In promoting such reforms it must, however, continually be borne in mind that the resulting increase in the fertility of the poor and of the less fit would be a serious evil, which ought to be obviated by the introduction of adequate safeguards. How can this be accomplished? Let us assume that the lowest wage which would enable a bachelor to live up to the lowest standard of life held to be tolerable had been authoritatively laid down, and that it had been enacted that in no case might the contributions to a family allowance pool exceed a certain percentage of the excess of each man's earnings over and above this minimum wage. In these circumstances no pool could be created in an industry in which the wages were below this minimum, and no stimulus to fertility could be produced in this manner. And surely where wages are as low as this, no one would wish artificially to increase the size of the family if marriages do take place; whilst as to the inevitable distress felt by such families, it had better be relieved by public assistance accompanied by those checks on further fertility which have already been suggested. Then as to dealing with industries in which wages are but little above the tolerated minimum, a fixed minimum allowance per child might also be decided on; and where the pool was not large enough to cover allowances for more than two children in any one family, for example, then only two children should receive allowances. This would cause a material check on fertility where wages were low; and when after this unmistakable warning distress did arise through the appearance of more than two children, it should also be dealt with by public assistance, accompanied by drastic checks on fertility. In the case of nearly all such schemes, and in spite of these precautions, objections might yet be rightly raised on the ground that where earnings differ widely in the same occupational group, there the more intelligent and better-paid workers would be contributing to promote the fertility of their idle, drunken or inefficient comrades. To meet this objection it would doubtless be necessary not to allow payments to be made to any individual out of the pool for more than a limited time after his payments

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into it had ceased; for the pool could not and should not be made the source from which would flow perpetual unemployment doles. Moreover, there would be no difficulty in making the allowances to parents vary in amount, not only with the number of their children, but also in some degree with the amount of their payments into the pool at the time being. This would ensure that the contributors would always feel to a material extent that greatest of all incentives to industry, the knowledge that by their exertions they would be benefiting their family. Indeed, by means of some such plan as this, a universal system of family allowances might be organized which would be open to no special objections on racial grounds; but as one of the greatest merits of contributory systems of allowances is that they could be introduced gradually and experimentally, without causing jealousy amongst other classes, these wider possibilities had better not now be considered. In any case, it is not intended here to attempt to frame the rules of contributory systems of allowances but merely to point out that they could be introduced in such a manner as to do no racial injury, provided that, when made applicable to the ill paid, they were accompanied by really effective checks on fertility. Eugenists should at first concentrate their efforts on urging on the Government the desirability of organizing contributory systems of family allowances in all the public services where the scale of wages indicates that, both on financial and racial grounds, the fertility of the employees might be increased with advantage; whilst trusting that the merits of this system would in time result in its being privately organized in all fairly well-paid industries, thus, it is hoped, slowly increasing the numbers of efficient and contented citizens in future generations.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Public assistance tends to increase the rate of multiplication of nearly all of those who are thus benefited, and thus to produce harmful results on all future generations. By promoting racial deterioration, philanthropy in fact perpetuates in the future the very evils which it

alleviates to-day. Non-contributory family allowance systems, that is those for which the State supplies all the funds, would be a form of public assistance and would be accompanied by all the benefits and all the evils which result from the relief of distress out of public funds. A small minority might be set on their feet by family allowances and thus be led to limit the size of their families; but as regards the great majority, a study of all relevant correlations and of all the probabilities of the case points to the conclusion that their fertility would be increased by family allowances. Non-contributory schemes, which would probably be applied only to the poorest classes, must, therefore, on the whole stand condemned; for even with adequate checks on the fertility of the less fit, it would be best to trust to public assistance, wisely administered, when attempting to alleviate distress due to poverty. Contributory allowances, with the funds all supplied by the beneficiaries, had best be organized amongst groups of employees similarly occupied, and this system would have the same advantages as noncontributory systems; namely, in making family incomes increase with family needs, in thus improving the welfare of large families, and in facilitating the adoption of equal pay for men and women. As to the racial effects, contributory allowances would make for equality of opportunity, thus giving large and fertile families a more even chance of winning social promotion; whilst they would increase fertility more than would non-contributory systems. Their effect on fertility would be harmful as regards the less fit; but it would at all events be possible to introduce racial safeguards which would make these allowances on the whole beneficial even when applied to the poorest classes. As to the better-paid strata, the fertility of the naturally prudent would thus be more affected than would be that of the naturally imprudent, with beneficial racial effects. Contributory schemes should, therefore, be introduced by the Government into all public services, and should be privately organized in all professions and well-paid employments. Taking all these facts into consideration, it appears to me that

contributory family allowances, duly safeguarded, form the best of all economic methods of promoting the fertility of the more fit.

In spite of all these logical arguments, it will doubtless be urged, and with much cogency, that it is the poorest classes which are most in need of allowances for their families, and that the necessary funds should be drawn from the pockets of the better paid, because they can better afford it. If these views prevailed, family allowance systems would only be introduced in the case of ill-paid occupations, and their birth-rate would be increased in consequence; whilst the necessary increase in taxation on the better-paid would decrease their fertility, at all events as an immediate result. The day labourer would have more offspring, and the artisan would have less; this being an effect the opposite to that which is desirable. Family allowance systems, if introduced without regard to these consequences, might have grievous results. But even if this conclusion be admitted, yet on the other hand it may be urged with truth that, as Miss Rathbone has said, by means of some such system a hand might be kept by the State on the tiller of maternity; and the eugenist must consider whether, in place of merely opposing this reform, it would not be wiser to endeavour to ensure that the tiller of maternity is turned in the right direction. If contributory family allowances were to be organized amongst all classes so that the allowances received always varied more or less in accordance with the payments made by the parents, and also if, as an integral part of the reform, effective measures were introduced of such a nature as to decrease the output of such children as would be both an immediate burden on the community and an ultimate damage to the qualities of the nation, then such a reform might prove to be of enormous benefit to the race. A system of allowances thus safeguarded will, however, never be introduced until it is widely recognized that all men are not born equal, and until our rulers have acquired some elementary knowledge of the laws of natural inheritance. Can the public and our legislators be educated up to that pitch? That is the question.

CHAPTER XXIV

INCOME TAX AND STATE AID FOR EDUCATION

INCOME TAX. ALLOWANCES FOR CHILDREN

IT has been seen, for reasons which need not be repeated, that if money is taken from the childless and distributed amongst parents in proportion to the number of their children, the result will be an increase in the fertility of the social stratum thus dealt with. Now such a transference can be brought about, and such an increase in fertility can, therefore, be produced, through the agency of a tax on incomes; for, looking to each economic stratum separately, it would obviously be possible to impose a tax on the incomes of the childless which would exactly balance any remission of taxation simultaneously granted to parents as such. The adoption of a system of income tax allowances for children in one social class need, therefore, neither increase nor decrease the burden of taxation falling on any other section of the community. In fact, the claims of parents as such for any remission of taxation ought to be considered apart from all questions connected with the distribution of taxation amongst the different economic strata; for a tax on incomes can be increased, over and above what is necessary to cover any allowances made for children in the same social stratum, to any extent and for any purpose whatever.

It is also unnecessary here to repeat the arguments in favour of the belief that such a stimulus to fertility amongst a class all drawing a fair income would be eugenic in its results. As a class, and with relatively few exceptions, income tax payers owe their position to the hard work, forethought and self-restraint of themselves and their ancestors; and these are qualities which will in a measure