Eugenically, teaching methods of birth control to the married unskilled
laborer is a sounder way of solving his problems, than subsidizing him
so he can support a large family.
It must be frankly recognized that poverty is in many ways eugenic in
its effect, and that with the spread of birth control among people below
the poverty line, it is certain to be still more eugenic than at
present. It represents an effective, even though a cruel, method of
keeping down the net birth-rate of people who for one reason or another
are not economically efficient; and the element of cruelty, involved in
high infant mortality, will be largely mitigated by birth control. Free
competition may be tempered to the extent of furnishing every man enough
charity to feed him, if he requires charity for that purpose; and to
feed his family, if he already has one; but charity which will allow him
to increase his family, if he is too inefficient to support it by his
own exertions, is rarely a benefit eugenically.
The minimum wage is admittedly not an attempt to pay a man what he is
worth. It is an attempt to make it possible for every man, no matter
what his economic or social value, to support a family. Therefore, in so
far as it would encourage men of inferior quality to have or increase
families, it is unquestionably dysgenic.
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