined groups an opportunity to select better types?

(3) How can we select from the foundation classes and also from the recombined or hybrid classes mutations the progeny of which, when multiplied, make marked improvement over the average of the foundation stocks or of the selected cross-bred stocks?

(4) May we not hope to advance greatly the average of efficiency, to practically lop off the defective classes below, and also increase the number of the efficient at the top?

(5) While we must attend to the numerous minor matters and must continue to work out the science of the subject, shall we forget that the goal in the end is more splendid races of people, possibly averaging as high in efficiency as the very best individuals the races now possess?

Modern charity, science, and individual development--and may we not add also peace--broadly speaking, are rapidly lengthening human life from an average of approximately thirty-three years to fifty years. Fifty per cent added to the length of human life will help eventually to bring our something more than one and one-half billion of people in the world up toward three billion. It seems conservative to estimate that by the year 2000 the world will have three billion people. Shall the world remain in eugenic blindness or shall it bring to bear the clear light of fact upon the improvement of the heredity of this vast number of men? Shall the ten billion or more of human beings which the world eventually may maintain, carry its load of eugenically defective and its vocationally inefficient, as well as the present social and civic handicaps, or shall it become a race with greatly improved heredity trained as highly in the peaceful arts of production and citizenship as an improved heredity will allow?

It would seem that students of heredity have prepared the race to evolve its own efficiency, which would respond superbly to the greatly improved environment made possible by science and religion. The impulse given by scientists to cast off superstition has made possible the study of the full nature of man. The altruism which Christ awoke in humanity should have a vastly purer heredity through which to carry its blessings to all people.

Then vocational as well as general education can be offered to and taken advantage of by all youth, whatever may become their functions in society. The races will then be created more nearly equal and every man will be more nearly equal to every other man. Democratic forms of business as well as democratic forms of government will be practicable. Justice, hope, comfort, and happiness will become well-nigh universal. The improvement beyond the present may be as great as the present is beyond the dark ages.

As the complexities of society increase, as science develops, as the intricacies of industry and transportation increase, as charity becomes wider, and as social and governmental agencies become more efficient, the conditions under which men live are vastly ameliorated. Defective individuals and families which could not survive under the conditions of society in earlier periods, are now protected. Through charity, especially, do we interfere with the law of the survival of the fittest, and since society enables the inefficient to survive, society is really responsible for the reproduction of the defective classes. It would seem to be an important function of science to show that the genetic elimination of such families as are generally subject to feeblemindedness, insanity, etc., may be quite as much of a religious duty as the giving of charity to the deficient individuals of these classes. It would seem to be a good function of our racial religion to place the duty of more abundant child bearing on the most efficient classes and the duty of less abundant child bearing on the least efficient classes; that thus, in several generations, the network of descent of the whole race may be developed so as to produce a genetically more efficient people.

There are two genetic facts of stupendous importance which need to be faced squarely, and their relation to human progress should be thought out fearlessly and clearly.

The first is the need of restraining from the function of reproduction the genetically deficient classes and families. Scientists who have studied the heredity of the feeble-minded, the insane, and several other classes of defectives have proof which abundantly warrants the affirmation that individuals who have in their heredity a large percentage of these defective characteristics have no racial right to perpetuate their kind, a large percentage of whom cannot sustain themselves and must be a burden on society. Mendel and his disciples have given a knowledge of unit characters which warrants the belief that, if all persons with a transmissable defective character in their heredity were rendered unproductive, by segregation or otherwise, nearly all of that characteristic could within a few generations be eliminated from the network of human descent.

A study of insanity and feeble-mindedness is resulting in an accumulation of facts which should lead to genetic genealogies of the defective classes and thus to facts upon which to act in the prevention of such unfit marriages as might be expected to result in the birth of feeble-minded or otherwise very defective children. It must be recognized, of course, that the great racial poisons, alcohol and venereal diseases, have stupendous effects and do doubtless contribute to these genetic frailties.

As to the means of reducing to a minimum the production of defective children, there is not room in this brief paper for discussion. Suffice it to say that even in this most difficult part of the problem progress is being made by science. The advantage to society of the elimination of the larger part of these classes which are a great public economic burden and a heart burden on their families, and which contribute greatly to crime, is so stupendous that even extraordinary means would seem justified. As a matter of fact, means devoid of either apparent cruelty or criminality are being sought for this purpose by the numerous scientists who are working along this line.

The second fact needing especial emphasis is the loss of genetic values through war. This fact has been most effectively emphasized by Dr. David Starr Jordan, chairman of the Eugenics Section of the American Breeders Association. The patriotic appeals of war are strongest to the best men. The young men of high school and collegiate age go forward to the conflict at arms with a racial impulse and unity most wonderfully admired by a world in which courage in arms has ever been worshipped. Not only the losses in battle but the diseases in camp also greatly reduce the number of men available for the production of succeeding generations of sound children. If during the last two thousand years wars had destroyed the least efficient of the race, instead of the most efficient, the world would today be far in advance of its present position. And the time has come when those families with the best blood should demand on the one hand that the world be peaceful, and on the other that the best heredity shall be safeguarded, to multiply and possess the earth.

Eugenics will show the city, state, and nation many things which should be changed in the interest of posterity. For example, no one doubts that the farm and the suburban homecroft are the best places for children, that they may develop normally and strongly. No one disputes the fact that in these homes motherhoods condition is such that larger families are practicable. There is neither the enervation of the wealthy home nor the difficulties of the poor home. Here, then, is where the genetically best families should reside, that here the best folks may in the best manner produce the most folks.

The strongest argument for the use of vastly larger sums of public money for good roads in the country and for consolidated rural schools in which scientific farming and farm home making may be successfully taught is the eugenic argument. The country should be made attractive to the best parentage. And it is to the interest both of the city and of the nation that farming be so profitable, farm houses so excellent, and such adjuncts to these homes as roads and schools be so efficient that our best mothers will there find their largest lifes work. From the standpoint of eugenics the state and nation should be the patrons of country life. Our forms of commerce having amassed and deposited too much of the nations wealth in the centers of population, there must be devised ways of redistributing it where it will be used to the best advantage in the production of citizens. Homes should be less heavily taxed. Mothers of splendid genetic power should be endowed by non-public foundations, and even public endowments for this purpose could be justified.

If the genetically least efficient half of the people would have families only sufficient in size to maintain their own numbers and the genetically best half would increase 50 per cent in each generation of forty years, in two hundred years the best would become 88 per cent of the whole. These statements and figures illustrate the fact that the country does and doubtless will and should continue to supply fresh blood to the cities. Neither the city nor the country can afford to receive defective blood from the other; and Dr. Ward has abundantly shown the danger to our nation from the entrance of immigrants who are normal but whose heredity is defective and results in a percentage of defective children.

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