In the United States are
millions
of negroes who are of
less value than white men in organized industry but almost as valuable
as the whites, when properly led, at the front.
less value than white men in organized industry but almost as valuable
as the whites, when properly led, at the front.
Applied Eugenics by Roswell H. Johnson and Paul Popenoe
This is an ideal which is seldom approximated in
government, but it is the advantage of a democratic form of government
that it presents the open road to success, more than does an oligarchic
government. That this freedom of access to all rewards that the state
can give should be open to every one (and conversely that no one should
be kept at the top and over-rewarded if he is unworthy) is essential to
eugenics; but it is quite incompatible with the existence within the
state of a number of isolated groups, some of which must inevitably and
properly be considered inferior. It is certain that, at the present time
in this country, no Negro can take a place in the upper ranks of
society, which are and will long remain white. The fact that this
situation is inevitable makes it no less unfortunate for both Negro and
white races; consolation can only be found in the thought that it is
less of a danger than the opposite condition would be. But this
condition of class discrimination is likely to exist, to a much less
extent it is true, in every city where there are foreign-born and
native-born populations living side by side, and where the epithets of
"Sheeny," "Dago," "Wop," "Kike," "Greaser," "Guinea," etc. , testify to
the feeling of the older population that it is superior.
While eugenic strength in a state is promoted by variety, too great a
heterogeneity offers serious social difficulties. It is essential if
America is to be strong eugenically that it slow down the flood of
immigrants who are not easily assimilable. At present a state of affairs
is being created where class distinctions are likely to be barriers to
the promotion of individual worth--and equally, of course, to the
demotion of individual worthlessness.
Even if an immigration is not assimilated, then, it yet has an indirect
effect on eugenics. But there are other indirect effects of immigration,
which are quite independent of assimilation: they inhere in the mere
bulk and economic character of the immigration. The arrivals of the past
few decades have been nearly all unskilled laborers. Professor Carver
believes that continuous immigration which enters the ranks of labor in
larger proportion and the business and professional classes in a smaller
proportion than the native-born will produce the following results:
1. Distribution. It will keep competition more intense among laborers
and less intense among business and professional men: it will therefore
raise the income of the employing classes and lower the wages of
unskilled labor.
2. Production. It will give a relatively low marginal productivity to a
typical immigrant and make him a relatively unimportant factor in the
production of wealth.
3. Organization of industry. Immigrants can only be employed
economically at low wages and in large gangs, because of (2).
4. Agriculture. If large numbers of immigrants should go into
agriculture, it will mean one of two things, probably the second:
(a) Continuous subdivision of farms resulting in inefficient and
wasteful application of labor and smaller crops per man, although
probably larger crops per acre.
(b) Development of a class of landed proprietors on the one hand and a
landless agricultural proletariat on the other.
It is true that the great mass of unskilled labor which has come to the
United States in the last few decades has made possible the development
of many industries that have furnished an increased number of good jobs
to men of intelligence, but many who have made a close study of the
immigration problem think that despite this, unskilled labor has been
coming in altogether too large quantities. Professor Ross publishes the
following illustration:
"What a college man saw in a copper-mine in the Southwest gives in a
nutshell the logic of low wages.
"The American miners, getting $2. 75 a day, are abruptly displaced
without a strike by a train-load of 500 raw Italians brought in by the
company and put to work at from $1. 50 to $2 a day. For the Americans
there is nothing to do but to 'go down the road. ' At first the Italians
live on bread and beer, never wash, wear the same filthy clothes night
and day, and are despised. After two or three years they want to live
better, wear decent clothes, and be respected. They ask for more wages,
the bosses bring in another train-load from the steerage, and the partly
Americanized Italians follow the American miners 'down the road. ' No
wonder the estimate of government experts as to the number of our
floating casual laborers ranges up to five millions! "
"It is claimed that the natives are not displaced" by the constant
inflow of alien unskilled labor, says H. P. Fairchild,[150] but that they
"are simply forced into higher occupations. Those who were formerly
common laborers are now in positions of authority. While this argument
holds true of individuals, its fallacy when applied to groups is
obvious. There are not nearly enough places of authority to receive
those who are forced out from below. The introduction of 500 Slav
laborers into a community may make a demand for a dozen or a score of
Americans in higher positions, but hardly for 500. "
"The number of unskilled workers coming in at the present time is
sufficient to check decidedly the normal tendency toward an improved
standard of living in many lines of industry," in the opinion of J. W.
Jenks, who was a member of the Immigration Commission appointed by
President Roosevelt in 1907. He alludes to the belief that instead of
crowding the older workers _out_, the aliens merely crowd them up, and
says that he himself formerly held that view; "but the figures collected
by the Immigration commission, from a sufficient number of industries in
different sections of the country to give general conclusions, prove
beyond a doubt that in a good many cases these incoming immigrants
actually drive out into other localities and into other unskilled trades
large numbers of American workingmen and workingmen of the earlier
immigration who do not get better positions but, rather, worse ones. . . .
Professor Lauck, our chief superintendent of investigators in the
field, and, so far as I am aware, every single investigator in the
field, before the work ended, reached the conclusion from personal
observation that the tendency of the large percentage of immigration of
unskilled workers is clearly to lower the standard of living in a number
of industries, and the statistics of the commission support this
impression. I therefore changed my earlier views. "
If the immigration of large quantities of unskilled labor with low
standards of living tends in most cases to depress wages and lower the
standard of living of the corresponding class of the old American
population, the consequences would appear to be:
1. The employers of labor would profit, since they would get abundant
labor at low wages. If this increase in the wealth of employers led to
an increase in their birth-rate, it would be an advantage. But it
apparently does not. The birth-rate of the employing class is probably
little restricted by financial difficulties; therefore on them
immigration probably has no immediate eugenic effect.
2. The American skilled laborers would profit, since there is more
demand for skilled labor in industries created by unskilled immigrant
labor. Would the increasing prosperity and a higher standard of living
here, tend to lower the relative birth-rate of the class or not?
The answer probably depends on the extent of the knowledge of birth
control which has been discussed elsewhere.
3. The wages and standard of living of American unskilled laborers will
fall, since they are obliged directly to compete with the newcomers. It
seems most likely that a fall in wages and standards is correlated with
a fall in birth-rate. This case must be distinguished from cases where
the wages and standards _never were high_, and where poverty is
correlated with a high birth-rate. If this distinction is correct, the
present immigration will tend to lower the birth-rate of American
unskilled laborers.
The arguments here used may appear paradoxical, and have little
statistical support, but they seem to us sound and not in contradiction
with any known facts. If they are valid, the effect of such immigration
as the United States has been receiving is to reduce the birth-rate of
the unskilled labor with little or no effect on the employers and
managers of labor.
Since both the character and the volume of immigration are at fault,
remedial measures may be applied to either one or both of these
features. It is very desirable that we have a much more stringent
selection of immigrants than is made at the present time. But most of
the measures which have been actually proposed and urged in recent years
have been directed at a diminution of the volume, and at a change in
character only by somewhat indirect and indiscriminate means.
The Immigration Commission made a report to Congress on Dec. 5, 1910, in
which it suggested the following possible methods of restricting the
volume of immigration:
1. The exclusion of those unable to read and write in some language.
2. The reduction of the number of each race arriving each year to a
certain percentage of the average of that race arriving during a given
period of years.
3. The exclusion of unskilled laborers unaccompanied by wives or
families.
4. Material increase in the amount of money required to be in the
possession of the immigrant at the port of arrival.
5. Material increase in the head tax.
6. Limitation of the number of immigrants arriving annually at any port.
7. The levying of the head tax so as to make a marked discrimination in
favor of men with families.
Eugenically, it is probable that (3) and (7), which would tend to admit
only families, would be a detriment to American welfare; (1) and (2)
have been the suggestions which have met with the most favor. All but
one member of the commission favored (1), the literacy test, as the most
feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigration, and it
was enacted into law by Congress, which passed it over President
Wilson's veto, in February, 1917.
Records for 1914 show that "illiteracy among the total number of
arrivals of each race ranged all the way from 64% for the Turkish to
less than 1% for the English, the Scotch, the Welsh, the Scandinavian,
and the Finnish. The Bohemian and Moravian, the German, and the Irish
each had less than 5% illiterate. Races other than the Turkish, whose
immigration in 1914 was more than one-third illiterate, include the
Dalmatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Russians, Ruthenians, Italians,
Lithuanians, and Roumanians. "
It is frankly admitted by the proponents of this method of restriction
that it will keep out some who ought to come in, and let in some who
ought to be kept out. It is in some cases a test of opportunity rather
than of character, but "in the belief of its advocates, it will meet the
situation as disclosed by the investigation of the Immigration
Commission better than any other means that human ingenuity can devise.
It is believed that it would exclude more of the undesirable and fewer
of the desirable immigrants than any other method of restriction. "
On the other hand, it is argued that the literacy test will fail of
success because those who want to come will learn to read and write,
which will only delay their arrival a few months without changing their
real character. But the effect of such attempts will separate those who
succeed from those who are too inferior to succeed, which would be an
advantage of the plan rather than a defect.
The second method of selection enumerated (2) above, was proposed by
Rev. Sidney L. Gulick, particularly with a view to meeting the need of
restriction of Asiatic immigration. [151] This immigration will be
discussed shortly, but in the meantime the details of his plan may be
presented.
"Only so many immigrants of any people should be admitted as we can
Americanize. Let the maximum permissible annual immigration from any
people be a definite per cent. (say five) of the sum of the
American-born children of that people plus those who have become
naturalized of the same people. Let this restriction be imposed only
upon adult males.
"Taking the 1910 census as our basis, the 5% Restriction Proposal would
have fixed the maximum permissible immigration of males from North and
West Europe at 759,000 annually, while the actual annual immigration for
the last 5 years averages but 115,000. The permissible immigration from
South and East Europe would have been 189,000 annually, while the
average for the last five years has been 372,000. When applied to China,
the policy would have admitted 1,106 males per year, while the number
admitted on the average for the last 5 years has been 1,571. The
proposal would provide for the admission of 1,200 Japanese annually,
here again resulting in the exclusion on the average of 1,238 males
yearly during the years 1911-1915. No estimate is made here of the
effect of the exclusion of males on the arrival of women and children. "
The percentage restriction is unsatisfactory to a eugenist, as not
sufficiently discriminating.
The literary restriction has been a great step forward but should be
backed by the addition of such mental tests as will make it fairly
certain to keep out the dull-minded as well as feeble-minded. Long
division would suffice as such a test until better tests relatively
unaffected by schooling can be put into operation, since it is at this
point in the grades that so many dull-minded drop out of the schools.
