224 



The Journal of Heredity 



because some of his still earlier progeni- 

 tors were of better material or because 

 society has misjudged the stock from 

 which he sprang or because the minghng 

 of germs has brought about a peculiarly 

 favorable combination. 



I find no warrant for Veblen's asser- 

 tion that "under the Mendelian rule- of 

 heredity, breeding from what may be 

 called the 'depauperate' representa- 

 tives of this hybrid stock should in the 

 course of some two or three generations 

 give the same result as breeding from 

 the best exemplars." Nor is it true 

 that "the best, as contemplated in this 

 proposition, are the best for the warlike 

 purpose, not necessarily for any other." 

 This may have been true at some time 

 and in some degree. It has not been 

 true in the European wars of the last 

 hundred years. The degree of evil in 

 war-selection must, of course, vary with 

 every army and with every day of war, 

 but its importance as a factor in history 

 cannot be questioned. 



A serious view of the actual situation 

 is expressed by Mr. Seth K. Humphrey 

 as follows. - 



' ' This war is little short of a headlong 

 plunge into race-suicide. ... A lit- 

 tle play-war, offering adventure abroad, 

 might attract . . . roving spirits 

 whose value in any sustained effort at 

 home is conspicuously absent, and thus 

 not materially affect racial values. . . . 

 It is safe to say that among the millions 

 killed will be a million who are carrying 

 superlatively effective inheritances, the 

 dependence of the race's future. Noth- 

 ing is more absurd than the notion 

 that these inheritances can be replaced 

 in a few generations. . . . They are 

 gone forever. The survivors are going 

 to produce their less valuable kind. 

 Words fail to convey the appalling 

 nature of this loss." 



Again, quoting from some author not 

 named, Mr. Humphrey gives the follow- 



ing excellent definition of a desirable 

 inheritance : 



"It is of that quality of brain — one 

 might almost add quantity of brain — 

 which leads to creative leadership in 

 whatever activity it may select. It 

 dominates environment and advances 

 into new undertakings. It is the m.ark 

 of the Social Migrator, the m^an of ini- 

 tiative who extricates himself from the 

 mass and changes some bit of the world 

 for better or for worse, by his contact 

 with it . . . vSomeone has said that 

 if France, for example, were to lose fifty 

 of her greatest statesm.en, fifty leading 

 scientists, fifty each of her shining 

 lights in education, art, music, there 

 would be nothing left of France. This 

 states in an exaggerated way a deep 

 truth which can be more convincingly 

 illustrated."^ 



France is here used merely as an 

 illustration; the same line of argum.ent 

 applies equally everywhere. Suppose 

 that from any nation were taken 1% 

 of the physically best men such as 

 not of the "very best human values, 

 are being lost in war, but of the best in 

 intellectual and creative ability, in 

 leadership, in genetic worth," what 

 would be left? 



Continuing, Mr. Humphrey asks what 

 would become of New York, if 1%, 

 (40,000) of the best were removed. 

 ' ' In the physical display which any 

 active nation can make we lose sight of 

 the rather appalling fact that its con- 

 structively effective brains are concen- 

 trated in the heads of a very small 

 number. ' ' 



There exists, of course, in the mass a 

 certain percentage who have not yet 

 found themselves or found micans of 

 self -extrication. There are others yet 

 to be produced through happy combina- 

 tions of ancestral traits. But high 

 endowments do not spring from nonen- 

 tity. "Ability is never careless of its 



- No biologist who is qualified to express an opinion on the subject now fails to recognize the 

 vast significance of Mendel's discovery. . . . But these admissions in no way affect our con- 

 demnation of the flimsy superstructure of speculation which has been erected by some of Mendel's 

 successors. (Francis B. Sumner, Modern Conceptions of Heredity, La Jolla, Cal., p. 4) 



3 Mankind, p. 13. 



* Seth K. Humphrey, Mankind, p. 38. 



