{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_35417/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_35417","id":"gutenberg_35417","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35417","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - American","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","Eugenics","Eugenics -- United States","Euthenics -- United States"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Art of Life Series\n\n\n_The Super Race_\n\n\n\n\n  THE ART OF LIFE SERIES\n\n  _Edward Howard Griggs, Editor_\n\n\n  The Super Race\n\n  AN AMERICAN PROBLEM\n\n\n  BY SCOTT NEARING, Ph.D.\n\n  WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA\n  AUTHOR OF \"SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT,\" ETC.\n\n\n  NEW YORK\n  B. W. HUEBSCH\n  1919\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1912, by B. W. HUEBSCH\n\n  First printing, May, 1912\n  Second printing, May, 1919\n\n\n  PRINTED IN U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\nTO THE MOTHERS AND FATHERS OF THE SUPER RACE\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nFor ages men have sought to perpetuate their memories in enduring\nmonuments of brass and of stone. Yet, in their efforts to build lasting\nmemorials they have neglected the most enduring monument of all--the\nMonument of Posterity. These farseeing ones have overlooked their real\nopportunity; for in posterity--in the achievements of their children's\nchildren, men may best hope to reflect a lasting greatness.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                                     PAGE\n\n    I THE CALL OF THE SUPER RACE                                13\n\n   II EUGENICS--THE SCIENCE OF RACE CULTURE                     26\n\n  III SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT--THE SCIENCE OF MOLDING INSTITUTIONS    44\n\n   IV EDUCATION--THE SCIENCE OF INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT          55\n\n    V THE AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY                                  75\n\n\n\n\n_The Super Race_\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE CALL OF THE SUPER RACE\n\n\nAs a very small boy, I distinctly remember that stories of the discovery\nof America and Australia, of the exploration of Central Africa and of the\ninvention of the locomotive, the steamboat, and the telegraph made a deep\nimpression on my childish mind; and I shall never forget going one day to\nmy mother and saying:--\n\n\"Oh, dear, I wish I had been born before everything was discovered and\ninvented. Now, there is nothing left for me to do.\"\n\nBrooding over it, and wondering why it should be so, my boyish soul felt\ndeeply the tragedy of being born into an uneventful age. I fully believed\nthat the great achievements of the world were in the past. Imagine then my\njoy when, in the course of my later studies, it slowly dawned upon me\nthat the age in which I lived was, after all, an age of unparalleled\nactivity. I saw the much vaunted discoveries and inventions of by-gone\ndays in their true proportions. They no longer preempted the whole\nworld--present and future, as well as past, but, freed from romance, they\nranged themselves in the form of a foundation upon which the structure of\ncivilization is building. The successive steps in human achievement, from\nthe use of fire to the harnessing of electricity, constituted a process of\nevolution creating \"a stage where every man must play his part\"--a part\nexpanding and broadening with each succeeding generation; and I saw that I\nhad a place among the actors in this play of progress. The forward steps\nof the past need not, and would not prevent me from achieving in the\npresent--nay, they might even make a place, if I could but find it, for my\nfeet; they might hold up my hands, and place within my grasp the keen\ntools with which I should do my work.\n\nThe school boy, passing from an attitude of contemplation and wonder\nbefore the things of the past into an attitude of active recognition of\nthe necessities of the present, passed through the evolutionary process of\nthe race. The savage, Sir Henry Maine tells us, lives in a state of abject\nfear, bound hand and foot by the sayings and doings of his ancestors and\nblinded by the terrors of nature. The lightning flashes, and the untutored\nmind, trembling, bows before the wrath of a jealous God; the harvest\nfails, and the savage humbly submits to the vengeance of an incensed\ndeity; pestilence destroys the people, and the primitive man sees in this\ncatastrophe a punishment inflicted on him for his failure to propitiate an\nexacting spirit--in these and a thousand other ways uncivilized peoples\naccept the phenomena in which nature displays her power, as the expressed\nwill of an omnipotent being. One course alone is open to them; they must\nbow down before the unknown, accepting as inevitable those forces which\nthey neither can understand nor conquer.\n\nCivilization has meant enlightenment and achievement. In lightning,\nFranklin saw a potent giant which he enslaved for the service of man; in\nfamine, Burbank discovered a lack of proper adjustment between the soil\nand the crops that men were cultivating--thereupon he produced a wheat\nthat would thrive on an annual rainfall of twelve inches; in pestilence,\nPasteur recognized the ravages of an organism which he prepared to study\nand destroy. Lightning, famine and pestilence are, to the primitive man,\nthe threatening of a wrathful god; but to the progressive thinker they are\nmerely forces which must be utilized or counteracted in the work of human\nachievement.\n\nAs a boy, I believed my opportunities to be limited by the achievements of\nthe past. As a man, I see in these past achievements not hindrances, but\nthe foundation stones which the past has laid down, upon which the present\nmust build, in order that the future may erect the perfected structure of\na higher civilization. I see all of this clearly, and I see one thing\nmore. In the old days which I had erstwhile envied, one event of world\nimport might have been chronicled for each decade, but in the nineteenth\nand twentieth centuries, such an event may be chronicled for each year, or\nmonth or even for each day. The achievements of the past were noteworthy:\nthese of the present are stupendous.\n\nThe process of social evolution reveals itself in these progressive steps.\nBecause the past has built, the present is building--building in order\nthat the future may stand higher in its realization of potential life. The\npast was an age of uncertain, hesitating advance. The present, an age of\ndynamic achievement, leads on into the future of human development.\n\nIn the twentieth century:\n\n     1. Knowledge provides a basis for activity.\n\n     2. The social atmosphere palpitates with enthusiastic resolve and\n     abounds in noble endeavor.\n\n     3. There is work for each one to perform.\n\nThe despondent boy has thus evolved into the enthusiastic worker whose\nwatchword is \"Forward!\"--forward towards a new goal, whose very existence\nis made attainable through the achievements of the past: a goal before\nwhich the triumphs of bygone ages pale into insignificance.\n\nThe past worked with things. Pyramids were built, cities constructed,\nmountains tunneled, trade augmented, fortunes amassed. Hear Ruskin's\ncomment on this devotion to material wealth: \"Nevertheless, it is open, I\nrepeat, to serious question, ... whether, among national manufactures,\nthat of souls of a good quality may not at last turn out a quite lucrative\none. Nay, in some far-away and yet undreamed of hour, I can even imagine\nthat England ... as a Christian mother, may at last attain to the virtues\nand the treasures of a heathen one, and be able to lead forth her sons,\nsaying: 'These are my jewels.'\"[1]\n\nThe past worked with things: the future, rising higher in the scale of\ncivilization, must work with men--with the plastic, living clay of\nhumanity. As Solomon long ago said, \"He that ruleth his own spirit is\ngreater than he that taketh a city.\" The men of the past built cities and\ntook them. They brought the forces of nature into subjection and remodeled\nthe world as a living place for humanity, yet, save for a shadow in Rome\nand an echo from Greece, there is scarcely a trace in history of a\nconsistent attempt to evolve nobler men.\n\nMaterial objects have cost the nations untold effort, but human fiber--the\nlife blood of nations--has been overlooked or forgotten. The world is\nweary of this emphasis on things and this forgetfulness of men; the ether\ntrembles with the clamor for manhood. The fields, white to harvest, are\nawaiting the laborers who, building on the discoveries and inventions of\nthings in the past, will so mold the human clay of the present that the\nfuture may boast a society of men and women possessing the qualities of\nthe Super Race.\n\nWhat is a Super Race? Nothing more nor less than a race representing, in\nthe aggregate, the qualities of the Super Man--the qualities which enable\none possessing them to live what Herbert Spencer described so luminously\nas a \"complete life,\" namely,--\n\n  1. Physical normality.\n  2. Mental capacity.\n  3. Concentration.\n  4. Aggressiveness.\n  5. Sympathy.\n  6. Vision.\n\nThese characteristics of the Super Man express themselves in his activity:\n\n  1. Physical normality provides energy.\n  2. Mental capacity gives mental grasp.\n  3. Aggressiveness. }\n                     } produce efficiency.\n  4. Concentration.  }\n  5. Sympathy leads to harmony with things and cooperation with men.\n  6. Vision shows itself in ideals.\n\nThe energy to do; and the mental grasp to appreciate; together with the\ncapacity to choose efficiently, furnish the basis for achievement.\nAchievement, however, is not in itself a guarantee of worth unless its\ncourse is shaped by sympathy and directed toward a goal which is\ndetermined by the prophetic power of vision. Such are the characteristics\nwhich, combined in one individual, insure completeness of life. About\nthem, philosophers have reasoned and poets have sung. They are the acme of\nhuman perfection--the ideal of individual attainment.