Oriental immigration is becoming an urgent problem, and it is essential
that its biological, as well as its economic and sociological features
be understood, if it is to be solved in a satisfactory and reasonably
permanent way. In the foregoing discussion, Oriental immigration has
hardly been taken into account; it must now receive particular
consideration.
What are the grounds, then, for forbidding the yellow races, or the
races of British India, to enter the United States? The considerations
urged in the past have been (1) Political: it is said that they are
unable to acquire the spirit of American institutions. This is an
objection which concerns eugenics only indirectly. (2) Medical: it is
said that they introduce diseases, such as the oriental liver, lung and
intestinal flukes, which are serious, against which Americans have never
been selected, and for which no cure is known. (3) Economic: it is
argued that the Oriental's lower standard of living makes it impossible
for the white man to compete with him. The objection is well founded,
and is indirectly of concern to eugenics, as was pointed out in a
preceding section of this chapter. As eugenists we feel justified in
objecting to the immigration of large bodies of unskilled Oriental
labor, on the ground that they rear larger families than our stock on
the same small incomes.
A biological objection has also been alleged, in the possibility of
interbreeding between the yellow and white races. In the past such cases
have been very rare; it is authoritatively stated[152] that "there are
on our whole Pacific coast not more than 20 instances of intermarriage
between Americans and Japanese, and . . . one might count on the fingers
of both hands the number of American-Chinese marriages between San Diego
and Seattle. " The presence of a body of non-interbreeding immigrants is
likely to produce the adverse results already discussed in the earlier
part of this chapter.
Eugenically, then, the immigration of any considerable number of
unskilled laborers from the Orient may have undesirable direct results
and is certain to have unfavorable indirect results. It should therefore
be prevented, either by a continuation of the "gentlemen's agreement"
now in force between the United States and Japan, and by similar
agreements with other nations, or by some such non-invidious measure as
that proposed by Dr. Gulick. This exclusion should not of course be
applied to the intellectual classes, whose presence here would offer
advantages which would outweigh the disadvantages.
We have a different situation in the Philippine islands, there the
yellow races have been denied admission since the United States took
possession. Previously, the Chinese had been trading there for
centuries, and had settled in considerable numbers almost from the time
the Spaniards colonized the archipelago.
At present it is estimated that there are 100,000 Chinese in the
islands, and their situation was not put too strongly by A. E. Jenks,
when he wrote:[153]
"As to the Chinese, it does not matter much what they themselves desire;
but what their descendants desire will go far toward answering the whole
question of the Filipinos' volition toward assimilation, because they
are _the_ Filipinos. To be specific: During the latter days of my
residence in the Islands in 1905 Governor-General Wright one day told me
that he had recently personally received from one of the most
distinguished Filipinos of the time, and a member of the Insular Civil
Commission, the statement that 'there was not a single prominent and
dominant family among the Christianized Filipinos which did not possess
Chinese blood. ' The voice and will of the Filipinos of to-day is the
voice and the will of these brainy, industrious, rapidly developing men
whose judgment in time the world is bound to respect. "
This statement will be confirmed by almost any American resident in the
Islands. Most of the men who have risen to prominence in the Islands are
mestizos, and while in political life some of the leaders are merely
Spanish metis, the financial leaders almost without exception, the
captains of industry, have Chinese blood in their veins, while this
class has also taken an active part in the government of the
archipelago. Emilio Aguinaldo is one of the most conspicuous of the
Chinese mestizos. Individual examples might be multiplied without limit;
it will be sufficient to mention Bautista Lim, president of the largest
tobacco firm in the islands and also a physician; his brother, formerly
an insurgent general and later governor of Sampango province under the
American administration; the banker Lim Hap; Faustino Lechoco, cattle
king of the Philippines; Fernandez brothers, proprietors of a steamship
line; Locsin and Lacson, wealthy sugar planters; Mariano Velasco,
dry-goods importer; Datto Piang, the Moro warrior and chieftain; Paua,
insurgent general in southern Luzon; Ricardo Gochuico, tobacco magnate.
In most of these men the proportion of Chinese blood is large.
Generalizing, we are justified in saying that the cross between Chinese
and Filipinos produces progeny superior to the Filipinos. It must be
remembered that it is not a very wide cross, the Malayans, who include
most of the Filipinos, being closely related to the Chinese.
It appears that even a small infusion of Chinese blood may produce
long-continued favorable results, if the case of the Ilocanos is
correctly described. This tribe, in Northern Luzon, furnishes perhaps
the most industrious workers of any tribe in the islands; foremen and
overseers of Filipinos are quite commonly found to be Ilocanos, while
the members of the tribe are credited with accomplishing more steady
work than any other element of the population. The current explanation
of this is that they are Chinese mestizos: their coast was constantly
exposed the raids of Chinese pirates, a certain number of whom settled
there and took Ilocano women as wives. From these unions, the whole
tribe in the course of time is thought to have benefited. [154]
The history of the Chinese in the Philippines fails to corroborate the
idea that he never loses his racial identity. It must be borne in mind
that nearly all the Chinese in the United States are of the lowest
working class, and from the vicinity of Canton; while those in the
Philippines are of a higher class, and largely from the neighborhood of
Amoy. They have usually married Filipino women of good families, so
their offspring had exceptional advantages, and stand high in the
estimation of the community. The requirement of the Spanish government
was that a Chinese must embrace Christianity and become a citizen,
before he could marry a Filipino. Usually he assumed his wife's name, so
the children were brought up wholly as Filipinos, and considered
themselves such, without cherishing any particular sentiment for the
Flowery Kingdom.
The biologist who studies impartially the Filipino peoples may easily
conclude that the American government is making a mistake in excluding
the Chinese; that the infiltration of intelligent Chinese and their
intermixture with the native population would do more to raise the level
of ability of the latter than a dozen generations of that compulsory
education on which the government has built such high hopes.
And this conclusion leads to the question whether much of the surplus
population of the Orient could not profitably be diverted to regions
occupied by savage and barbarian people. Chinese immigrants, mostly
traders, have long been going in small numbers to many such regions and
have freely intermarried with native women. It is a matter of common
observation to travelers that much of the small mercantile business has
passed into the hands of Chinese mestizos. As far as the first few
generations, at least, the cross here seems to be productive of good
results. Whether Oriental immigration should be encouraged must depend
on the decision of the respective governments, and considerations other
than biologic will have weight. As far as eugenics is concerned it is
likely that such regions would profit by a reasonable amount of Chinese
or Japanese immigration which resulted in interbreeding and not in the
formation of isolated race-groups, because the superior Orientals tend
to raise the level of the native population into which they marry.
The question of the regulation of immigration is, as we have insisted
throughout this chapter, a question of weighing the consequences. A
decision must be reached in each case by asking what course will do most
for the future good both of the nation and of the whole species. To talk
of the sacred duty of offering an asylum to any who choose to come, is
to indulge in immoral sentimentality. Even if the problem be put on the
most unselfish plane possible, to ask not what will be for this
country's own immediate or future benefit, but what will most benefit
the world at large, it can only be concluded that the duty of the
United States is to make itself strong, efficient, productive and
progressive. By so doing they will be much better able to help the rest
of the world than by progressively weakening themselves through failure
to regulate immigration.
Further, in reaching a decision on the regulation of immigration, there
are numerous kinds of results to be considered: political, social,
economic and biologic, among others. All these interact, and it is hard
to say that one is more important than another; naturally we have
limited ourselves to the biologic aspect, but not without recognizing
that the other aspects exist and must be taken into account by those who
are experts in those fields.
Looking only at the eugenic consequences, we can not doubt that a
considerable and discriminatory selection of immigrants to this country
is necessary. Both directly and indirectly, the immigration of recent
years appears to be diminishing the eugenic strength of the nation more
than it increases it.
The state would be in a stronger position eugenically (and in many other
ways) if it would decrease the immigration of unskilled labor, and
increase the immigration of creative and directing talent. A selective
diminution of the volume of immigration would tend to have that result,
because it would necessarily shut out more of the unskilled than the
skilled.
CHAPTER XVI
WAR
War always changes the composition of a nation; but this change may be
either a loss or a gain. The modification of selection by war is far
more manifold than the literature on the biological effects of war would
lead the reader to suppose. All wars are partly eugenic and partly
dysgenic; some are mainly the one, some are mainly the other. The racial
effects of war occur in at least three periods:
1. The period of preparation.
2. The period of actual fighting.
3. The period of readjustment after the war.
The first division involves the effect of a standing army, which
withdraws men during a part of the reproductive period and keeps most of
them in a celibate career. The officers marry late if at all and show a
very low birth-rate. The prolonged celibacy has in many armies led to a
higher incidence of venereal diseases which prolongs the celibacy and
lowers the birthrate. [155] Without extended discussion, the following
considerations may be named as among those which should govern a policy
of military preparedness that will safeguard, as far as possible, the
eugenic interests:
1. If the army is a standing one, composed of men serving long terms of
enlistment, they should be of as advanced an age as is compatible with
military efficiency. If a man of 35 has not married, it is probable that
he will never marry, and therefore there is less loss to the race in
enrolling him for military service, than is the case with a man of
20-25.
2. The army (except in so far as composed of inferior men) should not
foster celibacy. Short enlistments are probably the most valuable means
of avoiding this evil.
3. Universal conscription is much better than voluntary service, since
the latter is highly selective, the former much less so. Those in
regular attendance in college should receive their military training in
their course as is now done.
4. Officers' families should be given an additional allowance for each
child. This would aid in increasing the birth-rate, which appears to be
very low among army and navy officers in the United States service, and
probably in that of all civilized countries.
5. Every citizen owes service to his nation, in time of need, but
fighting service should not be exacted if some one else could perform it
better than he where he is expert in some other needed field. The recent
action of England in sending to the front as subaltern officers, who
were speedily killed, many highly trained technicians and young
scientists and medical men who would have been much more valuable at
home in connection with war measures, is an example of this mistake.
Carrying the idea farther, one sees that in many nations there are
certain races which are more valuable on the firing line than in
industries at the rear; and it appears that they should play the part
for which they are best fitted. From this point of view, the Entente
allies were wholly justified in employing their Asiatic and African
subjects in war.
In the United States are millions of negroes who are of
less value than white men in organized industry but almost as valuable
as the whites, when properly led, at the front. It would appear to be
sound statesmanship to enlist as many Negroes as possible in the active
forces, in case of war, thus releasing a corresponding number of more
skilled white workers for the industrial machine on whose efficiency
success in modern warfare largely rests.
The creation of the National Army in the United States, in 1917, while
in most ways admirably conducted, was open to criticism in several
respects, from the eugenic point of view:
(a) Too many college men and men in intellectual pursuits were taken as
officers, particularly in the aviation corps. There should have been
more men employed as officers who had demonstrated the necessary
qualifications, as foremen and others accustomed to boss gangs of men.
