Key: Better American Families 



83 



]3erfect; no, not one." Are these de- 

 fects relatively few, or so slight as not 

 to seriously impair efficiency, the chance 

 of making good these defects in mar- 

 riage is correspondingly great. The trait 

 is thus strengthened and remains so un- 

 less there is subsequent marriage into 

 strains showing similar weakness or 

 defect. This process has resuhed in 

 the practical blotting out of gross de- 

 fect in three lines (A, B and C ) of this 

 net-work. On the other hand, when 

 defect has been marked, or a combina- 

 tion of minor weaknesses has entailed 

 social inadequacy, mating has usually 

 occurred with those equally defective. 

 Where these defects were similar we 

 have a fairly uniform type of unfitness ; 

 where dissimilar, the result is a diver- 

 sity of degenerate condition. This 

 process is illustrated by lines D and E. 

 Marriage was usually with early Amer- 

 ican stocks, and the sifting out which 

 has thus occurred has brought about an 

 approximation to the standards of the 

 older stocks on the part of the new- 

 comers, so far as their natural endow- 

 ment permitted. The examination of 

 eugenic conceptions operating in the va- 

 rious matings, the changes in educa- 

 tional and economic opportunity, which 

 came as "accident'' or because of the 

 better endowment of the individual, are 

 too long and detailed to be given here. 

 It must suffice to say that the posses- 

 sion of the traits considered, in one 

 way or other, usually operated to secure 

 a greater range and better type of mar- 

 riage selection. The better ones in con- 

 sequence are continually pushing out 

 into newer sections of the country, 

 there developing its resources, \vhile the 

 weaker remain behind to mate together, 

 accentuate defects and become a bur- 

 den on the public. This is graphically 

 sliown in the diagram which gives the 

 relation of the various lines to migra- 

 tion. 



The story told here has been repeated 

 many times in the history of American 

 .settlement. While, no doubt, the wife 



of Aaron was more defective than the 

 vast majority of pioneer wives, and the 

 level of most families belonging to the 

 Kiel group lower than the average, still 

 the relative reaction of its various mem- 

 bers to the educational and economic 

 opportunity of their times remains the 

 same. The diverseness in ability sim- 

 ply serves to throw the history of the 

 lines into more vivid relief. There is 

 a well-defined sentiment against mar- 

 riage into the family in sections where 

 the defective and degenerate members 

 are found. On the other hand, the 

 abler members of the mixed strains feel 

 that stigma and seek to get away where 

 the family is not known. It is related 

 of one of them, that after living in the 

 west for some years, he returned and 

 sought to establish himself at the old 

 home. The efifort proving vain, he is 

 said to have exclaimed : "Here I'm only 

 a damned Rufer ! I'll go back west 

 where I am as good as anybody !" This 

 he did, and now owns two ranches, is 

 married and a school director, and the 

 father of promising children. 



We thus see how heredity, in con- 

 junction w^ith the physical and social 

 selection imposed through the environal 

 factors, operates to bring about con- 

 centration of positive characters in the 

 rise of abler lines, who seek to approxi- 

 mate their enterprises and manner of 

 life to the better standards established 

 by the dominating personalities of the 

 period. That the concomitant concen- 

 tration of defect in other lines does not 

 overwhelm the former process is due to 

 the fact that the survival rate of the 

 defective and degenerate families is be- 

 low that of the abler families. This at 

 least is true for the families studied 

 here, and is illustrative of "Nature's 

 method" of eliminating the socially un- 

 fit and insuring to the "fit" survival and 

 all that survival entails. Where physi- 

 cal and social conditions pertain that 

 encourage a reversal of this process, we 

 have decadence and death. 



