The Eugenic Marriage, Volume I. | Page 8

combat or deplore the evils of the past.
Civilization has failed in the task of race-maintenance; it failed,
however, in ignorance. We cannot plead the same excuse. We are face
to face with conditions that we must solve quickly or our destiny will
be decreed before we apply the remedy.
A function of the eugenist is to gather and attest statistics, and to
establish conclusions based on these statistics. It has been conclusively
demonstrated that, if the race continues to progress as it exists
now--that is, if conditions remain the same, and our standard of
enlightenment, so far as racial evolution is concerned, does not prompt
us to adopt new constructive measures--every second child born in this
country, in fifty years, will be unfit; and, in one hundred years, the
American race will have ceased to exist. We mean by this that every
second child born will be born to die in infancy, or, if it lives, will be
incapable of self-support during its life, because either of mental
degeneracy or physical inefficiency. This appalling situation
immediately becomes a problem of civilization. No state can exist
under these conditions. If these statistics are reliable--and we know
they are true and capable of verification by any individual who will go
to the trouble of [xxi] investigating them--it is self-evident that a
radical change must immediately be instituted to obviate the logical
consequences that must follow as a sequence. The eugenic demand,
that "every child born shall be a worthy child," is, therefore, the
solution of the problem.
This does not imply, however, that the eugenist must solve the
elementary problem of how the state will ensure its own salvation by
guaranteeing worthy children. Worthy children can come only from fit
and worthy (clean and healthy) parents. It becomes the imperative

function of the state--the function on which the very life of the state
depends--to see that every applicant for marriage is possessed of the
qualities that will ensure healthy, worthy children. We must, therefore,
sooner or later devise a system of scientific regulation of marriage, and
it is at this point we stumble against the problem that has prompted the
ebullitions of the wit and the sarcasm of the critic. A casual reference to
the science immediately suggests to the layman an impossible or
quixotic system of marriage by force. Even the word "eugenics" is
associated in the minds of many otherwise estimable old ladies, and
others who should know better, with a species of malodorous free love,
and their hands go up in holy horror at the intimation of a scientific
regulation of this ancient function.
Unfortunately, the popular mind has received the impression that this
incident constitutes the sum total of the eugenic idea, while the truth is
that the eugenist is only slightly concerned with its modus operandi.
This feature has been so magnified by widely published disingenuous
discussion that it has assumed the aspect of a test problem, a judgment
on which shall decide the utility of the science itself. Should this
decision be unfavorable, it would seem, according to its exponents, that
it would not be worth while promulgating the doctrines of the science
beyond this point. It is as though we were asked to deny ourselves the
inspiration and pleasure of a trip abroad because the morning of the day
on which the ship sailed happened to be cloudy.
It is certainly no part of the function of the eugenist to uproot [xxii]
instinct, or to trample into the dust age-long rights, though the instinct
is simply the product of an established habit, based on an erroneous
hypothesis, and the so-called rights simply acquired privileges, because
the intelligence that would have builded differently was not awakened.
Eugenic necessity will render imperative the state's solution of this
fundamental problem, for the reason that civilization will be driven to
demand its just inheritance--the right to exist. The eugenist will not be
compelled to open the door; it will be opened for him. We can afford,
therefore, to wait with supreme confidence, because the good sense of
the people will not always submit to the tactics of the jester when it
needs a saviour.

The eugenist does not seek to interfere with the liberties of the rising
generation: a boy may choose whom he will; the girl may select the one
who appeals to her most, and they may enjoy all the vested rights and
romance that custom has decreed the lover; but, when they resolve to
marry, the state must decide their qualifications for parenthood. This
must be the crucial test of the future. The life of the state depends on it.
The continuance of the race must be the supreme object of all future
constructive legislation. We must recognize that "life is the only
wealth," and that every