NEW MALTHUSIANISM 113
the future of the human race should be safeguarded
from the mischief that such people perpetuate.
A sardonic and disinterested observer of the issues
for the earth might well smile at the interest taken
in the breeding of its animal and bird stocks, colla-
terally with the neglect of human progeny. “ Why
this orientation of genetics?” he might well ask. Is
humanity to take its chances without guidance, or are
the accumulations of a knowledge of heredity to be
used in the interests of its difficult future? To what
is mankind to be devoted? Is it to be to ruthless
economic aggrandisements with their frightful con-
sequences ; of is it to be to economic adjustments with
a normal, steadier, and more friendly life? This is
the problem, and Malthus was one of the very few
who had a clear vision of the great controlling factor.
Man can be for ever the victim of blind impulse and
of egoistic greed, or he can witness ameliorative action
based on true eugenics and a finer sense of the claims
of those who are to be. Is this all a fatuous and
futile dream, or is it a guiding aspiration? The last
one hundred and twenty-five years have seen the
development of the great locomotive, of the enormous
liner, of the airship and aeroplane, of telegraphy, of
telephony, and wireless communication. It has wit-
nessed a wonderful reduction of the menaces to the
beginnings of human life. It has been characterised
by an enormous increase in the average length of life
of all born, the expectation of life at birth. In
Australia in one-third of a century the death-rate for
the first year of life fell to 46 per cent. of what it
was. At the age of minimum mortality, IT years and
10 months, it fell to 59 per cent, of its original value ;
at every age up to 86 it has witnessed improvement.
These are amazing advances. But they mean that Man
carries new responsibilities, and that there are certain
consequences which involve international adjustments.