346 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



according to Hansen, to degenerate. The children, poorly 

 nourished and brought up with inadequate education, recruit the 

 army of vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells that forms so heavy a 

 burden upon the productive members of society. Thus cities, 

 according to Hansen, are racially destructive. They cause a 

 gradual deterioration of their inhabitants and constitute a potent 

 factor in the decline and fall of empires. 



Views similar to those of Hansen have been set forth by Am- 

 mon. This writer differs from Hansen in that he does not consider 

 that the rural migrants become at once members of the middle 

 class. The majority begin at the lower rounds of the ladder, 

 becoming servants, janitors, waiters, teamsters, etc., and sub- 

 sequently work up into the skilled trades and higher professions. 

 During this period they are subjected to the rigid operation of 

 natural selection. The less intelligent and forceful brachycepha- 

 lic types are eliminated in a few generations. The dolichocepha- 

 lics tend to succeed both in the struggle for wealth and position 

 as well as in the more literal struggle for life. As a result, cities 

 tend to become composed of a relatively high percentage of the 

 dolichocephalic type. The anthropometric studies of Ammon 

 upon the population of Baden have yielded results supporting 

 this conclusion, inasmuch as he finds that the urban population 

 is more dolichocephalic than the rural, and that the successful 

 types are more dolichocephalic than those of inferior status. 

 But in the long run, city life proves fatal even to the victors in 

 the struggle. Ammon who shares the very prevalent German 

 persuasion regarding the long headed, blond "Germanic" type, 

 naturally looks upon the process of urban migration as destruc- 

 tive of the best elements of the race. The rural population it is 

 which is the source of national vitality. "Der Bauernstand ist 

 nicht ein Stand wie jeder beliedige andere, der sich durch Zugang 

 neuer Krafte erganzt, sondern er ist eben der Vorratsbehalter, 

 der Jungbrunnen der Menschheit, er hat die Nachschube fiir alia 

 anderen Stande zu liefern, in denen die Menschen nach dem 

 natiirlichen Laufe der Entwickelung sich verbrauchen und 



zerstoren." .■ ■»! f^ 



k] 



