42 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



adjusting the environment unfavourably as regards 

 industry, efficiency and hard work, and those qualities 

 will be relatively less useful to their possessors. They 

 will lose some or most of their selective value, and they 

 will tend to be bred out of the race. 



The great danger of democracy is that, more even 

 than other forms of government, it may consider re- 

 forms too exclusively from the point of view of the 

 immediate comfort of the individual, and may ignore 

 their slow but irrevocable effect on the inborn character 

 of future generations. All the more necessary is it 

 that those who venture to assume the heavy responsi- 

 bility of attempting to legislate for a democracy should 

 understand the nature of the fundamental problems of 

 race on which the future welfare of the nation depends. 

 In the office of the Registrar-General, we have the 

 foundation of an institution which should become 

 gradually a depository of sociological knowledge, which 

 would be at the disposal of the statesman who was 

 willing to consider the ultimate racial good of the 

 nation when framing legislation or drafting administra- 

 tive orders. 



