GENES AND MANKIND BLIVEN 303 



Amazing things have been done in only a few generations to per- 

 fect plants and animals, and impatient persons often ask why the 

 same should not be possible for mankind. It is a legitimate ques- 

 tion and the assumed answer holds an exciting promise for the 

 future. There is little doubt that if genetic principles could be ap- 

 plied to humanity, the average of our population could be brought 

 up to the level of our best examples within a few generations. If 

 you want a slogan, here it is: "Every man a genius by the year 

 2141." 



The difficulty is that somebody would have to decide what are the 

 desirable traits, after we had agreed that hereditary feeble-minded- 

 ness and insanity are undoubted handicaps. His judgments would 

 be subjective, and that is where the trouble comes in. Who is to ac- 

 cept the fearful responsibility of saying what are good traits for a 

 future society, and what are bad ones? For that matter, who is to 

 say what the future society will be like? Will you assume a con- 

 tinuance of our present social organization, which seems to require 

 large numbers of not-too-bright toilers and soldiers? Or will you 

 envisage an ideal state of universal peace and all the heavy work 

 done by machines ? 



The overwhelming obstacle is that most human beings today live in 

 environments so unsatisfactory that we cannot tell what their genetic 

 possibilities are. We know by scientific research that there are 

 thousands of geniuses in this country alone who remain swamped by 

 poverty and ignorance and never get a chance to demonstrate their 

 abilities. Before we can live up to the promise of our genetic future, 

 we must remove the shackles which prevent full development of our 

 present capabilities. Otherwise, the effort at improvement is like 

 trying to carve a statue in the dark. 



The geneticists, on a basis of solid science, hold forth a glorious 

 picture of the future of mankind. They tell us that by improving 

 our environment and our heredity simultaneously we can in a few 

 generations abolish nearly all human afflictions. It is sober truth to 

 say that it lies within our power to create a race of superbeings, liv- 

 ing in Utopia, and to do so in perhaps the length of time that has 

 elapsed since George Washington was born. No more exciting pros- 

 pect was ever offered mankind. 



