A Few Thoughts Concerning Eugenics 



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nized by the Declaration of Independence 

 are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 

 piness." The community has no right 

 to interfere with the liberty of the 

 individual and his pursuit of happiness in 

 marriage unless the interests of the com- 

 munity are demonstrably endangered. 

 The happiness of individuals is often pro- 

 moted by marriage even in cases where 

 the offspring may not be desirable. The 

 production of undesirable children is, of 

 course, an injury to the community, and 

 there may perhaps be cases where legal 

 checks may be justified ; but it should not 

 be lost sight of that there are other checks 

 that are equally if not more efficient that 

 can be brought into play. If the condi- 

 tions that produce undesirable offspring 

 could be authoritatively stated, pruden- 

 tial restraints are apt to arise in cases 

 where defective offspring are likely to be 

 produced. Where the general intelli- 

 gence of the individuals concerned is at 

 fault, or their duty to the community is 

 not full)- understood or realized, another 

 check comes into play far more efficient 

 than any legal restriction. Public opinion 

 is a great compelling force and few there 

 are who can resist it. 



Legal prohibition of marriage should 

 only be resorted to in cases where there 

 could be no manner of doubt that the 

 community would suffer as the result of 

 the marriage. Where doubt exists the 

 community has no right to interfere with 

 this most sacred and personal of all- re- 

 lations ; and morality iii the community 

 would certainly be more promoted by 

 affording the widest possible liberty of 

 marriage than by restricting it. After 

 all, the interests of the community are 

 affected not so much by the fact of a mar- 

 riage as by the production of undesirable 

 offspring. The only reason why legis- 

 lation against marriage should be con- 

 sidered at all lies in the fact that we 

 cannot well legislate against the produc- 

 tion of offspring. Unfortunately prohi- 

 bition of marriage does not necessarily 

 prevent the production of offspring. It 

 is surely advisable that the children born 

 in a community should have legal fathers 

 and mothers as much as possible. Public 

 opinion, and the desire of all persons to 

 have healthy offspring, would, in my 



judgment, be a more powerful deterrent 

 to the production of undesirable offspring 

 than a compulsory process of law. Throw 

 wide the gates of marriage, and where 

 children are produced close tight the 

 doors of divorce. Every child is entitled 

 by nature to a father and mother ; and 

 no people should produce children who 

 are not prepared to give them parental 

 care for life. Without going to extremes, 

 I would say that the interests of the com- 

 munity demand that we should make 

 marriage easy and divorce difficult. 



NE)W blood 



The problem of improving a race of 

 human beings is a most perplexing one to 

 handle. The process of improvement 

 must be slow where the forces concerned 

 act from within and are not amenable to 

 control from without. Under the best 

 conditions it would require several gener- 

 ations to produce sensible results ; but in 

 the United States we have, in the new 

 blood introduced from abroad, an im- 

 portant means of improvement that will 

 act more quickly and that is eminently 

 susceptible to control. All the nations of 

 the world are today contributing elements 

 to our population ; and we have now, and 

 now only, the opportunity of studying the 

 process of absorption before it is com- 

 plete. Why should not Congress provide 

 for an ethnical survey of the people of the 

 United States. We should have definite 

 and reliable information concerning those 

 foreign elements which are beneficial to 

 our people and those which are harmful. 



The grand spectacle is presented to our 

 eyes of a new people being gradually 

 evolved in the United States by the ming- 

 ling together of the different races of the 

 world in varying proportions. It is of 

 the greatest consequence to us that the 

 final result should be the evolution of a 

 higher and nobler type of man in Amer- 

 ica, and not deterioration of the nation. 



To this end the process of evolution 

 should be carefully studied, and then con- 

 trolled by suitable immigration laws tend- 

 ing to eliminate undesirable ethnical ele- 

 ments, and to stimulate the admission of 

 elements assimilated readily by our popu- 

 lation and that tend to raise the standard 

 of manhood here. 



