Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10A - DNA Patent Database ...
Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10A - DNA Patent Database ...
Eugenics Record Office. BULLETIN No. 10A - DNA Patent Database ...
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THE SCOPE OF THE COMMITTEE’S WORK. 15<br />
It is hoped that in future censuses data will be secured for measur-<br />
ing the movement of the anti-social varieties of our population. In<br />
applying any program for reducing the supply of defectives it is essen-<br />
tial that such data be constantly at hand, else how can the efficacy of<br />
the agencies applied be judged? It should be possible, at regular<br />
intervals, to construct tables similar to the above for each of the classes<br />
and sub-classes described in Chapter II of this study.<br />
Besides these individuals in institutions at one time constituting<br />
.914 per cent. of our total population, there are several times this num-<br />
ber of persons now living who have never been committed to the State’s<br />
custody, for the population of institutions is constantly shifting. Be-<br />
sides these there are those of equally meagre natural endowments and<br />
equally anti-social in conduct who, due to the caprice of fortune, have<br />
never been taken in custody by the State.<br />
Just above this class there is a great aggregation of the individuals<br />
on the border-line between usefulness and social unfitness, who are so<br />
interwoven in kinship with the still more socially inadequate families<br />
that they are wholly unfitted for parenthood, because they cannot pro-<br />
duce offspring with even mediocre natural endowments. If they mate<br />
with a higher level, they contaminate it; if they mate with the still<br />
lower levels, they bolster them up a little only to aid them to continue<br />
their own unworthy kind. They constitute a breeding stock of social<br />
unfitness.<br />
For the purposes of eugenical study and in working out a policy<br />
of elimination, it seems fair to estimate the anti-social varieties of the<br />
American people at 10 per cent. of the total population; but even this<br />
is arbitrary. <strong>No</strong> matter in what stage of racial progress a people may<br />
be, it will always be desirable in the interests of still further advance-<br />
ment to cut off the lowest levels, and to encourage high fecundity<br />
among the more gifted.<br />
According to the last census (1910) .914 per cent. of the total<br />
population, or 841,244 persons, were inmates of institutions for the<br />
anti-social and the unfortunate classes in the United States. The insti-<br />
tution population is constantly shifting, and the inmates and patients,<br />
as a rule, remain under custodial care but a few years. Of the total<br />
number of living persons, then, a much larger percentage have been<br />
legally committed to the State’s custody after having been duly de-<br />
clared inadequate in one or another phase of the normally expected<br />
social reactions. Besides these persons who have been committed to<br />
institutions, there are many others of equally unworthy personality