\n\nThough they have been thus idealized, these qualities are not new. They\nhave existed for ages, as they exist to-day, occasionally combined in one\nindividual but usually appearing separately in members of the social\ngroup. They form part of the heritage of the human race, and in spite of\nneglect and lack of fostering, they are widespread in all sections of the\npopulation. The production of a race of men and women, a great majority of\nwhom shall possess these qualities, will mean the next great step in human\nachievement.\n\nThe Super Man has lived for ages. The Greeks traced the descent of their\nheroes and heroines--their Super Men--from the Gods. It was thus that\nthey explained exceptional ability. Exceptional men live to-day, as they\ndid in ancient Greece, directing the thought and work of the times. They\npossess the qualities of the Super Man--physical normality, mental\ncapacity, aggressiveness, concentration, sympathy and vision; and, above\nall, we now understand that they are not the offspring of the gods, but\nthe sons of men and women whose combined parental qualities inevitably\nproduced Super Men. The Super Man is not a theory, nor an accident, but a\nnatural product of natural conditions.\n\nThough the Super Man may be met with occasionally in modern society, and\nthough the qualities ascribed to him are manifest everywhere among those\nwho have had an opportunity for their development; opinions still differ\nas to the possibility of producing a Super Race. An even greater\ndifference of opinion is encountered when an attempt is made to formulate\nthe means which should be adopted to secure such an end; yet there can be\nlittle difference of opinion as to the desirability, from a national as\nwell as from an individual standpoint, of creating a race of Super Men.\n\nThe call of the present age for a Super Race is thus voiced by Yeats,[2]\n\n  \"O Silver Trumpets! Be you lifted up,\n  And cry to the great race that is to come.\n  Long throated swans, amid the Waves of Time,\n  Sing loudly, for beyond the wall of the World\n  It waits, and it may hear and come to us.\"\n\nWe long for the coming of the Super Race. We aim toward this goal. Can it\nbe compassed in finite time? Is Nietzsche right when he says,--\"I teach\nyou beyond-man.\" \"All beings hitherto have created something beyond\nthemselves.\" \"What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.\"\n\"Not whence ye come, be your honor in the future, but whither ye go!\" \"In\nyour children ye shall make amends for being your father's children. Thus\nye shall redeem all that is past.\"[3]\n\nShall we make amends to the future? Come, then, let us reason together\nconcerning the measures which must be adopted to raise the standard of\nsucceeding generations. There are three means which lie ready at hand:\nthree sciences which lend themselves to our task: three tools with which\nwe may shape the Super Race. They are:\n\n     1. Eugenics--The science of race culture.\n\n     2. Social adjustment--The science of molding institutions.\n\n     3. Education--The science of individual development.\n\nThe science of Eugenics treats of those forces which, through the biologic\nprocesses of heredity, may be relied upon to provide the inherited\nqualities of the Super Race. The science of Social Adjustment treats of\nthose forces which, through the modification of social institutions, may\nbe relied upon to provide a congenial environment for the Super Race. The\nscience of Education aims to assist the child in unfolding and developing\nthe hereditary qualities of the Super Man, provided through eugenic\nguarantees. Hence, Eugenics, Social Adjustment and Education are sciences,\nthe mastery of which is a pre-requisite to the development of the Super\nRace.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nEUGENICS--THE SCIENCE OF RACE CULTURE\n\n\nThe object of Eugenics is the conscious improvement of the human race by\nthe application of the laws of heredity to human mating. Eugenics is the\nlogical fruition of the progress in biologic science made during the\nnineteenth century.\n\nThe laws of heredity, studied in minute detail, have been applied with\nmarvelous success in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. \"Is there any good\nreason,\" demands the eugenist, \"why the formulas which have operated to\nre-combine the physical properties of plants and animals, should not in\nlike measure operate to modify the physical properties of men and women?\"\n\nThe studies which have been made of eye color, length of arm, head shape,\nand other physical traits show that the same laws of heredity which apply\nin the animal and vegetable kingdoms apply as well in the kingdom of man.\nSince the species of plants and animals with which man has experimented\nhave been improved by selective breeding, there seems to be no good reason\nwhy the human race should not be susceptible of similar improvement. What\nintelligent farmer sows blighted potatoes? Where is the dog fancier who\nwould strive to rear a St. Bernard from a mongrel dam? Neither yesterday\nnor yet to-morrow do men gather grapes of thorns. Those who have to do\nwith life in any form, aware of this fact, refuse to permit propagation\nexcept among the best members of a species: hence with each succeeding\ngeneration the ox increases in size and strength; the apple in color; the\nsweet pea in perfume; and the horse in speed. Is this law of improving\nspecies a universal law? Alas, no! it rarely if ever applies in the\nselection of men and women for parenthood. The human species has not,\nduring historic times, improved either in physique, in mental capacity, in\naggressiveness, in concentration, in sympathy or in vision. Nay, there\nare not wanting thoughtful students who affirm that in almost every one of\nthese respects the exact contrary holds true.\n\nThere appears to be some question as to whether the best of the Greek\nathletes exceeded in strength and skill the modern professional athlete,\nbut there is no doubt at all that the average citizen of Athens was a more\nperfect specimen physically than the average citizen of twentieth century\nAmerica.\n\nSome students insist that the level of intellectual capacity has been\nraised, yet Galton, after a careful survey of the field, concludes in his\n_Hereditary Genius_ that the average citizen of Athens was at least two\ndegrees higher in the scale of intellectual attainment than the average\nEnglishman; Carl Snyder[4] boldly maintains that the intellectual ability\nof scientific men is less to-day than it was in past centuries; while Mrs.\nMartin,[5] in a study more novel than scientific, insists that the genius\nof the modern world is on a level distinctly below that of the genius of\nGreece.\n\nPerhaps American commercial aggressiveness is equal to the military\naggressiveness of the Romans, the early Germans, and the followers of\nAttila. We have concentrated most of our efforts upon industry, yet even\nhere, our concentration is no greater than that of the poets of the\nElizabethan era, or the religious zealots of the Middle Ages. Our sympathy\nwith beauty is at so low an ebb that we fail even to approach the standard\nof past ages. Neither in art, in sculpture, nor in poetry do our\nachievements compare with those of the earlier Mediterranean\ncivilizations; while our knowledge of men as revealed in our literature is\nnot above that of the Romans or the Athenians. As for vision, we still\naccept and strive to fulfill the commandments of the Prophet of Nazareth.\nIn all of these fields, twentieth century America is equaled, if not\noutdone by the past.\n\nThus the distinctive qualities of the Super Man appear in the past with an\nintensity equal if not superior to that of the present. History records\nthe transmutation of vegetable and animal species, the revolution of\nindustry, the modification of social institutions, and the transformation\nof governmental systems; but in all historic time, it affirms no\nperceptible improvement in the qualities of man. \"We must replace the man\nby the Super Man,\" writes G. Bernard Shaw.[6] \"It is frightful for the\ncitizen, as the years pass him, to see his own contemporaries so exactly\nreproduced by the younger generation.\"\n\nNevertheless, the possibility of race improvement exists. \"What now\ncharacterizes the exceptionally high may be expected eventually to\ncharacterize all, for that which the best human nature is capable of is\nwithin the reach of human nature at large.\"[7] After years of intensive\nstudy, Spencer thus confidently expressed himself. Since he ceased to\nwork, each bit of scientific data along eugenic lines serves to confirm\nhis opinion. Armed with such a belief and with the assurance which\nscientific research has afforded, we are preparing in this eleventh hour\nto fulfill Spencer's predictions.\n\nThere are two fields in which eugenics may be applied--the first,\nNegative, the second, Positive. Through the establishment of Negative\nEugenics the unfit will be restrained from mating and perpetuating their\nunfitness in the future. Through Positive Eugenics the fit may be induced\nto mate, and by combining their fitness in their offspring, to raise up\neach new generation out of the flower of the old. Negative Eugenics\neliminates the unfit; Positive Eugenics perpetuates the fit.\n\nThe field of Negative Eugenics has been well explored. No question exists\nas to the transmission through heredity of feeble mindedness, idiocy,\ninsanity and certain forms of criminality. \"There is one way, only one\nway, out of this difficulty. Modern society ... must declare that there\nshall be no unfit and defective citizens in the State.\"[8] The Greeks\neliminated unfitness by the destruction of defective children; though we\nmay deplore such a practice in the light of our modern ethical codes, we\nrecognize the end as one essential to race progress. By denying the right\nof parenthood to any who have transmissible disease or defect, our modern\nknowledge enables us to accomplish the same end without recourse to the\ndestruction of human life.