HEREDITY AND POLITICS 145 



comfort to think that each nation probably gets the 

 governing class it deserves. 



But we can follow our investigation further. An 

 increasing number of young men of the upper classes 

 in England, finding fewer careers in the government 

 of the country open to them, and certain of far better 

 remuneration elsewhere, are participating in the trade 

 of the country, where singleness of aim and assured 

 standards of personal honour and corporate honesty 

 are found to have a substantial commercial value. 

 Now the same process has been at work for a long 

 time across the Atlantic. For many years past, the 

 great majority of the ablest, best bred, best educated 

 men of the United States of America have found their 

 natural sphere of activity in the business world, where 

 their innate capacity for government has once more 

 come to the front ; until it is extremely doubtful whether 

 the Senate of the United States and the political boss, 

 representing the people, or the manipulators of the 

 great Railroad and Trust companies, representing what- 

 ever exists of a hereditary governing class, are the 

 true rulers of that land of freedom. We are apparently 

 at the beginning of the same process in England. 



On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult 

 to find suitable men who are willing to serve on the 

 numerous bodies elected to deal with our national and 

 local affairs. We have to face in the first place the 

 real deficiency of men of ability caused by the decline 

 in the birth-rate of the abler sections of the community ; 

 and then, owing partly to the increased burdens of 

 taxation on these same classes, we must realize that 

 a far larger proportion of their members have entered 



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