"THE ROAD AWAY FROM DESTRUCTION"

"As I watch the American nation speeding, with invincible optimism, down the road to destruction. I seem to be contemplating the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind." So says Professor William, McDougall in the foreword of his book of lectures in which he shows that social stratification is an index of innate moral and intellectual qualifications. This seems to be a time for pointing out lessons; yet it may not be inappropriate to show one very obvious duty which confronts the college graduate today, and that is the duty to help check, if possible, the progress of the nation on "the road to destruction."

How may this be done? According to Professor McDougall, the effect of civilization is to increase the obligations each individual must fulfill, while at the same time it brings about conditions that nullify the principle of the survival of the fittest and therefore make the average individual loss able to fulfill these obligations. This is shown by statistics gathered in many places which indicate that the upper classes do not reproduce nearly so fast as the lower classes. The average Harvard graduate has seven-tenths of a son! Those who can bring into the world individuals better able to enter fully into the complexities of modern civilized life produce few, while where poverty, illiteracy, and unmorality are greatest we find the greatest number of children. Because of this, and because of the protection of the weak provided by charity and medicine, the only increase in population at present comes from the lowest classes. For this very reason we face and appalling situation in which the gaps left in the ranks of the leaders will be left unfilled purely from the lack of anyone to fill them.

Professor McDougall gives facts which show that the children of intelligent parents are of a higher level of intelligence than of parents of a lower order. The college graduate is a supposedly intelligent individual, and therefore a potentially intelligent parent. A good measure of the degree of his intelligence it would seem, will be the use he makes of the knowledge of these facts.