The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-08-07
Man LIKE PETUNIA
Only Hope of Race Lies in Care
full Selection.
Luther Burbank Condemns In
discriminate Propagation.
AN ARISTOCRACY OF LUNATICS
DIR. Kellogg of Battle Creek Be-
walls Passing of ApOllOs.
"Eugenics Registry" Urged at
"Betterment" Conference.

San Francisco, Aug. Only by
constant selection of the best can any
race be improved said Luther Bur-
bank. the plant specialist, in an adj
dress today before the second National
Conference on Race Betterment. His
subject was Evolution and Variation
With the Fundamental Purpose of
Sex
Environment and education, alone.
cannot, he said, make appreciable
progress in the Improvement of the
race. But with favorable surroundings
and the selection of the best types,
the field for improvement is limitless-
Mr.. Burbank described the posi-
bilities in plant life of fixing char
acters which benefit the species
through natural selection, giving the
new combinations new abilities to ad-
vance,"
Mating the Best.
Abundant, well balanced nourish
ment and thorough culture of plants
or animals" he said, will always
produce good results in holding any
species or variety up to it's best heredi-
tary possibilities, beyond which it can
not carry them, and lacking which,
maximum development can never be
realized. But sharp lines must al
ways be drawn between the transient
results, temporarily attained through
favorable environment, and the per-
manent results of selection of the best
individuals Tor continuing the race.
What would be the result if all
apple, plum, corn, melon or petunia
seed was indiscriminately planted?
Soon worthless monerelS only, having
no character and no value for any
purpose.
Education Not Enough.
only by constant selection of the
best can any race ever be improved.
No education, no environment of any
nature can ever make any appreciate
progress, even though these same
favorable surroundings may produce
through ages definite but infinitely
slow increment, which by constant
repetition becomes slowly available in
hereditary, but by no means fixed,
so that reproduction true to the bet
ter type can be depended upon.
1T is becoming increasingly neces-
sary to impress the fact that there
are two distinct lines in the improve
ment of any race; one by favorable
environment, which brings individuals
up to their best possibilities; the 9TH
er, ten thousand times more important
and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of the best in
dividualS through series of genera
lions. By this means and by this
only can any race of plants, animals
or man be permanently or radically
When these two lines of ac-
ton are combined, all the best quail
ties of any type are brought forth and
the field for improvement
is limitless.
Wanted: Aristocracy of Perfection.
The world needs a new aristocracy
"a real aristocracy made up of
Apollos and Venuses and their FORUM
ate progeny'-said DR.. J. H. Kellogg
of Battle Creek, Mich, in an address
today on THE Eugenics Registry"
Instead of such an aristocracy,"
DR.. Kellogg continued, 1--WE are act
ually building up an aristocracy of
idiots. paupers and criminals.
These unfit persons already have
reached the proportions of a vast null
titude; 100000 lunatics, $4,000 Grim
mails, 100000 paupers, 10000 idiots,
30, 600 epileptics, and we are support
ing these detectives in id1eness like
real aristocrats, at an expense of one
million dollars a year, and
this mighty host of mental and moral
cripples is increasingly due to unre-
stricted marriage and other degenera-
tive influences at a more rapid rate
than the sounder part of the popula-
ton, so that they are bound in time
to constitute the majority unless some
check is put upon the increase. Every
one of the lunatics possesses the right
to vote even in states where women
are not given the right of franchise
For Eugenics Registry.
DR.. Kellogg proposed a Scheme for
Race Betterment,'' which he thought
should be set in operation as speedily
as possible. This included the estab-
lishment of a healthy registry" on
which should be recorded the results
Of an annual health inspection of in
ed by the state for the purpose; and
of a "eugenics registry to accomplish
in behalf of race hygiene what the
health registry would seek to do for
personal health"
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