(b) The burden was thrown too heavily on the old white Americans, by the
exemption of aliens, who make up a large part of the population in some
states. There were communities in New England which actually could not
fill their quotas, even by taking every acceptable native-born resident,
so large is their alien population. The quota should have been adjusted
if aliens were to be exempt.
(c) The district boards were not as liberal as was desirable, in
exempting from the first quota men needed in skilled work at home. The
spirit of the _selective_ draft was widely violated, and necessitated a
complete change of method before the second quota was called by the much
improved questionnaire method.
It is difficult to get such mistakes as these corrected; nevertheless a
nation should never lose sight of the fact that war is inevitably
damaging, and that the most successful nation is the one which wins its
wars with the least possible eugenic loss.
Leaving the period of preparedness, we consider the period of open
warfare. The reader will remember that, in an earlier chapter, we
divided natural selection into (1) lethal, that which operates through
differential mortality; (2) sexual, that which operates through
differential mating; and (3) fecundal, that which operates through
differential fecundity. Again, selection operates both in an inter-group
competition and an intra-group competition. The influence of any agency
on natural selection must be examined under each of these six heads. In
the case of war, however, fecundal selection may be eliminated, as it is
little influenced. Still another division arises from the fact that the
action of selection is different during war upon the armed forces
themselves and upon the population at home; and after the war, upon the
nations with the various modifications that the war has left.
We will consider lethal selection first. To measure the effect of the
inter-group selection of the armed forces, one must compare the
relative quality of the two races involved. The evidence for believing
in substantial differences between races is based (a) upon their
relative achievement when each is isolated, (b) upon the relative rank
when the two are competing in one society, and (c) upon the relative
number of original contributions to civilization each has made. Such
comparisons are fatal to the sentimental equalitarianism that denies
race differences. While there is, of course, a great deal of
overlapping, there are, nevertheless, real average differences. To think
otherwise is to discard evolution and revert to the older standpoint of
"special creation. "
Comparison of the quality of the two sides is sometimes, of course, very
difficult. One may feel little hesitation in giving a decision in the
classical war of the Greeks and Persians, or the more modern case of the
English and Afghans, but when considering the Franco-Prussian war, or
the Russo-Japanese war, or the Boer war, or the American civil war, it
is largely a matter of mere opinion, and perhaps an advantage can hardly
be conceded to either side. Those who, misunderstanding the doctrine of
evolution, adhere to the so-called "philosophy of force," would answer
without hesitation that the side which won was, _ipso facto_, the better
side. But such a judgment is based on numerous fallacies, and can not be
indorsed in the sweeping way it is uttered. Take a concrete example:
"In 1806, Prussia was defeated at the battle of Jena. According to the
philosophy of force, this was because Prussia was 'inferior' and France
was 'superior. ' Suppose we admit for the moment that this was the case.
The selection now represents the survival of the fittest, the selection
which perfects the human species. But what shall we say of the battle of
Leipsic? At Leipsic, in 1813, all the values were reversed; it is now
France which is the 'inferior' nation. . . . Furthermore, a large number of
the same generals and soldiers who took part in the battle of Jena also
took part in the battle of Leipsic. Napoleon belonged, therefore, to a
race which was superior to that of Blucher in 1806, but to an inferior
race in 1813, in spite of the fact that they were the same persons and
had not changed their nationality. As soon as we bring these assertions
to the touchstone of concrete reality we see at once how untenable and
even ridiculous are direct biological comparisons. "[156]
Without going into further detail, it is readily seen that, on the world
at large, the eugenic effect of a war would be very different according
as the sides differ much or little. Yet this difference in quality,
however great, will have no significance, unless the superior or
inferior side is in general more likely to lose fewer men. Where the
difference has been considerable, as between a civilized and savage
nation, it has been seldom that the superior has not triumphed with
fewer losses. Victory, however, is influenced much less in these later
days by the relative military efficiency of two single nations than by
their success in making powerful alliances. But such alignments are by
no means always associated with better quality, because (a) there is a
natural tendency for the weak to unite against a strong nation, (b) to
side with a group which is apparently succeeding, and (c) the alliances
may be the work of one or a few individuals who happen to be in
positions of power at the critical time.
Modern European wars, especially the latest one, have been marked by the
high quality of the combatants on both sides relative to the rest of the
world. As these same races fight with pertinacity, there is a high
mortality rate, so that the dysgenic result of these wars is
particularly deplorable.
As for the selection taking place _within_ each of the struggling
nations, the combatants and the non-combatants of the same age and sex
must first be compared. The difference here depends largely on how the
army in question was raised. Where the army is a permanent, paid force,
it probably does not represent a quality above the average of the
nation, except physically. When it is conscripted, it is superior
physically and probably slightly in other respects. If it is a
volunteer army, its quality depends largely on whether the cause being
fought for is one that appeals merely to the spirit of adventure or one
that appeals to some moral principle. In the latter case, the quality
may be such that the loss of a large part of the army will be peculiarly
damaging to the progress of the race. This situation is more common than
might be supposed, for by skillful diplomacy and journalism a cause
which may be really questionable is presented to the public in a most
idealistic light. But here, again, one can not always apply sweeping
generalizations to individual cases. It might be supposed, for instance,
that in the Confederate army the best eugenic quality was represented by
the volunteers, the second best by those who stayed out until they were
conscripted, and the poorest by the deserters. Yet David Starr Jordan
and Harvey Ernest Jordan, who investigated the case with care, found
that this was hardly true and that, due to the peculiar circumstances,
the deserters were probably not as a class eugenically inferior to the
volunteers. [157] Again some wars, such as that between the United States
and Spain, probably develop a volunteer army made up largely of the
adventurous, the nomadic, and those who have fewer ties; it would be
difficult to demonstrate that they are superior to those who, having
settled positions at home, or family obligations, fail to volunteer. The
greatest damage appears to be done in such wars as those waged by great
European nations, where the whole able-bodied male population is called
out, and only those left at home who are physically or mentally unfit
for fighting--but not, it appears to be thought, unfit to perpetuate the
race.
Even within the army of one side, lethal selection is operative. Those
who are killed are by no means a haphazard sample of the whole army.
Among the victims there is a disproportionate representation of those
with (1) dauntless bravery, (2) recklessness, (3) stupidity. These
qualities merge into each other, yet in their extremes they are widely
different. However, as the nature of warfare changes with the increase
of artillery, mines, bombs, and gases, and decrease of personal combat,
those who fall are more and more chance victims.
In addition to the killed and mortally wounded, there are many deaths
from disease or from wounds which were not necessarily fatal. Probably
the most selective of any of these three agencies is the variable
resistance to disease and infection and the widely varying knowledge and
appreciation of the need for hygienic living shown by the individual,
as, for instance, by less reckless drinking of unsterilized water. But
here, too, in modern warfare, this item is becoming less selective, with
the advance in discipline and in organized sanitation.
The efficiency of selection will be affected by the percentage that each
side has sent to the front, if the combatants are either above or below
the average of the population. A nation that sends all its able-bodied
males forward will be affected differently from its enemy that has
needed to call upon only one-half of its able-bodied men in order to win
its cause.
Away from the fighting lines of the contending sides, conditions that
prevail are rendered more severe in many ways than in times of peace.
Poverty becomes rife, and sanitation and medical treatment are commonly
sacrificed under the strain. During a war, that mitigation of the action
of natural selection which is so common now among civilized nations, is
somewhat less effective than in times of peace. The scourge of typhus in
Serbia is a recent and graphic illustration.
After a war has been concluded, certain new agencies of inter-group
selection arise. The result depends largely on whether the vanquished
have had a superior culture brought to them, as in the case of the
Philippines, or whether, on the contrary, certain diseases have been
introduced, as to the natives of the New World by the Spanish conquerors
and explorers, or crushing tribute has been levied, or grievous
oppression such as has befallen Belgium.
Sometimes the conquerors themselves have suffered severely as the result
of excessive spoliation, which has produced vicious idleness and
luxurious indulgence, with the ultimate effect of diminishing the
birth-rate.
Within the nation there may be various results. Sometimes, by the
reduction of overcrowding, natural selection will be less severe. On the
other hand, the loss of that part of the population which is more
economically productive is a very serious loss, leading to excessive
poverty with increased severity in the action of natural selection, of
which some of the Southern States, during the Reconstruction period,
offer a good illustration.
Selection is also rendered more intense by the heavy burden of taxation,
and in the very common depreciation of currency as is now felt in
Russia.
Sexual selection as well as lethal is affected by war in manifold ways.
Considering the armed force, there is an inter-group selection, when the
enemy's women are assaulted by the soldiers. While this has been an
important factor in the past, it is somewhat less common now, with
better army discipline and higher social ideals.
Within the group, mating at the outset of a war is greatly increased by
many hurried marriages. There is also alleged to be sometimes an
increase of illegitimacy in the neighborhood of training camps. In each
of these instances, these matings do not represent as much maturity of
judgment as there would have been in times of peace, and hence give a
less desirable sexual selection.
In the belligerent nation at home, the number of marriageable males is
of course far less than at ordinary times. It becomes important, then,
to compare the quality of the non-combatants and those combatants who
survive and return home, since their absence during the war period of
course decreases their reproduction as compared with the non-combatants.
The marked excess of women over men, both during the war and after,
necessarily intensifies the selection of women and proportionately
reduces that of men, since relatively fewer men will remain unmated.
This excess of women is found in all classes. Among superiors there are,
in addition, some women who never marry because the war has so reduced
the number of suitors thought eligible.
The five years' war of Paraguay with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina
(1864-1869) is perhaps the most glaring case on record[158] in recent
years of the destruction of the male population of a country. Whole
regiments were made up of boys of 16 or less. At the beginning of the
war the population of Paraguay had been given as 1,337,437. It fell to
221,709 (28,746 men, 106,254 women, 86,079 children); it is even now
probably not more than half of the estimate made at the beginning of the
war. "Here in a small area has occurred a drastic case of racial ravage
without parallel since the time of the Thirty Years' War. " Macedonia,
however, furnishes a fairly close parallel--D. S. Jordan found whole
villages there in 1913 in which not a single man remained: only women
and children. Conditions were not so very much better in parts of the
South at the close of the Civil War, particularly in Virginia and North
Carolina, where probably 40% of the young men of reproductive age died
without issue. And in a few of the Northern states, such as Vermont,
Connecticut and Massachusetts, the loss was proportionately almost as
great. These were probably as good men as any country has produced, and
their loss, with that of their potential offspring, undoubtedly is
causing more far-reaching effects in the subsequent history of the
United States than has ever been realized.
