seem to indicate that we were born into life with certain primeval inherit-
ances which we were entitled to enjoy in a mortal state. Let us take a
case for the advocates of a strict law of heredity: a good man marries a
good wife; they have good children, and their children's children are good;
and by superior efforts and improved environments they continue, as gen-
erations go on,. to grow into perfect conditions. These people, having good
children who create good environments, escape the burdens, cares, anxieties
and sorrows of those who have born to them children who become way-
ward. The good, who are able to carry a great burden, teach and practice
in the highest degree the law of correct living, and have little responsibility
as compared with those who are less qualified to assume the heavier bur-
dens of life. We should thus be compelled to reverse the teachings of
Christ, "Where much is given, much is expected," and we should fly in
the face of all social progress.

Illustrations. The doctrine of our primeval existence is fundamentally
one of religious belief. We believe 'that we were first created spiritually,
that we were literally, in our spiritual creation, the "sons and daughters of
God," that among those sons and daughters were Jesus Christ and Lucifer,
who were the very antipodes of each other. How would a believer in the
law of heredity explain from the standpoint of a pre-spiritual existence, the
differences between Christ and Satan? An eminent writer, Samuel George
Smith, in his book on Social Pathology, says:

"Children born of the same parents, reared under precisely the
same circumstances, differ very widely in character and conduct, so
that heredity and environment combined seem unequal to the task
of a complete explanation of the history of the individual. There is
no doubt that heredity and environment is each influential in forming
the individual, but in heredity there is as much room for variation as
there are numbers in the group considered, and in environment there
are such changing elements that no two individuals ever have pre-
cisely the same influences. There is a variant of organization which
makes each individual of the human race absolutely unique, and
without going into the metaphysics of personal choice or desire, there



74 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE

is an unmeasured and probably unmeasureable, variant in the attitude
of every individual toward his opportunity. The problems are not
easy of solution."

There is much force in the statement that "There is a variant of organi-
zation which makes each individual of the human race absolutely unique."
Such a statement goes far to support the doctrine we teach of our primeval
existence. The attempted rule of heredity is baffling even to itself. Dr.
Smith says:

"Every living individual who counts back ten generations may
have over a thousand grandparents. In the direct line of descent all
of them must be considered in the question of his inheritance, but the
thousand grandparents of a few generations back are completely lost
in the social group, and it is quite evident, apart from any special
theories, that whatever the inheritance of an individual may be, it is
pretty difficult to give it a scientific definition."

Some of the props upon which heredity is founded are knocked away
by the cold facts of history. One of the chief of these is the so-called "law
of environment." The Indians of the American continent have had perhaps
the best environment in the world. Archaelogy and the Book of Mormon
both confirm the fact that they have retrograded from a higher to a lower
stage of civilization. Environments did not create in them any progressive
advance to a civilized state.

Mendelism. Much discussion about heredity is based upon certain dis-
coveries in the vegetable world, the so-called laws of Mendel. Here, too,
from our point of view, we are compelled to make a broad distinction.
Even scientific writers are abandoning the argument that the same rules
apply to life in the animal and vegetable kingdoms as apply to the life of
man. It is true that all God created, if we take the account given in Gen-
esis, was created first spiritually. Between that spiritual creation and our
own, however, there is a wide difference. We are the direct creations of
God his children; he is our father, who is in Heaven. He is nowhere in
Scripture designated as the Father of animals and plants. Whatever may
have been the source o.f their spiritual creation, or the ultimate end of
plant and animal life, there is from the beginning a very distinct difference
between them and the human race. It is true that there are likenesses, but
there are essential differences that have never yet been bridged over. The
progress of animal and human life lie along essentially different courses of
progress. Much has been said about Mendel's experiments on peas and
on mice. He has shown that in them there is a certain dominance of
qualities; that one parent or the other may be transmitted. Quoting from
Smith again:

"Professor Bateson, one of the leading exponents of the doctrine
of Mendel, says that there is little evidence of the transmission of
abnormal characteristics, and he naively says that 'if in the simple
matter of color our population and their descendants followed rules
such as those which prevail in the color of the sweet pea, of the
mouse, and of the cat, the essential facts of Mendelism must long
ago have been part of the common property of human knowledge.'
This shows a dawning light upon the eyes of Professor Bateson, re-
vealing to him that the complex human animal cannot be expounded
in biological terms."

