Questions of maternity among the poor: (a) Hard labour must be forbidden to the expectant mother; (b) she must have nourishing food; (c) surroundings must be wholesome. The economic problem is solved in the increased vitality and consequent earning power of the coming generation.
Problem of the parenthood of the better classes: just as important and more difficult. The question is not only vital and economic; it is also ethical.
The ignorance of parents and the defects of children. The State has invaded the home, and has set standards, both physical and moral, for the family. It is the duty of the State to secure the proper physical environment for the home. It is a municipal problem. It is a problem of public health. The whole movement looks to the triumph of a vital democracy, which is more important than either political or industrial democracy.
Relations of alcoholism to neurasthenia, of tuberculosis to feeble-mindedness, of bad social and labour conditions to both, indicate cross sections in the problem. Vices of the rich in most countries are greater than the vices of the poor. A vital democracy cannot be based upon physical tests and material comfort. Its deepest foundations are psychical and ethical.
[PRACTICABLE EUGENICS IN EDUCATION.]
(Abstract.)
By Dr. F. C. S. Schiller.
The danger to mankind arising from the preservation of the unfit under social conditions. The self-destructiveness of civilization. Its superiority dependent on the transmission of accumulated knowledge by education. The danger of failure in educational systems. Is the education of the rich necessarily a failure? The middle classes as providers of ability to man the professions; but the price they have to pay at present is too often racial extinction. The draining of ability from the lower classes.