296 EUGENICS 



all those engaged in education, all members of the 

 Legislature, all doctors and all lawyers, would no doubt 

 derive their incomes from the State, a recent sugges- 

 tion of Mr. McDougal's might be put into practice. 

 This is to graduate incomes according to the number 

 of children. Thus the position of married people 

 would be made much fairer on some such scheme as 

 the following : Supposing the salary of a particular 

 post under existing conditions to be 700 a year, a 

 bachelor occupying the post would be paid only 400 

 a year (say). On his marriage an addition of 100 per 

 annum would be made to his income, and a similar 

 increment would again take place at the birth of 

 every child. Under the conditions here postulated 

 this system would apply to the bulk of the more 

 intellectual members of the community, and, incident- 

 ally, it would have a special advantage, to which we 

 may now make allusion.* 



Although a nation's welfare depends to a very great 

 extent upon the mental and bodily health of the rank 

 and file of its citizens, yet the birth of an occasional 

 genius makes an enormous difference to the progress 

 of the world. Now, Galton has shown quite con- 

 clusively that there is a much greater chance of a 

 genius appearing among the children of eminently 

 intelligent parents than in an average family. There- 

 fore, if the fertility of the more intellectual classes is 

 encouraged, the chance of obtaining a genius now and 

 again is much increased. 



* It is not to be inferred from this paragraph that the 

 writer is an advocate of socialism. 



