72 WHAT IS EUGENICS? 



have no unlimited right to parenthood. The State may, 

 therefore, rightly prevent the continued injury which would 

 result from the production of large families by this class of 

 persons. But how ? It would be both undesirable and 

 impossible to prevent parenthood amongst so large a class 

 by any form of compulsion. It would not be difficult, 

 however, to warn all those who had for a long time been in 

 receipt of public assistance that no more children ought to 

 be born. Such a warning would, of course, be useless when 

 parenthood had become impossible. When any of those 

 warned did neglect the warning, and when more children 

 appeared, the public assistance given might be reduced in 

 quantity or given only in institutions, where parenthood 

 would be impossible. This would tend to deter others from 

 neglecting these warnings. Until eugenic problems are 

 more widely understood, it will continue to be useless to 

 discuss in detail any such scheme as this, for it will remain 

 without the necessary backing of public opinion. 



The other class of persons needing early attention from 

 the eugenic point of view comprises those living unciviUzed 

 lives in civilized countries. Many of them have for long 

 been, no doubt, in receipt of State aid, and such as these 

 should be dealt with as dependents. It is the treatment of 

 those living uncivilized though independent lives in our 

 midst which constitutes a most difficult problem. Many of 

 them are living in overcrowded dwellings, or not sending 

 their children to school. In either case, they could be 

 warned that no more children should be born. And they 

 might be told that, if such warnings were neglected, the 

 laws as to overcrowding and education, often a dead letter 

 in such cases, would be rigidly enforced. 



Thus we see that there are methods by means of which it 

 would be possible to diminish the size of the families of the 

 inferior, and thus to promote racial progress. The state of 

 public opinion probably now makes all the steps here 

 suggested quite impracticable. If it ever comes to be widely 

 recognised that the fate of the coming generations demands 

 our immediate attention, then something in this direction 



