The Super Race is the produce of heredity, of social environment, and of individual development. Heredity supplies the raw material--the individual human being, while education and social environment, operating upon this raw stuff, determine the course of its development. Steel is not made from bee's wax, nor is the Super Man created out of a defective heredity. In like manner, since those who are in Rome do as the Romans do, the raw material, no matter what its quality, is shaped by its surroundings. The old saying "as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined," should be modified in this one particular--the force which bends the twig must continue in the tree, else the latter will turn and grow toward the sky. The stock of the Super Man will be secured by the mating of persons possessing the Super-Race qualities; yet, reared in an unfavorable environment, these qualities cannot produce the highest result. Neither biologic nor social forces are alone adequate to develop the Super Race. Physique, mental capacity, aggressiveness, concentration, sympathy and vision are the products of heredity, social environment and training. The system of human mating must be perfected and the status of social institutions must be raised in order that the individuals produced in each generation may attain an additional increment of the qualities which will, in the end, produce the Super Race. CHAPTER V THE AMERICAN OPPORTUNITY Here, in brief compass, are laid down the general principles upon which a nation must rely for the raising of its standard of human excellence. In general, we are convinced that the Super Race is possible. Specifically--and here is the next point--there are more possibilities for the development of the Super Race in the United States to-day than there have been in any nation of the past; or than there are in any nation of the present. The Super Race is America's distinctive opportunity. The factors which may play so significant a part in establishing a Super Race in the United States are here set down in an order which permits of sequential treatment-- 1. Natural resources. 2. The stock of the dominant races. 3. Leisure. 4. The emancipation of women. 5. The abandonment of war. 6. A knowledge of race making. 7. A knowledge of Social Adjustment. 8. A widespread educational machinery. Natural resources are an indispensable element in national progress. A congenial climate is a pre-requisite to social development. No permanently successful civilization can be erected on the shores of Hudson Bay, or in the torrid heat of the Amazon Valley. The temperate zones, with their variable climate, and their wide range of vegetable products, seem to provide the foundation for the successful civilizations of the immediate future. No less necessary to civilization are harbors for the maintenance of commerce; and an abundance of minerals, the sinews of industry; and most important of all, fertile agricultural land.