In the past and still among many savage peoples, inter-group selection
has been affected by the stealing of women from the vanquished. The
effect of this has been very different, depending on whether these women
would otherwise have been killed or spared, and also depending on the
relative quality of their nation to that of their conquerors.
To sum up, there are so many features of natural selection, each of
which must be separately weighed and the whole then balanced, that it is
a matter of extensive inquiry to determine whether a certain war has a
preponderance of eugenic or dysgenic results.
When the quality of the combatants is so high, compared with the rest
of the world, as during the Great War, no conceivable eugenic gains from
the war can offset the losses. It is probably well within the facts to
assume that the period of this war represents a decline in inherent
human quality, greater than in any similar length of time in the
previous history of the world.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that war is becoming much less common
if we consider number of combatants rather than number of wars as times
goes on,[159] and it steadily tends to be more destructive. War, then,
offers one of the greatest problems which the eugenist must face, for a
few months of war may undo all that eugenic reforms can gain in a
generation.
The total abolition of war would, of course, be the ideal, but there is
no possibility of this in the near future. The fighting instinct, it
must be remembered, is one of the most primitive and powerful that the
human mechanism contains. It was evolved in great intensity, to give man
supremacy over his environment--for the great "struggle for existence"
is with the environment, not with members of one's own species. Man long
ago conquered the environment so successfully that he has never since
had to exert himself in physical combat in this direction; but the
fighting instinct remained and could not be baulked without causing
uneasiness. Spurred on by a complex set of psychological and economic
stimuli, man took to fighting his own kind, to a degree that no other
species shows.
Now contrary to what the militarist philosophers affirm, this particular
sort of "struggle for existence" is not a necessity to the further
progressive evolution of the race. On the contrary it more frequently
reverses evolution and makes the race go backward, rather than forward.
The struggle for existence which makes the race progress is principally
that of the species with its environment, not that of some members of
the species with others. If the latter struggle could be supplanted by
the former then racial evolution would go ahead steadily without the
continuous reversals that warfare now gives.
William James saw, we believe, the true solution of the problem of
militarism, when he wrote his famous essay on _The Moral Equivalent of
War_. Here is man, full of fighting instinct which will not be baulked.
What is he to do? Professor James suggested that the youth of the nation
be conscripted to fight the environment, thus getting the fight "out of
its system" and rendering a real service to the race by constructive
reclamation work, instead of slaying each other and thus turning the
hands of the evolutionary clock backward.
When education has given everyone the evolutionary and eugenic view of
man as a species adapted to his environment, it may be possible to work
out some such solution as this of James. The only immediate course of
action open seems to be to seek, if possible, to diminish the frequency
of war by subduing nations which start wars and, by the organization of
a League to Enforce Peace; to avoid war-provoking conquests; to diminish
as much as possible the disastrous effects of war when it does come, and
to work for the progress of science and the diffusion of knowledge which
will eventually make possible the greater step, effective international
organization.
CHAPTER XVII
GENEALOGY AND EUGENICS
Scientific plant breeders to-day have learned that their success often
depends on the care with which they study the genealogy of their plants.
Live-stock breeders admit that their profession is on a sure scientific
basis only to the extent that the genealogy of the animals used is
known.
Human genealogy is one of the oldest manifestations of man's
intellectual activity, but until recently it has been subservient to
sentimental purposes, or pursued from historical or legal motives.
Biology has had no place in it.
Genealogy, however, has not altogether escaped the re-examination which
all sciences received after the Darwinian movement revolutionized modern
thought. Numerous ways have been pointed out in which it could be
brought into line with the new way of looking at man and his world. The
field of genealogy has already been invaded at many points by
biologists, seeking the furtherance of their own aims.
It will be worth while to discuss briefly the relations between the
conventional genealogy and eugenics. It may be that genealogy could
become an even more valuable branch of human knowledge than it now is,
if it were more closely aligned with biology. In order to test this
possibility, one must inquire:
(1) What is genealogy?
(2) What does it now attempt to do?
(3) What faults, from the eugenist's standpoint, seem to exist in
present genealogical methods?
(4) What additions should be made to the present methods?
(5) What can be expected of it, after it is revised in accordance with
the ideas of the eugenist?
The answer to the first question, "What is genealogy? " may be brief.
Genealogy may be envisaged from several points. It serves history. It
has a legal function, which is of more consequence abroad than in
America. It has social significance, in bolstering family pride and
creating a feeling of family solidarity--this is perhaps its chief
office in the United States. It has, or can have, biological
significance, and this in two ways: either in relation to pure science
or applied science. In connection with pure science, its function is to
furnish means for getting knowledge of the laws of heredity. In
application, its function is to furnish a knowledge of the inherited
characters of any given individual, in order to make it possible for the
individual to find his place in the world and, in particular, to marry
wisely. It is obvious that the use of genealogy in the applied science
of eugenics is dependent on previous research by geneticists; for
marriage matings which take account of heredity can not be made unless
the mode of inheritance of human traits has previously been discovered.
The historical, social, legal and other aspects of genealogy do not
concern the present discussion. We shall discuss only the biological
aspect; not only because it alone is germane to the present book, but
because we consider it to have by far the greatest true value, accepting
the criterion of value as that which increases the welfare of mankind.
By this criterion, the historical, legal and social aspects of genealogy
will be seen, with a little reflection, to be of secondary importance to
its biological aspect.
(2) Genealogy now is too often looked upon as an end in itself. It would
be recognized as a science of much greater value to the world if it were
considered not an end but a means to a far greater end than it alone can
supply. It has, indeed, been contended, even by such an authority as
Ottokar Lorenz, who is often called the father of modern scientific
genealogy, that a knowledge of his own ancestry will tell each
individual exactly what he himself is. This appears to be the basis of
Lorenz's valuation of genealogy. It is a step in the right direction:
but
(3) The present methods of genealogy are inadequate to support such a
claim. Its methods are still based mainly on the historical, legal and
social functions. A few of the faults of method in genealogy, which the
eugenist most deplores, are:
(a) The information which is of most value is exactly that which
genealogy ordinarily does not furnish. Dates of birth, death and
marriage of an ancestor are of interest, but of limited biological
importance. The facts about that ancestor which vitally concern his
living descendant are the facts of his character, physical and mental;
and these facts are given in very few genealogies.
[Illustration: LINE OF ASCENT THAT CARRIES THE FAMILY NAME
FIG. 40. --In some pedigrees, particularly those dealing with
antiquity, the only part known is the line of ascent which carries the
family name,--what animal breeders call the tail-male. In such cases it
is evident that from the point of view of a geneticist practically
nothing is known. How insignificant any single line of ascent is, by
comparison with the whole ancestry, even for a few generations, is
graphically shown by the above chart. It is assumed in this chart that
no cousin marriages took place. ]
(b) Genealogies are commonly too incomplete to be of real value.
Sometimes they deal only with the direct male line of ascent--the line
that bears the family name, or what animal breeders call the tail-male.
In this case, it is not too much to say that they are nearly devoid of
genuine value. It is customary to imagine that there is some special
virtue inherent in that line of descent which carries the family name.
Some one remarks, for instance, to Mr. Jones that he seems to be fond of
the sea.
"Yes," he replies, "You know the Joneses have been sailors for many
generations. "
But the small contribution of heredity made to an individual by the line
of descent carrying his family name, in comparison with the rest of his
ancestry, may be seen from Fig. 40.
Such incomplete pedigrees are rarely published nowadays, but in studying
historic characters, one frequently finds nothing more than the single
line of ascent in the family name. Fortunately, American genealogies
rarely go to this extreme, unless it be in the earliest generations; but
it is common enough for them to deal only with the direct ancestors of
the individual, omitting all brothers and sisters of those ancestors.
Although this simplifies the work of the genealogist immensely, it
deprives it of value to a corresponding degree.
(c) As the purpose of genealogy in this country has been largely social,
it is to be feared that in too many cases discreditable data have been
tacitly omitted from the records. The anti-social individual, the
feeble-minded, the insane, the alcoholic, the "generally no-count," has
been glossed over. Such a lack of candor is not in accord with the
scientific spirit, and makes one uncertain, in the use of genealogies,
to what extent one is really getting all the facts. There are few
families of any size which have not one such member or more, not many
generations removed. To attempt to conceal the fact is not only
unethical but from the eugenist's point of view, at any rate, it is a
falsification of records that must be regarded with great disapproval.
At present it is hard to say to what extent undesirable traits occur in
the most distinguished families; and it is of great importance that this
should be learned.
Maurice Fishberg contends[160] that many Jewish families are
characterized by extremes,--that in each generation they have produced
more ability and also more disability than would ordinarily be expected.
This seems to be true of some of the more prominent old American
families as well. On the other hand, large families can be found, such
as the remarkable family of New England office-holders described by
Merton T. Goodrich,[161] in which there is a steady production of civic
worth in every generation with almost no mental defectives or gross
physical defectives. In such a family there is a high sustained level.
It is such strains which eugenists wish especially to increase.
In this connection it is again worth noting that a really great man is
rarely found in an ancestry devoid of ability. This was pointed out in
the first chapter, but is certain to strike the genealogist's attention
forcibly. Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as an exception; but more
recent studies of his ancestry have shown that he is not really an
exception; that, as Ida M. Tarbell[162] says, "So far from his later
career being unaccounted for in his origin and early history, it is as
fully accounted for as is the case of any man. " The Lincoln family was
one of the best in America, and while Abraham's own father was an
eccentric person, he was yet a man of considerable force of character,
by no means the "poor white trash" which he is often represented to have
been. The Hanks family, to which the Emancipator's mother belonged, had
also maintained a high level of ability in every generation;
furthermore, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the parents of Abraham
Lincoln, were first cousins.
The more difficult cases, for the eugenist, are rather to be found in
such ancestries as those of Louis Pasteur and Michael Faraday.
Pasteur[163] might perhaps be justly considered the greatest man France
has ever produced; his father was a non-commissioned soldier who came of
a long line of tanners, while his mother's family had been gardeners for
generations. Faraday, who is worthy to be placed close to Charles
Darwin among eminent Englishmen, was the son of a blacksmith and a
farmer's daughter. Such pedigrees are striking; and yet, as Frederick
Adams Woods has remarked, they ought to strengthen rather than to weaken
one's belief in the force of heredity. When it is considered how rarely
such an ancestry produces a great man, it must be fairly evident that
his greatness is due to an accidental conjunction of favorable traits,
as the modern theory of genetics holds; and that greatness is not due to
the inheritance of acquired characters, on which hypothesis Pasteur and
Faraday would indeed be difficult to explain.
Cases of this sort, even though involving much less famous people, will
be found in almost every genealogy, and add greatly to the interest of
its study, as well as offering valuable data to the professional
geneticist.