Family Groups. This law of Mendel has led to the promulgation of a
new theory or law, which is called Eugenics. Certain families of criminals
and families of superior abilities have been studied to demonstrate the cor-
rectness of Mendel's theory. I again quote from Dr. Smith:

"The first is the study of the Jukes by R. L. Dugdale. The



PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 75

family in seventy-five years numbered twelve thousand persons. They
cost the state a million and a quarter of dollars in these seventy-five
years. They are all descended from one dissolute woman, Belle Juke.
Those who have not taken the trouble to read the book or to study
the problem regard this classical case as a definite proof that crime,
pauperism, and other evils are clearly of an hereditary nature. But
one of the most significant statements of Mr. Dugdale is, 'The ten-
dency of heredity is to produce an environment which perpetuates
that heredity,' or, to put it plainly, the trouble with this family was
that every generation of little Jukes was taken care of by depraved

Jukes."

************

"Dr. Lange of Denmark had given an illustration of degeneration
in families. He had found that 44 related families in twenty years
had sent no less than 77 patients to the insane asylum. In the same
families 358 serious neurophatic cases had appeared in one form or
another in a few generations, from which he argued the evil effect
of the first neurophatic woman, the founder of the breed.

"Further investigations revealed some strange facts about these
families, for in them there appeared besides the 77 insane persons,
an unusual proportion of gifted men and women. There were two
cabinet ministers, one foreign ambassador, three bishops, three gen-
erals, nine university professors, and a large number of public
officials, and no less than forty-four poets and artists, most of whom
were known throughout Denmark. In twenty-eight of these families
there were seventy-two individuals who secured very prominent posi-
tions through special intellectual ability."

Some of these cases appear to support the theory, but the exceptions
are too numerous to speak of the Mendel theory as a law.

Transmitted Qualities. Is the study of heredity profitable? Within
certain limits race qualities it has some justification. Scientific men, by
their writings, have thrown students of the subject into interminable con-
fusion. It is legitimate enough to approach the subject of heredity from
a standpoint merely of investigation. There are about its study many curious
conditions of life; they invite wonderment, even study, but they are not
so fixed or so agreed upon that we are justified in speaking of certain
transmitted conditions and tendencies as a law. At an earlier period in our
investigations on heredity, men undertook to explain the moral and social
life of nations by the law of heredity. They considered the law sufficiently
established to make it a satisfactory explanation of individual phenomena.
The view here taken by Dr. Smith is now quite generally admitted:

"It used to be taught that a number of diseases were transmitted
from generation to generation. It is now generally agreed that there
is no such thing as hereditary disease in any true sense. * * *
It is now agreed that certain diseases may be conveyed to the child
in its prenatal condition, or at the time of birth, and that is the only
fragment left of the doctrine of hereditary disease. On the other
hand, it is a well-known fact that tuberculosis in the parents, because
of its weakening effect, results frequently in an offspring that may
become feeble-minded or insane. This is a further illustration of
the general law that the chief bequest to the child of parenthood is
strength or weakness.

"As disease is not hereditary, so physical mutilations are not
transmitted. The Chinese foot needs to be compressed generation
after generation."

It is doubtful whether all that is known about laws of heredity can have
any particular educational value, more than that of curiosity which comes
from the study of related qualities in human life.

There are two very distinct powers that come with the birth of human



76 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE

life: they are the powers of acquisition and the powers of desire. We have
laid stress upon the importance of the former to the neglect of the latter.
We have been forced, through a false system of education, into the belief
and practice that happiness and future welfare are to be measured by our
acquisitions. What would often be more helpful to us is the education of
our necessities, what it is proper to desire and what we ought to avoid.

Operations of the Spirit of God. Of those who fear God the Lord in a
vision to Joseph Smith said: "For by my Spirit I will enlighten them, and
by my power I will make known unto them the secrets of my will; yea,
even those things which the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet en-
tered into the heart of man" (Sec. 76:10, Doc. and Cov.).

The dangers of attempting to fix rules for our guidance by the theory
of heredity lies in the fact that as a matter of philosophy it can give us
nothing tangible about the operations of the Spirit of God. We may even
be born of the Spirit. In the nature of things much of our speculations
leave no room for the permanent influences which the Spirit of God has
on our lives.



XXX Eugenics

Experiments. We are just now forming eugenic clubs throughout the
country with the wise and beneficent purpose of elevating society and
establishing correct principles of parentage. In some places the advocacy
of eugenics is most enthusiastic and it is spoken of as the new and coming
science. Most extreme advantages are predicted for it and by many it is
regarded as a sort of salvation for many afflictions which torment human
society at the present time. It is sometimes known as Mendelism from
the fact that Mendel made certain experiments with sweet peas, with mice,
and with cats. He traced out certain laws of breeding which were repre-
sented by diagrams and from these discoveries of animal relationships the
question was propounded for human society and at once the question arose,
if the mating in the vegetable and animal world may produce such exact
results, why may it not have the same effect upon human beings?

