I20 Social Environment 



magazine calmly classified the unsuccessful as 

 feeble-minded on the ground that life is the 

 most comprehensive test of mentality.^ Such 

 an attitude shows an utter blindness to the 

 unsocial spirit of commercialized society, where 

 success so often means simply the monopoliza- 

 tion of property by which revenues may be 

 wrung from the unsuccessful. Capitalistic 

 property is not essentially different from feudal 

 property, and its ownership by no means guar- 

 antees service. The eugenist who regards com- 

 mercial success as the standard toward which 

 society should breed apparently has in mind as 

 an ideal a nation composed only of cultured 

 bondholders. What an admirable solution of 

 the labor problem ! 



One cannot but commend the efforts of the 

 eugenists to discourage the propagation of the 

 seriously defective classes. Such a policy is 

 both humane and enlightened. But in the op- 

 position they so commonly evince toward social 

 legislation they pervert their reasoning and 

 prostitute their science to exploiting interests. 

 Laws to protect the toiler against destructive 

 competition are merely the modern correlative 



iGesell, "The Village of a Thousand Souls," the 

 American Magazine, Vol. 76, p. 12. 



