Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-21
WHAT EUGENISTS SEEK
BY HERBERT COREY.
No. q.


To the lay mind scientific eugenics
seems to be founded upon the blacklist
pessimtsm. Perhaps scientists see more
clearly than the rest Of us-though they
do not all see alike, or get the same con-
illusions from the same facts. Some Of
them are sure we are going to the apes
very fast. Death and degeneration and
insanity and gibbering idiocy seems to be
the only possible end for the human race,
they think-unless something Is done at
once to check our sliding tendencies. Per
haps the most disheartening revelation
is that we are no stronger or more capa-
Bile mentally or vigorous morally than our
forefathers were in the days when they
dressed in blue pigment-a pen-and-ink
sketch.
I'VE speak with pride of the advance
of human civilization says DR.. Metcalf,
land that blinds us to the fact that since
the dawn of history there has been no
clearly recognizable evolution of man
kind We reach larger results in the
problems of life than did our progenitors
5000 years ago. because we build upon
the experience OF the generations be-
tween."
Sees Little Improvement.
Other scientists swell this Respondent
chorus. Prof Ray Lancaster sounded
the keynote in 1892. when he wrote that
compared with the forefathers of our
civilization, the ancient Greeks, we do
not appear to have improved so far as
our bodily structure is concerned. and
assuredly not SO far as some of our men
tai capacities are concerned
DR.. J. Fl. Kellogg declares that "the
human race is dying Rev. Newell
Dwight Hills is quoted as declaring that
within 400 years we shall all be insane
The superintendent of the asylum at Aus
tin, Tex. in an official report published
some years ago, held that the insane in
this state may soon outnumber the sane
lie Jocularly added that in that event the
insane might turn themselves out of the
asylums and put the sane in
Per Cent Unfit for Percentage.
Ii. l.. Laughlin of the Cold Spring Har--
Dor Eugenics Record Office learns from
the thirteenth census that there are 914.1
inmates of institutions of various sorts
TO the 100000 of population in this coun-
try. or almost per cent. He has recently
declared that 10 per cent of us are SO far
'anti-social'' as to be unfit for parentage.
e. E. Rittenhouse. president OF the re-
Gently formed Life Extension Institute,
of which former President Taft is an
active member. in a recent paper said
that 10 per cent of the 10000 600 school
children in the United States are more
Ann Arbor. who specifically declares he
Is not an alarmist. says: THE American
people are threatened with a spread of
mental and moral degeneracy through
the multiplication of the unfit"
DR.. Gertrude Hall says that "only one
half OF the dependent children we have
examined and tested in New York state
are up to normal standard" Cancer is
killing 5000 annually in the United
States and 100000 die from tuberculosis
not to speak Of the other chronic dts
eases. some Of which, on the authority of
statisticians, have doubled their mortal
ity rate in thirty years.
Physical Condition Degenerates.
Reports show that in certain parts of
England, Scotland and Ireland the physi-
cal condition of the Inhabitants has de-
generated On the moral side we are get
ting no better fast-and we're a little
worse here than our neighbors. Ritten-
house. who is an authority. says that
1900 murders are committed in the
United States annually and an average OF
116 murderers arc executed.
1--WE have the appalling homicide REQ
ord of over 100 per million Of population,
against in Canada, 9 in Great Britain
and 10 in Italy," The birth rate Is de-
clining and the span Of life shortening.
About $1,000 men and women commit
suicide in this country each year. KEEL
logg says that the daily average dose
Of poison-alcohol, nicotine. caffeine and
opium-is 1858 grains Our eyes and ears
and teeth are going back on US. Over ID
per cent of the rapidly Increasing num-
Der Of insane are paretic because of
syphilis, 1.-The ulcer which IL eating into
modern civilization The whole racial
situation, as viewed by the scientists, re-
calls one Of Booker Washingtons stories.
He met an old colored woman one day.
Where you goin'. Aunt Cailine?" he
asked. ..,
''Lawd bless you. Hnsteh Washington"
said Aunt Caroline. els done been where
rs gwine.''