The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-08-06
4 HUMAN PEDIGREE BOOK.
Government May Establish Bureau
to Record Brides and BridegrOOmS.


We have splendid new races of
horses, COWS and pigs. Why should
we not have a new and improved
race of men?
A century of breeding and train
ing has added SO per cent. to the
efficiency of the trotting horse. The
same period has seen grave degen-
Grafton of the human race in the
most civilized countries.
A new species of hen has been de-
veloped which lays 800 eggs a year.
The civilized human mother shows a
steady decrease of vitality which it
is painful to consider.
These are a few of the interesting
facts and arguments used by DR.. J..
H. Kellogg in his address on eugenics
before the National Conference on
Race Betterment at Battle Creek.
Mich. DR.. Kellogg virtually plead
ed for a record book. stating the quail
tiles Of human parents and the way
in which these qualities are preserv-
ed, improved or lost from generation
to generation. This idea receives
the strong support of the many scien-
lists who wish to check the alarming
decrease of American vitality and the
degeneration of the human race in
the populous centres of America and
Western Europe.
The human pedigree book would
be known as the Eugenics Registry
Office Every man or woman intend
ing to marry would be able to turn
to the records of the Office and ascer-
tain the pedigree of the life partner
that he or she thinks of taking. This
is just what everybody now does be-
fore buying an expensive horse, dog
or COW.
The suggestion of human pedi-
gree book may shock persons with
petrified taboo" notions concern
ing marriage, but why, argues science
shouldn't We have as good a guaran-
tee with a husband or wife as with
a horse or dog? In time, it is ar
gued, every human being would be
proud to have his or her pedigree en-
tered in the book.
The idea that the human race is
degenerating is naturally unpopular
with human beings, but it is strong
ly supported by science. The evil
dences of improvement in material
comfort and scientific knowledge are
so numerous that we imagine we are
progressing in every direction. AS
a matter of fact, proof is accumulat-
ing that the human race in the most
civilized countries is deteriorating.
The fact that the average length of
human life has more than doubled
in the last 200 years has been accept
ed as showing that the vital stamina
of the race is improving. We have
now every reason to believe that this
apparent gain in longevity is due
to the saving of many feeble lives in
infancy, while the length of life of
mature persons is decreasing, indi-
eating that the vitality of the race
is really failing.
DR.. Charles H. Ward, at the ses-
sion of the American Dental asso-
citation said that human teeth were
degenerating. The evolutionists pro-
phetic visions of the coming man as a
bespectacled, bald-headed and eden
tulous individual of infantile proper
tions, but bulging head, appeared to
him not improbable. ---r
DR.. Scott Nearing, professor of eco
nomics in the University of Penn
sylvania, states that the native-born
population Of the United States in
the year 1sO0-was doubling itself ev-
cry 25 years. The continuance OF
the ratio would have made the native
born population 1OO,O00,O00 in 1900
and s00,O0O,OO0 by the year 1000.
AS a matter of fact, the native-born
population in 1900 was only 4i,00o,-
900. 1t has been. demonstrated that
at the present rate Of decrease the
birth rate will cease within century,
and the American nation will no Ion
ger exist.