\n\nSir Francis Galton, the founder of the science of Eugenics, writes, in his\nlast important work, \"I think that stern compulsion ought to be exerted to\nprevent the free propagation of the stock of those who are seriously\nafflicted by lunacy, feeble-mindedness, habitual criminality and\npauperism.\"[9] Yet society, in dealing with hereditary defect, presents\nsome of its most grotesque inconsistencies. \"It is a curious comment on\nthe artificiality of our social system that no stigma attaches to\npreventable ill-health.\" An empty purse, or a ruined home may mean social\nostracism, but \"break-down in person, whatever the cause, evokes\nsympathy, subscription and silence.\"[10]\n\nCertain defects are known to be transmissible by heredity from parent to\nchild, until the _cretin_ of Balzac's _Country Doctor_ is reproduced for\ncenturies. The remedy for this form of social self-torture lies in the\ndenial of parenthood to those who have transmissible defects.\nIndividually, such a denial works hardships in this generation: socially,\nand to the future generations, it means comparative freedom from\nindividual, and hence from social defect.\n\nThe problem of Positive Eugenics presents an essentially different aspect.\nAs Ruskin so well observes--\"It is a matter of no final concern, to any\nparent, whether he shall have two children or four; but matter of quite\nfinal concern whether those he has shall or shall not deserve to be\nhanged.\" The quality is always the significant factor. Whether in family\nor national progress, an effort must be made to insure against hanging, or\nagainst any tendency that leads gallowsward.\n\nPositive Eugenics is the science of race building through wise mating. \"As\nlong as ability marries ability, a large proportion of able offspring is a\ncertainty.\"[11] What prospective parent does not fondly imagine that his\nchildren will be at least near-great? Yet how many individuals, in their\nchoice of a mate, set out with the deliberate intention of securing a life\npartner whose qualities, when combined with his own, must produce\ngreatness?\n\nThe Darwin-Galton-Wedgwood families boast sixteen men of world fame in\nfive generations; in the Bach family there were fifty-seven musicians of\nnote in eight generations; Wood's study of _Heredity in Royalty_ shows the\nevident transmission of special ability; yet men and women of ability,\nanxious for able offspring, mate without any rational effort to secure the\nend which they desire. \"Ninety-nine times out of a hundred our\nmathematician marries a woman whose family did not count a single\nastronomer, physicist or other mathematical mind among it members. The\nresult of such a union is what could be expected. Although genius does\nnot generally die out right away in the first generation, it decreases by\nhalf, and further dilutions soon bring it down to nothingness.\"[12]\n\nThis, in brief, is the problem of Negative and of Positive Eugenics. Both\ndefect and ability are transmitted by heredity; both are the product of\nthe mating process known as marriage; since society can and does control\nmarriage, it may, through this control, exercise a real influence upon the\ncharacter of future generations.\n\nThe science of Eugenics is in its infancy, yet, widely established and\nvigorously applied, it may revolutionize the human species. The Super Race\nmay come, because \"looked at from the social standpoint, we see how\nexceptional families, by careful marriages, can within even a few\ngenerations, obtain an exceptional stock, and how directly this suggests\nassortative mating as a moral duty for the highly endowed. On the other\nhand, the exceptionally degenerate isolated in the slums of our modern\ncities can easily produce permanent stock also: a stock which no change of\nenvironment will permanently elevate, and which nothing but mixture with\nbetter blood will improve. But this is an improvement of the bad by a\nsocial waste of the better. We do not want to eliminate bad stock by\nwatering it with good, but by placing it under conditions where it is\nrelatively or absolutely infertile.\"[13]\n\n\"But what of love?\" wails the sentimentalist; \"in your scheme Eugenics\noutweighs Cupid!\" Perhaps, but what of it? Cupid has proved in the past a\nsad bungler, whose mistakes and failures grimace from every page of our\ndivorce court records. Far from hindering his activities, however,\nEugenics will assist Cupid by bringing together persons truly\ncongenial--hence capable of an enduring love. Too many men have married a\nnatty Easter bonnet, or a cleverly tailored suit. Too many women have\nfallen a prey to a tempting bank account or a pair of glorious\nmustachios. Blind Cupid limps but lamely over the rugged path of\nmatrimonial bliss. The questionable success of his best efforts proves his\nsure need of a guide.\n\nEugenics represents an effort to bring together those people who have\ncomplementary qualities and complementary interests; who are capable of\nmaintaining congenial relationships in the present; and creating able\noffspring in the future. Selection and parenthood are the cradle of the\nfuture. Hence the individual who, in the exercise of his choice, overlooks\ntheir significance overlooks one of his most important racial\nresponsibilities.\n\nSociety is interested in Eugenics, because it is through Eugenics that the\nhereditary traits of the Super Race are perpetuated and perfected.\nEugenics, rightly understood and applied, is a social asset of unexcelled\nvalue. How long, then, shall our society continue to feed on the husks,\nneglecting the grain which lies everywhere ready at hand?\n\nEugenics is indeed one means of race salvation, yet what care do we take\nto perfect eugenic measures? \"If through sheer chance, some great\nmathematician is evolved one day out of the crowd, the state--who should\nbe ever on the watch for such events and whose main care should be to\npreserve and increase such sources of light, progress and national\nglory--does nothing to protect the man of genius against care, disease or\nanything likely to shorten life nor to multiply the splendid thinking\nmachine.\"[14] A great state must have for its component parts great men\nand women. Did we truly seek greatness, how many measures for its\nattainment lie neglected at our very doors!\n\nEvery well regulated state of antiquity eliminated defectives in the\ninterest of the group, and of the future. What more effective means of\nsocial preservation could be imagined than some measure through whose\noperation the defective classes in society would be eliminated, and the\nsocial structure, bulwarked by stalwart manhood and womanhood, made proof\nagainst the ravages of time. How serious a thing is the propagation of\ndefect! Murder is a crime, punishable by death, yet a murderer merely\neliminates one unit from the social group. The destruction of this one\nlife may cause sorrow; it may deprive society of a valued member; but it\nis, after all, a comparatively insignificant offense. The perpetuation of\nhereditary defect is infinitely worse than murder. Consider, for example,\na marriage, sanctioned by church and state, between two persons both\nhaving in their blood hereditary feeble-mindedness.\n\nInvestigations of thousands of feeble-minded families show that, in such a\ncase, every one of the offspring may be and probably will be\nfeeble-minded--a curse to himself and a burden to society. Pauperism,\ncrime, social dependence, vice, all follow in the train of mental defect,\nand the mentally defective parents hand on for untold generations their\ntaint--sometimes in more, sometimes in less virulent form, but always\nbringing into the world beings not only incapable of caring for\nthemselves, but fatally capable of handing on their defect to the future.\nThe murderer robs society; the mentally defective parent curses society,\nboth in the present and in the future, with the taint of degeneracy. The\nmurderer takes away a life; but the feeble-minded parent passes on to the\nfuture the seeds of racial decay.\n\nThe first step in Eugenics progress--the elimination of defect by\npreventing the procreation of defectives--is easily stated, and may be\nalmost as easily attained. The price of six battleships ($50,000,000)\nwould probably provide homes for all of the seriously defective men, women\nand children now at large in the United States. Thus could the scum of\nsociety be removed, and a source of social contamination be effectively\nregulated. Yet with tens of thousands of defectives, freely propagating\ntheir kind, we continue to build battleships, fondly believing that rifled\ncannon and steel armor plate will prove sufficient for national defense.\n\nThis is but a part, and by far the least important part, of the eugenic\nprogramme. The elimination of defect prevents degeneracy, but does not\ninsure the physical normality, mental capacity, aggressiveness,\nconcentration, sympathy and vision of the Super Man. While the elimination\nof defect is imperative, it is after all only the first step toward the\ncreation of positive qualities.\n\nPositive Eugenics may be as obvious as Negative Eugenics, but the\npromulgation of its doctrines is not equally easy. A series of legislative\nenactments will prevent the mating of the hereditarily defective; nothing\nbut the most painstaking education can be relied upon to secure the mating\nof those eugenically fit. Nevertheless for that modern state which seeks\nto persist and dominate, no lesser measure will suffice. After all, why\nshould not society educate its youth to a sense of wisdom in mating? The\nUnited States spends each year some four hundred millions of dollars in\npublic education, teaching children to read, to spell, to sew, to draw.\nThe importance of these studies is obvious, yet, from a social standpoint,\nthey cannot compare in significance with such training in the laws of\nheredity and biology as will insure wise choice in mating. The state, in\nits efforts at self preservation, cannot lay too much emphasis on the\ntraining for eugenic choice.