South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-09
Science Of Eugenics
Not Yet Developed
by Ebert Hubbard.
Nc &c is an insect.

The bee is an insect.
But in some respects the bee has
more wisdom than man.
At least this is true Of a hive OF
bees.
The combined wisdom OF a hive of
bees can, at will. produce drones
workers or queens.
They have evolved this knowledge
concerning themselves among them
selves.
If bees had been able to apply their
knowledge Of science and art 10 the
development of a better race Of bees,
with them eugenics would long ago
have become a science.
However. the bees that made honey
from the clover that grew on the
sunny slope Of Hymettus, Of whom
Ptndar wrote, were just as evolved
bees as are the bees which will gather
their honey from the clover blossoms
in June, 1915.
Why the bees stopped evolving we
do not know. We can only guess
that il was because no superior being
gave TO them the benefits OF his
knowledge and skill.
Hence they suffer the arrested de-
velopment which gives the bee race
neither youth nor age.
Plants and animals are perfected
through mans scientific knowledge,
coupled with his art in applying this
knowledge.
He has the ability to apply his
knowledge OF what is required to
produce his ideal OF the perfect in
animals.
But man has saved others; him
self he cannot save
The successful breeders OF animals
have used their judgment carefully in
applying natural laws to the develop
ment OF finer plants and dOmesticated
animals.
But men have failed to have even
simple understanding of eugenics.
Possibly this is because they lack
perspective.
Possibly il is because man is now
in stage of metamorphosis, between
instinct and intellectual understand
ing, where neither rules.
In any case, the perfect adjustment
of cells is not yet understood by man.
Man has the ideal. He dreams Of
the superman. He criticizes the de-
hcient and defective. He realizes the
mental, moral and physical incOm-
pleteness of human beings
Degenerates are many.
The superman is not yet.
Sir Francis Cation. in 1884. used
the term "eugenics'' and brought the
subject before the world in a sug-
gestive way.
But the numbers Of difficulties that
stand in the way, confronting
eugenics. are legion.
One is the element OF time required
to grow a man.
Then who knowsiwhat a man is I'M
til he has lived his life? The child
is not father to the man. Certain
tendencies may not develop until
middle age or old age.
In mans experimenting with plants
the element OF sentiment does not
enter.
Luther Burbank burns all plants
that are not superior.
The scientific cattle breeder does
not spend his precious time with any
but surprisingly fine animals.
With the development OF the hu-
man being sentiment plays so great a
part that there is scarcely one feature
OF IL that is not enshrouded in mist
of sentiment, which mist is usually
called a halo.
Sentiment has forbidden us TO in
terfere in the marriage Of old men
with young women. Mental defect
ives, if they insist upon matrimony.
may yet fly to some Gretna Green.
The criminally inclined, the blind,
crippled. deaf, dwarfs. consumptives
all have married.
Some of those who have suffered
from an Inheritance tax Of physical
misery, those who have a perspective
on human beings. some of the hunt
ers after reform TO which they can
enlist their energies have agitated the
subject of eugenics to a point Of in
terest where we have eugenics So
cieties. and also negative eugenics"
The newspaper and magazine read |
ing world is familiar with the terms
Now and then parents are bold
enough to boast that this or that child
is eugenic baby. But these are few,
for humanity is the least understood
by humans, and the most fortunate
parents have troubles of their own.
Some say eugenic children lack
spontaneity, the exuberant joy that is
the natural right OF every animal
a few confess that spirit is not suf- |
iciently developed in man that man
can know the laws OF spirit.
However, no one has denied that
eugenic children have this advantage
which eugenists claim for them: that |
they have physically perfect bodies |
and are healthy and wholesome.
According to Herbert Spencer. this |
is great advantage, for the first |
requisite of being a man is that you |
should be a healthy animal.
So far as human beings are able to |
give to the state healthy citizens. so |
far has eugenics become a science.
But man is something beside a /
physical being or ne is not man.
That something is what we term, |
for lack of understanding and a bet |
ter name. the spirit in man.
IL is spirit which makes one man |
superior to another.
IL is spirit which differentiates one
man from another.
II is spirit which makes a man a |
genius in spite of physical deformity. |
1t is spirit which made men con- |
fused with the jewellers on Olympus. |
IL is the spirit in men which has /
made the saints calendar. and which |
gave us a Washington, a Lincoln
We cannot separate in man spirit /
from body and have man.
And man does not yet know the /
laws OF the soul