330 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



Excluding a few dangerous or particularly unsanitary employ- 

 ments it is probable that the most potent factor in occupational 

 selection is furnished by the quality of human material employed. 

 The character of the men and women engaged is dependent upon 

 their heredity and previous history. Undoubtedly, through no 

 fault of their own, multitudes of human beings of good inheritance 

 but born in unfavorable surroundings, deprived of educational 

 advantages, and stultified by early hard labor are forced into the 

 ranks of the unskilled and poorly paid laboring class. The rela- 

 tively high death rate of such individuals is racially disadvan- 

 tageous. But undoubtedly the ranks of casual and unskilled 

 laborers are recruited much more than those of skilled trades and 

 professions from individuals who have not been blessed with 

 inherited gifts. If we consider for a moment the almost inevitable 

 industrial fate of the rank and file of those who are mentally below 

 par it will become evident that conditions could scarcely be 

 otherwise. The subnormal individual usually fails to acquire 

 anything more than the mere rudiments of education. He is 

 generally lacking in initiative and enterprise; and since weakness 

 of character is the usual concomitant of defective intellect, he is 

 not apt to exhibit those qualities of persistence, reliability, and 

 application which contribute so greatly to the industrial value 

 of an employee. 



One effect of industrial development which cannot fail to 

 affect in one way or another the inherited qualities of mankind is 

 the unprecedented growth of cities which has occurred during the 

 last hundred years in the most advanced nations of the earth. 

 The following table presents a bald outline of the percentage of 

 population of several countries living in cities of 10,000 or more 

 inhabitants at three periods, 1800,1850 and 1890. 



In all these countries the growth of cities has been relatively 

 fast as compared with the increase of the rural population. In 

 England and Wales where there was a large urban population in 

 the beginning of the igth century the relative increase in the size 

 of cities is about as rapid as in most other countries. In fact, the 

 English census of 1891 reports an actual decrease of population in 



