OF A CERTAIN PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY. 101 



The most serious aspect of the problem at present is their rapid 

 multiplication. In Line D alone there are in the latest generations 5 

 feeble-minded women and 5 very defective men, 2 of whom are mark- 

 edly alcoholic. All have consorts who are noticeably lacking in socially 

 effective traits, and are reproducing at a rate which threatens more 

 serious problems in another decade. Many of these people deserve 

 permanent custodial care, but since a further survey will no doubt 

 reveal many communities of the same type, whose segregation would 

 mean too great a burden for the state, there would seem to be scope 

 for some colonization scheme, such as New Jersey and New York have 

 adopted in some cases. Such colonies could be made largely self- 

 supporting. Their members would do a fair amount of work under 

 supervision, whereas they remain idle when left to their own initiative, 

 with the possibility of help, voluntary or otherwise, from their neigh- 

 bors. Supervision in a State colony would counteract many of the 

 evils for which these people are responsible at present. To anyone 

 having close acquaintance with a community of this kind, the necessity 

 for external compulsion in checking reproduction is clear and impera- 

 tive. There is here no possibility of developing a sense of responsibility 

 to the coming generation, and hence no check to be imposed but 

 artificial ones. 



Where representatives of such degenerate strains become members 

 of industrial communities, investigation and supervision by the social 

 welfare bureaus of industrial plants afford a step in the solution of 

 these problems. But is there not likelihood that this social work, 

 unless accompanied by some form of birth control, will result in an 

 ever-increasing proportion of those needing such supervision? Agencies 

 of social amelioration in themselves are not effective as eugenic meas- 

 ures. So far as they controvert natural agencies for the selection of 

 fit strains, they need to be accompanied by conscious selection of fit 

 strains, or verily our ''last state shall be worse than our first." 



A first-hand acquaintance wdth conditions forces this further con- 

 clusion upon us: There is small probability that a law, such as some 

 States have passed, involving voluntary confession of unfitness and 

 with no penalty for violation or falsification, will go far to prevent 

 marriage among these socially inadequate classes. Public sentiment 

 has been active against their marriage for generations past. It was 

 active quite recently against the marriage of a feeble-minded man of 

 Line D and an immoral epileptic girl of bad stock, but the marriage 

 took place in spite of all opposition. The chief trouble here is the 

 absence of authority. "We all want the marriage stopped, but to 

 whom shall we appeal?" is the general complaint when such matings 

 are in prospect. 



This brings us to the second eugenic measure — state control of mar- 

 riages through a State eugenics board with authority to investigate the 



