mankind. And this means that four-fifths of the total latent possibility of every generation that should have enriched the world is lost and wasted.13 Could the handicaps that are upon these lives be removed, could their innate possibilities be developed, there is reason to believe that they would grow up tall and straight and might make a valuable contribution to the wealth of society. The people who make up this disinherited and unfit class, the people of the slums and the victims of poverty, the people who are mal-endowed and whose opportunities in life are few, are made of the same human clay as their inheriting and successful brothers, who possess opportunities and reach the upper heights of character. These defective and unfit men and women are human souls with normal minds, "susceptible, if surrounded by the same influences, of becoming as capable and intelligent people as any." 14 But from one cause and another it comes about that many of these people are under a heavy handicap all their life through, and hence are unable to compete with their more fortunate fellows on terms of fair equality. And yet these people possess the same human nature as their more fortunate brothers-they are made of the same clay and not foredoomed in the decree of God-and under different circumstances they also might stand upon their feet and become agents of civilization and contribute their share to human achievement.

The time is coming, and now is, when men will no longer refuse to accept these things as a matter of course and to charge them up against some mysterious providence. The time is coming, and now is, when men must search into the causes of these things and must resolutely refuse to be frightened off in this inquiry. The time has already come when men are prepared to say that it is not necessary, either in the will of God or in the nature of things, that there should be so many mal-endowed and deformed lives who are unfitted for any large and worthy place in society. The time has arrived when it is no longer possible to charge up these things to the sovereign and inscrutable decree of

18 Ward, Applied Sociology, Part II, chap. x.

14 Ward, ibid., Part III, chap. xiii.

God or to the mysterious and haphazard operations of Nature. There remains only one other cause and influence to be investigated and this is the human cause and the social influence. The time has come when society itself must be investigated, that we may know how far society is responsible for the burdens that society has to bear. The time has come when man himself must be placed upon the witness stand that we may know how far he has contributed toward these tragic results.

man.

change.

4. The moment we begin to deal with life in its human causes and conditions we find that there are three factors that enter into the making of every life, heredity, environment, and individual initiative. The time is coming when these factors should be fully considered, each by itself, and all in their relation to one another, that we may know their bearing upon the life of This much is evident to every observer, that this third factor, while it may be the most potent in its operation, is yet the last to appear in life. The other two factors have done their work, in part at least, before the third factor appears and have settled forever a thousand things in every man's life. Through the factor of heredity the life has already received a definite impress, and five hundred things are determined beyond hope of Through the other factor of environment five hundred other things are settled beyond the power of individual choice to touch. It is too early in the day for anyone to explain the whole meaning and potency of these factors, but already some things are becoming clear. It is evident, for one thing, that this factor of heredity is a kind of environment and does much to determine the form of the life before its birth into the world. The fact is also this factor of heredity performs a kind of transmissive function, so far as life is concerned, and not an originative function; human life in virtue of the fact that it is human marked differences that appear in the life are due, first, to the factor of heredity which receives the life at its incipient prenatal stages and gives it a certain quality and bent; later, these differences are due to environment which molds the life at its postnatal human stages and determines its direction and condition.

It is not the will of God that so many lives should come into the world-damned into it, in the strong phrase of Robert Southforedoomed from birth to be broken and disinherited. It is not necessary in the nature of things that so many lives should be blighted before their innate possibilities have had time to unfold. This means that the unfortunate results that we find in society must be charged up against the factors through which the life is made and shaped; that is, both man and society are responsible, through the factors of heredity and environment, all along the line of life, for the disfigured and deformed lives that exist. This brings us face to face with these factors of heredity and environment and lays upon society the obligation of understanding their significance and of subsidizing them in the interests of race progress.

