Another consideration is of great importance here. The average is affected only slightly by the change of individuals from class to class near the average. But the shifting of even one or two per cent of the individuals into or out of extreme positions has a very marked effect upon the character of the total group and upon the average. In the life of the State the character of the general average of the citizens is of the greatest importance, and comparatively small deviations in the average of civic worth may mean much as regards the history of a democracy. Of course the average individuals in a social group may not be those of greatest influence; even when taken all together they may not determine the trend of the life of the society; but that does not alter the essential fact that the condition of the average of the population is of very great moment to a democratic state. Many of our social endeavors to-day serve in effect to raise individuals from one of the lower groups up to or toward the average. Millions of dollars and an incalculable amount of time and energy are spent annually in striving to accomplish this kind of result. How immeasurably greater would be the benefit to society if the same amount of energy and money were spent in moving individuals from the middle classes on up toward the higher. In the development of our societies we need to use every possible means to carry individuals from positions near the average to positions above the average, and the farther this remove is above the average both in its starting point and its stopping point, the better for the social group. Elevation from mediocrity to superiority has far greater effect upon the social constitution than has elevation from inferiority to mediocrity. As the Whethams have written recently: "Of late years, the duty of the State to support the falling and fallen has been so much emphasized that its still more important duty to the able and competent has been obscured. Yet it is they who are the real national asset of worth, and it is essential to secure that their action should not be hampered, and their value sterilized, by the jealousy and obstruction of the social failures, and of others whom pity for the failures has blinded. Mankind has been shrewdly divided into those who do things and those who must get out of the way while things are being done, and if the latter class do not recognize their true function in life, they themselves will suffer the most. The incompetent have to be supported partially or wholly by the competent, and, even for their own good, it would be worth while for the incompetent to encourage the freedom of action and the preponderant reproduction of the abler and more successful stocks. It is only where such stocks abound that the nation is able to support and carry along the heavy load of incompetence kept alive by modern civilization."