PRACTICAL PROPOSALS

387

sufficiently drastic to cover all that could at first be advocated, even though it would leave wide fields still untouched. A large number of persons would, no doubt, prefer to live in disreputable squalor rather than to apply for public assistance in the face of the consequences here suggested. This would constitute a section of the community far more difficult to deal with from any point of view; for though it is easy enough to lay down rules concerning school attendance and overcrowding, the enforcement of such rules is often almost impossible. Moreover, those endowed with a wild strain in their natures would suffer greatly from being forced into the ruts of civilization, a suffering which everyone would dislike to see inflicted. Rules in regard to education and house accommodation should, nevertheless, be clearly laid down; and if, when they were being broken, warnings were to be issued as to the undesirability of further parenthood, and if any neglect of these warnings were to be treated in the manner proposed in the case of those long in the receipt of public assistance, the results would be highly beneficial to posterity. At all events, some steps should be taken to make it widely felt that to bring such children into the world as are probably destined to live uncivilized lives is a more harmful proceeding and, perhaps, one more easily prevented than to allow such children as have already been born to continue to grow up in squalid surroundings, bad as that may be. It will be urged, no doubt, that it is the impossibility of obtaining houses which is now the main cause of overcrowding. But does not the housing difficulty in most cases merely indicate the impossibility of an economic rent being paid, an impossibility often due to an actual incapacity on the part of the tenant to do work equivalent in value to what is needed to supply a decent dwelling? When this is the case, the balance of the cost must be raised by taxation thrown on those capable of doing more valuable work. And as such taxation has, I believe, the effect of relatively increasing the birth-rate amongst those classes which cannot maintain themselves in decent surroundings without State aid-and very likely will not

do so with that assistance-here we have an example of the way in which modern conditions are producing racial deterioration; conditions which, therefore, ought at all hazards to be so modified as to lessen this evil result. To attempt to solve the housing difficulty by unlimited State aid tends continually to add to that difficulty.

All this sounds very hard, and it is hard; but its hardness is solely due to the fact that in some matters nature is absolutely inflexible. We should remember, however, that if contraception came to be held to be a thoroughly justifiable proceeding under certain conditions, then the only condition which parents in distress would have to face in order to avoid the deterrent disadvantages attached to further parenthood would be the abandonment of such pleasures as might be obtained by bringing into the world more children who they could not themselves adequately support. Liberty would thus be interfered with as little as possible consistent with the interests of the nation as a whole, now and in the future, always being placed in the front rank; for the result of this long discussion is to indicate that it would only be by imposing checks on parenthood at least as severe as those here suggested that the less fit could be made to multiply more slowly than the more fit. It will be said, and very likely with truth, that any such reforms as are here suggested are utterly Utopian. But, if this be so, I hold that to hope to prevent the decay of our civilization is Utopian also.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

If the race is now deteriorating because of the higher rate of multiplication of the less fit, and if, as is certain, further efforts are continually being made to lower the death-rate of these inferior types, the rate at which this deterioration is taking place is probably increasing, and the need for action being taken is becoming more and more urgent. Proposals for dealing with the grossly unfit were dealt with in previous chapters, and here only the less fit have been considered. A study of the causes of the differential birth-rate indicated that the rate of multi

plication of the less fit could only be materially reduced by a reduction in the average size of the families produced by married couples; and for this purpose only continence and contraception could be advocated. Contraception must be tolerated, both because of the misery thus immediately saved and because of the greater probability of its adoption as compared with continence. Birth control has been more practised by the more fit, and it has, therefore, thus far had an injurious effect on the race; but it is probable that any further spread of the knowledge of contraceptive methods would lessen the racial harm now being done. A general admission that contraception is justifiable would be beneficial by making parents feel more responsible in regard to parenthood. The more fit will, however, continue to be more ready to limit the size of their families; and on this account birth control will in the future, as at present, be most practised where least needed. Voluntary birth control cannot, therefore, be relied on to reverse the harmful racial effects of the differential birth-rate. Pressure or compulsion must be applied where needed to promote or enforce family limitation; conclusion which is strengthened by a study of the evolutionary effects of birth control. How can this be effected? If the child of the future has a right to be brought up in decent surroundings, this implies that a duty is thrown on the State to prevent parenthood when this condition is not likely to be fulfilled; a consideration which proves that it is justifiable in the interests of the coming generation to put pressure on parents in regard to parenthood. No one has the right to demand unconditioned public assistance, and the receipt of State or charitable aid for long periods of time constitutes a practical method of selecting those to whom warnings may be given or pressure applied in regard to parenthood. Increasing over-population would show itself in an increase in public assistance; and a system of checks on parenthood dependent on its receipt would act as an automatic regulator of the numbers of the nation. All parents who had for long been in receipt of external aid should be warned against further parent

hood; and when such warnings were neglected, it is suggested that all public assistance should cease. Moreover, it would be beneficial to the race if all families found to be living uncivilized lives, and also increasing in numbers in spite of warnings in regard to parenthood, were to be segregated, unless and until the father consented to be sterilized, when public assistance might be given or renewed. It would not be a large proportion of the population which could thus be directly affected; but the indirect effects might be very great by widely enforcing the idea that parenthood is to be condemned when parents have not a fair prospect of being able without aid to rear another child in decent surroundings. The aim should be to check further births amongst all those whose work is not of sufficient value to cover the cost of maintaining up to a certain standard of civilization a family larger than that which had already been produced; and, although any move in this direction would cause suffering, this would be vastly outweighed by the misery thus saved in future generations. If it were certain that no such reforms could be introduced, then many of us would have to abide in the belief that our civilization is destined slowly to disappear, a belief which would have a disastrous effect on our desire to promote national progress.

CHAPTER XXII

THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE MORE FIT

ECONOMIC METHODS OF PROMOTING FERTILITY

We now pass on to consider the various ways of increasing the rate of multiplication of the more fit, or, as regards certain types, of preventing their slow disappearance, the individuals here considered being all such as are well above the mean in civic worth. It may be as well here to note that if our sole aim were to be the prevention of the actual deterioration of the race, then every increase in the birth-rate of the more fit as the result of eugenic reform would make it by that amount less necessary to decrease the birth-rate of the less fit; for in order to secure a racial equilibrium, all that would be necessary would be to bring down the rate of multiplication of the less fit until it was on a level with the rate then existing amongst the more fit. Thus the difficulty of safeguarding the nation of the future against a decay in civilization would be lightened in all directions by any increase which could be made in the birth-rate of the more fit; whilst to strive to produce this result without reference to the less fit would obviously be the right policy to pursue when looking to the higher aim of actually improving the lot of mankind in the future.

To reduce the death-rate of the more fit would, no doubt, help to promote racial progress; but as the efforts which are now being made in this direction would hardly be stimulated by any mere eugenic arguments in their favour, we may, as in the case of the less fit, confine our attention to the factors affecting the birth-rate. And here again our survey may be based on the various explanations which were given in Chapter XIX of the differential