278 



The Journal of Heredity 



Eugenics and civilization are actually in 

 the same boat, and that the theoretic dif- 

 ficulties of the former are identical with 

 those of the latter. Both are rooted in the 

 notion of the good, but neither of them 

 knows what the good is, and both are 

 vitally affected by the doubts and disputes 

 that beset the good. If we cannot tell what 

 the good is, we can neither know how to 

 better the human race, nor decide whether 

 civilization is or is not a good thing. And 

 in either case, if we disagree about the 

 good, we shall get divergent aims, quarrel 

 about it, and shall probably have to fight 

 it out; with the result, very likely, that 

 both sides v.ill miss the good they aimed at. 



To know what is the good, especial- 

 ly in such a large matter as civiliza- 

 tion, is a far more complex matter 

 than it is ordinarily considered to be. 

 In the oasis and city Bokhara the 

 number of inhabitants is strictly lim- 

 ited by the amount of water brought 

 down from the mountains by the 

 Zarafshan River, while from the coun- 

 try there is a very small emigration 

 of the surplus population. Social and 

 religious customs demand that every 

 woman bear all the children possible. 

 and death is a conspicuous feature, 

 especially among the young. The 

 enormous population, as in all Orien- 

 tal countries, lives exceedingly scan- 

 tily. With eyes opened wide with 

 wonder I was being shown around by 

 a Russian gentleman and was making 

 photographs of the people and re- 

 marks about their slow ways, viola- 

 tions of the rules of sanitation and 

 health, their complacency, improvi- 

 dence, leaving everything to Allah, 

 and so forth. Then my philosophic 

 guide said : 



You see these people doing all these 

 things so differently from the strenuous 

 ways of your U. S. A., and you say to 

 them : 'Bokharans, why don't you wake up 

 and take to the strenuous ways of my coun- 

 try ? Why put off till tomorrow that which 

 can be done today; you fools!' I, a Rus- 

 sian from Moscow, say to them (this was 

 a few days before the beginning of the 

 late war), 'Why don't you wake up and do 

 as we Russians do,' and I say 'you fools!' 

 Then these people, as they sit around sip- 

 ping their tea, philosophising, awaiting 

 death and Allah, look at us from their quiet 



^ Poi'K.N'OE AM) Johnson, Applied liiif/ciiic 



eyes, as we 'rubber neck' among them, and 

 they say, 'You westerners, you nervous, 

 strenuous people, quiet your nerves. Why 

 do today that which can be put off till to- 

 morrow? You fools!' Now, professor, I ask 

 you, who are the fools ? 



Another angle of the same problem 

 is given by Popenoe and Johnson : 



At the First Race Betterment Congress 

 at Battle Creek, one afternoon the discus- 

 sion turned to the children of the slums, 

 and their conditions were pictured in dark 

 colors. A number of eugenists remarked 

 that such children were in many cases 

 handicapped by a poor heredity. Then the 

 revered Jacob Riis strode upon the plat- 

 form, filled with indignation, and said : 



"We have heard friends here talk about 

 heredity. The word has rung in my ears 

 until I am sick of it. Heredity! Heredity! 

 there is just one heredity m all the world 

 that is ours — we are the children of God, 

 and there is nothing in the whole big world 

 that we cannot do in His service with it." 



It is probably not beyond the truth to 

 say that in this statement Jacob R'is 

 voiced the opinion of a majority of the 

 social workers of this country, and likewise 

 a majority of the people who are faithfully 

 and with much self-sacrifice supporting 

 charities, uplift movements, reform legisla- 

 tion, and philanthropic attempts at social 

 betterment in many directions. They sup- 

 pose that they are at the same time making 

 the race better by making the conditions 

 better in which people live." 



This introduces the problem, and it 

 seems to me, states it very succinctly. 

 It is the problem of the interactions 

 of the factors of nature and of nur- 

 ture, or the heritage and the environ- 

 ment. When this used to be a subjec^ 

 for discussion in the good old country 

 school debates, we usual'y treated it 

 as though one or the other, nature, or 

 nurture, comprised the whole economy 

 of an individual. In such a debate we 

 succeeded about as well as when we 

 took sides on that other ancient ques- 

 tion entitled "What would happen if 

 an irresistible force should meet an 

 immovable body?" The answer usu- 

 allv was. "the inevitable." Like the 

 old codger who, after looking a giraffe 

 over, concluded : "Well, there just ain't 

 no such animal," so we inight begin 

 with tlie ])remise that there is no such 



The MacMillan Co., 1918. 