Men and Mice. It may be easy in the same breath to speak of men and
mice, and the question would be much more simple perhaps if the laws
regulating mice were also applicable to men; but unfortunately they are
not, and whatever may be the difference in the physical development of the
two it is certain that the inborn differences between men and animals does
not permit us to bring both classes under the same laws of regeneration.
It should be stated at the outset that the fundamental difference in matters
of progeny between man and animal is to be found in the exercise of a
free agency, an important human law. This law does not prevail with
respect to animals and plants. They are still under a defined tutelage and
governed by laws that are universal, simple, direct.

It is said that we may proceed to the improvement in the breeding of
human beings as we do in the breeding of animals. We have developed in
the science of animal industry superior breeds which through Government
control we may register and call pure breeds. We have our pure bred
horses, hogs, sheep, chickens. Shall we have a pure bred man? The trouble
is we are not permitted to exercise any control over man in the matter of
mating. True, in certain governments of Europe there is a law of Royalty
which compels those of royal blood to marry within certain families. Of
that, however, later.

The free agency of man is nowhere considered more sacred than in
the matter of the selection of companionship. He is a being of multiplied
motives. He is governed by social surroundings, by ambition, by a variety
of characteristics, and these are governing features with him. He is moved
by the influence of beauty, wealth, social advantages, parental influences,
sometimes by the superior persuasive powers of the woman who would
exercise control over him. If we are to have a science out of eugenics that



PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 77

is anything more than good advice, there must be some abridgment of the
free agency of man.

Religion Fundamental. One of the perhaps insurmountable troubles in
the way of extreme advocates of eugenics is the fact that religion, and not
intelligence and wealth, is fundamental in human life, and the basis of a
sound and lasting social life. As men grow in social advantages, in wealth
and intelligence, they are beset by increasing temptations, temptations that
lead them to such excesses as undermine their physical powers, and when
these give way the whole superstructure of economic and intellectual life
gives way. Thus we see nations rising and falling. We see social life in
its exalted and deepest conditions. If history is pronounced in one thing it
is the swing of the pendulum between the extremes of morality and im-
morality.

Spirituality, or if you please, real goodness, is not so self advertising
as intelligence or material wealth. By its very nature it is modest and
retiring. It is a quality that may be operated through many generations for
the uplift of human society. Those who advocate eugenics find it extremely
difficult to go back to those modest beginnings in order to find the proper
starting point. Indeed, how can they know? The heart of man belongs
to the revelations of God. The Lord said to Samuel, who was seeking
among the sons of Jesse for a king, that he did not look upon men with
the eyes of man. He knew their hearts. But how can finite beings know
these hidden conditions?

The uplift of the human race through proper mating must grow there-
fore from obscure, often hidden beginnings, through generations to a sound
and substantial life. Such changes are too microscopic for the men of
science. They cover too long a period for man's patient work. Indeed,
all of the investigators of eugenics show that they are concerned with two
extremes, the extremely intelligent and those who are extremely criminal;
and their investigations, even in these two classes, as I have shown else-
where, are not satisfactory.

Movements are now afoot to begin the investigation of the development
of genius in certain families. Investigators go back a few generations. They
cannot go far. They are tabulating their data and trying to demonstrate
to us as far as possible the infallibility of their doctrine. What families
are these? They are families often of genius, which science has proved
is not hereditary. Some are men of wealth, who are merely a part of a
new made rich. The advocates of this doctrine are extremely enthusiastic.
Their motives are all right, but extremists always carry with them the
danger of excess, and their conclusions should be received with many
reservations. If the extreme advocates of this science are permitted to
exercise a very general and a very strong influence over our social and
political life, they may endanger society as well as government.

Laws for the Unfit. The tide of eugenic science ran high in 1913. In
that year, North Dakota, Kansas, Wisconsin and Michigan, passed
c rtain eugenic laws for the sterilization of the unfit. The unfit in the
beginning was to include the insane and the habitual criminal, especially
the rapist. It is undesirable, of course, that they perpetuate their class,
but will the advocates of eugenics stop there? What they want to do is to
eliminate those who are unfit; but who are unfit? It is a serious question,
so serious that Oregon repealed her eugenic law on referendum. The
pioneers of legislation in this law were the states of Washington, Iowa,
Nevada and New York. Such advocates assume too much. They assume
that there is a distinct and well-defined science or law of heredity, a
science that has so many exceptions that great writers have come to re-
pudiate it as a fixed science whose investigations have no practical value.

