The Ensign. FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1911. BREEDING BETTER MEN.

Mataura Ensign, 27 January 1911, Page 4

The Ensign. FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1911. BREEDING BETTER MEN.

Though there is much that is theoretical in the beliefs, political and social, of Hon. Dr Findlay, it must be admitted that to theory in general practical results often owe the genesis of their being. The Attorney-General's address at Dunedin the other evening dealing with the fertility of the unfit opens up a wide field of thought, especially in the science of racial improvement, called eugenics, the founder of Sir Francis Galton, recently passed away. Naturally the ideal of breeding better men is one the attainment of which is only to be accomplished by a gradual process. The pauper question has been an incubus of Great Britain for the last century, and the same problem bids fair to assume serious proportions in the newer countries. Dealing with the matter, the Eugenics Education Society contends that what shrould be aimed at is to prevent the continuance of pauperism "by detaining the confirmed pauper in the same way as a feeble-minded person and with the same refusal of the normal individual's right to reproduce his kind. No doubt society will have to proceed cautiously in applying these drastic restrictions to undesirables of all sorts. But, just as it would be recognised to be a rank abuse of the conception of liberty to argue that plague or small-pox patients should be allowed free entry into the country without quarantine, we are coming to the pass where it will be recognised to be a parody of the principle of individual rights to leave the proved criminal and pauper the right to pass on his taint into the next generation. Of course, even when the undesirables are prolific they are partly suppressed by natural causes; for instance, the death-rate amongst illegitimate children is very heavy. The criminal is seldom a good father, and the kind of woman that mates with him rarely has the makings of a good mother in her. Perhaps motherhood brings out the best that she is capable of, but that is often far below the normal standard of charJ acter for a woman. In this way Nature does her part in the suppression of undesirables through their defective parental qualities. But modern charity steps in with its efforts to rear every child that is born. Its conception of the sanctity of human life has a very high value indeed. But it needs the support of the wisely-directed effort to prevent the birth of undesirables who will absorb all this tender human affection of charity only to return it with the cynical lazy selfishness of the mendicant bom with a broken spirit. There are still people who believe that the bom criminal or pauper can be educated into a perfect man or woman. This is because fine types have emerged from the pauper ranks. H. M. Stanley, the African explorer, spent a good part of his childhood in a Welsh .workhouse. But the fact that such a man '•merged from the surroundings of dire poverty is really no excuse for our false policy of allowing those who instead of emerging have sunk into a ",-iore confirmed laziness to marry and leget their like, or to do this without marrying. By all means let us increase our efforts to sift out human worth from the entaglements of a cramping poverty, but at the same time let us cake rational steps to prevent the accumulation of moral dross amongst the poor. It is really the hardest part of the lot of the deserving poor that they find themselves compelled to herd with those who arc failures physically and morally ( and to be classed with them. A noble and ideal zeal actuates charitable souls avlio devote themselves to. rescue work among poor children. The hope that cheers them is that of releasing potential human worth from the clutch of a degrading squalor. Some cherish, the delusion that even the squalor can be raised into splendor by the proper social effort. This is where the eugenist's contribution to the principles of charitable effort is of service. The correct policy to go with the rescue of worth from unworthy surroundings is to stop, where possible, the inflow of low-grade human stuff from undesirable sources. The criminal, the lunatic, the idiot, the pauper, | ::nd tneir like, in return for their comfortable support in circumstances where they can do themselves and the community no active harm, must all be called upon to abstain from passing on their defective strain to the next generation. The principal is freely admitted, though laxly administered, in the case of lunatics. It needs extension. At, the present time we are hearing rather too much about the State's duty to the individual. The individual's duty to the State needs emphasising ail round. That duty in the case of nil incompetent dependents upon society is that they shall not use the charity they receive as n means to help them to breed their like to he a similar burden to the future."