Evening star., 1938-12-30
Families
Continued From First Page.)

are not original or immutable, and
there seems no good reason to sup
pose that they are beyond treat
ment"
DR.. Swanton conceded that there
might be some advantage in elimi-
mating certain apparently very bad
human genetic strains but, he said
"eugenic theory has been made the
starting point for all sorts of fam
tastic attempts at race betterment
and genetic determination as far re-
moved from scientific sanity as can
we'll be imagined. In particular
there is variety of eugenics abroad
which believes that virtue consists
in the production of human beings
of a particular racial type"
The great pioneers of civilization
he said, all belonged to the swarthy
races. and. IF Negroes are not rep
resented among them, neither are
Nordics, and both are probably alb
sent for the same reason, because
they are side branches Of the human
family and removed farther from
the cultural centers."
Capitalization Not Civilizing.
Advances in civilization seem to
have had little relation to the forms
of government, he declared. While
advocates of a stable central govern
ment combining all related peoples
in particular area have some sup
port, he said, in Victorian England,
18th century Spain and Augustan
Rome, they are confronted with the
precisely opposite examples of
Greece, Renaissance Italy and the
Germany of Goethe and Schiller.
with few exceptions" he declared,
"the high spots of intellectual pro-
ductivity have been reached in coun-
tries divided into small, competing
states"
Regeneration for the care of the
underprivileged, he said, has existed
as long as the human race and
reaches high point in primitive So
cieties where division of food is en-
forced by social pressure without the
need for any executive authority
These societies are under a dictator
ship of laws rather than men, in
contrast to the regin1enting policies
OF modern states. The natural
course of such a dictatorship, he
pointed out, is toward a destructive
war, although this is seldom actually
desired by the dictators.
Il am not an advocate of passive
resistance in the face of aggression u
he declared, but that does not pre-
vent me from regarding the entire
war institution, as such, as a total
loss to humanity. It is considered
by some an instrument for the ad-
vancement of mankind. I shall be
prepared to accept that belief when
it is shown that cancer has a per-
fecting influence on the human
organism and that fleas evolve the
dog"
Baby Production Hit.
DR.. SWanton scored mass pro-
duction of infants which can be in
tended only to aggrandize the power
OF the state and fill the ranks Of Its
armies. 1t is very doubtful, how
ever, whether high-pressure methods
Of creating cannon fodder will sue
ceed. No device has yet been found
for the raising of more efficient chill
dren apart from family control and
guidance. 1t is probable that each
family has an optimum level for the
rearing of offspring, some function
ing best with one. ssome with two
some with several, and some per-
forming their greatest uses to So
ciety without offspring. 1t is not a
question of economic but of psyche
logical and affectional adequacy. II
government simply removes the en-
vironmental limitations to the proper
functioning of a family, well and
good, but when it goes beyond that
1t may overburden efficient parents