ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the question how far heredity rather than environment is responsible for the mental differences between the children of different social classes. All investigators are agreed that mental capacity is strongly hereditary, though, as with stature, environment plays a part in its determination. It is also agreed that among the poorer nine-tenths of the population the abler members on the whole tend to rise into a richer class than their parents. The Eugenics Education Society have doubtless done good work in persuading a certain number of intelligent people that it is their duty to have more children. They have also rightly urged lessened taxation of parents of children but many of their members have coupled this with a clamour against measures designed to ameliorate the lot of the children of the poor at the expense of the rich. It is a curious policy to combat evils due to economic inequality by perpetuating that inequality.
