2 Environment and Efficiency 



Suppose we can take a member of the loafing, criminal, or 

 semi-criminal Class A, and transplant him into Class D, thus 

 transforming him into a "regular wage earner, a decent, 

 steady man who will pay his way and bring up his children 

 respectably " ; then, in spite of the fact that he still dwells on 

 the wrong side of the " poverty line," I venture to think that, in 

 consideration of the class from which he has sprung, and more 

 especially in consideration of the decent home which he is able 

 to provide for his children, we may characterise him as efficient. 



The majority if not all the children with whom these 

 records deal are children born into Class A; that is to say, 

 they are the children of criminals, of drunkards, of prostitutes, 

 and of vagrants ; in some cases they have been " found 

 wandering " or " deserted," or " under improper guardianship " ; 

 in others they have been themselves convicted of petty theft, 

 and are therefore fast qualifying for a criminal career. 



It does not seem necessary to collect statistics, to prove 

 that, left to themselves, these children would inevitably form 

 the Class A of a future generation. Under such circumstances 

 there could be no pitched battle between Heredity and En- 

 vironment ; and the results which each unaided might fail to 

 bring about, their combination would surely achieve. 



The term ft efficiency " is necessarily a relative one ; and in 

 dealing with the evidence I have collected, I have considered 

 in every instance not only the record of the child as it grew 

 to manhood or womanhood, but also the record of the parents. 



" Inefficiency " is also a relative term ; but, looked at in 

 the light of these parental records, it is in almost every case 

 synonymous with vagrancy, with dissolute living, with drunken- 

 ness, and with crime. There are, of course, isolated instances 

 where the record has been one of accumulated misfortune, 

 rather than of inefficiency ; but these are so rare as to be 

 swamped in the general whole. 



Before proceeding further it may be as well to refer to the 

 extreme position adopted by some members of the Eugenic 



