Eugenics as a Creed and the Last Decade of Galton's Life 351 



"The successful establishment of any general system of constructive eugenics will, in my view 

 (which I put forward with diffidence), depend largely upon the efforts of local associations acting 

 in close harmony with a central society, like our own. A prominent part of its business will 

 then consist in affording opportunities for the interchange of ideas and for the registration and 

 comparison of results. Such a central society would tend to bring about a general uniformity 

 of administration, the value of which is so obvious that I do not stop to insist on it. 



"Assuming, as I do, that the powers at the command of the local associations will be almost 

 purely social, let us consider how those associations might be formed and conducted so as to 

 become exceedingly influential." 



Galton supposes that in any district a few individuals, some of local 

 importance, desire keenly to start a local association. After forming them- 

 selves into an executive committee, and nominating a president, officers and 

 council, they would form the association although it has no legal corporate 

 existence. This committee should next with the aid of the central society 

 provide for a "few sane and sensible lectures" on Eugenics and on the A, B, C 

 of heredity. They would seek the co-operation of local medical men, of the 

 public health officers, of the clergy, of lawyers, and of all officials whose duty 

 brings them into touch with various classes of society. The new association 

 would embrace everybody likely to have sympathy with the eugenic cause; 

 it would be thus much like any political or philanthropic agency. Then we 

 reach something more original. The committee is to seek out " worth " in their 

 district; by civic worthiness Galton understands the value to the State of a 

 person as it would be assessed by experts or fellow-workers. Each class is to 

 choose its own men of worth, students to be chosen by students, artists by 

 artists, business men by business men and so forth*. These men of worth are 

 to be invited to social gatherings. "The State is a vastly complex organism, 

 and the hope of obtaining a proportional representation of its best parts should 

 be an avowed object of these gatherings." Clearly Galton was considering that 

 the local association would be a mixture of social classes, and he cites the 

 meetings of the Primrose League at one end and those in Toynbee Hall at 

 the other end as illustrations, given considerable tact, of what such reunions 

 might achieve for the eugenic cause. He thinks the committee by its 

 inquiries into "worthiness" would obtain a large fund of information as to 

 the notable individuals in the district, and their family histories. These could 

 be used for eugenic studies ; the histories should be tabulated in an orderly 

 manner, and the more significant of them communicated to the Central 

 Society. 



Speaking for himself only Galton states that in classifying persons as to 

 "worth," he should consider them under three heads: in the first place 

 physique, in the second ability and in the third character ; subject, however, 

 to the provision that inferiority in any of the three should outweigh 

 superiority in the other two. Galton admits character as the most important 

 but it is not so easy to rate as the other two. " The tenure of a position of 

 trust is only a partial test of character, though a good one so far as it goes." 

 From this Galton passes to a conception that he had broached many years 

 earlierf, associations of the well-born — the " Eugenes " — for mutual aid ; 



* See p. 231 above. t See our Vol. n, pp. 78-9. 



