2S8 



ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



among the most efficient is emphasized as of the greatest value in 

 helping to counter-balance the increase of population which is 

 now so largely from the lowest economic classes. As noticed 

 above, economic efficiency is considered by our author to be the 

 best principle of selection yet discovered, though he admits that 

 this principle is not now working because of the practical sterility 

 of the most efficient. 



Regulation of marriage as well as of divorce should be a 

 function of the sovereign group. A minimum wage law rigidly 

 enforced is considered one of the feasible methods for race-stock 

 improvement, for the incapables would be thrown upon society 

 for subsistence and by segregating these the race-stock would be 

 improved in an appreciable degree within a few generations. 



As the chief function of social control is considered to be the 

 economizing of human energy, all forms of waste must be elimi- 

 nated. Professor Carver gives attention to two in particular, 

 waste land and waste labor. The following scheme sets forth his 

 analysis of these forms of waste: — 



Causes of waste land ^ 



I. Bad physical conditions 



Bad chemical conditions 



3. Bad social conditions 



(a) Too stony, 



(b) Too wet, 



(c) Too dry. 



( (a) Too much acid, 



I {b) Too much alkali. 



f {a) Bad taxation, 



\ (b) Too much speculation. 



Forms of waste labor ^ 



1. The involuntarily unemployed. 



2. The imperfectly employed. 



3. The improperly employed. 



4. The voluntarily idle. 



The class of involuntarily unemployed is made up mostly of 

 defective individuals; the imperfectly employed of those whose 

 idleness is due to enforced " lay-offs " and seasonal occupations; 

 the improperly employed, of those who are not doing the work for 

 which they are best adapted and the voluntarily idle, of the 

 tramps and idle rich. There are two classes of the latter, those 

 who have produced sufficient wealth for their maintenance and 

 have retired from the productive life, and those whose sole occu- 



* Principles of Rural Economics, p. 132. * Ibid., p. 185. 



