206 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



by what they considered to be the teachings of Darwin. It is 

 only recently that general currency has been given to the idea 

 that war as a selective agent works toward racial degeneracy 

 instead of improvement. One of the chief advocates of the 

 abolition of war, Prof. Novicow, states that "War produces in- 

 deed a selection, a choice of the worst. The young men strongest 

 and most healthy go to the war. Among its combatants, the most 

 valiant take the lead. In consequence, the more perfect the 

 individual, the greater his chance to be killed. In most battles it 

 is the best that fall. On the other hand, the feeble and sickly 

 elements, those not enrolled under the banners of war, reproduce 

 themselves, while the flower of the nation is condemned to celi- 

 bacy or to relations with prostitutes, this leading so often, alas, to 

 the most fatal results." 



In this country opposition to war on biological grounds has 

 been carried on vigorously by Dr. D. S. Jordan who for a number 

 of years has been devoting his chief energies to investigating, 

 lecturing and writing on this subject. The readers who wish to 

 find the case against war presented in a forcible and eminently 

 readible manner may be referred to Dr. Jordan's books on The 

 Blood of the Nation, The Human Harvest, and War and the Breed. 

 The reversal of selection which war effects is, according to Dr. 

 Jordan, one of the most powerful forces working for national 

 deterioration. '"The best ye bred' is war's insatiable call. 

 Send us your best, your fittest, your most courageous, your 

 youths of patriotism and your men of loyal worth, send them all 

 and breed your next generation from war's unfit remainder. . . . 

 Like seed like harvest, you cannot breed a Clydesdale from a 

 cayuse, neither can the weakling remnant of a warlike nation 

 breed a new generation of heroes for a new generation's 

 wars." 



Large standing armies are dysgenic as well as actual war. 

 Darwin, whose teachings have so often been appealed to in sup- 

 port of militarism, said " In every country in which a large stand- 

 ing army is kept up, the finest young men are taken by the con- 

 scription or are enlisted. They are thus exposed to early death 



