Every one will agree that the nation needs more families like that. How can it get them? Galton blazed the way in 1865, when he pointed to selective breeding as the effective means. The animal breeder knows what marvels he can accomplish by this means; but it is not practicable to breed human beings in that direct way. Is there any indirect method of reaching the same ends?
There are, in our opinion, a good many such means, and it is the principal purpose of this book to point them out. The problem of constructive or positive eugenics, naturally divides itself into two parts:
- To secure a sufficient number of marriages of the superior.
- To secure an adequate birth-rate from these marriages.
The problem of securing these two results is a complex one, which must be attacked by a variety of methods. It is necessary that superior people first be made to desire marriage and children; and secondly, that it be economically and otherwise possible for them to carry out this desire.
It may be of interest to know how the Germans are attacking the problem, even though some of their measures may be considered ineffective or inadvisable.