(d) Even if the information it furnishes were more complete, human
genealogy would not justify the claims sometimes made for it as a
science, because, to use a biological phrase, "the matings are not
controlled.
government, but it is the advantage of a democratic form of government
that it presents the open road to success, more than does an oligarchic
government. That this freedom of access to all rewards that the state
can give should be open to every one (and conversely that no one should
be kept at the top and over-rewarded if he is unworthy) is essential to
eugenics; but it is quite incompatible with the existence within the
state of a number of isolated groups, some of which must inevitably and
properly be considered inferior. It is certain that, at the present time
in this country, no Negro can take a place in the upper ranks of
society, which are and will long remain white. The fact that this
situation is inevitable makes it no less unfortunate for both Negro and
white races; consolation can only be found in the thought that it is
less of a danger than the opposite condition would be. But this
condition of class discrimination is likely to exist, to a much less
extent it is true, in every city where there are foreign-born and
native-born populations living side by side, and where the epithets of
"Sheeny," "Dago," "Wop," "Kike," "Greaser," "Guinea," etc. , testify to
the feeling of the older population that it is superior.
While eugenic strength in a state is promoted by variety, too great a
heterogeneity offers serious social difficulties. It is essential if
America is to be strong eugenically that it slow down the flood of
immigrants who are not easily assimilable. At present a state of affairs
is being created where class distinctions are likely to be barriers to
the promotion of individual worth--and equally, of course, to the
demotion of individual worthlessness.
Even if an immigration is not assimilated, then, it yet has an indirect
effect on eugenics. But there are other indirect effects of immigration,
which are quite independent of assimilation: they inhere in the mere
bulk and economic character of the immigration. The arrivals of the past
few decades have been nearly all unskilled laborers. Professor Carver
believes that continuous immigration which enters the ranks of labor in
larger proportion and the business and professional classes in a smaller
proportion than the native-born will produce the following results:
1. Distribution. It will keep competition more intense among laborers
and less intense among business and professional men: it will therefore
raise the income of the employing classes and lower the wages of
unskilled labor.
2. Production. It will give a relatively low marginal productivity to a
typical immigrant and make him a relatively unimportant factor in the
production of wealth.
3. Organization of industry. Immigrants can only be employed
economically at low wages and in large gangs, because of (2).
4. Agriculture. If large numbers of immigrants should go into
agriculture, it will mean one of two things, probably the second:
(a) Continuous subdivision of farms resulting in inefficient and
wasteful application of labor and smaller crops per man, although
probably larger crops per acre.
(b) Development of a class of landed proprietors on the one hand and a
landless agricultural proletariat on the other.
It is true that the great mass of unskilled labor which has come to the
United States in the last few decades has made possible the development
of many industries that have furnished an increased number of good jobs
to men of intelligence, but many who have made a close study of the
immigration problem think that despite this, unskilled labor has been
coming in altogether too large quantities. Professor Ross publishes the
following illustration:
"What a college man saw in a copper-mine in the Southwest gives in a
nutshell the logic of low wages.
"The American miners, getting $2. 75 a day, are abruptly displaced
without a strike by a train-load of 500 raw Italians brought in by the
company and put to work at from $1. 50 to $2 a day. For the Americans
there is nothing to do but to 'go down the road. ' At first the Italians
live on bread and beer, never wash, wear the same filthy clothes night
and day, and are despised. After two or three years they want to live
better, wear decent clothes, and be respected. They ask for more wages,
the bosses bring in another train-load from the steerage, and the partly
Americanized Italians follow the American miners 'down the road. ' No
wonder the estimate of government experts as to the number of our
floating casual laborers ranges up to five millions! "
"It is claimed that the natives are not displaced" by the constant
inflow of alien unskilled labor, says H. P. Fairchild,[150] but that they
"are simply forced into higher occupations. Those who were formerly
common laborers are now in positions of authority. While this argument
holds true of individuals, its fallacy when applied to groups is
obvious. There are not nearly enough places of authority to receive
those who are forced out from below. The introduction of 500 Slav
laborers into a community may make a demand for a dozen or a score of
Americans in higher positions, but hardly for 500. "
"The number of unskilled workers coming in at the present time is
sufficient to check decidedly the normal tendency toward an improved
standard of living in many lines of industry," in the opinion of J. W.
Jenks, who was a member of the Immigration Commission appointed by
President Roosevelt in 1907. He alludes to the belief that instead of
crowding the older workers _out_, the aliens merely crowd them up, and
says that he himself formerly held that view; "but the figures collected
by the Immigration commission, from a sufficient number of industries in
different sections of the country to give general conclusions, prove
beyond a doubt that in a good many cases these incoming immigrants
actually drive out into other localities and into other unskilled trades
large numbers of American workingmen and workingmen of the earlier
immigration who do not get better positions but, rather, worse ones. . . .
Professor Lauck, our chief superintendent of investigators in the
field, and, so far as I am aware, every single investigator in the
field, before the work ended, reached the conclusion from personal
observation that the tendency of the large percentage of immigration of
unskilled workers is clearly to lower the standard of living in a number
of industries, and the statistics of the commission support this
impression. I therefore changed my earlier views. "
If the immigration of large quantities of unskilled labor with low
standards of living tends in most cases to depress wages and lower the
standard of living of the corresponding class of the old American
population, the consequences would appear to be:
1. The employers of labor would profit, since they would get abundant
labor at low wages. If this increase in the wealth of employers led to
an increase in their birth-rate, it would be an advantage. But it
apparently does not. The birth-rate of the employing class is probably
little restricted by financial difficulties; therefore on them
immigration probably has no immediate eugenic effect.
2. The American skilled laborers would profit, since there is more
demand for skilled labor in industries created by unskilled immigrant
labor. Would the increasing prosperity and a higher standard of living
here, tend to lower the relative birth-rate of the class or not?
The answer probably depends on the extent of the knowledge of birth
control which has been discussed elsewhere.
3. The wages and standard of living of American unskilled laborers will
fall, since they are obliged directly to compete with the newcomers. It
seems most likely that a fall in wages and standards is correlated with
a fall in birth-rate. This case must be distinguished from cases where
the wages and standards _never were high_, and where poverty is
correlated with a high birth-rate. If this distinction is correct, the
present immigration will tend to lower the birth-rate of American
unskilled laborers.
The arguments here used may appear paradoxical, and have little
statistical support, but they seem to us sound and not in contradiction
with any known facts. If they are valid, the effect of such immigration
as the United States has been receiving is to reduce the birth-rate of
the unskilled labor with little or no effect on the employers and
managers of labor.
Since both the character and the volume of immigration are at fault,
remedial measures may be applied to either one or both of these
features. It is very desirable that we have a much more stringent
selection of immigrants than is made at the present time. But most of
the measures which have been actually proposed and urged in recent years
have been directed at a diminution of the volume, and at a change in
character only by somewhat indirect and indiscriminate means.
The Immigration Commission made a report to Congress on Dec. 5, 1910, in
which it suggested the following possible methods of restricting the
volume of immigration:
1. The exclusion of those unable to read and write in some language.
2. The reduction of the number of each race arriving each year to a
certain percentage of the average of that race arriving during a given
period of years.
3. The exclusion of unskilled laborers unaccompanied by wives or
families.
4. Material increase in the amount of money required to be in the
possession of the immigrant at the port of arrival.
5. Material increase in the head tax.
6. Limitation of the number of immigrants arriving annually at any port.
7. The levying of the head tax so as to make a marked discrimination in
favor of men with families.
Eugenically, it is probable that (3) and (7), which would tend to admit
only families, would be a detriment to American welfare; (1) and (2)
have been the suggestions which have met with the most favor. All but
one member of the commission favored (1), the literacy test, as the most
feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigration, and it
was enacted into law by Congress, which passed it over President
Wilson's veto, in February, 1917.
Records for 1914 show that "illiteracy among the total number of
arrivals of each race ranged all the way from 64% for the Turkish to
less than 1% for the English, the Scotch, the Welsh, the Scandinavian,
and the Finnish. The Bohemian and Moravian, the German, and the Irish
each had less than 5% illiterate. Races other than the Turkish, whose
immigration in 1914 was more than one-third illiterate, include the
Dalmatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Russians, Ruthenians, Italians,
Lithuanians, and Roumanians. "
It is frankly admitted by the proponents of this method of restriction
that it will keep out some who ought to come in, and let in some who
ought to be kept out. It is in some cases a test of opportunity rather
than of character, but "in the belief of its advocates, it will meet the
situation as disclosed by the investigation of the Immigration
Commission better than any other means that human ingenuity can devise.
It is believed that it would exclude more of the undesirable and fewer
of the desirable immigrants than any other method of restriction. "
On the other hand, it is argued that the literacy test will fail of
success because those who want to come will learn to read and write,
which will only delay their arrival a few months without changing their
real character. But the effect of such attempts will separate those who
succeed from those who are too inferior to succeed, which would be an
advantage of the plan rather than a defect.
The second method of selection enumerated (2) above, was proposed by
Rev. Sidney L. Gulick, particularly with a view to meeting the need of
restriction of Asiatic immigration. [151] This immigration will be
discussed shortly, but in the meantime the details of his plan may be
presented.
"Only so many immigrants of any people should be admitted as we can
Americanize. Let the maximum permissible annual immigration from any
people be a definite per cent. (say five) of the sum of the
American-born children of that people plus those who have become
naturalized of the same people. Let this restriction be imposed only
upon adult males.
"Taking the 1910 census as our basis, the 5% Restriction Proposal would
have fixed the maximum permissible immigration of males from North and
West Europe at 759,000 annually, while the actual annual immigration for
the last 5 years averages but 115,000. The permissible immigration from
South and East Europe would have been 189,000 annually, while the
average for the last five years has been 372,000. When applied to China,
the policy would have admitted 1,106 males per year, while the number
admitted on the average for the last 5 years has been 1,571. The
proposal would provide for the admission of 1,200 Japanese annually,
here again resulting in the exclusion on the average of 1,238 males
yearly during the years 1911-1915. No estimate is made here of the
effect of the exclusion of males on the arrival of women and children. "
The percentage restriction is unsatisfactory to a eugenist, as not
sufficiently discriminating.
The literary restriction has been a great step forward but should be
backed by the addition of such mental tests as will make it fairly
certain to keep out the dull-minded as well as feeble-minded. Long
division would suffice as such a test until better tests relatively
unaffected by schooling can be put into operation, since it is at this
point in the grades that so many dull-minded drop out of the schools.
Oriental immigration is becoming an urgent problem, and it is essential
that its biological, as well as its economic and sociological features
be understood, if it is to be solved in a satisfactory and reasonably
permanent way. In the foregoing discussion, Oriental immigration has
hardly been taken into account; it must now receive particular
consideration.