\n\nBiology, through the laws of heredity, applied in the science of Eugenics,\nholds out every hope for the coming of the Super Man and of the Super\nRace. Not in our knowledge of its laws, but in the practice of its\nprecepts, are we lacking.\n\nEugenics, it is true, in its negative and positive phases, holds out a\ngreat hope for the future. But Eugenics alone will not suffice. The\nscience of Eugenics must be coupled with the science of Social Adjustment\nto insure the production of a Super Race. The necessity of this union is\nwell recognized by the students of heredity, while the students of Social\nAdjustment found their theories on premises essentially biologic in\norigin. One of the most widely known writers on heredity concludes a\nrecent book with the statement that--\"At present, we can only indicate\nthat the future of our race depends on Eugenics (in some form or other),\ncombined with the simultaneous evolution of eutechnics and eutopias.\n'Brave words,' of course; but surely not 'Eutopian'!\"[15] Thus the\nknowledge and practice of the laws of heredity must be supplemented by a\nknowledge and practice of the laws of Social Adjustment.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT--THE SCIENCE OF MOLDING INSTITUTIONS\n\n\nAfter a gardener has produced his seed, guaranteeing a good heredity by\nbreeding together those individual plants which possess in the highest\ndegree the qualities he desires to secure, he turns his attention to the\nseed bed. First of all, the location must be good--the bed must be on a\nsouthern slope, where it will benefit by the first warm rays of the spring\nsun; then the soil must be finely pulverized, in order that the tiny\nrootlets may easily force their way downward, finding nourishment ready at\nhand; when the seeds have been planted, in ground well prepared and\nfertilized, they must be watered, cultivated, weeded; and as they develop\ninto larger plants, thinned, transplanted, pruned and sprayed. The wise\ngardener considers environment as well as heredity. By sowing choice\nseeds in well prepared soil, he ensures the excellence of his crop.\n\nModern society may well be compared to a garden. The plants are living,\nmoving beings, with some freedom to act on their own initiative. Moreover,\nit is they who make and tend the gardens in which they grow. Like the\ngardener in the story, they must look to environment as well as to\nheredity. The seed bed must be carefully prepared, and the young plants,\nas they appear, must be given all the attention which science makes\npossible. Modern society is a garden of which the products are men and\nwomen. The sowing, weeding, cultivating--carried forward through social\ninstitutions--determines by its character whether the race shall decay, as\nother races have done, or progress toward the Super Man.\n\nThe science of social gardening--Social Adjustment--has been given a great\nimpetus, in recent years, by the increased knowledge of the relative\ninfluences of heredity and environment in determining the status of the\nindividual. This knowledge has led us to a belief in men.\n\nEarlier beliefs conceived of the majority of men as utterly depraved. Some\nindeed were among the elect, but the remainder, born to the lowest depths\nof the social gehenna, were outcasts and pariahs, helpless in this world\nand hopeless in the next. This doctrine of total depravity set at nought\nall progressive effort. Here stands a man--society has called him a\ncriminal. Last year he attempted to steal an automobile, less than three\nweeks after his release from serving a two-year sentence for grand\nlarceny. To-day he is in court again, charged with entering a lodging\nhouse and stealing three pairs of trousers and an overcoat. The man is on\ntrial for burglary--what shall be the social verdict regarding him?\n\n\"Alas,\" mourns the advocate of total depravity, \"God so made him. It is\nnot our right to interfere.\"\n\n\"Wait,\" says the social scientist, \"until I investigate the case.\"\n\nThe case is held over while the scientist makes his investigation. After\ncareful inquiry, he reports that the young man's criminal record began at\nthe age of nine, when he was arrested for stealing bananas from a freight\ncar. Locked up with older criminals, he soon learned their tricks. He was\n\"nimble\" and could \"handle himself,\" so his prison mates taught him the\nscience of pocket picking, and initiated him into the gentle art of \"shop\nlifting.\" He was released, after two months of this schooling, and\nslipping out into the big, black city, he tried an experiment. Succeeding,\nhe tried again, and yet again. Before the month was out, he was detected\nstealing a silk handkerchief, and was back in prison. There his education\nwas perfected, and he entered the world to try once more. From the world\nto jail, from jail to the world--this boy's life history from the age of\nnine, had been one long attempt to learn his trade; fortunately or\nunfortunately, he was somewhat of a bungler, and sooner or later he was\nalways caught.\n\nWhen he was a boy, he sneaked up a dingy court, and three pairs of dirty\nstairs to a landing where, in the rear of a battered tenement, was an\nabode which he had been taught to call home. His father, a dock laborer,\nearned, on the average, about $300 a year. Sometimes he worked steadily,\nday and night, for a week, and earned $25 or $30; then there would be no\nwork for ten days or perhaps two weeks; the money would run out; the\ngrocer would refuse credit; and the family would be hungry. It was during\none of these hungry intervals that the nine-year-old urchin made his\ndescent on the bananas in the freight car, and received his first jail\nsentence.\n\nHis mother, good hearted but woefully ignorant, made the best of things,\ntaking in washing, doing odd jobs here and there, tending to her children,\nwhen opportunity offered, and at other times letting them run the streets.\n\n\"There,\" concludes the social scientist, \"is the story of that boy's life.\nHis only picture of manhood is an inefficient father who cannot earn\nenough to support his family; his concept of a mother expresses itself in\ngood hearted ignorance; his view of society has been secured from the rear\nof a shabby tenement, the curb of a narrow street and a cell in the county\njail. The seed bed has been neither prepared, watered, nor tended, and\nthe young shoot has grown wild.\"\n\nThe social scientist has not been content with an analysis of social\nmaladjustment; going further, he has transplanted the young shoots from\nthe defective seed bed to better ground. Dr. Bernardo organized a system\nfor taking the boy criminals out of the slums of English cities, and\nsending them to farms in Australia, South Africa and Canada. Nearly 50,000\nboys have been thus disposed of. Though in their home cities many of them\nhad already entered a criminal life, in their new surroundings less than\ntwo per cent. of them showed any tendency to revert to their former\ncriminal practices. A little tending and transplanting into a congenial\nenvironment, proved the salvation of these boys, who would otherwise have\nthronged the jails of England.\n\nCareful analysis has convinced the social scientist that, in the absence\nof malformation of the brain, or of some other physical defect, the\naverage man is largely made by his environment. As serious physical defect\nis quite rare, being present in less than five per cent. of the\npopulation; and as only a small percentage of the population, perhaps two\nor three per cent., is above the average in ability, more than nine-tenths\nof the people remain average--shaped by their environment; capable of good\nor of evil, according as the good or evil forces of society influence\ntheir youth and early maturity.\n\nThe eighteenth century philosophers had embodied the same conclusion in\nthe doctrine that all men are created free and equal. Victor Hugo, in the\nfirst half of the nineteenth century, based most of his inspiring novels\non the theory that in every man there is a divine spark--a\nconscience--which will be developed by a good environment or crushed and\nblackened by a bad one.\n\nEach year added new proofs of the theory of universal capacity, until Ward\nwas able to write his _Applied Sociology_, demonstrating that opportunity\nis the key-note of social progress.[16] For, says he, up to the present\ntime nine-tenths of the men, and ten-tenths of the women (nineteen\ntwentieths of society) have been denied a legitimate opportunity for\ndevelopment. Grant this opportunity, and at once, without any change in\nhereditary characteristics, you can increase, nineteen fold, the\nachievements of society.\n\nWard's estimate may be or may not be exactly correct. His contention that\nuniversalized opportunity would greatly augment social achievement is,\nhowever, fundamentally sound. Social Adjustment aims, through the shaping\nsocial institutions, to provide every individual with an opportunity to\nsecure a strong body, a trained mind, an aggressive attitude, the power of\nconcentration, and the vision of a goal toward which he is working.[17] In\nshort, the object of Social Adjustment is the provision of universal\nopportunity.\n\nThe dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear many a gem of purest ray serene.\nEven the most gifted individual, thrown into an adverse environment, will\neither fail utterly to develop his powers, or else will develop them so\nincompletely that they can never come to their full fruition. Thomas A.\nEdison cast away on an island in the South Pacific would be useless to his\nfellows. Abraham Lincoln, living among the Apache Indians, would have left\nsmall impress on the world. A sculptor, to be really great, must go to\nRome, because it is in Rome that the great works of sculptured art are to\nbe found. It is in Rome, furthermore, that the great sculptors work and\nteach. A lawyer can scarcely achieve distinction while practicing in a\nbackwoods county court, nor can a surgeon remain proficient in his science\nunless he keep in constant touch with the world of surgery. \"I must go to\nthe city,\" cried a woman with an unusual voice. \"Here in the country I can\nsing, but I cannot study music.