PRESENT CONDITION AND 

 OPPORTUNITY OF THE AMERICAN 



GENETIC ASSOCIATION' 



David Fairchild 



THE YEAR which has passed 

 since our last meeting is one of 

 the most remarkable in the his- 

 tory of mankind. Through the 

 whirl of terrific forces which has 

 characterized it I feel sure all of us 

 must see a drift that threatens many or 

 all of the familiar adjustments of hu- 

 man society. Whether we understand 

 that drift or not, we must recognize 

 that it is fraught with the most sinister 

 possibilities. The rupture of the fabric 

 of society, which we have seen going on 

 around us and read of as an over- 

 whelming catastrophe in Russia and as 

 threatening all Europe, we must begin 

 to consider as a phenomenon based 

 upon the rapid spread of propaganda 

 which is as unsound biologically from 

 the standpoint of this new science of 

 genetics as the theory of the flat earth 

 was unsound physically. In becoming 

 more scientific, in the sense of being 

 more open-minded and accessible to 

 new ideas, the world has become more 

 susceptible to destructive ai well as to 

 constructive suggestions, and since it 

 is vastly easier to detroy what now 

 exists than to develop and apply con- 

 structive solutions of our problems, the 

 dangers of the present situation are 

 hardly to be exaggerated. 



All of these burning questions of the 

 day, which are stirring men's hearts 

 and angering or saddening them, must 

 have answers based upon principles. 

 What are these principles? It is likely 

 that they will ever be revealed through 

 the discussion and deductive reasoning 

 of men like the bolshevik leaders of 

 Russia? Have we not witnessed long 

 enough the steady growth of the exact 

 sciences to feel convinced that there is 

 no other method bv which the human 



mind can arrive at stable notions of 

 things than through the methods of 

 experiment and objective observation? 

 There is no short cut — no inspiration 

 based upon ignorance of what has gone 

 before. 



The spectacle of the influence of a 

 single abnormal personality upon a 

 nation of sixty millions and of our 

 own concentration of authority in the 

 hands of the President as the only 

 means of meeting a real crisis should 

 make us realize, as never before, the 

 paramount importance of the indi- 

 vidual, as a focus or nucleus bearing 

 the fate of an entire nation or race. 

 The weak personality of the Tzar, and 

 the absolute chaos for lack of strong 

 leaders after his destruction, form a 

 picture which is terrible to contemplate. 



The spread of personal propaganda, 

 and by this I mean the systematic 

 propaganda which attracts and rivets 

 the minds of millions upon the per- 

 sonality of some public official, has de- 

 veloped since the war began to pro- 

 portions undreamed of before, and this 

 phenomenon is one which deserves the 

 closest scrutiny. The formation of con- 

 venient brain patterns in the form of 

 slogans and their use by those who 

 declare in a loud voice that they see 

 confidently into the future, but whose 

 theories are false for all their assump- 

 tion of superior knowledge, will force 

 upon the scientific commmiity, who are 

 the real intellectuals of the world, the 

 necessity of some adequate counter- 

 propaganda in which the factors of 

 human welfare, as shown by the science 

 of inheritance, will be driven home and 

 sink deep into the consciousnesses of 

 great mass of the people. 



If the false doctrines that threaten 



1 President's address delivered before the Annual Meeting of the American Genetic Asso- 

 ciation. Washin<Jton, D. C, January 9, 1919. 



65 



