MAN 479 



which might check our rise and force a sudden or a gradual 

 decline. 



1 . The rapid exhaustion of the basic natural resources upon 

 which civilization depends without a corresponding limitation in 

 population will increase inevitably the competition between 

 nations, classes, and individuals. Since this exhaustion is tak- 

 ing place in the interest of personal luxuries and of private gains 

 rather than in the interest of permanent social evolution, we 

 may find ourselves without the means of progress before our full 

 capacities for progress shall have been realized. 



2. There is more than a chance of the breakdown of our 

 industrial-political machinery, because of its very complexity 

 and weight and because it is being used selfishly and com- 

 petitively, and hence wastefuUy, rather than scientifically for 

 social or racial ends. Even with the best intentions our ma- 

 chinery always tends to develop more rapidly than our ability 

 to use it. Coupled with injustice this outcome is made the more 

 certain. 



3 . Unless we can modify the above tendencies, international 

 wars and inter-class struggles will become increasingly disas- 

 trous. Increasing intelligence, if our present competition and 

 economic injustices continue, will mean more, not less, inter- 

 group conflict. 



4. While we have been gradually overcoming the more 

 conspicuous difficulties of the species, our very civilization has 

 made us more open to new foes which are much more dangerous 

 than the reptiles and the carnivores ever were. Our enemies 

 now are among the insects, worms, protozoa, and bacteria. We 

 may, or we may not, finally win in our struggle against cancer, 

 typhus, syphilis, gonorrhea, cholera, plague, pneumonia, and 

 their successors, which are caused by these enemies. 



5. By the very progress we have made in humane feelings 

 and in science, we are keeping alive many strains of human stock 

 which are socially inadequate, — as the weak, the feeble-minded, 

 the insane, the sexually uncontrolled and degenerate. These 

 are allowed to reproduce their kind, and in general the stocks 

 which are below the average in capacity and intelligence, and 

 are therefore less likely to add to the racial assets, are breeding 



