494 READINGS IN EVOLUTION, GENETICS, AND EUGENICS 



in the interests of race betterment. In so far, then, as the infant 

 mortality movement is not futile it is, from a strict biological view- 

 point, often detrimental to the future of the race. 



Do we then discourage all attempts to save the babies ? Do we 

 leave them all to natural selection ? Do we adopt the "better dead" 

 gospel ? 



Unqualifiedly, no! The sacrifice of the finer human feelings, 

 which would accompany any such course, would be a greater loss to 

 the race than is the eugenic loss from the perpetuation of weak strains 

 of heredity. The abolition of altruistic and humanitarian sentiment 

 for the purpose of race betterment would ultimately defeat its own end 

 by making race betterment impossible. 



But race betterment will also be impossible unless a clear distinc- 

 tion is made between measures that really mean race betterment of a 

 fundamental and permanent nature, and measures which do not. 



We have chosen the Infant Mortality Movement for analysis in this 

 chapter because it is an excellent example of the kind of social better- 

 ment which is taken for granted, by most of its proponents, to be a 

 fundamental piece of race betterment; but which, as a fact, often 

 means race impairment. No matter how abundant and urgent are 

 the reasons for continuing to reduce infant mortality wherever pos- 

 sible, it is dangerous to close the eyes to the fact that the gain from it 

 is of a kind that must be paid for in other ways; that to carry on the 

 movement without adding eugenics to it will be a short-sighted policy, 

 which increases the present happiness of the world at the cost of 

 diminishing the happiness of posterity through the perpetuation of 

 inferior strains. 



While some euthenic measures are eugenically evils, even if 

 necessary ones, it must not be inferred that all euthenic measures are 

 dysgenic. Many of them, such as the economic and social changes we 

 have suggested in earher chapters, are an important part of eugenics. 

 Every euthenic measure should be scrutinized from the evolutionary 

 standpoint; if it is eugenic as well as euthenic, it should be whole- 

 heartedly favored; if it is dysgenic but euthenic it should be con- 

 demned or adopted, according to whether or not the gain in all ways 

 from its operation will exceed the damage. 



In general, euthenics, when not accompanied by some form of 

 selection (i.e., eugenics) ultimately defeats its own end. If it is accom- 

 panied by rational selection, it can usually be indorsed. Eugenics, 



