The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-07
REV.. T.M. CROWLEY
 TELLS CATHOLIC
 VIEW OF EUGENICS

number of years ago was stationed in St. Mary's church, East Bridgepor but lately has been in Waterbury and in New London, has written a timely communication to the New London Telegraph on the subject of eugenic marriages, referring to the attitude of the Catholic Church towards this much mooted question: Father Crow ley says in part:
 eff rational human beings are to be treated only as breeding animals then the barn-yard sort of morality might be encouraged and we might have no more delicacy of feeling than we do for the inhabitants of the stock yard which we use for breeding the prize horse or dog or pig.
 Thus there comes the ever recur- ring question-what is man to be bred for? What principle of selec- ton are we going to set up? If we want only a, fine body like that of a prize bull, then we should cultivate only the vegetative functions; if the end of our existence is only the Mo hamn edan heaven all our activities should be directed toward the emo tionaI; if it is merely a Greek ideal that we look for-and this is the model for many eugenists-then let us cultivate both emotions and intellect
 'tBut even the eugenist is not satis- fled with these. He wants something more than the well-informed body and if he really has the interest of the race at heart he wants something more than the wel1-trained intellect, for his experience has taught him that the biggest swindlers and the greatest criminals have often been the men of keen intellect.
 What is the standard of fitness WI e11OQT1iSf would hrRnd A man may be fit for a lawyer, a doc tor or a professional pug. He may be fit for Congress or the 1unatic asy- 1um.
 Says the eugenist, Civic worth is the end in view But what, it may be asked, is civic worth? And again our eugenists have as many answers as there are eugenists. Civic worth, to be of any account, must be also moral worth. But who is going to establish the standards of moral worth? Shall it be that of Nietzshe, the predominant impulse? If so, it will be variable as every wind and wave of human passion. Again it would be subjectst to all the vicissitudes of unstable human reason. to which what is black to-day is tomorrow white. @ Shall it be what each individual thinks? We are now reaping the
 
 that standard. Nor can we rely too much upon the principle of heredity, for we cannot apply the law equally to the eastern and the western; the materialist and the Christian. To me there seems but one standard and that is absolutely supernatural right, reason duly. informed by the divine will That provides a definite pur- pose and indicates a principle of se- lection in racial regeneration that is precise, that is derived from divine revelation, revelation that can De shown to be credible, a revelation that makes for the common brotherhood in Jesus Christ to be treated as Christ would treat theme
 At any rate the eugenist, because of the want of any set purpose, be- cause there are too many differences of opinion as to the standard to be set up, should be very slow in the making of laws where the personal liberty of others is concerned.
 ftFit and unfit are very relative terms and biological research does not warrant in drawing too sweeping conclusions as to the reproduction of fit or unfit
 Referring to the Catholic church the writer says:
 ttShe does not agree with the mod ern eugenist. She attaches as eu- genie value to marriage, but on moral fitness. It is a, rational selection which, while it pertains to animal and psychic wel1-being, is primarily found ed on the supernatural. And so, as matter of negative eugenics, she places irnpediments against undesir- able unions, such as the intermarriag of blood relationships and others which tend to racial degeneration, feeble nindedness and insanity. She does so not merely because of person al and social health, but for the high CT claim of the spirit, reasoning that as the spirit lives by faith, and faith is a habit of the intellect, sound in tellect acts best in a sound body and so helps the faith and the supernatu- ra1 life of man."
 The concluding paragraph of the letter reads as follows:
 ''Eugenists deceived by a fa11acy underlying their fad, work in the wrong direction. They work from the inside out. They work on +77-4 assumption that the man physically and mentally fit is the test man. Est us consult the records of the crimin- al courts of history and the fallacy of their assumption will be ended. What society needs to save it from moral and racial degeneration is the univer- sal realization of the words that Plus x took for the keynote of his pontif- cal reign to restore all things in Christi