\" She must, of necessity, go to the city\nbecause in the city alone exists the stimulus and the example which are\nnecessary for the perfection of her art.\n\nA congenial environment is necessary for the perfection of any hereditary\ntalent. Lester F. Ward concludes, after an exhaustive analysis of\nself-made men, that such men are the exception. That they exist he must\nadmit, but that their abilities would have come to a much more complete\ndevelopment in a congenial environment he clearly demonstrates.\n\nThe rigorous persecution of the Middle Ages eliminated any save the most\ndaring thinkers. Men of science, who presumed to assert facts in\ncontradiction of the accepted dogmas of the Church, were ruthlessly\nsilenced, hence the ages were very dark. The nineteenth century, on the\ncontrary, through its cultivation of science and scientific attainments,\nhas reaped a harvest of scientific achievement unparalleled in the history\nof the world. Men to-day enter scientific pursuits for the same reason\nthat they formerly entered the military service--because every emphasis is\nlaid on scientific endeavor. The nineteenth century scientist is the\nlogical outcome of the nineteenth century desires for scientific progress.\n\nThe environment shapes the man. Yet, equally, does the man shape the\nenvironment. A high standard individual may be handicapped by social\ntradition, but, in like manner, progressive social institutions are\ninconceivable in the absence of high standard men and women.\n\nThe institutions of a society--its homes, schools, government,\nindustry--are created by the past and shaped by the present. Institutions\nare not subjected to sudden changes, yet one generation, animated by the\neffort to realize a high ideal, may reshape the social structure. Can one\nconceive of a paper strewn campus in a college where the spirit is strong?\nParisians believe in beauty, hence Paris is beautiful. Social institutions\ncombine the achievements of the past with the ethics of the present.\n\n\"Let me see where you live and I will tell you what you are,\" is a true\nsaying. The social environment, moldable in each generation, is an\naccurate index to the ideals and aspirations of the generation in which it\nexists.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nEDUCATION--THE SCIENCE OF INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT\n\n\nEugenics provides the hereditary qualities of the Super Man; Social\nAdjustment furnishes the environment in which these qualities are to\ndevelop; there still remains the development of the individual through\nEducation, a word which means, for our purposes, all phases of character\nshaping from birth-day to death-day.\n\nThe individual has been rediscovered during the past three centuries. He\nwas known in some of the earlier civilizations, but during the Middle Ages\nthe place that had seen him knew him no more. He was submerged in the\ngroup and forced to subordinate his interests to the demands of group\nwelfare. The distinctive work of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries\nhas been a reversal of this enforced individual oblivion and the\nformulation of a demand for individual initiative and activity. The\nindividual, pushed forward in politics, in religion, and in commerce has\nfreely asserted and successfully maintained his right to consideration,\nuntil the opportunities of the twentieth century free citizen far exceed\nthose of the convention-bound citizen of the middle ages. The twentieth\ncentury citizen is free because he makes efficient choices. The\ncontinuance of his freedom depends upon the continued wisdom of his\nchoice.\n\nThe chief objective point of modern endeavor has been individual freedom\nof choice. The _laissez-faire_ doctrine in commercial relations, democracy\nin politics, the natural philosophy and natural theology of the eighteenth\ncentury are all expressions of a belief in equality. When men are made\nfree to choose, they are placed on a basis of equality, since they have a\nlike opportunity to succeed or fail. The man who chooses rightly wins\nsuccess--the man who chooses wrongly fails.\n\nThus the freedom to choose is for the average man a right of inestimable\nvalue, because it places in his hands the opportunity to achieve. Rights\ndo not, however, come alone. The freeman is bound in his choices to\nrecognize the law that rights are always accompanied by duties.\n\nEach right is accompanied by a proportionate responsibility--there is no\ndinner without its dishwashing. To be sure, you may shift the burden of\ndishwashing to the maid, and the burden of voting to the \"other fellow,\"\nbut the responsibility is none the less present. Garbage is still garbage,\neven when thrown into the well, and your responsibilities, shifted to the\nmaid and the other voter, return to plague you in the form of a servant\nproblem and of vicious politics. Men who have a right to choose have also\na duty to fulfill, and this right and this duty are inseparable.\n\nThe eighteenth century began the discovery of the individual man; the\nnineteenth century--at least the latter half of it--was responsible for\nthe discovery of the individual woman. Even to-day in many civilized\nlands, the woman is merely an appendage. Men innumerable write in the\nhotel register \"John Edwards and Wife,\" yet if the truth were told they\nshould often write \"Jane Edwards and John Edwards,\" and perhaps sometimes\n\"Jane Edwards and husband.\"\n\nWestern civilization, a good unthinking creature, has insisted bravely on\nthe development of the individual man, while largely overlooking the\nexistence of the individual woman; yet the studies of heredity show very\nclearly that at least as many qualities are inherited from the female as\nfrom the male. Nay, further, since the female is less specialized, the\ndistinctive race qualities are inherited from her, rather than from the\nmore specialized male. In short, the Super Man will have a mother as well\nas a father.\n\nThe fact that the average man has as many female as he had male ancestors\nis very frequently overlooked. Yet it is a fact that inevitably carries\nwith it the imputation, that if his ancestors were thus equally\napportioned, he must have inherited his qualities from both sexes.\nTherefore, in the production of the Super Man, the qualities of the woman\nare of equal importance with the qualities of the man.\n\nThe individual is the goal and Education the means, since Education is\nthe science of individual development. Through Education, we shall enable\nthe individual to live completely. But what is complete life? How shall we\ncompass or define it?\n\nTwo laws are laid down as fundamental in nature--the laws of self\npreservation and of self perpetuation. With the development of society,\nand social relations, the individual must recognize himself, not as an\nindividual only, but likewise as a unit in a social group. Hence, for him,\nself preservation and self perpetuation necessarily involve group\npreservation and group perpetuation. His code of life must therefore\nformulate itself in this wise--\n\nTHE OBJECTS OF ENDEAVOR\n\n                 _Immediate_        _Ultimate_\n                    ----               ----\n  INDIVIDUAL   Self Expression      Super Man\n\n             { Eugenics\n  SOCIAL     { Social Adjustment    Super Race\n             { Education\n\nThe individual, for self preservation, demands self expression; for self\nperpetuation he demands that the standard of his children be higher than\nhis own. As a member of the social group, he looks to Eugenics, Social\nAdjustment, and Education as the immediate means of raising social\nstandards, and the ultimate means of providing a Super Race.\n\nSuch are the abstract ideals--how may they be practically applied? How\nshall the individual express, through Eugenics, Social Adjustment, and\nEducation his desire for the development of a Super Race?\n\nDo you, sir, enjoy living in the neighborhood of vandals and thieves?\nWell, hardly. One could not be expected to take so frivolous a view of\nlife, therefore you will in self defense take every possible precaution to\nsuppress vandalism and thievery? Never, my dear sir, never! You must take\nevery possible precaution to reduce the spirit of vandalism and of\nthievery. The acts are in themselves unconsequential--they are but the\nproduct of a diseased mind or an indifferent training. The spirit, here as\nelsewhere, is all important.\n\nAre you a scientist? Do you admire Pasteur and Herbert Spencer? You are a\n\"practical\" man--see what Edison has done for you. As a statesman, you\nrevere Lincoln and Daniel Webster. You cannot, as an artist, overlook the\nportraits of Rembrandt or the water scenes of Ruysdael. You must agree\nwith me that these and a thousand others that I might mention--men called\ngeniuses by their contemporaries or their descendants--have contributed\nuntold worth to the society of which they were a part. They chose rightly.\nThey are looked upon, and justly, as the salt of the earth. You admit the\nvalue of geniuses, in civilization, and you would, of course, do anything\nto increase their number? Then, let me say to you that the first thing for\nyou to decide is that your own children shall be neither vandals nor\nthieves. The second thing for you to decide is that they shall, in so far\nas you are able to determine the matter, possess all of your good\nqualities, coupled with the good qualities which you lack, supplied by an\nable mate. In short, you must choose your life partner with a view to the\nelimination of anti-social tendencies, on the one hand, and on the other\nto the development of the qualities which distinguish the Super Man.