EUGENICS THE FUTURE OF MAN 



bringing of as many children as possible. If this 

 were so, the current fall in the birth-rate, common 

 to us with all other civilized countries save Russia, 

 would attest to a grave and wide-spread dereliction 

 of civic duty. But the somewhat uncritical ad- 

 vice of President Roosevelt is sublimated and 

 exalted when the eugenic idea is applied to it. 

 As Sir Francis Younghusband said at Mr. Mac- 

 kinder 's lecture in London on "Man-power as a 

 Source of National Strength": "For the mainte- 

 nance of empire we want not merely large num- 

 bers of men, but men of character and ability 

 we want not only quantity but quality. . . . What 

 we have to do, as a people, is to try and maintain 

 the high qualities of our race." Had Sir Francis 

 said "maintain and enhance," he would have pre- 

 cisely expressed the eugenic ideal. When this is 

 common property, and when we have a national 

 roll of distinguished families, men will be as proud 

 of being inscribed and of having their children 

 inscribed on that roll as of having had an an- 

 cestor, probably worthless, who came over with 

 the Conqueror. The man who is conscious of 

 worth of any kind will make many personal sacri- 

 fices in order that he may leave as many children as 

 possible to perpetuate it. In seeking a partner, 

 he will learn to attach a greater value than here- 

 tofore to fine qualities, moral or intellectual, in 

 the woman of his choice ; for he desires to be written 

 in the Golden Book, and he knows that his children 

 will be the more likely to earn enrolment there if 



