OBJECT OF EUGENICS 295 



future generations ! If there are people so debased 

 that this argument does not appeal to them, surely 

 such a crime against Society as a marriage of this kind is 

 at least as open to coercive treatment as many of the 

 acts which are treated as criminal by existing laws ! We 

 elaborately prevent and punish paltry offences against 

 property, and yet deliberate crimes like marriages 

 between the Unfit are not recognized as criminal. 



Various suggestions for encouraging the multiplica- 

 tion of the Fit have also been made. 



Mr. Sidney Webb, in his ' Decline of the Birth-Rate/ 

 has suggested indiscriminate help to all parents, since 

 this should afford encouragement to those who limit 

 their families for prudential reasons and at the same 

 time leave the thriftless where they are. But here 

 it is necessary to point out that the existence of an 

 unlimited population must of necessity bring want 

 and misery to the lowest strata of society. The first 

 object of Eugenics, Galton tells us, ' is to check the 

 birth-rate of the unfit, instead of allowing them to 

 come into being, though doomed in large numbers to 

 perish prematurely. The second object is the improve- 

 ment of the race by furthering the productivity of 

 the Fit by early marriages and healthful rearing of 

 their children. Natural selection rests upon excessive 

 production and wholesale destruction ; Eugenics upon 

 bringing into the world no more individuals than can 

 properly be cared for, and those only of the best 

 stock.' 



In the ideal socialistic community, in which, in 

 addition to all the present varieties of civil servants, 



