amongst the highly educated classes many will, we may be sure, continue to make excuses in their own case for the unjustifiable use of contraceptives, their action being in most cases the result of the unconscious promptings of social ambition. The firm belief of the Chinese in the benefits they will derive after death from the prayers of their descendants makes them feel that nothing could be more imprudent than to leave no offspring behind them; and it may well be that this faith, by promoting fertility amongst the more fit, has been one of the main factors which has preserved Chinese civilization from decay for so many centuries. The teachings of Christ ought, however, to produce this same result in a nobler manner. If those who profess to be guided by Christian principles were to act up to their beliefs, the sole aim of their ambition would be the good of mankind. For this object they would be prepared to suffer great things, whilst all such purely selfish aims as might be facilitated by the family being few in number would sink into the background. For a parent to strive to benefit or safeguard his children already born or to be born, is, of course, most laudable; but as class ambition is largely founded on a desire for outward marks of superiority to others, it is an essentially evil motive for limiting the size of the family. In the Great War, parents were very ready to see their children go out to face death for the sake of their country, and surely they ought now to be ready to make far less onerous sacrifices in order to maintain the quality and the quantity of their nation in the future. Let all parents recognize that to limit the family to two in number is to act as if they held that the stock from which they sprang was not worth preserving for their country; let them realize that to remain in ignorance of the effects of their actions of to-day on the welfare of the nation of to-morrow is grossly unpatriotic; let them feel compelled by their religion to seek to benefit not only their neighbours but also all mankind in the future; and the racial safety of their country would then be assured.

SUMMARY

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

413

What we have been studying has been, in fact, the ways in which human surroundings could be so modified as to make the stocks superior in moral, mental and physical qualities multiply more rapidly than their inferiors in civic worth. As regards the birth-rate of the more fit, this could, perhaps, be increased by giving to parents the right to receive a portion of the earnings of their sons if well paid, or by a rearrangement of scales of salaries. High average incomes and falling incomes are, it was seen, associated with a low birth-rate; and a consideration of these apparently contradictory correlations led to the conclusion that stability of economic conditions should be our aim. To take away wealth for any purpose whatever from the childless only of any class would lessen the expenditure on luxuries in that class and would thus increase its rate of multiplication; for it would lessen the difficulties felt by parents belonging to it of living up to the standard which they had in their minds; and this result would be enhanced if the money extracted from the childless were to be distributed amongst the parents in proportion to the number of their offspring. Fertility might be desirably increased in this manner, either by family allowances, or by income tax adjustments, or possibly by State aid to education, subjects to be discussed subsequently. For the following reasons, the future of the race could hardly, however, be adequately safeguarded by means of any such economic reforms as these. The rise in the social scale of members of small families results in the better-paid strata of society being characterized by the same qualities as those which tended to make their parents relatively infertile. Of these qualities, partial sterility is the least important, the mental qualities being those to which most attention should be paid. Not only does the action of the various selective influences which are at work tend to make the well-to-do relatively infertile, but also to make them relatively efficient as well; a dangerous combination which might be combated in one of two ways.

Either a rigid caste system might be

established, thus preventing all transfers between classes, a proposal not to be tolerated; or, on the other hand, equality of opportunity might be as far as possible promoted, for this would tend to prevent the infertile from being more likely to invade the upper social strata because of their infertility. To give to all a more even start in life would certainly be beneficial in many ways; but the resulting tendency to increase the birth-rate of the less fit would have to be counterbalanced by adequate checks on their fertility. The fact that some of the same qualities which promote social success also promote family limitation would, however, in any case result in the better paid being also the more naturally infertile, a selective effect against which equality of opportunity would not be a safeguard. To combat this state of affairs a dual campaign ought to be organized, a propaganda in favour of information concerning contraception being obtainable on demand by all married women, especially amongst the poor, being combined with a strenuous denunciation of undue family limitation amongst all superior stocks. With the aid of this dual campaign and by the introduction of the above-mentioned economic reforms, racial progress without assignable limits would be possible; for by reducing the size of families where poverty forbids an economically independent existence, and by increasing the fertility of the well-to-do, the distribution of both wealth and culture would become more and more uniform; whilst the prosperity of future generations would be slowly but continually increased through a gradual improvement in the inborn qualities of the race. For success thus to be obtained, not only must sacrifices be willingly endured by the successful, but limitations of the rights of parenthood must be imposed, though unwillingly, on the unsuccessful. As regards the more fit, it must come to be widely and deeply felt that it is both immoral and unpatriotic for couples sound in mind and body to limit unduly the size of their families; and failure to create this impression is certain if the attack is not conducted with religious zeal. There ought to be a vigorous moral campaign against a selfish regard for personal comfort and social advance

ment; for these aims must in a measure be sacrificed on the altar of family life if racial progress is to be ensured. If outward display based on wealth came to be less prized, if the young came to think less about costly amusements, if more attention were to be paid to moral and intellectual qualities in the selection of friends, the call of duty in regard to parenthood would be more easily obeyed. We are bound for practical reasons to take the salaries earned by human beings into account when considering their racial values, but the more we base our estimate of our neighbours on their moral qualities, the better will it be for our race in the future. The moralist, unknown to himself, is often a worker in the field of eugenics, and in the long run victory will mainly depend on him.

CHAPTER XXIII

FAMILY ALLOWANCES

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

CERTAIN forms of family allowances are rightly included under the title of public assistance, and it may, therefore, be as well to say a few preliminary words on this more general topic. By the term "public assistance" is here meant all such money as is raised by taxation and then expended for the benefit of, or passed on to, selected individuals. As to the racial effects thus produced on those who are taxed, we have seen reason to believe that taxation does as a rule tend to reduce the birth-rate of the taxed, for a long time at any rate. On the other hand, as to the effect produced by public expenditure on the community generally, in so far as the services rendered are of such a nature that all may receive benefits therefrom, e.g. roads, bridges, parks, public lighting, police, etc., etc., the resulting increase if any in the birth-rate of those thus benefited is probably so small as to be negligible; whilst public expenditure on old age pensions, widows' pensions, orphans, institutional treatment when the sexes are permanently separated, etc., can hardly affect the birth-rate at all. But all expenditure which directly eases the strain of family life certainly does tend both to raise the birth-rate and to lower the death-rate of those whose lot in life is thus improved, and for both these reasons thus to increase their rate of multiplication. Now it must always be members of the more highly paid classes who will suffer a net loss by being taxed for the purpose of public assistance, whilst it is the ill paid who will find family life less onerous in consequence of the receipt of doles; and it therefore follows that expenditure of this nature must