3o8 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



We may blame the kind influence of charity for lack 

 of discrimination in its efforts for the help of our neigh- 

 bours. The indiscriminate charity of the middle ages 

 is responsible for much of the misery of ours. It is 

 only in very modern times that charity has had any 

 relation with justice. It is only lately that science has 

 shown that charity is to be judged not by its motives 

 but by its results. "Charity, falsely so called," says 

 McCulloch, " covers a multitude of sins, and sends the 

 pauper out with the benediction, ' Be fruitful and multi- 

 ply.' Such charity has made this element, has brought 

 children to birth, and insured them a life of misery, cold, 

 hunger, sickness. So-called charity joins public relief 

 in producing stillborn children, raising prostitutes, and 

 educating criminals." 



Whatever the causes of hereditary inefficiency, it exists 

 in our civilization. It is part of our social fabric. It is 

 an element not less difficult than the race problem itself. 

 The race problem is indeed a phase of it, for when a 

 race can take care of itself it ceases to have a problem. 

 Hereditary inefficiency is therefore a factor in so- 

 ciety. It must be considered as a factor in civil affairs. 

 In what way does it affect the problem 



aupensm a ^^ government ? In municipal govern- 



factor in ^ . ., ,, f s 



government. ^^^^ '^^ ^'^•' effects are at once appar- 



ent. A single group of related families, 

 all helpless and hopeless by heredity, forms in the clean 

 and wealthy city of Indianapolis some four per cent of 

 the population — 5,000 in perhaps 125,000. In other 

 American cities, notably in San Francisco, with its mild 

 climate and proverbial hospitality, the percentage is 

 greater, for more of these families are represented. In 

 no city are they absent. Self-government by such peo- 

 ple is a farce. No community was ever built up of 

 thieves and imbeciles. The vote of the dependent classes 



