ECONOMIC FACTORS IN EUGENICS 47 1 



ECONOMIC FACTORS IN EUGENICS 



Bv WILLIAM LELAND HOLT, M.D. 



FREIBURG IM BREISGAU, GERMANY 



ALTHOUGH eugenics is perhaps tlie newest of all the sciences, it 

 has already become one of the topics of the day. And this is well, 

 for no science was ever founded wliich promises to do so much for 

 the improvement of mankind. Sir Francis Galton defined eugenics as 

 " the study of agencies under social control, that may improve or impair 

 the racial qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally." 

 Such a broad definition evidently makes eugenics include a large part 

 of sociology. 



The object of the present essay is not to review or multiply the 

 sad facts concerning the diminishing birth rate among the better mem- 

 bers of all civilized communities and the unrestricted propagation of 

 the inferior and unfit. All intelligent people are familiar with these 

 lamentable facts. In x\merica, indeed, popular education concerning 

 the latter evil has so far progressed that two states, viz., Indiana and 

 California, have already passed laws which provide, under proper con- 

 trol, for the sterilization of confirmed rapists, criminals, idiots and 

 imbeciles in the state institutions. The same states and also New 

 Jersey have acts, which provide that no marriage license shall be issued 

 when either party is imbecile, epileptic or insane. A similar act on 

 the statute books of Michigan provides that "no person, who has been 

 afflicted with syphilis or gonorrhea, and has not been cured of the same, 

 shall be capable of contracting a marriage." Ex-president Roosevelt 

 and others have also aroused Americans somewhat to the need of posi- 

 tive work against race suicide, and several societies have been formed to 

 encourage marriage, and to promote all influences which tend to raise 

 the birth rate. One western state in a fit of enthusiasm actually passed 

 a law which put a tax on all bachelors who should not marry within a 

 certain period of grace ! 



The present writer will not concern himself with these laudable 

 endeavors in the cause of eugenics, but will rather aim to present the 

 social conditions in a new light ; namely, to show that their basic causes 

 are chiefly economic, and hence that remedial measures, if they are to 

 succeed, must also be chiefly economic. In order to do this I shall take 

 up some of the leading problems of eugenics, and point out their eco- 

 nomic factors. In making this analysis I wish to warn the reader 

 against misunderstanding. WTien I mention only the economic factors 



