Mat 31, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



853 



might do, under a wiser system. Who 

 does not know of some otherwise highly- 

 developed individual who now is treated 

 with contempt because he committed the 

 crime unpardoned by our modern society; 

 of failing to master that greedy art of 

 accumulating money for himself, or for 

 others. 



Over-specialists as we are in our daily 

 pursuits, we are ever prone to scorn the 

 politicians; we think we have done all our 

 duties as citizens if on election day we 

 take time to east our vote instead of stand- 

 ing all day on the golf links, but only to 

 find out afterwards that we have sup- 

 ported men who, through ignorance and 

 selfishness, hoodwink us and prevent us 

 making our country the true democratic 

 republic so simply and forcefully defined 

 by Lincoln as : a govenment of the people, 

 by the people and for the people. 



If we have any fault to fiLnd with our 

 politicians and lawmakers we should blame 

 none but ourselves and that tendency of 

 overspeeialization which keeps us in our 

 own narrow routine and lets the politician- 

 specialist rule us and the country as well. 



If political economics is a science of 

 momentous interest to everybody alive, it 

 is specially of interest to the chemist, who, 

 thorough believer in the laws of nature, 

 can not fail to admit the same universal 

 yet simple laws in sociology; and who, 

 therefore, is less apt to be misled by those 

 juggleries of reasoning which are so clever- 

 ly used to favor private interests against 

 the weal of the community at large. Polit- 

 ical economy, different from most sciences, 

 can be mastered without any preparation 

 whatsoever, excepting the relinquishment 

 of all bias and all petty ideas of greed, con- 

 ceit or inequity. 



But what shall I say about our criminal 

 neglect of eugenics, a science which goes to 

 the very roots of our lives; a knowledge 

 which deals with the future of our chil- 



dren, the happiness and betterment of our 

 race, and yet so neglected that its very 

 name is scarcely known in our usual vo- 

 cabulary. In the meantime, we go on in 

 our happy-go-lucky-slip-shod way; we as- 

 sume the tremendous responsibility of 

 parentage and we jeopardize the health 

 and happiness of our children and grand- 

 children by our carelessness. Instead of 

 trying to bring together in marriage, by 

 orderly, careful and methodic selection, 

 such persons as are physically and men- 

 tally best fit for ennobling our race, we 

 leave this important matter entirely to the 

 whim of chance, blinded by emotion or 

 prejudice. Our actions in this as in many 

 other instances, are but the logical outcome 

 of a thoughtless one-sided education which 

 does not deal with these subjects, while 

 under the name of helles-lettres our 

 thoughts are still further perverted in 

 prose and in rhyme by romantic novelists, 

 who in their own way write on the subject 

 of love and marriage. Neither should we 

 be astonished, if frequently those who feel 

 proudest or brag loudest about their an- 

 cestry make very light work of their own 

 lives, as far as their actions involve any 

 responsibility towards their offspring. 



Our one-sidedness of conceptions has 

 fraught our whole social system with incon- 

 sistencies: we grant the unwarranted priv- 

 ilege to vote to illiterate blacks and whites, 

 tramps or idlers; but from the intelligent, 

 virtuous and active woman who is the 

 mother of our children we absolutely with- 

 hold the right to participate in the affairs 

 of the nation. 



Our lack of broad-mindedness is shown 

 in many other ways. We admit the prin- 

 ciple of evolution, but when it comes to 

 concede rights and friendliness towards 

 animals— fellowbeings — we fall short of 

 our theories: we eagerly forget that other 

 living creatures enjoy life and suffer, feel 

 and think as we ourselves, if not exactly in 



