154 The Third and Fourth Generation 



It is easy to devise methods for checking the 

 increase of the undesirable elements of the 

 population, but not at all easy to enforce these 

 means of control. Segregation under conditions 

 which preclude child-bearing, even sterilization, 

 are devices in actual practice in several states, 

 but as yet public sentiment is not sufficiently 

 aroused to make their enforcement very effec- 

 tive. Consequently such groups as the 

 epileptic, feeble-minded, and insane are still 

 multiplying more rapidly than is even the 

 general run of the population, and much more 

 rapidly than the very select strains. In ancient 

 Athens such defectives were eliminated by the 

 state as a serious menace. Our civilization, 

 more considerate of individual right and less 

 impressed with the welfare of the state, not 

 only lets them live, but hesitates to protect 

 itself from their undue increase. 



A certain degree of family pride is a valu- 

 able eugenic asset, not the snobbish sort that 

 ostentatiously fiounts cheap titles or chance 

 wealth in the faces of its neighbors, but a 

 respect for the family traditions, generation 



