CONTINUITY OF THE RACE 



619 



ing a policy that is definitely contrary to 

 natural selection and undoubtedly has had 

 its influence in reducing the quality, not the 

 quantity, of our stock. 



From the foreTOino; discussion it would 

 seem that while our present civilization has 

 brouo;ht us a higher standard of living, at 

 least in America, it has likewise introduced 

 several factors that tend to drag the body 

 and mind of man to ever lower levels. Is 

 there no way out of this dilemma? Can we 

 have a high standard of living without los- 

 ing our genie heritage? It would certainly 

 seem that we should have sufficient intel- 

 ligence to apply some of our knowledge of 

 human genetics to our own situation and 

 curb the disastrous decline that seems to be 



upon 



us. 



Possible solutions 



Many thinking people have faced this 

 problem and there is some concerted effort, 

 feeble though it is at present, to halt this 

 tide of ever increasing defectives and the 

 dilution of our precious germ plasm that 

 has taken millions of years to produce. A 

 few years ago, some over-zealous people 

 equipped with more enthusiasm than facts 

 wrote about the possibilities of building 

 a super-race of mankind. Fortunately, this 

 type of nonsense has given way to a sane 

 approach to the problem of race improve- 

 ment, based on what we know about human 

 genetics together with what is within the 

 realm of social possibility. The problem is 

 extremely difficult because of our incom- 

 plete knowledge of hinnan inheritance. 

 Even more difficult is the problem of con- 

 vincing people that something should be 

 done about it. Thinking in terms of world 

 population, how, for example, can the peo- 

 ple of India be convinced that they should 

 throttle their terrific reproductive rate? In 

 a country where the average diet contains 

 960 calories (a minimum American diet 

 consists of 1600 calories) and where 3 mil- 

 lion people die each year of starvation, how 

 can they be made to understand that this is 



wrong? In spite of this terrific waste in life, 

 the population as a whole has increased at 

 the alarming rate of 83 millions in the past 

 20 years. Perhaps natural selection is still 

 operating in this and other unfortimate 

 nations in the world today, producing a 

 race that can survive on minimal diets. If 

 so, they must be reckoned with in any 

 world planning for the future. Once more 

 focusing our attention on the problems as 

 we see them in America and perhaps some 

 of die European countries where eugenics 

 has been and is being practiced, what prog- 

 ress has been made? 



To stem the tide of defectives, steriliza- 

 tion is being practiced in 27 states in the 

 United States and many countries in Eu- 

 rope. By February, 1935, Germany had ster- 

 ilized about 200,000 hereditary defectives, 

 perhaps the most ambitious program in the 

 world. It would be interesting to know 

 what effect, if any, this has had on the rela- 

 tive numbers of such people in the general 

 population of Germany today. Such figures 

 are not available, if they have been pre- 

 pared. Our first sterilization law was passed 

 in 1907 (Indiana), and by the end of 1948, 

 49,207, of which 19,042 were in California, 

 have been sterilized. These are primarily 

 feeble-minded and insane patients who 

 have been committed to institutions. Just 

 what effect does sterilization have in reduc- 

 ing the number of defectives in future gen- 

 erations? It has very little, unfortunately. 

 It is estimated that most defects which are 

 carried as recessives would probably re- 

 quire 2,000 years to reduce their numbers 

 by 50 per cent, employing the most rigid 

 sterilization laws. 



Segregation and sterilization will have 

 little influence on the ominous drop in 

 general intelligence brought on by differ- 

 ential birth rates that exist today in our 

 population. Birth-control measures have 

 been gaining a foothold in recent years and 

 seem to be providing a partial answer to the 

 problem. Such organizations as the Planned 

 Parenthood Leagues emphasize both the 



