Part 36 (1/2)

4. Illicit experiences may have been so disillusioning, owing to the disaffecting nature of the consorts, that an att.i.tude of pessimism and misanthropy or misogyny is built up. Such an att.i.tude prevents marriage not only directly, but also indirectly, since persons with such an outlook are thereby less attractive to the opposite s.e.x.

5. A taste for s.e.xual variety is built up so that the individual is unwilling to commit himself to a monogamous union.

6. Occasionally, threat of blackmail by a jilted paramour prevents marriage by the inability to escape these importunities.

We consider next the relative birth-rate of the married and the incontinent unmarried. There can not be the slightest doubt that this is vastly greater in the case of the married. The unmarried have not only all the incentives of the married to keep down their birth-rate but also the obvious and powerful incentive of concealment as well.

Pa.s.sing to the relative death-rate of the illegitimate and legitimate progeny, the actual data invariably indicate a decided advantage of the legitimately born. The reasons are too obvious to be retailed.

Now, then, knowing that the racial contribution of the s.e.xually moral is greater than that of the s.e.xually immoral, we may compare the quality of the s.e.xually moral and immoral, to get the evolutionary effect.

For this purpose a distinction must be made between the individual who has been chaste till the normal time of marriage and whose s.e.xual life is truly monogamous, and that abnormal group who remain chaste and celibate to an advanced age. These last are not moral in the last a.n.a.lysis, if they have valuable and needed traits and are fertile, because in the long run their failure to reproduce affects adversely the welfare of their group. While the race suffers through the failure of many of these individuals to contribute progeny, probably this does not happen, so far as males are concerned, as much as might be supposed, for such individuals are often innately defective in their instincts or, in the case of disappointed lovers, have a badly proportioned emotional equipment, since it leads them into a position so obviously opposed to race interests.

But, to pa.s.s to the essential comparison, that between the s.e.xually immoral and the s.e.xually moral as limited above, it is necessary first of all to decide whether monogamy is a desirable and presumably permanent feature of human society.

We conclude that it is:

1. Because it is spreading at the expense of polygamy even where not favored by legal interference. The change is most evident in China.

2. In monogamy, s.e.xual selection puts a premium on valuable traits of character, rather than on mere personal beauty or ability to acquire wealth; and

3. The greatest amount of happiness is produced by a monogamous system, since in a polygamous society so many men must remain unmarried and so many women are dissatisfied with having to share their mates with others.

a.s.suming this, then adaptation to the condition of monogamous society represents race progress. Such a race profits if those who do not comply with its conditions make a deficient racial contribution. It follows then that s.e.xual immorality is eugenic in its result for the species and that if all s.e.xual immorality should cease, an important means of race progress might be lost. An ill.u.s.tration is the case of the Negro in America, whose failure to increase more rapidly in number is largely attributable to the widespread sterility resulting from venereal infection.[185] Should venereal diseases be eliminated, that race might be expected to increase in numbers very much faster than the whites.

It may be felt by some that this position would have an immoral effect upon youth if widely accepted. This need not be feared. On the contrary, we believe that one of the most powerful factors in ethical culture is pride due to the consciousness of being one who is fit and worthy.

The traditional view of s.e.xual morality has been to ignore the selectional aspect here discussed and to stress the alleged deterioration of the germ-plasm by the direct action of the toxins of syphilis. The evidence relied upon to demonstrate this action seems to be vitiated by the possibility that there was, instead, a transmitted infection of the progeny. This ”racial poison” action, since it is so highly improbable from a.n.a.logy, can not be credited until it has been demonstrated in cases where the parents have been indubitably cured.

Is it necessary, then, to retain s.e.xual immorality in order to achieve race progress? No, because it is only one of many factors contributing to race progress. Society can mitigate this as well as alcoholism, disease, infant mortality--all powerful selective factors--without harm, provided increased efficiency of other selective factors is ensured, such as the segregation of defectives, more effective s.e.xual selection, a better correlation of income and ability, and a more eugenic distribution of family limitation.

TRADES UNIONISM

A dysgenic feature often found in trades unionism will easily be understood after our discussion of the minimum wage. The union tends to standardize wages; it tends to fix a wage in a given industry, and demand that nearly all workers in that cla.s.sification be paid that wage.

It cannot be denied that some of these workers are much more capable than others. Artificial interference with a more exact adjustment of wages to ability therefore penalizes the better workmen and subsidizes the worse ones. Economic pressure is thereby put on the better men to have fewer children, and with the worse men encourages more children, than would be the case if their incomes more nearly represented their real worth. Payment according to the product, with prizes and bonuses so much opposed by the unions, is more in accord with the principles of eugenics.

PROHIBITION

It was shown in Chapter II that the attempt to ban alcoholic beverages on the ground of direct dysgenic effect is based on dubious evidence.

But the prohibition of the use of liquors, at least those containing more than 5% alcohol, can be defended on indirect eugenic grounds, as well as on the familiar grounds of pathology and economics which are commonly cited.

1. Unless it is present to such a degree as to const.i.tute a neurotic taint, the desire to be stimulated is not of itself necessarily a bad thing. This will be particularly clear if the distribution of the responsiveness to alcoholic stimulus is recalled. Some really valuable strains, marked by this susceptibility, may be eliminated through the death of some individuals from debauchery and the penalization of others in preferential mating; this would be avoided if narcotics were not available.

2. In selection for eugenic improvement, it is desirable not to have to select for too many traits at once. If alcoholism could, through prohibition, be eliminated from consideration, it would just so far simplify the problem of eugenics.

3. Drunkenness interferes with the effectiveness of means for family limitation, so that if his alcoholism is not extreme, the drunkard's family is sometimes larger than it would otherwise be.