330 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
Excluding a few dangerous or particularly unsanitary employ- 
ments it is probable that the most potent factor in occupational 
selection is furnished by the quality of human material employed. 
The character of the men and women engaged is dependent upon 
their heredity and previous history. Undoubtedly, through no 
fault of their own, multitudes of human beings of good inheritance 
but born in unfavorable surroundings, deprived of educational 
advantages, and stultified by early hard labor are forced into the 
ranks of the unskilled and poorly paid laboring class. The rela- 
tively high death rate of such individuals is racially disadvan- 
tageous. But undoubtedly the ranks of casual and unskilled 
laborers are recruited much more than those of skilled trades and 
professions from individuals who have not been blessed with 
inherited gifts. If we consider for a moment the almost inevitable 
industrial fate of the rank and file of those who are mentally below 
par it will become evident that conditions could scarcely be 
otherwise. The subnormal individual usually fails to acquire 
anything more than the mere rudiments of education. He is 
generally lacking in initiative and enterprise; and since weakness 
of character is the usual concomitant of defective intellect, he is 
not apt to exhibit those qualities of persistence, reliability, and 
application which contribute so greatly to the industrial value 
of an employee. 
One effect of industrial development which cannot fail to 
affect in one way or another the inherited qualities of mankind is 
the unprecedented growth of cities which has occurred during the 
last hundred years in the most advanced nations of the earth. 
The following table presents a bald outline of the percentage of 
population of several countries living in cities of 10,000 or more 
inhabitants at three periods, 1800,1850 and 1890. 
In all these countries the growth of cities has been relativeiy 
fast as compared with the increase of the rural population. In 
England and Wales where there was a large urban population in 
the beginning of the 19th century the relative increase in the size 
of cities is about as rapid as in most other countries. In fact, the 
English census of 1891 reports an actual decrease of population in 
