existence in
China, and Nature's law will therefore continue to work out its own
pitiless solution, weeding out every year millions of predestined
weaklings."
This rapid survey is enough, I hope, to indicate the manifold
inadequacies inherent in present policies of philanthropy and charity.
The most serious charge that can be brought against modern "benevolence"
is that it encourages the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents
and dependents. These are the most dangerous elements in the world
community, the most devastating curse on human progress and expression.
Philanthropy is a gesture characteristic of modern business lavishing
upon the unfit the profits extorted from the community at large. Looked
at impartially, this compensatory generosity is in its final effect
probably more dangerous, more dysgenic, more blighting than the initial
practice of profiteering and the social injustice which makes some too
rich and others too poor.
(1) Birth Control Review. Vol. V. No. 4. p. 7.
CHAPTER VI: Neglected Factors of the World Problem
War has thrust upon us a new internationalism. To-day the world is
united by starvation, disease and misery. We are enjoying the ironic
internationalism of hatred. The victors are forced to shoulder the
burden of the vanquished. International philanthropies and charities are
organized. The great flux of immigration and emigration has recommenced.
Prosperity is a myth; and the rich are called upon to support huge
philanthropies, in the futile attempt to sweep back the tide of famine
and misery. In the face of this new internationalism, this tangled unity
of the world, all proposed political and economic programs reveal a
woeful common bankruptcy. They are fragmentary and superficial. None
of them go to the root of this unprecedented world problem. Politicians
offer political solutions,--like the League of Nations or the limitation
of navies. Militarists offer new schemes of competitive armament.
Marxians offer the Third Internationale and industrial revolution.
Sentimentalists offer charity and philanthropy. Coordination or
correlation is lacking. And matters go steadily from bad to worse.
The first essential in the solution of any problem is the recognition
and statement of the factors involved. Now in this complex problem
which to-day confronts us, no attempt has been made to state the primary
facts. The statesman believes they are all political. Militarists
believe th
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