Ambitions of Women. The women of our state are perhaps the most
enthusiastic advocates of eugenics. They are ambitious in parentage. With
them child life has a closer and deeper meaning than it has with men. They
insist often that it is their right to choose the future fathers of their chil-



78 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE

dren, but how? -What sort of regulation could be devised that would
permit any important class to make such selections? Of course, they would
be ambitious, but the comparatively few properly fit to meet that ambition
would practically exclude the masses. There is, as some writers point out,
a greater uniformity in high quality female life than there is among the
males. In the animal industry world, males for breeding purposes are se-
lected with great care and with such numerous limitations as to produce
only a few that are physically fit. France, in the matter of horses, has car-
ried this selection to a very high degree. In the female animal world the
rejections are much fewer, showing that in that class there is a distinct and
superior uniformity. How about the human world? In matters of mating
the high grade of uniformity shows a higher percentage of the females than
exists in the animal world. In other words the number of women fit for
superior womanhood is vastly in excess of the number of men. We need
not consider the reasons assigned from a physical point of view for this
superior and general uniformity. The proofs of the difference are apparent
to all among the most striking illustrations of social life. One of the
greatest causes for this difference lies perhaps in the so-called double
standards, standards which separate the physical, spiritual, and ultimtaely
intellectual lives of the two classes. The difference is vital. The condi-
tions that make for the double standard are ultimately destructive to the
aims that the advocates of eugenics have in view.

In addition, we should have ultimately pronounced class distinctions.
There would soon be the super-man and the super-woman, the high class
or the high-brow, and intellectuals of all sorts of classical distinctions,
which would bring in their train social disorder. We have had some strik-
ing illustrations. Royalty throughout Europe has asserted its claim to
superiority. Princes and princesses are brought up to be kings, queens,
empresses and other sorts of royalty. They have had the advantages of
wealth, of opportunity, of training. Has the Royal class made good? Is
the genius of the world inherited from among them? Are they the actual
rulers, and what generally do we think of the royal personages of Europe
in these trying and distressing hours? Some investigation of that class has
been made and in conclusion I quote from the writings of Fahlbeck, who
has what is considered an authoritative work upon Swedish nobility. Of
that class he says:

"It has been shown how caste marriages prevailing among them
produce a progressive degeneration, which manifests itself by frequent
celibacy, much delayed marriage of the male sex, the large and in-
creasing portion of sterile marriages, the small and decreasing fecund-
ity (now 15.4 per cent) always less than the death rate, the increasing
number of female births, the increasing mortality of youths under 20
years of age, the deaths of the children before that of the parents,
which gradually tends to cause the extinction of the stock. As a con-
sequence of that, 70 per cent of the original noble families are now
extinct, and notwithstanding the continual ennobling of bourgeois fam-
ilies, the number of noble families does not increase or very often de-
clines."

And Fahlbeck takes care to add that all this applies precisely to the
whole wealthy class, of which the nobility is only a fragment.



XXXI Back to the Land

Present Conditions. In another chapter I have called attention to the
excessive and dangerous growth of the so-called middle-class, or non-
producers. Conditions have favored their occupations, and financial pros-
perity has perhaps attended them more generously than it has the farmer.
The war. however, is bringing about a very realistic change: governments
that provide for the armies have been liberal buyers. They have fed the
soldiers better on the battlefields than the same men have been cared for in
times of peace. Such excessive Government demands naturally make
prices high. It should then be observed that a very large proportion of



PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 79

every army is taken from the producing classes, especially from the farms,
where the vigor of manhood is perhaps more abundantly found. A large
army of farm men will lose their lives in battle or become cripples, and
thereby unfitted for farm life. It goes, therefore, without saying, that the
number of men qualified to conduct operations upon the farm will be
enormously decreased. In the civilized countries of the world there is no
place for the "mujik" or the "fellahin." Farm work has made rapid strides
in the direction of scientific practice and theory.

As a nation grows in years, it settles down to an inherited classification;
as with father, so with son. It will not be easy to tear men up from the
roots of their social and business inheritance and experiences and transform
them into a new and different life. It will require great suffering to bring
about such an exchange on any extensive scale. Such conditions mean the
continued burden of higher cost in living.

Want of Preparation. Our agricultural schools will not alleviate very
greatly such an unfortunate condition. They are based too extensively on
the rest of our school practice. We seem to forget that the most serious
thing about education is the habit which our modern school system fastens
upon our child life, the book habit. Our children learn to hear things,
and they learn to tell things, but only in rare cases do they acquire the
actual habit of doing things. If we acquire the wrong habit of life, what
we learn has little practical value, because the habits we have acquired
prevent us from putting our knowledge into practice. I have often heard
mothers say that though their daughters do not cook and do much house-
work, they know how to do it. They can make the best of bread, and in
fact do well any kind of housework. But there is after all a wide differ-
ence between acquiring the ability to do a thing and the habit of doing it.
Ability may be acquired in a very short time, whereas it takes years to
acquire a habit. It is not, therefore, so much a question of what this girl
can do, but her willingness, her contentment, her happiness, in other words,
her habit of doing it.

Value of Farm Life. The habits of our lives are more and more away
from the farm. Farmers send their children to school, and likewise change
the habits of their lives, so that the farm is now in a process of race suicide.
We may as well face an unpleasant truth, and confess a belief that the