Evening star., 1939-03-19

IN families, but even for such qualities
the exact laws remain to be worked ont
Certain pathological human conditions
are hereditary, such as the bleeding
disease Of male scions of the Bourbons.
Ihere is probably-but not certainly
an hereditary factor in some types Of
cancer. Even so. what of it? It Is 50
generally distributed in the human race,
one OF Americas leading geneticists said
a lew months ago, that very likely the
race will be extinct anyway before this
factor can be bred out Of it, even assum-
Ing that there is absolute control of
mating
NOW, as for the more important quail
ties OF mind and spirit. There is evil
dence, not altogether satisfactory because
OF the paucity of observations, of one or
more hereditary factors in insanity re-
suItlng in general weakness of the
nervous system which tends to give way
IN various directions under the pressure
OF an adverse environment. One would
not predict much for the descendants
OF pair OF schizophrenics and any WELL
meaning person would try to persuade
them not to marry. But very likely, for
the race as a whole, this insanity factor
is as widely distributed as the cancer
factor and would be as difficult to elini-
nate.
Faith in Good Qualities.
And somehow or other man has faith
that the qualities he prizes most today
intelligence. courage, honesty. loyalty
Will be the qualities which will have the
highest value in the world of tomorrow.
Perhaps it may not be so. Perhaps the
social environment of the future will be
one in which stupidity will have high
survival value and intelligence will mean
death. Perhaps ten or a thousand gen.
erations hence those who have inherited
If there be any such heredity-the
qualities of character which distinguish
scoundrels will be most in accord with
nature. But man hopes not and has
faith.
The American Eugenics Society Is
conservative in its claims
Scientific knowledge of man as q
biological and social animal has devel-
oped slowly it admits Studies which
have to do with man were hardly COM
mencing at time when the physical
and chemical sciences were far advanced
and has already revolutionized the rela-
ton OF man to his environment.
But there are three human types
whom 1t Is now possible to classify as
probable carriers of important heredi-
tary qualities which they will pass on
to varying proportion of their off,
spring. They are the hereditary de-
fectives. borderline cases, and possibly
persons of marked ability. An effective
but limited program of eugenics can be
built around these three types. Among
the rest, the normal people, some are
above and some below the general aver
age in desirable hereditary capacities.
The individuals in this majority group
cannot now be sealed according to their
hereditary capacities. The relative in
fuences Of heredity and environment are
too hard to disentangle. Yet if the in
dividuals of superior heredity have fewer
average of hereditary capacities. the dis
tribution of births in this major group
would be dysgenic.
No Easy Road at End.
There Is no easy road to such an end.
The larger program of eugenics cannot
logically be based on social class or
economic or racial distinctions. Science
gives us little evidence as to the extent
to which the principal social or occu-
pational groups differ in their average
capacity for intelligence. Whatever diff
ferences there are in the average of
the hereditary capacities in different
socio-economic or regional or racial
groups in the United States. such differ
ences are less than the differences in
hereditary capacity known to exist be-
tween individuals within the same group.
"Eugenics should therefore be con-
cerned chiefly with individual differ
ences. A program of eugenics based
on individual differences would, on first
consideration, seem more difficult to put
into operation than program based
OlA C4doS u1AACICIlCcS. 0uL n pIO&TdIN
based on individual differences should
not only be more effective, it should
also be more acceptable to public opin-
ion, and, therefore, more practical. It
would sort out individual values within
every class. At the same time, If it
were actually the case that any par
ticular group of people contained an un-
usual proportion of valuable individuals,
the result of an effective system Of
individual selection would be to favor
the increase of an unusually large pro-
portion of individuals in that group,
but not in any sense of group disscrimi-
nation. Individual selection is not only
required by such scientific knowledge
as Is now available, but is the only kind
of selection which is acceptable in a
democratic country. Methods of selec-
ton which favored one socio- economic
or racial group as against another would
involve many individual injustices and
would be the proper target Of attack n