828 THE DEPENDENT GROUP 



The device of extermination by painless death has not been 

 seriously discussed among the competent. 



The device of sterilization has been frequently suggested, and, 

 in a few instances, chiefly on the ground of advantage to the indi- 

 vidual, it has been employed. There is nothing absurd, cruel, or 

 impracticable in this proposition, although it would be helpful 

 only within a limited area at best, and would not make segregation 

 unnecessary, since even a sterilized degenerate can do injury by 

 example and actions. It could be useful only upon the recom- 

 mendation of a medical administrator and in the case of persons 

 isolated from social contacts. 



A beginning has been made with the device of the custodial 

 colony for segregation, already in quite general use with the insane, 

 the feeble-minded, the epileptic. The idea is not absolutely new, 

 but the scientific grounds and economic methods have not yet 

 been worked out in a way to frame a cogent argument and appeal 

 to electors and legislators. We must still interpret the partial and 

 tentative experiments already made so as to throw light on extended 

 applications of the principle. Until the entire community, or at 

 least the governing majority, has accepted this policy with open 

 eyes and united will, we must expect to pay the heavy costs of 

 neglect. 



Conviction of the importance of a rational and humane policy 

 of social selection has been diluted, and aggressive effort has been 

 delayed, by certain widely accepted errors. Thus we have a large 

 number of citizens w r ho cling to the belief that " natural selection " 

 is adequate and preferable. They speak of the " evanescence of 

 evil;" they cite the high rate of mortality of starved and sick 

 infants, the sterility of prostitutes, the frequent celibacy of vicious 

 and criminal men, the disappearance of degenerate families, the 

 ravages of alcoholism and disease among the neurotic and inefficient. 

 Doubtless, as was long ago abundantly illustrated by Malthus, 

 misery, pain, weakness, vice, do tend to extinction without any 

 conscious, concerted, and rational effort of the community through 

 law. Why not leave the weeding-out process to these destructive 

 agents and forces? 



False modesty has been an important factor in hindering the 

 calm and reasonable discussion of the selective process. Ignorance 

 of biological science has contributed to the obstacles in the way of 

 progress. We need to consider what the waiting, laissez-faire policy 

 involves in order to understand why a humane society will not 

 always stand by without a positive effort to modify the process and 

 reduce its cost. It would mean, first of all, that hundreds of thou- 

 sands of our fellow men who fail in competition would starve or freeze 

 before our eyes in our streets. Among these would be innumerable 



