BIOLOGY AND HUMAN TRENDS — PEARL 339 



After prolonged study of the matter it is my opinion that the alleged 

 detrimental consequences of this class differential fertility upon the 

 aggregate biological and social fitness and worth of mankind, while 

 doubtless present in some degree, have probably been greatly exag- 

 gerated in the reformer's zeal to make his case. This is not the place, 

 nor is there time, to state and document all the reasons that have led 

 me to this view. But there are certain considerations that must be 

 mentioned because they have been so consistently overlooked or 

 suppressed. The first is the tacit assumption that lies at the very 

 root of the argument. This assumption is that, generally speaking 

 and with negligible exceptions, the most fortunate social and eco- 

 nomic classes are in that position because they are mainly composed 

 of genetically superior people. But it may be alleged with at least 

 equal truth that these very people who are regarded as mentally, 

 morally, and physically superior are that way (insofar as they are 

 so in fact) in no small part only because they and their forebears 

 have been fortunate socially and economically. The analogy often 

 drawn between human breeding and livestock breeding is in part 

 specious and misleading. In animal breeding it has been learned 

 that the only reliable measure of genetic superiority is the progeny 

 test — the test of quality of the offspring actually produced. Breed- 

 ing in the light of this test may, and often does, lead to the rapid, 

 sure, and permanent improvement of a strain of livestock. But 

 when the results of human breeding are interpreted in the light of 

 the clear principles of the progeny test the eugenic case does not fare 

 so well. In absolute numbers the vast majority of the most superior 

 people in the world's history have in fact been produced by mediocre 

 or inferior forebears ; and furthermore the admittedly most superior 

 folk have in the main been singularly unfortunate in their progeny, 

 again in absolute numbers. No one would question the desirability 

 of the free multiplication of people who are really superior geneti- 

 cally. But in human society as it exists under present conditions of 

 civilization many a gaudy and imposing phenotype masks a very 

 mediocre or worse genotype. And most eugenic selection of human 

 beings is, and in the nature of the case must be, based solely upon 

 phenotypic manifestations. 



Naturally it is to be understood that what has been said does not 

 refer to the problem of the really biologically defective and degener- 

 ate members of society. There the eugenic position is sound and 

 admirable in principle. The breeding of such people must be 

 stopped ; and by compulsory measures. Voluntary birth control will 

 not help appreciably to the solution of the problem, for the persons 

 concerned are not of a sort to make effective use of contraception. 

 If all the contraceptive techniques in the world were made fully 



36923—36 23 