What are the grounds, then, for forbidding the yellow races, or the
races of British India, to enter the United States? The considerations
urged in the past have been (1) Political: it is said that they are
unable to acquire the spirit of American institutions. This is an
objection which concerns eugenics only indirectly. (2) Medical: it is
said that they introduce diseases, such as the oriental liver, lung and
intestinal flukes, which are serious, against which Americans have never
been selected, and for which no cure is known. (3) Economic: it is
argued that the Oriental's lower standard of living makes it impossible
for the white man to compete with him. The objection is well founded,
and is indirectly of concern to eugenics, as was pointed out in a
preceding section of this chapter. As eugenists we feel justified in
objecting to the immigration of large bodies of unskilled Oriental
labor, on the ground that they rear larger families than our stock on
the same small incomes.
A biological objection has also been alleged, in the possibility of
interbreeding between the yellow and white races. In the past such cases
have been very rare; it is authoritatively stated[152] that "there are
on our whole Pacific coast not more than 20 instances of intermarriage
between Americans and Japanese, and . . . one might count on the fingers
of both hands the number of American-Chinese marriages between San Diego
and Seattle. " The presence of a body of non-interbreeding immigrants is
likely to produce the adverse results already discussed in the earlier
part of this chapter.
Eugenically, then, the immigration of any considerable number of
unskilled laborers from the Orient may have undesirable direct results
and is certain to have unfavorable indirect results. It should therefore
be prevented, either by a continuation of the "gentlemen's agreement"
now in force between the United States and Japan, and by similar
agreements with other nations, or by some such non-invidious measure as
that proposed by Dr. Gulick. This exclusion should not of course be
applied to the intellectual classes, whose presence here would offer
advantages which would outweigh the disadvantages.
We have a different situation in the Philippine islands, there the
yellow races have been denied admission since the United States took
possession. Previously, the Chinese had been trading there for
centuries, and had settled in considerable numbers almost from the time
the Spaniards colonized the archipelago.
At present it is estimated that there are 100,000 Chinese in the
islands, and their situation was not put too strongly by A. E. Jenks,
when he wrote:[153]
"As to the Chinese, it does not matter much what they themselves desire;
but what their descendants desire will go far toward answering the whole
question of the Filipinos' volition toward assimilation, because they
are _the_ Filipinos. To be specific: During the latter days of my
residence in the Islands in 1905 Governor-General Wright one day told me
that he had recently personally received from one of the most
distinguished Filipinos of the time, and a member of the Insular Civil
Commission, the statement that 'there was not a single prominent and
dominant family among the Christianized Filipinos which did not possess
Chinese blood. ' The voice and will of the Filipinos of to-day is the
voice and the will of these brainy, industrious, rapidly developing men
whose judgment in time the world is bound to respect. "
This statement will be confirmed by almost any American resident in the
Islands. Most of the men who have risen to prominence in the Islands are
mestizos, and while in political life some of the leaders are merely
Spanish metis, the financial leaders almost without exception, the
captains of industry, have Chinese blood in their veins, while this
class has also taken an active part in the government of the
archipelago. Emilio Aguinaldo is one of the most conspicuous of the
Chinese mestizos. Individual examples might be multiplied without limit;
it will be sufficient to mention Bautista Lim, president of the largest
tobacco firm in the islands and also a physician; his brother, formerly
an insurgent general and later governor of Sampango province under the
American administration; the banker Lim Hap; Faustino Lechoco, cattle
king of the Philippines; Fernandez brothers, proprietors of a steamship
line; Locsin and Lacson, wealthy sugar planters; Mariano Velasco,
dry-goods importer; Datto Piang, the Moro warrior and chieftain; Paua,
insurgent general in southern Luzon; Ricardo Gochuico, tobacco magnate.
In most of these men the proportion of Chinese blood is large.
Generalizing, we are justified in saying that the cross between Chinese
and Filipinos produces progeny superior to the Filipinos. It must be
remembered that it is not a very wide cross, the Malayans, who include
most of the Filipinos, being closely related to the Chinese.
It appears that even a small infusion of Chinese blood may produce
long-continued favorable results, if the case of the Ilocanos is
correctly described. This tribe, in Northern Luzon, furnishes perhaps
the most industrious workers of any tribe in the islands; foremen and
overseers of Filipinos are quite commonly found to be Ilocanos, while
the members of the tribe are credited with accomplishing more steady
work than any other element of the population. The current explanation
of this is that they are Chinese mestizos: their coast was constantly
exposed the raids of Chinese pirates, a certain number of whom settled
there and took Ilocano women as wives. From these unions, the whole
tribe in the course of time is thought to have benefited. [154]
The history of the Chinese in the Philippines fails to corroborate the
idea that he never loses his racial identity. It must be borne in mind
that nearly all the Chinese in the United States are of the lowest
working class, and from the vicinity of Canton; while those in the
Philippines are of a higher class, and largely from the neighborhood of
Amoy. They have usually married Filipino women of good families, so
their offspring had exceptional advantages, and stand high in the
estimation of the community. The requirement of the Spanish government
was that a Chinese must embrace Christianity and become a citizen,
before he could marry a Filipino. Usually he assumed his wife's name, so
the children were brought up wholly as Filipinos, and considered
themselves such, without cherishing any particular sentiment for the
Flowery Kingdom.
The biologist who studies impartially the Filipino peoples may easily
conclude that the American government is making a mistake in excluding
the Chinese; that the infiltration of intelligent Chinese and their
intermixture with the native population would do more to raise the level
of ability of the latter than a dozen generations of that compulsory
education on which the government has built such high hopes.
And this conclusion leads to the question whether much of the surplus
population of the Orient could not profitably be diverted to regions
occupied by savage and barbarian people. Chinese immigrants, mostly
traders, have long been going in small numbers to many such regions and
have freely intermarried with native women. It is a matter of common
observation to travelers that much of the small mercantile business has
passed into the hands of Chinese mestizos. As far as the first few
generations, at least, the cross here seems to be productive of good
results. Whether Oriental immigration should be encouraged must depend
on the decision of the respective governments, and considerations other
than biologic will have weight. As far as eugenics is concerned it is
likely that such regions would profit by a reasonable amount of Chinese
or Japanese immigration which resulted in interbreeding and not in the
formation of isolated race-groups, because the superior Orientals tend
to raise the level of the native population into which they marry.
The question of the regulation of immigration is, as we have insisted
throughout this chapter, a question of weighing the consequences. A
decision must be reached in each case by asking what course will do most
for the future good both of the nation and of the whole species. To talk
of the sacred duty of offering an asylum to any who choose to come, is
to indulge in immoral sentimentality. Even if the problem be put on the
most unselfish plane possible, to ask not what will be for this
country's own immediate or future benefit, but what will most benefit
the world at large, it can only be concluded that the duty of the
United States is to make itself strong, efficient, productive and
progressive. By so doing they will be much better able to help the rest
of the world than by progressively weakening themselves through failure
to regulate immigration.
Further, in reaching a decision on the regulation of immigration, there
are numerous kinds of results to be considered: political, social,
economic and biologic, among others. All these interact, and it is hard
to say that one is more important than another; naturally we have
limited ourselves to the biologic aspect, but not without recognizing
that the other aspects exist and must be taken into account by those who
are experts in those fields.
Looking only at the eugenic consequences, we can not doubt that a
considerable and discriminatory selection of immigrants to this country
is necessary. Both directly and indirectly, the immigration of recent
years appears to be diminishing the eugenic strength of the nation more
than it increases it.
The state would be in a stronger position eugenically (and in many other
ways) if it would decrease the immigration of unskilled labor, and
increase the immigration of creative and directing talent. A selective
diminution of the volume of immigration would tend to have that result,
because it would necessarily shut out more of the unskilled than the
skilled.
CHAPTER XVI
WAR
War always changes the composition of a nation; but this change may be
either a loss or a gain. The modification of selection by war is far
more manifold than the literature on the biological effects of war would
lead the reader to suppose. All wars are partly eugenic and partly
dysgenic; some are mainly the one, some are mainly the other. The racial
effects of war occur in at least three periods:
1. The period of preparation.
2. The period of actual fighting.
3. The period of readjustment after the war.
The first division involves the effect of a standing army, which
withdraws men during a part of the reproductive period and keeps most of
them in a celibate career. The officers marry late if at all and show a
very low birth-rate. The prolonged celibacy has in many armies led to a
higher incidence of venereal diseases which prolongs the celibacy and
lowers the birthrate. [155] Without extended discussion, the following
considerations may be named as among those which should govern a policy
of military preparedness that will safeguard, as far as possible, the
eugenic interests:
1. If the army is a standing one, composed of men serving long terms of
enlistment, they should be of as advanced an age as is compatible with
military efficiency. If a man of 35 has not married, it is probable that
he will never marry, and therefore there is less loss to the race in
enrolling him for military service, than is the case with a man of
20-25.
2. The army (except in so far as composed of inferior men) should not
foster celibacy. Short enlistments are probably the most valuable means
of avoiding this evil.
3. Universal conscription is much better than voluntary service, since
the latter is highly selective, the former much less so. Those in
regular attendance in college should receive their military training in
their course as is now done.
4. Officers' families should be given an additional allowance for each
child. This would aid in increasing the birth-rate, which appears to be
very low among army and navy officers in the United States service, and
probably in that of all civilized countries.
5. Every citizen owes service to his nation, in time of need, but
fighting service should not be exacted if some one else could perform it
better than he where he is expert in some other needed field. The recent
action of England in sending to the front as subaltern officers, who
were speedily killed, many highly trained technicians and young
scientists and medical men who would have been much more valuable at
home in connection with war measures, is an example of this mistake.
Carrying the idea farther, one sees that in many nations there are
certain races which are more valuable on the firing line than in
industries at the rear; and it appears that they should play the part
for which they are best fitted. From this point of view, the Entente
allies were wholly justified in employing their Asiatic and African
subjects in war.
In the United States are millions of negroes who are of
less value than white men in organized industry but almost as valuable
as the whites, when properly led, at the front. It would appear to be
sound statesmanship to enlist as many Negroes as possible in the active
forces, in case of war, thus releasing a corresponding number of more
skilled white workers for the industrial machine on whose efficiency
success in modern warfare largely rests.
The creation of the National Army in the United States, in 1917, while
in most ways admirably conducted, was open to criticism in several
respects, from the eugenic point of view:
(a) Too many college men and men in intellectual pursuits were taken as
officers, particularly in the aviation corps. There should have been
more men employed as officers who had demonstrated the necessary
qualifications, as foremen and others accustomed to boss gangs of men.
