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.