Key: Better American Families 



35 



as we have described, are receiving the 

 attention of the civilized world. Amer- 

 ica's great contributions to political 

 thought, her adoption of a Constitu- 

 tion under which peoples of wide 

 genetic derivation and worth can 

 prosper according to individual merit, 

 her liberal policy toward her territorial 

 possessions, and her Monroe Doctrine 

 are all chiefly due to the families here 

 considered. It is of no slight signifi- 

 cance, when under the flexible social 

 conditions of our day, Nancy Lang- 

 horne, an ofi^shoot of "the first fami- 

 lies of Virginia" marries a scion of a 

 more recent commercial family, whose 

 fortune was founded on careful thrift 

 and calculation, and through the social 

 prestige which her wealth and her 

 native wit give her, becomes, as Lady 

 Astor, the first woman representa- 

 tive in Britain's legislative halls. 



It is well for the nations that all 

 unconsciously there have been these 

 processes at work to create the robust 

 energies of mind and heart necessary 

 to this great work; but far better for 

 her ultimate destiny and theirs if we 

 infuse into the education of our people 

 some conception of the fundamental 

 relation of inherent human traits and 

 our social and political structure. Such 

 a conception cannot but lead to sound 

 eugenic ideals and a reasonable con- 

 formity in practice. 



THE PRESERVATION OF ABILITIES 



Few families keep a level of ability. 

 From generation to generation, they 



rise and fall according to the type of 

 marriages made. Sometimes even a 

 few generations suffice to make so wide 

 a divergence between two lines that all 

 idea of relationship is lost. The study 

 of any comprehensive genealogy brings 

 into relief lines standing for ability in 

 business, mechanical construction, art, 

 science or statecraft. Similarly one 

 may, with a little study, trace in his 

 own family changes in aptitude through 

 the criss-cross of marriages in succes- 

 sive generations. Thus every mar- 

 riage becomes a matter of serious con- 

 cern to the future of the family and the 

 future of the nation of which the family 

 is a constituent part. 



The world war, it appears, has but 

 ushered in a longer, intenser struggle for 

 supremacy in which every means for 

 increasing human efficiency will be 

 taxed to the utmost. In the face of 

 this necessity a more rigid policy of 

 state care of the socially inadequate 

 and control of marriages must play its 

 indispensable part. But more than 

 this, far more important is it that we 

 foster an enlightened sense of respon- 

 sibility in marriage, to the state and to 

 humanity. This is the responsibility of 

 maintaining through selective mar- 

 riages the highest possible level of 

 ability in the family. Thus shall it be 

 given to those who are "good Ameri- 

 cans" to preserve lines of better Ameri- 

 can families and perform an unex- 

 ampled service in national and racial 

 growth. 



Cannon's Book Reprinted 



Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, 

 Fear and Rage, by Walter B. Can- 

 non, M.D., C.B., George Higginson 

 professor of physiology in Harvard 

 University. Pp. 311, price $3. New 

 York and London, D. Appleton & 

 Co., 1920. 



Dr. Cannon's admirable volume on 

 the physiological bases of the emotions 

 reappears with a new date line, but 

 apparently without any other change. 

 In the five years since it was first issued 



his data have become an integral part 

 of current science. Indeed, the changes 

 that occur in the body with the exis- 

 tence of intense emotion are almost a 

 matter of common knowledge. This 

 book will be almost indispensable read- 

 ing to all biologists who have not read 

 it; while the last chapter makes a 

 contribution to eugenics by discussing 

 the possibility of substituting athletics 

 or other active forms of competition 

 for destructive warfare. — P. P. 



