Applied Eugenics

Applied Eugenics, by

Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Applied Eugenics
Author: Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson
Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19560]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images from the Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University)

APPLIED EUGENICS
BY
PAUL POPENOE
EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL OF HEREDITY (ORGAN OF THE AMERICAN GENETIC ASSOCIATION), WASHINGTON, D. C.
AND
ROSWELL HILL JOHNSON PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURG
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK �� BOSTON �� CHICAGO �� DALLAS ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON �� BOMBAY �� CALCUTTA MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO
1918
All rights reserved
COPYRIGHT, 1918,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1918.

PREFACE
The science of eugenics consists of a foundation of biology and a superstructure of sociology. Galton, its founder, emphasized both parts in due proportion. Until recently, however, most sociologists have been either indifferent or hostile to eugenics, and the science has been left for the most part in the hands of biologists, who have naturally worked most on the foundations and neglected the superstructure. Although we are not disposed to minimize the importance of the biological part, we think it desirable that the means of applying the biological principles should be more carefully studied. The reader of this book will, consequently, find only a summary explanation of the mechanism of inheritance. Emphasis has rather been laid on the practical means by which society may encourage the reproduction of superior persons and discourage that of inferiors.
We assume that in general, a eugenically superior or desirable person has, to a greater degree than the average, the germinal basis for the following characteristics: to live past maturity, to reproduce adequately, to live happily and to make contributions to the productivity, happiness, and progress of society. It is desirable to discriminate as much as possible between the possession of the germinal basis and the observed achievement, since the latter consists of the former plus or minus environmental influence. But where the amount of modification is too obscure to be detected, it is advantageous to take the demonstrated achievement as a tentative measure of the germinal basis. The problem of eugenics is to make such legal, social and economic adjustments that (1) a larger proportion of superior persons will have children than at present, (2) that the average number of offspring of each superior person will be greater than at present, (3) that the most inferior persons will have no children, and finally that (4) other inferior persons will have fewer children than now. The science of eugenics is still young and much of its program must be tentative and subject to the test of actual experiment. It is more important that the student acquire the habit of looking at society from a biological as well as a sociological point of view, than that he put his faith in the efficacy of any particular mode of procedure.
The essential points of our eugenics program were laid down by Professor Johnson in an article entitled "Human Evolution and its Control" in the Popular Science Monthly for January, 1910. Considerable parts of the material in the present book have appeared in the Journal of Heredity. Helpful suggestions and criticism have been received from several friends, in particular Sewall Wright and O. E. Baker of the United States Department of Agriculture. PAUL POPENOE.
WASHINGTON, June, 1918.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION BY EDWARD A. ROSS xi
CHAPTER
I.
NATURE OR NURTURE? 1
II. MODIFICATION OF THE GERM-PLASM 25
III. DIFFERENCES AMONG MEN 75
IV. THE INHERITANCE OF MENTAL CAPACITIES 84
V. THE LAWS OF HEREDITY 99
VI. NATURAL SELECTION 116
VII. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE EUGENICS MOVEMENT 147
VIII. DESIRABILITY OF RESTRICTIVE EUGENICS 167
IX. THE DYSGENIC CLASSES 176
X. METHODS OF RESTRICTION 184
XI. THE IMPROVEMENT OF SEXUAL SELECTION 211
XII. INCREASING THE MARRIAGE RATE OF THE SUPERIOR 237
XIII. INCREASE OF THE BIRTH-RATE OF THE SUPERIOR 255
XIV. THE COLOR LINE 280
XV. IMMIGRATION 298
XVI. WAR 318
XVII. GENEALOGY AND EUGENICS 329
XVIII. THE EUGENIC ASPECT OF SOME SPECIFIC REFORMS 352 TAXATION 352 BACK TO THE FARM MOVEMENT 355 DEMOCRACY 360 SOCIALISM 362 CHILD LABOR 368 COMPULSORY EDUCATION 369 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND TRAINING 371 MINIMUM WAGE 374 MOTHER'S PENSIONS 375 HOUSING 376 FEMINISM 378
OLD AGE PENSIONS 384 SEX HYGIENE MOVEMENT 385 TRADES UNIONISM 388 PROHIBITION 389 PEDAGOGICAL CELIBACY 390
XIX. RELIGION AND EUGENICS 393
XX. EUGENICS AND EUTHENICS 402
APPENDIX A. OVARIAN TRANSPLANTATION 419
" B. DYNAMIC EVOLUTION 421
" C. THE "MELTING POT" 424
" D. THE ESSENCE OF MENDELISM 429
" E. USEFUL WORKS OF REFERENCE