propagation shall immediately be lessened, if not reversed.[1]
The converse reforms; the increasing of the reproduction of the best specimens of the race; depends more largely than might be supposed upon the restriction of the propagation of the unfit. With a lessened pressure of population, eonomic and social situations change radically, and the very individuals who now deem families undesirable will find the possession and care of children to be the maximally desirable thing in life. Others, who cannot afford a family under the economic situation now prevailing, will be able to maintain one without unduly relaxing the standard of living, when the pressure on means of sustenance becomes less.
The first step in the betterment of selection; the spreading of knowledge of preventive measures throughout the whole population; is the difficult one. In addition to the combination of ignorance and class-interest which this reform, like all others, has to combat, the opposition is so susceptible of political manipulation that it is almost impregnably intrenched. It is probable that not even the lessons of the German war will have much
- ↑ Instruction of the negroes alone, with perhaps some institutional assistance of a material kind, would help greatly in the solution of one of the most important of American social problems. There is no doubt that the negroes would welcome the ameliorative measure; certainly the negro women would. Among the poorer white people, the lessening of the present prevalence of abortion would in itself be a valuable result.