(b) The burden was thrown too heavily on the old white Americans, by the
exemption of aliens, who make up a large part of the population in some
states. There were communities in New England which actually could not
fill their quotas, even by taking every acceptable native-born resident,
so large is their alien population. The quota should have been adjusted
if aliens were to be exempt.
(c) The district boards were not as liberal as was desirable, in
exempting from the first quota men needed in skilled work at home. The
spirit of the _selective_ draft was widely violated, and necessitated a
complete change of method before the second quota was called by the much
improved questionnaire method.
It is difficult to get such mistakes as these corrected; nevertheless a
nation should never lose sight of the fact that war is inevitably
damaging, and that the most successful nation is the one which wins its
wars with the least possible eugenic loss.
Leaving the period of preparedness, we consider the period of open
warfare. The reader will remember that, in an earlier chapter, we
divided natural selection into (1) lethal, that which operates through
differential mortality; (2) sexual, that which operates through
differential mating; and (3) fecundal, that which operates through
differential fecundity. Again, selection operates both in an inter-group
competition and an intra-group competition. The influence of any agency
on natural selection must be examined under each of these six heads. In
the case of war, however, fecundal selection may be eliminated, as it is
little influenced. Still another division arises from the fact that the
action of selection is different during war upon the armed forces
themselves and upon the population at home; and after the war, upon the
nations with the various modifications that the war has left.
We will consider lethal selection first. To measure the effect of the
inter-group selection of the armed forces, one must compare the
relative quality of the two races involved. The evidence for believing
in substantial differences between races is based (a) upon their
relative achievement when each is isolated, (b) upon the relative rank
when the two are competing in one society, and (c) upon the relative
number of original contributions to civilization each has made. Such
comparisons are fatal to the sentimental equalitarianism that denies
race differences. While there is, of course, a great deal of
overlapping, there are, nevertheless, real average differences. To think
otherwise is to discard evolution and revert to the older standpoint of
"special creation. "
Comparison of the quality of the two sides is sometimes, of course, very
difficult. One may feel little hesitation in giving a decision in the
classical war of the Greeks and Persians, or the more modern case of the
English and Afghans, but when considering the Franco-Prussian war, or
the Russo-Japanese war, or the Boer war, or the American civil war, it
is largely a matter of mere opinion, and perhaps an advantage can hardly
be conceded to either side. Those who, misunderstanding the doctrine of
evolution, adhere to the so-called "philosophy of force," would answer
without hesitation that the side which won was, _ipso facto_, the better
side. But such a judgment is based on numerous fallacies, and can not be
indorsed in the sweeping way it is uttered. Take a concrete example:
"In 1806, Prussia was defeated at the battle of Jena. According to the
philosophy of force, this was because Prussia was 'inferior' and France
was 'superior. ' Suppose we admit for the moment that this was the case.
The selection now represents the survival of the fittest, the selection
which perfects the human species. But what shall we say of the battle of
Leipsic? At Leipsic, in 1813, all the values were reversed; it is now
France which is the 'inferior' nation. . . . Furthermore, a large number of
the same generals and soldiers who took part in the battle of Jena also
took part in the battle of Leipsic. Napoleon belonged, therefore, to a
race which was superior to that of Blucher in 1806, but to an inferior
race in 1813, in spite of the fact that they were the same persons and
had not changed their nationality. As soon as we bring these assertions
to the touchstone of concrete reality we see at once how untenable and
even ridiculous are direct biological comparisons. "[156]
Without going into further detail, it is readily seen that, on the world
at large, the eugenic effect of a war would be very different according
as the sides differ much or little. Yet this difference in quality,
however great, will have no significance, unless the superior or
inferior side is in general more likely to lose fewer men. Where the
difference has been considerable, as between a civilized and savage
nation, it has been seldom that the superior has not triumphed with
fewer losses. Victory, however, is influenced much less in these later
days by the relative military efficiency of two single nations than by
their success in making powerful alliances. But such alignments are by
no means always associated with better quality, because (a) there is a
natural tendency for the weak to unite against a strong nation, (b) to
side with a group which is apparently succeeding, and (c) the alliances
may be the work of one or a few individuals who happen to be in
positions of power at the critical time.
Modern European wars, especially the latest one, have been marked by the
high quality of the combatants on both sides relative to the rest of the
world. As these same races fight with pertinacity, there is a high
mortality rate, so that the dysgenic result of these wars is
particularly deplorable.
As for the selection taking place _within_ each of the struggling
nations, the combatants and the non-combatants of the same age and sex
must first be compared. The difference here depends largely on how the
army in question was raised. Where the army is a permanent, paid force,
it probably does not represent a quality above the average of the
nation, except physically. When it is conscripted, it is superior
physically and probably slightly in other respects. If it is a
volunteer army, its quality depends largely on whether the cause being
fought for is one that appeals merely to the spirit of adventure or one
that appeals to some moral principle. In the latter case, the quality
may be such that the loss of a large part of the army will be peculiarly
damaging to the progress of the race. This situation is more common than
might be supposed, for by skillful diplomacy and journalism a cause
which may be really questionable is presented to the public in a most
idealistic light. But here, again, one can not always apply sweeping
generalizations to individual cases. It might be supposed, for instance,
that in the Confederate army the best eugenic quality was represented by
the volunteers, the second best by those who stayed out until they were
conscripted, and the poorest by the deserters. Yet David Starr Jordan
and Harvey Ernest Jordan, who investigated the case with care, found
that this was hardly true and that, due to the peculiar circumstances,
the deserters were probably not as a class eugenically inferior to the
volunteers. [157] Again some wars, such as that between the United States
and Spain, probably develop a volunteer army made up largely of the
adventurous, the nomadic, and those who have fewer ties; it would be
difficult to demonstrate that they are superior to those who, having
settled positions at home, or family obligations, fail to volunteer. The
greatest damage appears to be done in such wars as those waged by great
European nations, where the whole able-bodied male population is called
out, and only those left at home who are physically or mentally unfit
for fighting--but not, it appears to be thought, unfit to perpetuate the
race.
Even within the army of one side, lethal selection is operative. Those
who are killed are by no means a haphazard sample of the whole army.
Among the victims there is a disproportionate representation of those
with (1) dauntless bravery, (2) recklessness, (3) stupidity. These
qualities merge into each other, yet in their extremes they are widely
different. However, as the nature of warfare changes with the increase
of artillery, mines, bombs, and gases, and decrease of personal combat,
those who fall are more and more chance victims.
In addition to the killed and mortally wounded, there are many deaths
from disease or from wounds which were not necessarily fatal. Probably
the most selective of any of these three agencies is the variable
resistance to disease and infection and the widely varying knowledge and
appreciation of the need for hygienic living shown by the individual,
as, for instance, by less reckless drinking of unsterilized water. But
here, too, in modern warfare, this item is becoming less selective, with
the advance in discipline and in organized sanitation.
The efficiency of selection will be affected by the percentage that each
side has sent to the front, if the combatants are either above or below
the average of the population. A nation that sends all its able-bodied
males forward will be affected differently from its enemy that has
needed to call upon only one-half of its able-bodied men in order to win
its cause.
Away from the fighting lines of the contending sides, conditions that
prevail are rendered more severe in many ways than in times of peace.
Poverty becomes rife, and sanitation and medical treatment are commonly
sacrificed under the strain. During a war, that mitigation of the action
of natural selection which is so common now among civilized nations, is
somewhat less effective than in times of peace. The scourge of typhus in
Serbia is a recent and graphic illustration.
After a war has been concluded, certain new agencies of inter-group
selection arise. The result depends largely on whether the vanquished
have had a superior culture brought to them, as in the case of the
Philippines, or whether, on the contrary, certain diseases have been
introduced, as to the natives of the New World by the Spanish conquerors
and explorers, or crushing tribute has been levied, or grievous
oppression such as has befallen Belgium.
Sometimes the conquerors themselves have suffered severely as the result
of excessive spoliation, which has produced vicious idleness and
luxurious indulgence, with the ultimate effect of diminishing the
birth-rate.
Within the nation there may be various results. Sometimes, by the
reduction of overcrowding, natural selection will be less severe. On the
other hand, the loss of that part of the population which is more
economically productive is a very serious loss, leading to excessive
poverty with increased severity in the action of natural selection, of
which some of the Southern States, during the Reconstruction period,
offer a good illustration.
Selection is also rendered more intense by the heavy burden of taxation,
and in the very common depreciation of currency as is now felt in
Russia.
Sexual selection as well as lethal is affected by war in manifold ways.
Considering the armed force, there is an inter-group selection, when the
enemy's women are assaulted by the soldiers. While this has been an
important factor in the past, it is somewhat less common now, with
better army discipline and higher social ideals.
Within the group, mating at the outset of a war is greatly increased by
many hurried marriages. There is also alleged to be sometimes an
increase of illegitimacy in the neighborhood of training camps. In each
of these instances, these matings do not represent as much maturity of
judgment as there would have been in times of peace, and hence give a
less desirable sexual selection.
In the belligerent nation at home, the number of marriageable males is
of course far less than at ordinary times. It becomes important, then,
to compare the quality of the non-combatants and those combatants who
survive and return home, since their absence during the war period of
course decreases their reproduction as compared with the non-combatants.
The marked excess of women over men, both during the war and after,
necessarily intensifies the selection of women and proportionately
reduces that of men, since relatively fewer men will remain unmated.
This excess of women is found in all classes. Among superiors there are,
in addition, some women who never marry because the war has so reduced
the number of suitors thought eligible.
The five years' war of Paraguay with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina
(1864-1869) is perhaps the most glaring case on record[158] in recent
years of the destruction of the male population of a country. Whole
regiments were made up of boys of 16 or less. At the beginning of the
war the population of Paraguay had been given as 1,337,437. It fell to
221,709 (28,746 men, 106,254 women, 86,079 children); it is even now
probably not more than half of the estimate made at the beginning of the
war. "Here in a small area has occurred a drastic case of racial ravage
without parallel since the time of the Thirty Years' War. " Macedonia,
however, furnishes a fairly close parallel--D. S. Jordan found whole
villages there in 1913 in which not a single man remained: only women
and children. Conditions were not so very much better in parts of the
South at the close of the Civil War, particularly in Virginia and North
Carolina, where probably 40% of the young men of reproductive age died
without issue. And in a few of the Northern states, such as Vermont,
Connecticut and Massachusetts, the loss was proportionately almost as
great. These were probably as good men as any country has produced, and
their loss, with that of their potential offspring, undoubtedly is
causing more far-reaching effects in the subsequent history of the
United States than has ever been realized.
In the past and still among many savage peoples, inter-group selection
has been affected by the stealing of women from the vanquished. The
effect of this has been very different, depending on whether these women
would otherwise have been killed or spared, and also depending on the
relative quality of their nation to that of their conquerors.
