Karl Pearson in the following forcible words: 1 “This is a much more serious result than might appear at first sight. The upper middle class is the backbone of a nation, it depends upon it for its thinkers, leaders, and organizers. This class is not a mushroom growth, but the result of a long process of selecting the intellectually abler and fitter members of society; roughly speaking, its members marry within the caste, and they form opinion and think for a nation. We want every possible ladder for attracting to that class able members of the hand-working classes; but with very considerable experience of those who have climbed such ladders, and some of them are brilliant men, or were brilliant lads at least, I am prepared to maintain that the middle classes (owing to their long period of selection and selective mating) produce relatively to the working classes a vastly greater proportion of ability; it is not the want of education, it is the want of stock which is at the basis of this difference. A healthy society would have its maximum fertility in this class, and recruit the artisan class from the middle class, rather than vice versa. But what do we actually find? A growing decrease in the birth rate of the middle classes; a strong movement for restraint of fertility, and limitation of the family, touching only the intellectual classes and the aristocracy of the hand workers! Restraint and limitation may be most social if they begin in the first place to check the fertility of the unfit; but if they start at the wrong end of society they are worse than useless, they are nationally disastrous in their effects. The dearth of ability at a time of crisis is the worst ill that can happen to a people. Sitting quietly at home without external struggle, a nation may degenerate and collapse, simply because it has given full play to genetic selection and not bred from its best.”

The Eugenic Ideal. Before discussing measures for improving the character of the population, it would be well to consider what would be the most desirable rates of multiplication of the different classes and to decide upon some rational goal of endeavor. In a previous chapter it was said that if the total population were arranged according to economic status the form would correspond roughly to an inverted top. Population arranged according to rates of multiplication of different classes would vary only slightly from this figure. If the available statistics for comparative fertility given by Bertillon, Stevenson, and March are combined and plotted it will be found that rates of reproduction may be represented by a pear-shaped figure, as shown in the diagram.

The slight variation in this curve over the population curve is significant as showing an unnatural restriction of fertility in the ranks of the middle class. Such a rate of multiplication is evidently not the most favorable for the next generation, but just what the desirable rate would be is not so obvious. The enthusiastic eugenist is likely to rush to the conclusion that the reverse situation represents the ideal, the inverted top should be replaced by the upright top, the highest rate of reproduction coming from the superior classes with a steady diminution of fecundity to the lowest class where reproduction should cease with the subnormal. Such an ideal, however, is probably impracticable. It indicates an undue solicitude for the interests of future generations and relative indifference to the welfare of the present. Such an important problem as that of the composition of the population calls for consideration of the interests of society as a whole; and the solution requires a delicate balance between present and future well-being.

It seems evident that restrictions upon the multiplication of the defective and dependent classes would be advantageous both to the present and to future generations, and therefore it can at least be assumed that the ideal calls for a diminishing rate of reproduction among the subnormal. A more doubtful point concerns the rate of multiplication of superiors; but a broad consideration of all the factors involved seems to show that it is both impossible and undesirable for the superior classes to multiply at the highest rate. In the first place it is probable that the mentally superior classes are less fertile than the average of the population. In this connection it is interesting to note that Pearson found for stable races, " that there is a strong tendency for the character of maximum fertility to become one with the character which is the type.” The type of a species tends to be preserved through its greater reproductive capacity, individuals departing farthest from the type being least fertile. Of course the degree to which this principle is applicable to the human species is questionable; but it is probable that, notwithstanding certain individual cases, the human race as a whole is no exception to the rule. Wide departures from the average both physically and mentally probably show diminishing fertility. Therefore geniuses, and perhaps also men of high talent, cannot be expected from physiological reasons to multiply so rapidly as the average. And in the second place, for social reasons it is not desirable that the mentally superior should multiply rapidly. There is a social as well as a physiological opposition between individuation and generation. If intellectual superiors are to do their best work for society they require long preparatory periods and they must expend much nervous energy, all of which is inconsistent with the care of large families. Geniuses are social achievements, and society has a right to their products, which should be regarded as ends in themselves. In so far as family cares and responsibilities interfere with the work of superiors the work should be preferred, for it is safe to say that society has profited more from the products than from the progeny of men of genius. To use the ablest individuals primarily for reproduction would interfere with achievement. And then what

. would become of progress? Here is merely another phase of the problem of the balance between spending and saving. Extreme saving of racial energy would mean sacrificing the present to the future, and the subordinating of ends to means. All these considerations do not imply, however, that the intellectual élite should have no offspring but merely that they cannot be expected to reproduce at a high rate. Small families among the intellectually superior classes is the normal thing, and to try to increase their size should not be a part of the eugenic program. Furthermore small families among the superiors do not mean so great a racial loss as might be supposed. Children who inherit their parents' variations from the average, sometimes lack the balance that was an element in the genius of their parents and become insane. The average offspring of superiors, it must be remembered, are less remarkable than their parents, though they are more able than the average of the population. Most of the superiors are not produced by direct inheritance from superior parents, but are normal variations from parents on the average less able than themselves.

A problem of an entirely different nature concerns that part of the population next below those of the highest ability, - the upper stratum of the middle class. The causes of the low rate of multiplication in their case are largely social and economic; but the nature of their work itself is not such as to necessitate very small families. A proper balance between the needs of the present generation and the next would permit a fairly high rate of reproduction. Moreover this class is socially and racially of very high value. Its work is of a type above that which the average in society is capable of performing, and the superior variations among its offspring become our ablest leaders. The present low rate of reproduction in this class seems to be the result of exceptional, and perhaps pathological, conditions. The chief aim of eugenics on the positive side should be to encourage reproduction in the upper middle class.

The conclusion reached from this consideration of the composition and functions of the various classes in society is that the ideal rates of reproduction of social classes should conform closely to the normal curve of variation. The average in the population, probably represented by the artisan class and small trades people, should multiply the most rapidly. They compose the wholesome, intelligent mass of the population; and the care of a considerable family would not be inconsistent with their work in society. The less intelligent and less efficient class below them should multiply at a slower rate and the propagation of the subnormal should cease entirely. Of the population above the average, salaried employees and others in the higher positions of industry and commerce might, so far as the interests of the race are concerned, advantageously reproduce at a rate similar to the average of the population; but, inasmuch as it takes time for them to work up to paying positions, marriage will be deferred and their families will therefore normally be smaller than the average; and professional and business men who require long periods of training will multiply at a still lower rate, though the rate may advantageously be higher than it is now. These classes should at least reproduce themselves. Men of the very highest ability and variants known as geniuses will reproduce at very diverse rates; but the average will be low. This low rate is natural and should not cause society grave concern, nor should it be a matter for social interference.

A normal curve of variation, such as that given in the diagram, might represent both the ideal distribution of the total population and their relative rates of reproduction in a stationary society. In a progressive society the ideal distribution of the total population might better be represented by a skew curve, the bulge being above the axis of the mean. This increase among the superiors would not result from a higher birth rate, but would represent the tendency of the best among the lower classes to work up to higher social levels. The skewness would represent the struggle towards higher levels in a mobile society and the final attainment of a higher average of excellence.

Methods for the Restraint of the Unfit. The limitation of the multiplication of the unfit would seem so obviously advantageous both to society as a whole and to the degenerate classes themselves, that the discussion here will deal with the possibility rather than the desirability of restriction. The method most