In the prosecution of its task of preventing the multiplication of the unfit and of promoting human progress society must give great attention to this factor of heredity, far greater attention, in fact, than has yet been given to it. In the light of the warnings of the scientist and the sociologist society must safeguard its interests and must guarantee that the mal-endowed and unfit shall not be allowed to remain the unfit and to perpetuate after their kind. And in the light of the new methods of science and sociology which go back of results to causes themselves, we must deal with the factors that enter into the making of life and determine the form which it shall assume. A most encouraging beginning has been made in this direction and some suggested inquiries have been started. Thus this factor of heredity has been investigated and some valuable books on the subject have been written. But recently it has been considered in its relation to social welfare, and a new science has been born, that of eugenics. In the words of its most distinguished exponent:

Eugenics deals with what is more valuable than money or lands, namely, the heritage of a high character, capable brains, fine physique and vigor; in short, with all that is most desirable for a family to possess as a birth right. It aims at the evolution and preservation of high races of men, and it as well deserves to be strictly enforced as a religious duty."

15 Galton, American Journal of Sociology, July, 1905.

There are several lines along which man and society may move in the fulfilment of this duty of multiplying the proportion of qualified lives. It is too early to discuss these things in detail, but some valuable suggestions will be found in the paper of Francis Galton himself, and in the discussion by members of the Sociological Society. The improvement of the race can be brought about, for one thing, by encouraging the reproduction of the fit. Various causes, as Galton has shown in his various writings, have contributed to hinder the multiplication of the fit, and among these may be named war, sacerdotal celibacy, and a false social sentiment with respect to the number of children. The lessening of the number of the unfit may be brought about by segregation to some extent carried on at present-which in some measure shall check the reproduction of the unfit. Society must insist upon a more intelligent and rigorous segregation of the mal-endowed and defective, and must provide that where the parties to a marriage are unfit for the parental responsibility and the begetting of normally endowed children that no such union shall be permitted. In a small way society recognizes its duty in this direction today, and in every civilized land homes and asylums are provided for the feeble minded and the insane. Here these persons are cared for and an effort is made to help them and to prepare them for claiming and resuming their place in society. But society must be more rigid in its paternal care, and must provide "that where both stocks are heavily tainted," says Havelock Ellis, "and both tainted in the same direction, it ought to be generally felt that union for purposes of procreation is out of the question." "I think that the doctor ought to have a voice in every marriage which is contracted," says Dr. Westermarck.16

But beyond this society can do much by the creation of an enlightened and militant public opinion. Thus far in the history of man, as Dr. Westermarck says, little attention has been given to the creation of a moral sentiment with reference to marriage. There is hardly any point in which the moral consciousness of civilized man stands in greater need of intellectual American Journal of Sociology, September, 1905.

training than in the judgments which men pass upon the want of foresight or care in the selection of a life partner. "Much progress has been made in this respect in the course of evolution, and it would be absurd to believe that we have yet reached the end of this process. It would be absurd to believe that men would forever leave to individual caprice the performance of the most important, and in its consequences the most far reaching function which has fallen to the lot of mankind." "There ought to be a social conscience in such matters," says Havelock Ellis. This public opinion will strongly condemn the output of children by diseased and intemperate men and women, and will make them bear the shame of their misdeeds. We may not agree with Dr. G. Archdale Reid, in all of his conclusions, but he is unquestionably right in the conviction that "there can be no hope of amendment except through an enlightened public opinion, which will forbid the output of children from families in which any taint of mental unsoundness has appeared." 17 Public opinion can do much in other directions in creating a higher sense of parental responsibility which shall hold parents to a rigid account for those whom they bring into the world. The time is coming, and already now is, when we must cease talking of delinquent children and must begin to talk of delinquent parents. The time is coming, and now is, when the man and the woman who would enter the marriage relation must prove that they are mentally and morally and physically fit to be intrusted with the responsibility of marriage and consequent parenthood.

In a word, there are two propositions-axioms they should be called-which men must recognize and apply in all their bearings. Every child has the right to be well born, to have decent, clean, untainted, well-endowed parents. Every child has the right to a good fair start in life, with unpoisoned blood and average endowment. These propositions-they will be accepted as axioms some day-must be followed out to their ultimate conclusions, and religion and science, public opinion and social 17 The Independent, February 15, 1906.