7. The development of social castes, particularly when membership becomes a matter of birth-right, works harm in two ways. First, it checks and nullifies ambition on the part of gifted members of the lower groups. Second, it maintains in positions of power and responsibility those who are often unfit. The opponents of this argument maintain that in the long run the able members of the lower groups are taken into the higher and thus no real harm is done. As proof they cite the fact that the nobles in all countries are short lived. Thus, De Chateauneuf claims that in France such families seldom last over ten generations, or 300 years. Among 280 houses he found only 20 which pass the title uninterruptedly 9 or 10 times to the first born. Among the Nobles of the Robe the average family life was 230 years. The same general situation is true also of England and Germany.

8. That modern industry is accompanied by an enormous number of accidents is true. That it has produced new types of diseases due to the poisonous nature of substances used such as lead and sulphur, that work such as tunneling under rivers has given us the "caisson disease" is true. That sudden changes of temperature resulting from work in iron furnaces and the exposure to outer air has furnished favorable soil for tuberculosis and pneumonia admits of no doubt. It is alleged further that progressive degeneration of the working class is going on. As proof we are reminded that the English have had to lessen the army entrance requirements several times in the last century; that recruiting stations in the industrial districts of Pennsylvania at the time of the Spanish war were closed because the applicants could not pass the tests. These are unquestioned facts. If the inference is

10 REIBMAYR, A. Inzucht und Vermischung, pp. 261 ff.

also true, our civilization is threatened with a slow process of suicide.

9. Much weight is also laid upon the increase in all civilized lands of suicide. Here the evidence is striking. In 13 European states, there was an increase from 104 per million in 1868 to 134 per million in 1882.

2

6.4

6.6

5,9

5.6

1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 INCREASE IN SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE IN REGISTRATION AREA OF U. S. RATE PER 100,000 OF POPULATION

Mention has already been made of a real or apparent increase in the number of the insane and the claim has been made that this amounts to 100 per cent per decade. In the state of Michigan in the years 1890-91 for each

10,000 of the population there were 17.44 treated in the State Hospitals; in 1900-01, 20.63; in 1914–15, 30.19; the actual number treated having increased from 3,652 to 8,955. In Europe similar claims are made. In spite of the fact that the English commission reported a decided increase in the number of the feeble-minded, and the prevalent belief that the same holds true here, there is room for doubt. We recognize and treat many cases of mental defect and disease that would have passed unnoticed a generation ago and our institutional provision is so much better that we probably treat a larger percentage of those needing treatment. If it could be shown that present conditions of life and labor were causing the mental breakdown of the people the outlook would be more serious. We know that much of insanity is the result of vice, alcoholism, worry and disease, and these are not necessarily the accompaniments of civilization.

10. More and more thoughtful students are coming to realize that the institution of private property with the right of the inheritance thereof is profoundly affecting our whole life. With the disappearance of free land our social system is being changed. With the concentration of wealth in a few hands the opportunities of the propertyless are radically modified. It has been claimed that the richest one per cent of the people receive a larger income than the poorest fifty per cent. It is argued that this is changing the race stock.

We have now surveyed hurriedly most of the indictment brought against civilization. A little reflection will show that this may be summed up under four heads. (1) Invention is checking favorable variations and creating an artificial rather than a natural condition. (2) Science and philanthropy are preserving unfavorable types which

tend to reproduce faster than the superior and will in time therefore drive out the better. (3) Social arrangements have destroyed the struggle for existence on which progress depends. (4) Civilization is destroying itself.

It is apparent to the careful reader that a large part of the indictment is based upon an older biology which, as has been shown, is no longer accepted by biologists. It may be that the eye will not become better adapted to the newer tasks and will not improve. But we now know that new uses have never caused favorable variations. Variations are not dependent upon use. We have a thumb which may be made to oppose the other fingers and to this fact we owe much of the value of our hands. is no reason to assume that the attempt of early animals to cause such an opposition of thumb and fingers produced the variation. In fact, we know nothing of the cause of variations, but it is certain that use and disuse are not responsible.

There

In like manner there is no reason to assume that modern industrial conditions, admitting the worst that can be said as to their responsibility for accident and disease, are causing a progressive degeneration of the race stock. This cannot be construed into an argument for permitting bad working conditions which injure workers. It is merely a recognition that the problem belongs in the realm of the environment, not in that of heredity. In other words, if the sons of the crippled and diseased miners and toilers about whom England has recently been concerned are put under good living conditions they will display the same old vigorous stock which was the pride of the country. Australia, Canada and America are but illustrations of what a good environment will do for good stock.

We are not here concerned with the question as to

whether the weaklings should be cared for or destroyed. We do recognize frankly that the forms of degeneracy due to heredity, like feeble-mindedness, should be eliminated from the ranks of parents and here biology has a positive suggestion which society cannot long ignore.

In a word there is in most of the argument against civilization a confusion of cause and effect. There is no good reason for believing that the race stock has changed either for the better or the worse in thousands of years. Because we are better fed and live under better conditions we are larger and stronger than our ancestors. Few men of today could even get in the armor of the knights of a few centuries ago. Because we are better cared for we have doubled the length of life on the average and population has tremendously increased. Because we care for the sick and crippled they too survive. When we choose to eliminate the few types of undoubted degenerates whom we have foolishly allowed to reproduce we shall then see more clearly that the great problems of society are created by society; that is, they are the results of social programs which have not brought the greatest good to the greatest number, and this we may assert without quibbling as to the responsibility of the individual man or woman. Sound morals depend on sound brains, plus, let it not be forgotten, sound training.

SUGGESTIONS FOR READING

BERTILLON, J. Depopulation de la France. 1897.

CATTELL, J. MCKEEN. The Diminishing Family. The Independent, September 27, 1915.

DRYSDALE, C. V. The Small Family System. 1914.

DUNCAN, J. M. Fecundity, Fertility and Sterility. 1871.

ELLIS, H. The Problem of Race Regeneration. 1911.

Faculty of Actuaries, Transactions of the, 1912.