288 



The Journal of Heredity 



carried far beyond the academic stage 

 of readinj^, writing and discussion, into 

 the play-practice h>' a coming generation 

 that will better fit it for facing these 

 big world problems than perhaps any 

 generation has ever been fitted before. 



From fifty to seventy thousand young 

 girls absorbing the Camp Fire environ- 

 ment, and their numbers increasing at 

 the rate of about 2,000 girls a month, 

 actually means something for the future 

 of the race. The hiking, canoeing, 

 swimming, cooking, and all-round glori- 

 fication of work which seemed to my 

 }'oung friends a possible "moral equiva- 

 lent of war, " is developing a spirit of 

 physical and mental freedom that will 

 doubtless result in a finer fitness for 

 motherhood and a keener percejjtion 

 of what is wanted in fatherhood for the 

 next generation. It will also be found 

 to be working out a solution for many 

 an economic problem that results from 

 our extravagance in luxuries, which 

 are more than compensated for in the 

 hai:)p>' recreations of the out-of-doors 

 and the sim])lifying of customs of eating 

 and all-round living that comes with an 

 appreciation of a life close to the heart 

 of nature, whose wayward children 

 we still are, despite our cara]jace of 

 over-civilization . 



THE TOKIH-BEARERS 



The highest rank in Camp Fire is 

 that of the torch-bearer, whose desire, 

 expressed on receiving the honor, is; 



"The light that has been given to me 

 I desire to pass undimmcd to others." 



And its biological and social significance 

 is made plain to those who work for 

 and win the rank. In such a sjjirit 

 we may hojje to find at least the 

 beginning of a realization of Galton's 

 ho])e that Eugenics might become a 

 living ])art of our very religious con- 

 ception of life; for surely, as Salceby 

 has ai)tly i)ut it: "If we have trans- 



ferred our hopes of heaven to earth, 

 and from ourselves to our children, 

 they are no less religious, 'and they 

 that shall be of us shall build up the 

 old waste places; for we shall raise up 

 the foundations of many generations.' " 

 Nor need this be conscious or rea- 

 soned. Perhaps the less we say to our 

 young people about Eugenics directly, 

 the Ijctter. Surely the less they have 

 to deal first-hand with the blaek- 

 symboled jjedigrees of neuroses and 

 disease that constitutes the major part 

 of our present crop of eugenic literature, 

 the more wholesome will be their 

 attitude toward their own relation to 

 life and its multiplication. It is not 

 so much seeds of fear concerning going 

 wrong that we need to sow, as it is 

 seeds of strong desire to go right and 

 pass on undimmcd the light that is 

 given us in a spirit of hope that the 

 best is yet to be, for heresy though it 

 seem to say so in this journal, it is 

 our social heredity that preserves the 

 best the race has wrought out of s])ace 

 and time, and the unmodifiable germ- 

 plasm is, after all, more a matter of 

 concern to the microscopist and bio- 

 chemist than it is to our harvest of 

 boys and girls. The hope I see for 

 putting over Eugenics to the masses 

 who need it most lies in the new inter- 

 ])rctation of the world's poetry and 

 romance, the making of life now and 

 here romantic and interesting and 

 splendidly worth while, so that we shall 

 strenuously desire to perpetuate it and 

 enjoy the holy fruits of its perj^etuation, 

 and this will be done only when we do 

 as has been suggested, turn the current 

 of humanity's genius into social channels 

 and evolve as magnificent engines for 

 social righteousness as we have for the 

 disco\'cry and control of weakness, 

 disease and death. That ihis can and 

 will be done we may already read in 

 the signs of the times, not the least 

 of these our Scouts and C\nni) I^'ire. 



