136 HEREDITY AND SOCIETY 



Aliens Bill was under discussion, we heard much of 

 unfair industrial competition and much of the sacred 

 principle of the right of asylum for political and 

 religious refugees, past, present and to come, and little 

 of the welfare of the English race and of the biological 

 problems which are the real heart of the matter. 



To improve environment is a favourite occupation 

 of all good people, and it is generally accepted as a 

 beneficent action towards the community, in whatever 

 circumstances it takes place. Now let us take an 

 illustration from the gardening or farming world. To 

 trench, stir, fertilize and drain a tract of ground is a 

 praiseworthy effort of the husbandman ; but it is not 

 complete in itself. The second step, even more im- 

 portant than the first, is to replant that ground with 

 good seed. To leave the newly stirred area to be 

 overrun with chickweed and groundsel of however 

 robust a growth is not a beneficent action better the 

 old, ill-grown plants of greater utility, the shabby 

 pasture-land, the short-strawed wheat. But one thing 

 is certain, the ground will not remain unoccupied. 



So in the world of human beings. To improve 

 environment does not necessarily lead to the production 

 of a finer race, though it is worth accomplishing for 

 other reasons, and, as we have seen above, brings 

 about a separation of the sounder stocks from the 

 worthless a separation of great biological value. But 

 if the district which has been cleared of its insanitary 

 dwellings, and has had large sums of money spent on 

 the provision of a better water-supply and an efficient 

 scheme of drainage, be immediately taken possession 



