ORGANIZATION OF APPLIED EUGENICS 269 



places of birth and residence as would serve to tie families 

 together. After study the data might be used to give partic- 

 ular fan:iilies advice as to how their children should marry- 

 to avoid the recurrence of undesirable traits in the chil- 

 dren's children. 



Objection will probably be offered to any such survey 

 on the ground that inheritable traits are private and per- 

 sonal matters; but this is surely a narrow and false view. 

 The collective traits of any person constitute a mosaic 

 whose elements have been derived from thousands of 

 germ plasms and parts of which may be passed on to 'thou- 

 sands of the persons who will constitute the social fabric of 

 a few generations hereafter. What justification have I, 

 whose elements are derived from the society of the past 

 and will pass into the society of the future, to maintain 

 that the society of to-day has no right to question me — ^who 

 is merely a sample of this universal germ plasm. No one 

 who looks broadly at the relation his family bears to the 

 commonwealth will hesitate to put on record an account 

 of his family traits. 



The objection that such a survey is impracticable can 

 be met by the assertion that in the State of New Jersey 

 such a survey is already well advanced, largely through 

 private initiative. The work has been done by means of 

 field workers attached to various institutions for defectives. 

 Massachusetts, also, has made a good beginning in this 

 direction. The suggestion as to a state smvey is merely 

 an extension of such work as is being carried on in a more 

 hmited fashion to-day. 



2. A Clearing House for Heredity Data 



While states should undertake eugenic surveys, it is clear 

 that, in a country Hke ours where extensive intermigration 

 takes place between States, ''blood lines" are not hmited 



