The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-21
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 THE PROPHETS or EVIL.
 Those dismal pessimists who are ai- ways telling us that the human race is growing worse-going downward and backward all the time, would make this world very unpleasant place to live in if they were in the majority. We have been told that Darwin once ex- pressed himself very gloomiiy on the future of humanity, but that is not sur prising. As he believed that man came up through insects, fowls. fishes and an- imais to his present stage. perhaps 1t was only natural for him to think that In the course of time we would all go back to the starting point and thus wind up the business. He may have been correct, so far as any proof can be adduced, but If he was, we have the consolation of knowing that the--epd may be some millions of years in the future, so we are not immediately tn- terested.
 But there are other and later croak- CTS than Darwin. They may not be- lieve and teach that we are going back to the original germ of life but they profess to be awfully discouraged about the man and woman of today. There's one Shaw, for example, who is sci- enlist. so-called, and who would have us believe that the human race as it now exists Is composed of very inferior material, and that instead of getting better it Is getting worse. His remedy is to lay aside everything in the shape of sentiment and go to work by breed ing and selection to improve the race, just as a stock breeder improves his horses and cattle, or as Burbank im- proves plants. We don't know what would be the result. but we do know that those who undertake the job will not have a picnic.
 The same may be said of Galton, who takes practically the same view that Shaw does. What he wants is to have laws Co restrict and regulate marriage, so that none but superior men and wo- men would produce children. and thus we would eventually be rid of what some of them sneeringly call the poor stuff" that now dominates humanity. We believe they call their new science "eusenics," which in it's original mean ing has something to do with stock breeding or something of the kind. No matter what the word means, or what derived from, we think we see them carrying into practice all over this big round earth of ours their plans and dreams.
 What is the need or the ground for all this gloomy view of the future, and this worry about making the human race better? There are bad people on earth, we admit. but a somewhat ex- tensive reading of history fails to bring to mind any period of recorded time when all the men and women were good. There are weddings now, as there have always been and will al- ways be, unless all mankind adopts the plan of killing all the children who are not perfect, mentally and physically. That would be a serious and endless job. and those who would undertake to carry out the plan wouldn't find 1t an easy task.
 We really see no occasion for sal this bother about the alleged decadence of humanity. The average of human life is considerably longer than it was two or three centuries ago, In spite of over population, new diseases and all the other unfavorable conditions which might be expected to shorten the span of our existence. There are men and women of powerful intellects. as there have ever been in all civilized coun- tries. There are criminals of all grades but 1t does not require an extensive reading of history to show that crim- inality is no new thing. We do not apprehend any danger of all human beings becoming perverts, just as we do not fear that we will all go back to the Darwinian starting point. In short, this Is a pretty good old world and would be better if there was less growing and more effort at human bet terment-not by eugenics, natural se- lection or by the killing off of all the weddings. There are so many rational and intelligent methods by which hu- manity can be made better and happier that we have no patience with the rad icals who wish to violate all human laws, nor with the pessimists who go about the world without being able to see any good in 1t. We prefer Demo- critus to HeraeIitus.
 
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