\n\nHow obvious is this statement, yet how haphazard has been the production\nof greatness. Only once in a generation does a man, in his choice of a\nwife, follow the example of John Newcomb. In a truly scientific spirit he\nenumerated on paper the qualities which he possessed; placed opposite them\nthe qualities in which he was lacking; and then set out to find the woman\nwho should supply his deficiencies. When he had located his future\nhelpmeet, playing hymn tunes on an organ in a little red school house, and\nupon further acquaintance, had assured himself that she really possessed\nthe needed qualities, he married her, with the determination that their\nfirst child should be a great mathematician. Their first child was Simon\nNewcomb, one of the leading astronomers of the nineteenth century.\n\nJohn Newcomb was a village school master, and his wife a village maiden,\nbut in their choice they combined two sets of qualities which would\ninevitably produce a Super Man. John Newcomb was a pioneer eugenist. He\nchose a mate with the thought of the future foremost in his mind.\n\nToo often, however, the men of parts follow the example of the brilliant\nprofessor who married a \"social butterfly.\" \"Why in the world did you do\nit?\" asked an old friend. \"Oh, well,\" answered the professor, \"I felt that\nI had brains enough for both.\"\n\nTrue, professor, but according to the Mendelian law of heredity, those\nbrains of yours will be halved in each of your children, and quartered in\neach of your grandchildren. Why should not the future be at least as\nbrilliant as your own generation?\n\nHuman marriage is ordinarily a hit or miss affair. Men and women, inspired\nby the loftiest motives, and animated in most matters by supreme good\nsense, not infrequently grope blindly toward matrimony; often marry\nuncongenially; and finally bring disgrace upon their own heads, and misery\nupon their families. Stevenson, with such marriages in mind, writes to\nthe average prospective bridegroom--\n\n\"What! you have had one life to manage, and have failed so strangely, and\nnow can see nothing wiser than to conjoin with it the management of some\none else's? Because you have been unfaithful in a very little, you propose\nyourself to be a ruler over ten cities. You are no longer content to be\nyour own enemy; you must be your wife's also. God made you, but you marry\nyourself; no one is responsible but you. You have eternally missed your\nway in life, with consequences that you still deplore, and yet you\nmasterfully seize your wife's hand, and blindfold, drag her after you to\nruin. And it is your wife, you observe, whom you select. She, whose\nhappiness you most desire, you choose to be your victim. You would\nearnestly warn her from a tottering bridge or bad investment. If she were\nto marry some one else, how you would tremble for her fate! If she were\nonly your sister and you thought half as much of her, how doubtfully would\nyou entrust her future to a man no better than yourself!\"[18]\n\nHere, then, lies the path of eugenic activity for the individual--clear,\nstraight, unmistakable. In the first place, he must never transmit to the\nfuture any defect. If he has a transmissible defect, he must have no\noffspring. This seems but reasonable--an obligation to bring no\nunnecessary misery into a world where so much already exists. But the\nindividual--free to choose--must go one step further, and in his\nselection, must seek a mate with the qualities which are complementary to\nhis own.\n\nLooked at from the standpoint of society, there is no single choice which\ncompares in importance to the choice of a mate; for on that choice depend\nthe qualities which this generation will transmit to the next, and from\nwhich the next generation must create its follower. Furthermore, there is\nno choice which, in modern society, is more completely individual--more\nfreed from social interference, than the choice of a life mate. The man in\nchoosing his life partner, chooses the future. Civilization hangs\nexpectant on his decision. The Super Race, dim and indistinct, may be\nmade a living reality by a eugenic choice in the present--a choice for\nwhich each man and woman who marries is in part responsible. With the\nadvance of woman's emancipation, with the increasing range of her\nactivity, comes an ever increasing opportunity to exercise such a choice.\nShe, as well as the man, may now assist in the determination of the\nfuture. She as well as the man may now be held accountable for the\nnon-appearance of the Super Race.\n\nDoes the burden of Eugenic Choice rest heavily upon the shoulders of the\nindividual? Does he hesitate to assume the responsibility of the future\nrace? The burden of shaping Social Adjustments is no less onerous.\n\nBriefly, then, what changes may the individual make in institutions to\ndevelop the qualities of the Super Man? The social institutions with which\nthe average man comes into the most intimate contact are:\n\n  1. The Home.\n  2. The School.\n  3. The Government.\n\nThe home as an institution must provide for the Super Man enough food,\nclothing and shelter to guarantee him a good physique; enough training in\ncooperation and mutual helpfulness to give him the vision of a Super Race;\nand a supply of enthusiasm sufficient to enable him to work with\nincreasing energy for the fulfillment of those things in which he\nbelieves. In order that the home may supply these things, it must have an\nincome sufficient to provide all of the necessaries and some of the\ncomforts of life. It must further be dominated by a spirit of sympathetic\ndemocracy.\n\nWhile the present system of wealth distribution is so grotesquely\nunscientific that men are forced to rear families on incomes that will not\nprovide the necessaries, to say nothing of the comforts, of life, no true\nhome can be established nor can a Super Race be produced. If the child is\nan asset to the state, the state should support the child, guaranteeing to\nit an income sufficient to provide for its material welfare.\n\nWhy prate of home virtue? Why discourse learnedly on the possibilities of\na developed manhood to a father earning nine dollars a week? If you can\nguarantee such a man an income of three dollars a week for each child, in\naddition to the nine dollars for his wife and himself, you may well air\nyour views regarding a Super Race; but until your lowest income is high\nenough to guarantee the necessaries of life to a family of five; or until\nthe state guarantees an income to each child in its early life, \"You may\nas well go stand upon the beach and bid the main flood bate his usual\nheight,\" as to demand that a man, working for starvation wages, provide a\nhome in which Super Men can be reared.\n\nWhen income has been provided; when there is food for every mouth, warm\nclothing for every back, enough fuel for winter, and a few pennies each\nweek for recreation, then indeed you may begin to speak in terms of social\nimprovement. Then, and then only, you may tell the father and the mother\nthat upon their efforts during the first seven years of their children's\nlives depends the attitude which those children will assume when they go\nout into the world; that the home in which tyranny is unknown, in which\nthe family rules the family, will produce the noblest citizens for the\nnoblest state; that the home is still the most fundamental institution in\ncivilization, the conservator of our ideals, and visions of the better\nthings that are to come in the future--these things you may say,\nemphasizing the fact, that without a well rounded home-training in youth,\neven the noblest talents cannot come to their full fruition.\n\nThe school is a specialized form of home. In early days, when life was\nsimple, and specialization was unknown, education was given almost wholly\nin the home; but with the growth of specialized tasks, the home could no\nlonger fulfill its function as educator and the school was introduced.\nEducation, whether given in the home or in the school, has as its object a\ncomplete life. The purpose of education is to enable the pupil to live\ncompletely--to be a rounded being, in whatever station he may be called\nupon to fill.\n\nWould you mold the school to fit the needs of the children? Then, the\nsystem of education must be so shaped that children are prepared to live\ntheir lives completely. They must understand themselves. \"Know thyself\" is\na command worthy of their attention. The child's body, in the period of\nchange from childhood to adulthood, is an organism of the most delicate\nnature, barely reaching adjustment under the most auspicious conditions,\nand more than frequently failing signally from a lack of knowledge, or\nfrom the absence of sympathetic understanding. The child--the father of\nthe man--must be taught to appreciate the human machine of which he is\ngiven charge. It is in the school, with its corps of specialists, that\nthis work can be most effectively done.\n\nThen, one by one, the school may take up and foster the qualities of the\nSuper Man. Physique must come first. It is blatant mockery to speak of\neducating minds that dwell in anaemic bodies. Every boy and girl has a\nright to a strong, well knit frame, and the school must teach the best\nmethods of securing it. Mental grasp--the power to see and judge a\nsituation or combination of facts, may also come through the school. In\nfact, the school course, as at present organized, aims to secure that and\nlittle else. As the science of education advances, the same material which\nnow comprises the entire course will be taught in less time and in wiser\nways, so that the child shall be free to learn some of those other things\nso important to his soul's welfare. Aggressiveness and concentration are\nmethods rather than ends, and can be made a part of every game, every\ncompetition, and every study, so that the child absorbs them as he absorbs\nthe atmosphere, without knowing that they become a part of his being.\nWhether the school can instill sympathy and inspire vision is a question\nthat the future alone must decide. Both may be given by individual\nteachers, and both may be possible to the school, though, if the home is\ndoing its work, these things will come more effectively there than through\nthe school. Most or all of the essential qualities of the Super Man can\nand will come through a well organized and properly directed educational\nsystem.