many desirable acquaintances of the opposite sex as possible, and to
give them opportunity for ripening these acquaintances, the problem of
the improvement of sexual selection will be greatly helped. Young people
from homes where such social advantages can not be given, or in large
cities where home life is for most of them non-existent, must become the
concern of the municipality, the churches, and every institution and
organization that has the welfare of the community and the race at
heart.

To sum up this chapter, we have pointed out the importance of sexual
selection, and shown that its eugenic action depends on young people
having the proper ideals, and being able to live up to these ideals.
Eugenists have in the past devoted themselves perhaps too exclusively to
the inculcation of sound ideals, without giving adequate attention to
the possibility of these high standards being acted upon. One of the
greatest problems confronting eugenics is that of giving young people of
marriageable age a greater range of choice. Much could be done by
organized action; but it is one of the hopeful features of the problem
that it can be handled in large part by intelligent individual action.
If older people would make a conscious effort to help young people widen
their circles of suitable acquaintances, they would make a valuable
contribution to race betterment.

CHAPTER XII

INCREASING THE MARRIAGE RATE OF THE SUPERIOR

No race can long survive unless it conforms to the principles of
eugenics, and indisputably the chief requirement for race survival is
that the superior part of the race should equal or surpass the inferior
part in fecundity.

It follows that the superior members of the community must marry, and at
a reasonably early age. If in the best elements of the community
celibacy increases, or if marriage is postponed far into the
reproductive period, the racial contribution of the superior will
necessarily fall, and after a few generations the race will consist
mainly of the descendants of inferior people, its eugenic average being
thereby much lowered.

In a survey of vital statistics, to ascertain whether marriages are as
frequent and as early as national welfare requires, the eugenist finds
at first no particularly alarming figures.

In France, to whose vital statistics one naturally turns whenever race
suicide is suggested (and usually with a holier-than-thou attitude which
the Frenchman might much