BIGGER FAMILIES IN GOOD STOCKS 75 



All parents, who have only one or two children when 

 they could have more, are acting as if they thought that 

 their stock was not worth preserving for the nation; for 

 they are doing nothing to prevent it from vanishing. All 

 who wiU aid in making this one simple fact clear to every 

 one will be helping to save the nation from decay. 



But how are we to pick out the good stocks ; that is, the 

 couples who should have at least three or four children ? 

 We have seen that some who are apparently desirable 

 citizens are carrying the hidden seeds of lunacy and other 

 defects. Others have been insane, and again others have 

 lived criminal lives. All these cases have been considered 

 in previous chapters, and they may now, therefore, be left 

 out of account. Here it is suggested that it would on the 

 whole be well for the nation if aU men in well-paid honour- 

 able employments were to have four children; that is, 

 families at all events big enough to keep up the numbers of 

 their class. For we have seen that the qualities leading to 

 success of this kind are on the whole such as are to be 

 desired. Yet it is these very people who often have such 

 small families as to tend to make their breed die out. This 

 is a grave national danger. 



When it is suggested that wealth should be considered 

 in this connection, some one is sure to cry out about the 

 millionaire and his ill-gotten millions. From the racial 

 point of view, the very rich are of little importance, simply 

 because they are comparatively few in numbers. The 

 millionaire can count only as one in the production of the 

 coming generations. He is of less importance than the 

 feeble-minded woman, for example, who, if left unguarded, 

 is more Likely than he is to produce a large family. It is 

 to the mass of the people we must mainly look in regard to 

 all social questions. 



Granted that all healthy men drawing good wages for 

 useful work done ought to take their fair share in keeping 

 up the strength of the nation, how are they to be persuaded 

 to do so ? This must be done chiefly by an appeal to their 

 sense of duty and patriotism. When our country was 