\n\nThe government--providing the machinery of state administration,\nfurnishing the school, the playground, and the library; affording an\nopportunity for the exercise of citizenship and the expression of those\nadvancing ideas which must gradually remold the social institutions of\neach age in response to the demands of the new generation--affords one of\nthe most potent forces for the development of the Super Man.\n\nThe school is the big home; the government is the big school. The child\nleaves the home, and enters the school; leaves the school and enters the\nstate. In the home he is acted upon; in the school he, himself, begins to\nact; but in the government he is the sole actor--he is the state. A home\nmust be higher than the children; the school must be more advanced than\nthe pupils; but the state reflects exactly the character of its citizens.\nIt is in the state that the Super Man, crystallizing his convictions and\nbeliefs into the form of legislative enactments, must prepare the way for\nthe Super Race.\n\nThe Super Race is the produce of heredity, of social environment, and of\nindividual development. Heredity supplies the raw material--the\nindividual human being, while education and social environment, operating\nupon this raw stuff, determine the course of its development. Steel is not\nmade from bee's wax, nor is the Super Man created out of a defective\nheredity. In like manner, since those who are in Rome do as the Romans do,\nthe raw material, no matter what its quality, is shaped by its\nsurroundings. The old saying \"as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined,\"\nshould be modified in this one particular--the force which bends the twig\nmust continue in the tree, else the latter will turn and grow toward the\nsky.\n\nThe stock of the Super Man will be secured by the mating of persons\npossessing the Super-Race qualities; yet, reared in an unfavorable\nenvironment, these qualities cannot produce the highest result.\n\nNeither biologic nor social forces are alone adequate to develop the Super\nRace. Physique, mental capacity, aggressiveness, concentration, sympathy\nand vision are the products of heredity, social environment and training.\nThe system of human mating must be perfected and the status of social\ninstitutions must be raised in order that the individuals produced in each\ngeneration may attain an additional increment of the qualities which will,\nin the end, produce the Super Race.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY\n\n\nHere, in brief compass, are laid down the general principles upon which a\nnation must rely for the raising of its standard of human excellence. In\ngeneral, we are convinced that the Super Race is possible.\nSpecifically--and here is the next point--there are more possibilities for\nthe development of the Super Race in the United States to-day than there\nhave been in any nation of the past; or than there are in any nation of\nthe present. The Super Race is America's distinctive opportunity.\n\nThe factors which may play so significant a part in establishing a Super\nRace in the United States are here set down in an order which permits of\nsequential treatment--\n\n  1. Natural resources.\n  2. The stock of the dominant races.\n  3. Leisure.\n  4. The emancipation of women.\n  5. The abandonment of war.\n  6. A knowledge of race making.\n  7. A knowledge of Social Adjustment.\n  8. A widespread educational machinery.\n\nNatural resources are an indispensable element in national progress. A\ncongenial climate is a pre-requisite to social development. No permanently\nsuccessful civilization can be erected on the shores of Hudson Bay, or in\nthe torrid heat of the Amazon Valley. The temperate zones, with their\nvariable climate, and their wide range of vegetable products, seem to\nprovide the foundation for the successful civilizations of the immediate\nfuture. No less necessary to civilization are harbors for the maintenance\nof commerce; and an abundance of minerals, the sinews of industry; and\nmost important of all, fertile agricultural land.\n\nIn its possession of these natural resources, the United States is\nunexcelled. Its climate, while generally temperate, varies sufficiently to\ngive an excellent range of products; harbors and rivers are abundant;\nforests and minerals are scattered everywhere; and the agricultural land,\nrich and well watered, is as extensive and as potentially productive as\nany equivalent area in the world. So far as natural resources provide a\nbasis for a Super Race, the United States occupies a position of almost\nunique prominence.\n\nThe stock of the dominant races may or may not be a cant phrase.\nNotwithstanding the effective work done by Ripley in his _Races of\nEurope_,[19] an impression still prevails that certain races are, from\ntheir racial characteristics, specially fitted to dominate others.\nWoodruff, in his _Expansion of Races_,[20] takes this view, strongly\nurging the claim of the northwestern European to the distinction of world\nruler. Whether race be a matter of supreme or of little concern, in\ndetermining the development of a Super Race, the United States possesses\nan admirable blending of the western European peoples who now occupy the\ndominant position in the commercial and military affairs of the world. If\nracial stock be a matter of no importance, it requires no emphasis; if, on\nthe other hand, it be a significant factor in the creation of the Super\nRace, then the United States holds an enviable position in its racial\nqualities.\n\nThus the raw materials of nation building--the natural resources and the\nracial qualities, are possessed by the United States in generous\nabundance. Has our use of them tended toward the development of the Super\nRace?\n\nLeisure is an opportunity for the pursuit of a congenial avocation. It\nmust be carefully differentiated from the idleness with which it is so\noften considered synonymous. Satan still finds mischief for idle hands.\nThe man who idles in leisure time is as likely now as ever in the past to\nfind himself breaking several of the commandments. Leisure merely provides\nan opportunity for free choice. Unwisely used, it leads to individual\ndissipation and social degeneracy. Wisely employed, it is a most\nimportant means for the promotion of social progress.\n\nMost of the great things of the world have been done in leisure time. A\npoet cannot create, nor can a mechanic devise, if he is forced during\ntwelve hours each day to struggle for the bare necessities of life. A\nstudy of the lives of those who have made notable achievements in art,\nscience, literature, and diplomacy shows that they were free, for the most\npart, from the bread and butter struggle. They had estates, they were the\nrecipients of pensions, but they did not submit to the soul-destroying\nmonotony of repeating the same task endlessly through the long reaches of\na twelve hour day.\n\nPrimitive society demands the service of even its immature members.\nChildren are adults before their childhood is well begun. Civilization,\nrecognizing the possibility of self preservation through lengthened youth,\nhas said to the child \"Play.\"\n\nLong youth means long life. Play time--leisure--for the youth is the bone\nand sinew of a high standard maturity. Leisure in youth for play, leisure\nin mature life for reflection and creation--these are two of the most\nprecious gifts of civilization to social progress.\n\nThe United States has led the nations in providing opportunity for leisure\ntime. Labor saving devices have been brought to a higher perfection there\nthan in any other part of the world. Nowhere are children kept longer from\nassuming the responsibilities of adult life; in few countries is the\nworkday shorter for adults.\n\nProbably no other people in the world can supply themselves with the\nnecessaries of life in so short a working time as can the inhabitants of\nthe United States. If every able bodied adult engaged for five hours each\nday in gainful activity, enough economic goods could be created to provide\nall the necessaries and many of the comforts of life. The leisure obtained\nthrough American industry, if rightly directed, may provide for every\nchild born a thorough education--an ample opportunity to express the\nqualities which are latent in him--and a thorough preparation for life.\n\nThe emancipation of women is another force which may be directed toward\nthe improvement of race qualities. Women bear the race in their bodies; at\nleast half of the qualities of the offspring are inherited from them; as\nmothers, they educate the children during the first six years of their\nlives, and then, as school teachers and mothers they play the leading part\nin education until the children reach the age of twelve or fourteen. The\nyouth of the race is in women's keeping. They shape the child clay. The\ntwig is bent, the tree is inclined by women's hands.\n\nThe emancipation of woman means her individualization. Both in primitive\ncustom and in early law her individuality is merged in that of the man.\n\"Wives,\" wrote Paul, \"be obedient unto your husbands, for this is the\nlaw.\" Mohammedan women wear veils that they may not be seen; Chinese women\nbind their feet that they may not escape; the women of continental Europe\nspend their lives in ministering to the comfort of their liege lords. They\nare dependent--almost abject. From such a sowing, what must be the\nreaping? Into the hands of these subject creatures, men have committed\nthe training of their sons.\n\nCan a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? If women are inferior to men,\ncan they be worthy to train their future superiors--their sons? If they\nare of a lower mentality than men, how is it that, in the school as well\nas in the home, men have given into their hands the power to shape the\ndestinies of the race?