374 CORA B. S. HODSON 



referred to above represented in Europe natural selection within human 

 society. The spread of the British peoples over the world is adequate 

 proof of the evolutionary success which the severe methods achieved, not 

 omitting of course your own great Continent which, peopled originally by 

 Britain, Holland, France and Spain, will demonstrate for all time the 

 potentialities of human development. 



In Great Britain the industrial era was first established and the geograph- 

 ical position and manageable proportions of the population enabled the 

 new contra-selective forces (having a lead in time) to work at their full 

 capacity. With the exception of the most highly organized cities and 

 regions of the United States, we may say with some pride (though to our 

 cost), that Great Britain has probably the most effective social services. 



(A) For the sick: The public health services secure prenatal advice, care 

 in confinement and help with early rearing for every child born. In the 

 schools, ^medical inspection and treatment both by doctors and visiting 

 nurses obtains. 



(B) On the side of destitution, we have always had, in England, a system 

 by which each parish was responsible for the relief of all who could not main- 

 tain themselves, 1 but within the last century the rapid rise in the standard 

 of living of the working classes has been followed by a similar rise in the 

 amount of relief given. While in earlier periods this relief was in the form 

 of maintenance in a work-house, achieving segregation and at least tem- 

 porary prevention of procreation, since the early years of 1800 out-relief 

 did away in part with this check on fertility. 



Unemployment Insurance stands on a somewhat different level. While 

 England is to-day groaning under the burden which this provision creates, 

 we must nevertheless be thankful for the extent to which this system has 

 prevented the acutest misery in our country. The system has failed, how- 

 ever, to make any distinction between the unemployable and the unem- 

 ployed from economic causes. 



Another aspect of social inadequacy must be mentioned, that is crime. 

 Up to 1840, deportation and the death penalty were allotted for theft, 

 indeed many types of law breaking. Since that period the segregation 

 afforded by long terms of imprisonment has been greatly reduced and in the 

 last generation and a half, the system of putting young offenders on pro- 

 bation has grown to such an extent that while to-day our figures for offences 

 against property and against persons stand very high, our prisons are almost 

 empty. This class of the socially inadequate have presumably increased. 



1 First under the religious houses, and after Elizabeth's reign as a local financial 

 responsibility. 



