THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 177 



preached in the interest of capital in order that there may always 

 be a supply of cheap labor, they have come to regard the produc- 

 tion of large families as almost an act of class disloyalty. Know- 

 ing little of heredity, taught to look upon the differences between 

 human beings as chiefly the result of environment and oppor- 

 tunity, and being impressed with the notion that the ills of 

 humanity have their root in purely social and economic malad- 

 justments, they are apt to set little store by the great variations 

 in hereditary qualities which human beings everywhere present, 

 and to overlook the really vital importance of conserving the 

 best inheritance of the race. It does not seem to them, there- 

 fore, a matter of much importance whether they produce 

 their quota of children or not. In fact, it might seem to be 

 a patriotic duty to refrain from having children, so that the 

 next generation would be able to secure a greater per capita 

 reward for its labor. 



If a large part of the thinking elements of the working classes 

 hold such views and are thereby led to reduce their families below 

 the necessary minimum for reproducing their kind, we cannot 

 upbraid them for neglecting an important duty, but can only 

 endeavor to dissuade them from carrying family restriction to 

 the point of race suicide. 



No Neo-Malthusian who has the least knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of heredity would advocate the restriction of families of 

 desirable parentage beyond the minimum necessary for race 

 perpetuation. Many Neo-Malthusians, however, place so little 

 emphasis on this aspect of the matter that the actual influence of 

 their teaching would be to produce just this result. Dr. Drys- 

 dale's book, for instance, is so devoted to condemning the evils 

 of large families and extolling the benefits arising from the small 

 family system that he has practically no word on the evils that 

 would result from an undue restriction in families of desirable 

 inheritance. An indiscriminate advocacy of small families with 

 no indication of how small the families should be, is more apt to 

 cause good inheritance to disappear than it is to check the propa- 

 gation of bad stock. In this matter, if anywhere in ethics, the 



