Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger
page 116 of 180 (64%)
All of these dangers and menaces are acutely realized by the Eugenists;
it is to them that we are most indebted for the proof that reckless
spawning carries with it the seeds of destruction. But whereas the
Galtonians reveal themselves as unflinching in their investigation and
in their exhibition of fact and diagnoses of symptoms, they do not on
the other hand show much power in suggesting practical and feasible
remedies.

On its scientific side, Eugenics suggests the reestabilishment of
the balance between the fertility of the "fit" and the "unfit." The
birth-rate among the normal and healthier and finer stocks of humanity,
is to be increased by awakening among the "fit" the realization of the
dangers of a lessened birth-rate in proportion to the reckless breeding
among the "unfit." By education, by persuasion, by appeals to racial
ethics and religious motives, the ardent Eugenist hopes to increase the
fertility of the "fit." Professor Pearson thinks that it is especially
necessary to awaken the hardiest stocks to this duty. These stocks,
he says, are to be found chiefly among the skilled artisan class, the
intelligent working class. Here is a fine combination of health and
hardy vigor, of sound body and sound mind.

Professor Pearson and his school of biometrics here ignore or at least
fail to record one of those significant "correlations" which form the
basis of his method. The publications of the Eugenics Laboratory all
tend to show that a high rate of fertility is correlated with extreme
poverty, recklessness, deficiency and delinquency; similarly, that
among the more intelligent, this rate of fertility decreases. But the
scientific Eugenists fail to recognize that this restraint of fecundity
is due to a deliberate foresight and is a conscious effort to
elevate standards of living for the family and the children of the
DigitalOcean Referral Badge