THE BIRTH-RATE 133 



by the State, and the assumption of public responsibility 

 for the support of all workers, is a sign of a decadent 

 population. If the competent have become too few 

 and the incompetent too many, the incompetent cease 

 to be able to obtain a living, and the resulting 

 misery and distress make it necessary to provide for 

 them. Heredity shows that they cannot help being 

 less able, but, at the same time, points out to us the 

 danger of giving them the privileges and responsibilities 

 of ability. Society may be morally obliged to support 

 them, but equally surely it has a duty to posterity to 

 see that they do not reproduce unlimited numbers of 

 incompetent offspring to be an increasing burden 

 on the better part of the community, and eventually 

 to destroy the civilization to a mistake of which they 

 owe their existence. 



Let us now return to the consideration of the growth 

 of population in the British Isles. Pitt, one of our 

 greatest statesmen, called for an increase in the people. 

 He got it. During the ensuing fifty years, Malthus 

 and his school of economists cried out for some power 

 to arrest "this devastating torrent of children." The 

 flood has been stayed. And still we are not satisfied. 

 We are coming to understand that it is the quality 

 rather than the quantity of population that is important. 

 Let us see how far it is possible to conduct any inquiry 

 into the sort of citizens that are not being born. 



As stated above, in order that a nation should main- 

 tain its numbers unaltered, an average of about four 

 children must be born to each marriage which produces 

 children at all. If we subtract those who will not 



