48 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



started in the first generation as a pair of parents 

 may in the seventh generation become a million 

 individuals ! We are not fully aware of the silent 

 dangers that we incur in our endeavours to save the 

 unfit and render their lot easier. Useless as they 

 are, and unable to contribute to national resources or 

 progress, they become an ever-increasing source of 

 injury and harassment to the fitter citizens, who, 

 either voluntarily or under compulsion, contribute 

 to their maintenance. While the artificially-endowed 

 unfit, who are being relieved in ever-increasing degree 

 of their responsibilities, are faithfully procreating, 

 the artificially-disendowed fit citizens, whose respon- 

 sibilities increase as those of the other class decrease, 

 are limiting the number of their children. For any 

 nation, under any circumstances, this is a dangerous 

 condition ; but for a nation upon the walls of whose 

 temples has been written, in the writing of con- 

 temporary events, the warning that in the not 

 remote future she will be called upon to measure her 

 strength with other nations upon the battlefield, it 

 is nothing short of criminal and disastrous folly. 



If our nation must depart from the laisser-faire 

 policy, and make a positive effort to determine what 

 the qualities of its citizens shall be, the only sound 

 line of action is to endeavour to encourage and 

 preserve the worthier citizens, and to discourage 

 and eliminate the less worthy ones. And that 

 result can be attained without any conscious effort, 

 for those best fitted to survive under the conditions 

 which reign on earth will do so by purely natural 



