thoughtful persons now hold the view that the race can be improved biologically, rapidly if at all, by the process of educating the individual. Education is cumulative in so far as it builds up a better environment into which other chil Size of the census family in the United States. (Census, 1910, vol. pop. p. 1288.) The term family as used in the census does not mean the natural or biologic family, but a household or group of persons, whether related by blood or not, who share a common abode, usually also sharing the same table. If a person lives alone, he constitutes a family; while on the other hand many people dwelling together in a hotel or institution are also treated as forming a single family. Nevertheless, these figures doubtless reflect a very large proportionate decrease in the average number of children per family, a conclusion corroborated by much other evidence.
dren will be born, but the betterment is not due to the in heritance by the child of the acquired knowledge and skill of the parent. If this question is open to dispute among biologists, it is only as regards a minute increment of im provement. Practically, selection preserves the better varia tions as they appear, and to eliminate the bad variations is the only means of improving the innate capacity of any spe cies in any large measure. Many forces were at work in the past to lift man above the brute, and especially to in crease the average brain-power of the human race. The weak, the ignorant, the incapable, in primitive societies were ruthlessly killed off. The strong, the sagacious, and the en terprising left the largest numbers of descendants.
§ 6. Decrease of the successful elements. Under modern conditions, volitional control is acting with the greatest force in the more capable classes and thus threatens to reduce the quality of the population. The successful elements of society are the less prolific. Large families were the rule among the capable pioneers of America; now they are rare except in the lower industrial ranks. The average number of chil dren reaching maturity in the families of the American colo nists was six ; the average number to-day in families of colo nial ancestry is about two, except in the rural districts of parts of the South and West. Since many of these children do not live to maturity, and of those who do survive many do not marry, the stock does not maintain itself in numbers. Much larger families are found among the poor whites of the mountains, the newly arrived immigrants in the cities, the negroes in the black belt of the South,' and, in general, those in the lower ranks of labor. Forces are at work to sterilize or reduce in number the elements of the population that are more prosperous and enterprising. The "new woman" movement, tempting into "careers," takes away from family life many of the women most worthy to become 2 But not in the other parte of the country, from well recognized causes. See Figure 58.
the mothers of succeeding generations. Self-interest is at war with the social interest. The individual asks, "Am I bound to sacrifice my comfort and happiness to the general good?" The effect of this is a steady decline in the pro portion of the population (referring, of course, only to gen eral averages and not to particular cases) born of the suc cessful strains of stock, and a steady increase of the de scendants of the mediocre and duller-witted elements. This is a paradox, that the fittest to succeed industrially are, by that very fact, beaten in the race for biologic survival.
Democracy and opportunity favor this process of increas ing the mediocre and reducing the excellent strains of stock. Caste and status in the past kept successive generations of capable men in humble social ranks from which only by chance some remarkable individual could rise. In a de mocracy, those of marked ability can more easily move into the better-paid callings and professions. This individual good fortune, however, reduces the probability of offspring. In the higher ranks of business and the professions are more bachelors and old maids than in the lower ranks, and fewer children are born to each marriage. It has been found that one fourth of the graduates of Harvard in the last generation remained single, and the average number of children of the married graduates is two. That group of men, therefore, has left only three fourths enough descendants to maintain its numbers, and as the population has doubled within the same generation, that class represents only three eighths as large a proportion of the American stock as in the preceding gen eration.
§ 7. The menace to progress. This sterilization of abil ity has cumulative results. If society were composed in equal parts of two distinct strains of stock, not intermarrying; if the total population remained unchanged in numbers from one generation to another (say each period of thirty years) but the superior strain contributed only three fourths of its own number, at the end of five generations it would have sunk from one half to a little more than one eighth of the population. A period brief in the life of nations would serve to leave it an almost negligible factor in the community. There can hardly be a doubt that at present our society is on the average increasing more from the less provident, less enterprising, less intelligent classes. There has not yet been time for many of the cumulative effects of this process to appear. Progress is threatened unless social institutions can be so adjusted as to reverse this process of multiplying the poorest and of extinguishing the most capable families. The object of the eugenics movement is to introduce an element of rational direction into the process of perpetuating the race, so that disease, weakness, and degeneracy may be dimin ished, and health, strength, and superior capacity shall be increased.