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 more correctly assume toward America), it
appears that there has been a very slight decrease in the proportion of
persons under 20 who are married, but that between the ages of 20 and 30
the proportion of those married has risen during recent years. The same
condition exists all over Europe, according to F. H. Hankins,[105]
except in England and Scotland. "Moreover on the whole marriages take
place earlier in France than in England, Germany or America. Nor is this
all, for a larger proportion of the French population is married than in
any of these countries.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390