OVERPOPULATION AND SOCIAL MISERY 383 



spicuously lacking among the lower social classes, who multiply and 

 reproduce themselves without the smallest regard to ultimate results. 



It is evident that the bas-fonds of our great cities will never be cleansed 

 so long as the rate of multiplication among the lower classes remains what 

 it is. As things now stand, to allow free play to the action of those 

 selective agencies of which we have spoken might result in the purchasing 

 of ultimate benefits at too high a present price ; and, in any case, such a 

 policy would run counter to the deepest moral instincts of civilised 

 humanity. There remains but one alternative : a check on the rate of 

 multiplication of the lower classes. Excessive reproduction, as we have 

 said, is indispensable under normal conditions ; but there are abnormal 

 conditions under which it may be a curse. As Professor Marshall has 

 said : " An increase of population accompanied by an equal increase in 

 the material sources of enjoyment and aids to production is likely to 

 lead to a more than proportionate increase in the aggregate income of 

 enjoyment of aU kinds, provided, firstly, an adequate supply of raw 

 produce can be obtained without great difficulty, and, secondly, there 

 is no such overcrowding as causes physical and moral vigour to be im- 

 paired by the want of fresh air and light and of healthy and joyous recrea- 

 tion for the young."! Yht from the conditions stipulated by Professor 

 Marshall being fulfilled, the very opposite is the case. Overcrowding, 

 with all the evils it entails— disease, immorality, drunkenness, the sapping 

 of bodily and mental vigour — ^is the chief characteristic of the populous 

 districts of every important city of Western civilisation. 



And these evils will not appreciably diminish in intensity until the 

 excessive reproduction of the lower classes is checked. The weU-meaning 

 theorist who goes to the masses and impresses on them the importance of 

 rearing a numerous progeny is doing a mischievous work. There is a 

 duty still more fundamental than that of the mere rearing of offspring : 

 there is the duty of rearing offspring under such conditions as will enable 

 that offspring to grow and flourish. This primary duty is ignored by the 

 mass which seeks only the satisfaction of individual physical wants ; and 

 which neglects the deplorable social consequences of this thoughtless 

 egoism. 



Excessive egoism and neglect of social consequences are the results of 

 the lack of development of social feeling among the masses ; and social 

 feeling is not developed among the mass, because the actual organisation 

 of society is defective. Society does not control the actions of its mem- 

 bers sufficiently, because society lacks integration. The masses are not 

 conscious of any solidarity between their class interests and the wider 

 interests of society as a whole. Social responsibility is an unknown factor, 

 for the social force of the masses is too small to allow of the formation of 



1 Principlea of Economics, p. 400. 