To sum up, there are so many features of natural selection, each of
which must be separately weighed and the whole then balanced, that it is
a matter of extensive inquiry to determine whether a certain war has a
preponderance of eugenic or dysgenic results.
When the quality of the combatants is so high, compared with the rest
of the world, as during the Great War, no conceivable eugenic gains from
the war can offset the losses. It is probably well within the facts to
assume that the period of this war represents a decline in inherent
human quality, greater than in any similar length of time in the
previous history of the world.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that war is becoming much less common
if we consider number of combatants rather than number of wars as times
goes on,[159] and it steadily tends to be more destructive. War, then,
offers one of the greatest problems which the eugenist must face, for a
few months of war may undo all that eugenic reforms can gain in a
generation.
The total abolition of war would, of course, be the ideal, but there is
no possibility of this in the near future. The fighting instinct, it
must be remembered, is one of the most primitive and powerful that the
human mechanism contains. It was evolved in great intensity, to give man
supremacy over his environment--for the great "struggle for existence"
is with the environment, not with members of one's own species. Man long
ago conquered the environment so successfully that he has never since
had to exert himself in physical combat in this direction; but the
fighting instinct remained and could not be baulked without causing
uneasiness. Spurred on by a complex set of psychological and economic
stimuli, man took to fighting his own kind, to a degree that no other
species shows.
Now contrary to what the militarist philosophers affirm, this particular
sort of "struggle for existence" is not a necessity to the further
progressive evolution of the race. On the contrary it more frequently
reverses evolution and makes the race go backward, rather than forward.
The struggle for existence which makes the race progress is principally
that of the species with its environment, not that of some members of
the species with others. If the latter struggle could be supplanted by
the former then racial evolution would go ahead steadily without the
continuous reversals that warfare now gives.
William James saw, we believe, the true solution of the problem of
militarism, when he wrote his famous essay on _The Moral Equivalent of
War_. Here is man, full of fighting instinct which will not be baulked.
What is he to do? Professor James suggested that the youth of the nation
be conscripted to fight the environment, thus getting the fight "out of
its system" and rendering a real service to the race by constructive
reclamation work, instead of slaying each other and thus turning the
hands of the evolutionary clock backward.
When education has given everyone the evolutionary and eugenic view of
man as a species adapted to his environment, it may be possible to work
out some such solution as this of James. The only immediate course of
action open seems to be to seek, if possible, to diminish the frequency
of war by subduing nations which start wars and, by the organization of
a League to Enforce Peace; to avoid war-provoking conquests; to diminish
as much as possible the disastrous effects of war when it does come, and
to work for the progress of science and the diffusion of knowledge which
will eventually make possible the greater step, effective international
organization.
CHAPTER XVII
GENEALOGY AND EUGENICS
Scientific plant breeders to-day have learned that their success often
depends on the care with which they study the genealogy of their plants.
Live-stock breeders admit that their profession is on a sure scientific
basis only to the extent that the genealogy of the animals used is
known.
Human genealogy is one of the oldest manifestations of man's
intellectual activity, but until recently it has been subservient to
sentimental purposes, or pursued from historical or legal motives.
Biology has had no place in it.
Genealogy, however, has not altogether escaped the re-examination which
all sciences received after the Darwinian movement revolutionized modern
thought. Numerous ways have been pointed out in which it could be
brought into line with the new way of looking at man and his world. The
field of genealogy has already been invaded at many points by
biologists, seeking the furtherance of their own aims.
It will be worth while to discuss briefly the relations between the
conventional genealogy and eugenics. It may be that genealogy could
become an even more valuable branch of human knowledge than it now is,
if it were more closely aligned with biology. In order to test this
possibility, one must inquire:
(1) What is genealogy?
(2) What does it now attempt to do?
(3) What faults, from the eugenist's standpoint, seem to exist in
present genealogical methods?
(4) What additions should be made to the present methods?
(5) What can be expected of it, after it is revised in accordance with
the ideas of the eugenist?
The answer to the first question, "What is genealogy? " may be brief.
Genealogy may be envisaged from several points. It serves history. It
has a legal function, which is of more consequence abroad than in
America. It has social significance, in bolstering family pride and
creating a feeling of family solidarity--this is perhaps its chief
office in the United States. It has, or can have, biological
significance, and this in two ways: either in relation to pure science
or applied science. In connection with pure science, its function is to
furnish means for getting knowledge of the laws of heredity. In
application, its function is to furnish a knowledge of the inherited
characters of any given individual, in order to make it possible for the
individual to find his place in the world and, in particular, to marry
wisely. It is obvious that the use of genealogy in the applied science
of eugenics is dependent on previous research by geneticists; for
marriage matings which take account of heredity can not be made unless
the mode of inheritance of human traits has previously been discovered.
The historical, social, legal and other aspects of genealogy do not
concern the present discussion. We shall discuss only the biological
aspect; not only because it alone is germane to the present book, but
because we consider it to have by far the greatest true value, accepting
the criterion of value as that which increases the welfare of mankind.
By this criterion, the historical, legal and social aspects of genealogy
will be seen, with a little reflection, to be of secondary importance to
its biological aspect.
(2) Genealogy now is too often looked upon as an end in itself. It would
be recognized as a science of much greater value to the world if it were
considered not an end but a means to a far greater end than it alone can
supply. It has, indeed, been contended, even by such an authority as
Ottokar Lorenz, who is often called the father of modern scientific
genealogy, that a knowledge of his own ancestry will tell each
individual exactly what he himself is. This appears to be the basis of
Lorenz's valuation of genealogy. It is a step in the right direction:
but
(3) The present methods of genealogy are inadequate to support such a
claim. Its methods are still based mainly on the historical, legal and
social functions. A few of the faults of method in genealogy, which the
eugenist most deplores, are:
(a) The information which is of most value is exactly that which
genealogy ordinarily does not furnish. Dates of birth, death and
marriage of an ancestor are of interest, but of limited biological
importance. The facts about that ancestor which vitally concern his
living descendant are the facts of his character, physical and mental;
and these facts are given in very few genealogies.
[Illustration: LINE OF ASCENT THAT CARRIES THE FAMILY NAME
FIG. 40. --In some pedigrees, particularly those dealing with
antiquity, the only part known is the line of ascent which carries the
family name,--what animal breeders call the tail-male. In such cases it
is evident that from the point of view of a geneticist practically
nothing is known. How insignificant any single line of ascent is, by
comparison with the whole ancestry, even for a few generations, is
graphically shown by the above chart. It is assumed in this chart that
no cousin marriages took place. ]
(b) Genealogies are commonly too incomplete to be of real value.
Sometimes they deal only with the direct male line of ascent--the line
that bears the family name, or what animal breeders call the tail-male.
In this case, it is not too much to say that they are nearly devoid of
genuine value. It is customary to imagine that there is some special
virtue inherent in that line of descent which carries the family name.
Some one remarks, for instance, to Mr. Jones that he seems to be fond of
the sea.
"Yes," he replies, "You know the Joneses have been sailors for many
generations. "
But the small contribution of heredity made to an individual by the line
of descent carrying his family name, in comparison with the rest of his
ancestry, may be seen from Fig. 40.
Such incomplete pedigrees are rarely published nowadays, but in studying
historic characters, one frequently finds nothing more than the single
line of ascent in the family name. Fortunately, American genealogies
rarely go to this extreme, unless it be in the earliest generations; but
it is common enough for them to deal only with the direct ancestors of
the individual, omitting all brothers and sisters of those ancestors.
Although this simplifies the work of the genealogist immensely, it
deprives it of value to a corresponding degree.
(c) As the purpose of genealogy in this country has been largely social,
it is to be feared that in too many cases discreditable data have been
tacitly omitted from the records. The anti-social individual, the
feeble-minded, the insane, the alcoholic, the "generally no-count," has
been glossed over. Such a lack of candor is not in accord with the
scientific spirit, and makes one uncertain, in the use of genealogies,
to what extent one is really getting all the facts. There are few
families of any size which have not one such member or more, not many
generations removed. To attempt to conceal the fact is not only
unethical but from the eugenist's point of view, at any rate, it is a
falsification of records that must be regarded with great disapproval.
At present it is hard to say to what extent undesirable traits occur in
the most distinguished families; and it is of great importance that this
should be learned.
Maurice Fishberg contends[160] that many Jewish families are
characterized by extremes,--that in each generation they have produced
more ability and also more disability than would ordinarily be expected.
This seems to be true of some of the more prominent old American
families as well. On the other hand, large families can be found, such
as the remarkable family of New England office-holders described by
Merton T. Goodrich,[161] in which there is a steady production of civic
worth in every generation with almost no mental defectives or gross
physical defectives. In such a family there is a high sustained level.
It is such strains which eugenists wish especially to increase.
In this connection it is again worth noting that a really great man is
rarely found in an ancestry devoid of ability. This was pointed out in
the first chapter, but is certain to strike the genealogist's attention
forcibly. Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as an exception; but more
recent studies of his ancestry have shown that he is not really an
exception; that, as Ida M. Tarbell[162] says, "So far from his later
career being unaccounted for in his origin and early history, it is as
fully accounted for as is the case of any man. " The Lincoln family was
one of the best in America, and while Abraham's own father was an
eccentric person, he was yet a man of considerable force of character,
by no means the "poor white trash" which he is often represented to have
been. The Hanks family, to which the Emancipator's mother belonged, had
also maintained a high level of ability in every generation;
furthermore, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, the parents of Abraham
Lincoln, were first cousins.
The more difficult cases, for the eugenist, are rather to be found in
such ancestries as those of Louis Pasteur and Michael Faraday.
Pasteur[163] might perhaps be justly considered the greatest man France
has ever produced; his father was a non-commissioned soldier who came of
a long line of tanners, while his mother's family had been gardeners for
generations. Faraday, who is worthy to be placed close to Charles
Darwin among eminent Englishmen, was the son of a blacksmith and a
farmer's daughter. Such pedigrees are striking; and yet, as Frederick
Adams Woods has remarked, they ought to strengthen rather than to weaken
one's belief in the force of heredity. When it is considered how rarely
such an ancestry produces a great man, it must be fairly evident that
his greatness is due to an accidental conjunction of favorable traits,
as the modern theory of genetics holds; and that greatness is not due to
the inheritance of acquired characters, on which hypothesis Pasteur and
Faraday would indeed be difficult to explain.
Cases of this sort, even though involving much less famous people, will
be found in almost every genealogy, and add greatly to the interest of
its study, as well as offering valuable data to the professional
geneticist.
(d) Even if the information it furnishes were more complete, human
genealogy would not justify the claims sometimes made for it as a
science, because, to use a biological phrase, "the matings are not
controlled.
