THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 177 
preached in the interest of capital in order that there may always 
be a supply of cheap labor, they have come to regard the produc- 
tion of large families as almost an act of class disloyalty. Know- 
ing little of heredity, taught to look upon the differences between 
human beings as chiefly the result of environment and oppor- 
tunity, and being impressed with the notion that the ills of 
humanity have their root in purely social and economic malad- 
justments, they are apt to set little store by the great variations 
in hereditary qualities which human beings everywhere present, 
and to overlook the really vital importance of conserving the 
best inheritance of the race. It does not seem to them, there- 
fore, a matter of much importance whether they produce 
their quota of children or not. In fact, it might seem to be 
a patriotic duty to refrain from having children, so that the 
next generation would be able to secure a greater per capita 
reward for its labor. 
If a large part of the thinking elements of the working classes 
hold such views and are thereby led to reduce their families below 
the necessary minimum for reproducing their kind, we cannot 
upbraid them for neglecting an important duty, but can only 
endeavor to dissuade them from carrying family restriction to 
the point of race suicide. 
No Neo-Malthusian who has the least knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of heredity would advocate the restriction of families of 
desirable parentage beyond the minimum necessary for race 
perpetuation. Many Neo-Malthusians, however, place so little 
emphasis on this aspect of the matter that the actual influence of 
their teaching would be to produce just this result. Dr. Drys- 
dale’s book, for instance, is so devoted to condemning the evils 
of large families and extolling the benefits arising from the small 
family system that he has practically no word on the evils that 
would result from an undue restriction in families of desirable 
inheritance. An indiscriminate advocacy of small families with 
no indication of how small the families should be, is more apt to 
cause good inheritance to disappear than it is to check the propa- 
gation of bad stock. In this matter, if anywhere in ethics, the 