\n\nWould you have your sons trained by a free man or by a slave? Do noble\ncivic ideals flow from a citizen of a free commonwealth, or from the\nsubjects of a despot? Only the woman who is a human being, with power and\nfreedom to choose, may teach the son of a free man. Emancipation has given\nto women the power of choice.\n\nThe women of America have been partially emancipated. In some states, they\nmay vote, sue for divorce, collect their own wages, hold property, and\ntransact business. Everywhere they are filling the high schools and\ncolleges; participating in industry and entering the professions. American\nwomen are independent beings--distinctive units in a great organic\nsociety.\n\nIn so far as the qualities of the Super Man are developed and perfected by\nthe teachings of women, they will be more effectually rounded by the\nemancipated woman than by the serf. The mothers of America are prepared to\nteach their sons and daughters because they have been taught to think the\nnoblest thoughts and do the strongest things.\n\nThe abandonment of war removes one of the most destructive forces of the\npast, because war has always tended to eliminate the best of every race.\nIn the flower of their manhood, the noblest died on the field of\nbattle--their lives uncompleted; their tasks unfinished--leaving, perhaps,\nno offspring to bear their qualities in the succeeding generation.\nAlthough the law of nature is the survival of the fittest, \"In the red\nfield of human history the natural process of selection is often\nreversed.\"[21] The best perish in war, leaving the less fit to carry\nforward the affairs of state, and to propagate. \"The man who is left\nholds in his grasp the history of the future,\"[22] and if, as is\nfrequently the case, he is the one least fitted to survive, the race is\nconstantly breeding from the unfit rather than from the fit. Where the\nhuman harvest is bad, the nation must perish. So long as war persisted, so\nlong as the best left their bones on the battle field, while the worst\nleft their descendants to man the state, a bad human harvest was\ninevitable. War ate into the heart of national vitality by destroying the\nnation's best blood.\n\nWar, however, has practically ceased. The movement for peace, in which the\nUnited States, both by precept and practice, is a leader, stands as one of\nthe signal achievements of the new century. The abandonment of war has\nlaid a basis for the Super Race by permitting the most fit to live and to\nhand on their special qualities to coming generations.\n\nIn the United States, as elsewhere in the civilized world, the science of\nrace making has recently undergone great development. While the movement\nbegan in England, it has spread rapidly, until at the present time its\nsignificance is universally recognized by scientists. The principles of\nartificial selection have been applied in the creation of vegetable and\nanimal prodigies; the knowledge of biologic and selective principles is\nwide-spread; and the educated men and women of the United States generally\nunderstand the potency of these forces.\n\nImportant steps have already been taken to prevent the propagation of the\nunfit. Born criminals are in some states deprived of the power of\nreproduction; in most of the states, the marriage of diseased persons is\nprohibited; here and there attempts have been made to prohibit the\nmarriage of any suffering from a transmissible defect. On the other hand,\nmentally defective persons are being segregated in institutions--guarded\nagainst the dangers which beset the men and particularly the women of weak\nmind. During the past two decades great strides have been made in\neducating the American public to a higher standard of health and\nefficiency. Though the science of race making, as such, has not been\ngiven a prominent place in public discussion, the principles on which race\nmaking is based have formed an important element in public education. The\ndesire to make a Super Race in America is as yet in its infancy, but the\nground has been thoroughly prepared, and a foundation laid upon which such\na super-structure of desire for race making can be speedily and\neffectively erected.\n\nMeanwhile, the science of Social Adjustment has occupied the most\nprominent place in American thought. If the American people have\nunder-emphasized Eugenics they have over-emphasized Social Adjustment.\nFrom ocean to ocean, the country has been swept, during the past three\ndecades, by a whirlwind of legislation directed toward the adjustment of\nsocial institutions to human needs. Trusts, factories, food, railroads,\nliquor selling and a hundred other subjects have been kept in the\nforeground of public attention. The American people might almost plead\nguilty to adjustment madness.\n\nFrom the foundation of the earliest colonies, the basis, in theory at\nleast, was laid for the development of the individual. The colonists\nbelieved in the worth-whileness of men, they lived in an age of natural\nphilosophy; they were the products of an effort to secure religious and\npolitical freedom; they therefore emphasized the individual conscience,\nand the right of the individual to think and act for himself. Each\nindividual was a man, to be so regarded, and so honored. Their new life\nwas a hard one. Nature presented an aspect on the rocky, untilled New\nEngland coast different from that in the civilized countries of the old\nworld. There was but one way to meet these new conditions--the individual\nmust carve out his own future.\n\nThroughout the United States, the watchword of the people has been\nopportunity. Without opportunity, the people perish--hence opportunity\nmust stand waiting for each succeeding generation. In the turmoil of\ncommercial life, in the ebb and flow of the immigrant tide, the reality\nhas been frequently lost; yet the ideal of opportunity remains as firmly\nrooted as ever.\n\nThe worth-whileness of men, the social control of the environment, and a\nfree opportunity for the development of the individual constitute the\nbasis for social advance in the United States. The ideal is firmly rooted;\nthe possibility of its realization is an everpresent reality.\n\nWith a boundless wealth of natural resources; bulwarked by the stock of\nthe dominant races; with abundant leisure; granting freedom and\nindividuality to women; foregoing war; cognizant of the principles of race\nmaking; Social Adjustment and of Education, the American nation is thrown\ninto the foreground, as the land for the development of the Super Race.\nThe American people have within their grasp the torch of social progress.\nCan they carry it in the van, lighting the dark caverns of the future? Can\nthey develop a race of men who shall set a standard for the world--men of\nphysical and mental power, efficient, broadly sympathetic, actuated by the\nhighest ideals, striving toward a vision of human nobleness?\n\nThe answer rests with this and the succeeding generations. Given ten\ntalents of opportunity, are we as a nation worthy to be made the rulers\nover ten cities? Provided with the raw stuff of a Super Race, can we mold\nit into \"A mightier race than any that has been?\" The past worked with\nthings: the present works with men. \"We stand at the verge of a state of\nculture, which will be that of the depths, not, as heretofore, of the\nsurface alone; a stage which will not be merely a culture through mankind,\nbut a culture of mankind. For the first time the great fashioners of\nculture will be able to work in marble instead of, as heretofore, being\nforced to work in snow.\"[23] Bulwarked by this pregnant thought, and\nassured by Ruskin that, \"There is as yet no ascertained limit to the\nnoblesse of person and mind which the human creature may attain,\" we press\nforward confidently, advocating and practicing those measures which will\ncreate the energy, mental grasp, efficiency, sympathy and vision of the\nSuper Man and the Super Race.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[1] JOHN RUSKIN, _Unto this Last_--Essay II.\n\n[2] WILLIAM B. YEATS, _Poetic Works_, Vol. II, p. 407. Macmillan Co., N. Y.\n\n[3] FREDERICK NIETZSCHE, _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_, pp. 5-296. Macmillan\nCo., N. Y.\n\n[4] CARL SNYDER, _The World Machine_. New York, Longmans, Green & Co.,\n1907.\n\n[5] PRESTONIA MANN MARTIN, _Is Mankind Advancing?_ New York, Baker &\nTaylor Co., 1911.\n\n[6] G. BERNARD SHAW, _Man and Super Man_, p. 218-219. N. Y., Brentano's.\n\n[7] HERBERT SPENCER, _The Data of Ethics_. Para. 97. N. Y., D. Appleton &\nCo., 1893.\n\n[8] SAML. Z. BATTEN, _The Redemption of the Unfit_, American Journal of\nSociology, Vol. 14, p. 242 (1909).\n\n[9] FRANCIS GALTON, _Memoirs of My Life_, p. 311. N. Y., E. P. Dutton,\n1909.\n\n[10] ARNOLD WHITE, _Efficiency and Empire_, p. 97. London, Methuen & Co.,\n1901.\n\n[11] W. C. & C. D. WHETHAM, _The Family and the Nations_, p. 85. N. Y.,\nLongmans, 1909.\n\n[12] GUSTAVE MICHAUD, _Shall We Improve Our Race_, The Popular Science\nMonthly, Vol. 72, p. 77 (1908).\n\n[13] J. A. THOMPSON, _Heredity_, p. 331. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908.\n\n[14] GUSTAVE MICHAUD, _Shall We Improve Our Race?_ Popular Science\nMonthly, Vol. 72, p. 77 (1908).\n\n[15] J. ARTHUR THOMPSON, _Heredity_, p. 308. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons,\n1908.\n\n[16] LESTER F. WARD, _Applied Sociology_, pp. 224-282. Boston, Ginn & Co.,\n1906.\n\n[17] For a more complete statement of the problem, see _Social\nAdjustment_, SCOTT NEARING, New York: Macmillan Company, 1911.\n\n[18] ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, _Virginibus Puerisque_.\n\n[19] WM. Z. RIPLEY, _Races of Europe_. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1899.\n\n[20] C. E. WOODRUFF, _The Expansion of Races_. N. Y., Rebman, 1909.\n\n[21] D. S. JORDAN, _The Human Harvest_, p. 54. Boston, American Unitarian\nAssociation, 1907.\n\n[22] _Ibid_, p. 48.\n\n[23] ELLEN KEY, _Love and Marriage_, p. 53. N. Y., Putnam, 1911.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"The Super Race: An American Problem","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":13043}