324 GENETICS 



foreign governments would seriously interfere with our 

 getting many desirable foreigners to come to this 

 country. 



The national expense of such a program of genea- 

 logical inspection would be far less than the mainte- 

 nance of introduced defectives, in fact it would greatly 

 decrease the number of defectives in the country. At 

 the present time this country is spending over one hun- 

 dred million dollars a year on defectives alone, and 

 each year sees this amount increased. 



The United States Department of Agriculture 

 already has field agents scouring every land for desir- 

 able animals and plants to introduce into this country, 

 as well as stringent laws to prevent the importation 

 of dangerous weeds, parasites, and organisms of vari- 

 ous kinds. Is the inspection and supervision of human 

 blood less important? 



B. MORE DISCRIMINATING MARRIAGE LAWS 



Every people, including even the more primitive 

 races, make customs or laws that tend to regulate 

 marriage. Of these, the laws which relate to the 

 eugenic aspect of marriage are the only ones that 

 concern us in this connection. "Marriage," says 

 Davenport, "can be looked at from many points of 

 view. In novels as the climax of human courtship; 

 in law largely as two lines of property descent; in 

 society, as fixing a certain status ; but in eugenics, 

 which considers its biological aspect, marriage is an 

 experiment in breeding." 



