A DISCUSSION OF SIR BERNARD MALLET'S PAPER ON "THE 



REDUCTION OF THE FECUNDITY OF THE SOCIALLY 



INADEQUATE" 



E. S. GOSNEY 

 President, The Human Betterment Foundation, Pasadena, California 



I am quite in accord with the greater part of the excellent paper of Sir 

 Bernard Mallet. The seriousness to the future of race progress, and to 

 civilization itself, of the decreasing fecundity of "sound stock" and the 

 relatively increasing reproduction of the unfit, weak, unstable, bad heredity, 

 to the student of eugenics, is appalling. Correction by education of the 

 fit seems slow and unpromising. 



Any system of family allowance for children, in the United States at 

 least, would fail. A case in point is reported in California where the state 

 provides for the orphaned children such aid as may be necessary. From 

 this recent report we learn that a mother of seven children was committed 

 as insane to the state hospital. Her mother and sister had died insane 

 and her brother had committed suicide. The superintendent suggested 

 to her that she would probably be in and out of the hospital the rest of her 

 life, and that as she could not care for her children properly she should have 

 no more. The woman replied that she would consult her husband, a sickly 

 tailor, and then reported: "My husband and I have agreed that I couldn't 

 be sterilized now. You see, we already have seven children for which we 

 are receiving half-orphan aid from the state ($10 per month per child). 

 We have always figured that when we had two more the income would be 

 enough so my husband could stop work, so it wouldn't do for me to be 

 sterilized yet." Such provisions in laws will defeat themselves unless they 

 are protected by some provision to prevent the hereditary unfit from bur- 

 dening posterity by the rapid reproduction of children doomed to defects 

 which render them incapable of becoming self-sustaining good citizens. 



Poverty in this country is little proof of deficiency in mental endow- 

 ments. On the contrary it is often a material stimulant to effort, and to 

 ultimate success. Many of our most prominent and successful citizens 

 have profited by the stimulant of poverty in their youth. The "fit" youth 

 will succeed anywhere. It is the unfit youth that is dangerous to the state 



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