October 7, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



321 



Society took an active part in the agitation in 

 favor of such alterations in the assessment of 

 income tax as would make the burden of tax- 

 ation fall less heavily on parents of families 

 and more heavily on bachelors and the child- 

 less in the same stratum of society, the object 

 being to increase the birth rate of a useful 

 class of the community. As to legislation in- 

 volving interference with individual liberty, 

 here also unanimous support can be obtained 

 if the racial advantages are sufficiently obvi- 

 ous. For example, there was no dissension 

 whatever in my society when we moved in 

 favor of the Mental Deficiency Bill, a bill 

 which authorized the segregation of the feeble 

 in mind, that is to say, their detention in com- 

 fort under carefully safeguarded conditions. 

 But until unanimity in the ranks of a eugeni- 

 cal society in regard to such compulsory meas- 

 ures is obtainable, their discussion only is to 

 be recommended. Personally I should like to 

 see practical steps at once taken for lessening 

 the fertility of habitual criminals, of hopeless 

 wastrels, and of the grossly unfit generally, and 

 others doubtless wish to advance in other 

 directions; but we must have patience. My 

 object for the moment is not, however, to at- 

 tempt to survey all the roads by which advances 

 may be made in future, but rather to consider 

 what should be the broad principles of strategy 

 which should guide eugenical societies in the 

 long fight before them in their attempts to pro- 

 mote racial progress. 



Thus I have dealt with the ohjecis which 

 eugenical societies should strive to attain 

 rather than with the methods of attaining the 

 ends desired, the reason being that I have little 

 novel to suggest in regard to methods. With 

 the view to the advancement of scientific 

 knowledge and the elucidation of eugenic prob- 

 lems, my society holds periodical meetings at 

 which addresses are delivered or questions de- 

 bated. In our Review these addresses are often 

 published, and we there also try to give im- 

 partial accounts of current eugenic literature. 

 We maintain a library, and give advice to 

 readers. We keep in touch with foreign so- 

 cieties, and it has been an especial pleasure to 

 us to give all the assistance in our power to the 



American committee which has so admirably 

 organized this Congress. As to activities defi- 

 nitely undertaken for the purposes of propa- 

 ganda, the following may be mentioned: the 

 delivery of lectures to audiences of various 

 types, including social clubs, debating societies, 

 educational conferences, summer schools for 

 teachers, and, during war times, soldiers in 

 camp and barracks; the organization of sum- 

 mer schools dealing largely with eugenics; the 

 sending of deputations to government depart- 

 ments ; and of letters to the press. To take one 

 example in detail, after a thorough enquiry 

 concerning the incidence of our income tax, a 

 letter was written to all members of Parlia- 

 ment, and at a later stage amendments to the 

 Finance Act were proposed by members at our 

 suggestion, and were rejected! The next step, 

 a direct result of this agitation, was the ap- 

 pointment by the government of a royal com- 

 mission on the income tax before which I gave 

 evidence on behalf of my society. Several of 

 the recommendations of that commission, rep- 

 resenting a step forward in the direction de- 

 sired, were subsequently adopted and became 

 law. Thus by steady persistence on well 

 thought out lines a society may be able to 

 produce material effects in many directions. 

 As a last word about the doings of my own 

 society, I must be allowed to mention a dinner 

 followed by an address, held on February 16 

 in each year. In this way we yearly remind 

 ourselves on the birthday of Sir Francis Gal- 

 ton that to him we owe the opening of the 

 eugenics campaign in England. 



What I have tried to do in my address to- 

 day has been to give some indication of the 

 difficulties likely to be encountered by youth- 

 ful eugenical societies; difficulties which, we 

 have seen, may come from many quarters 

 and in many shapes. Questions connected 

 with both sex and personal liberty have to be 

 dealt with by eugenists, and these are topics 

 especially liable to give rise to strong feel- 

 ings. Even when the opposition thus aroused 

 is quite unreasonable, we should, however, 

 always remember that the sentiments under- 

 lying this opposition are often in many re- 

 spects highly commendable, and that to openly 



