Eugenics in race and state.

  • International Congress of Eugenics
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Eugenics in race and state. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    441/534 (page 425)
    THE NATURE-NURTURE ISSUE 425 remain in the path of achievement an obstacle which would balk the attain¬ ment of any purpose however laudable. Given a definite aim—such as the stamping out of monopolistic industry, or the reform of legal procedure— no people living imder popular government has ever been educated to per¬ ceive the necessity of adopting a scientific technique in converting its purpose from an ideal into a reality. Yet nothing is so easy as to define an ideal in terms of your desire: nothing so difficult as to devise a plan which wiU give it practical effect. The problems of modern government are the same the world over. There is no aim which has not been the subject of experiment in a score of countries. But no popular government has ever been called upon by its citizens to establish for the accumulation of the records of all these experiments, a central depository, equipped with a highly expert analytical staff competent to present a clear statement of the methods followed and of the results ob¬ tained in the efforts made by all governments to give effect to the will of the people. We have demanded in every other field of human activity the develop¬ ment of a highly skilled professional technique; we have been content to leave the whole range of the constructive activities of government to a technique which, had it been imposed upon the other arts and sciences, would have condemned mankind to remain for ever in the stone age. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the brief sketch I have made of the present state of government raises a question which may very properly be laid be¬ fore this Congress. A government of the people by the people can reflect, as well in relation to its methods as to its aims, only those qualities which belong to the individual citizen. Since, however, every State is composed of citizens amongst whom mortality and intelligence are very unevenly distributed, it is of the highest consequence that we should know by what forces the moral and intellectual qualities of the individual citizen are determined. Two hypotheses are in the field; one, that in the main we derive our quali¬ ties from our progenitors, by gametic transmission; the other that in the main we derive them from influences to which we are subjected after we are born into the world. Popular opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of the latter view; scientific judgment is overwhelmingly in favor of the former. It is clear that since government derives its qualities from the qualities of the voters, no undertaking connected with the study of government can be more vital to the success of popular rule than to determine conclu¬ sively the source from which the voter derives the qualities which he imparts to government.