The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-11-18

Did You EUer GroLU Up?
-ispeeiA Cerrespondenee Of ne AZ

Washington, D C., Nov. I6-Sci-
entists, studying the records here
of the intelligence tests applied to
+! American soldiers, have reach I'd
| the conclusion that these men had
on an average the intellectual de
yeiopment which is considered nor
NAL for a boy IA years old.
This does not seem very fatter-
| ing to us as nation, but II is
| borne out by Thomas A Edison
who as is well known, has been
! conducting some intelligence tests
OF his own on men who apply 70
him for employment. He expresses
| himself as amazed at the low aver,
age Of intelligence which his tests
have revealed. He says that moi
| more than two per cent of the adult
population can understand a self
! evident fact wnen it is put before
| them.
These disturbing opinions from
high authorities are borne out On
a way by the new school of psy-
biologists Their investigations
tend to show that an individual
who is not given proper oppOrtun-
ity to develop his mind and per-
Sonaiity does remain a child in all
those respects IN which his devel-
opment is retarded They would
say that the typical American man
of business, while highly develop
ed in his special line, is ''infantile'
az. a whole. because he is undeveI-
oped in SO many other ways.
This view, of course, excites the
antagonism of every good Ameri-
can, but it is perhaps worth ex-
aiming just Cor the sake of I'M
derstanding a point Of view We
cannot share.
In the first place it is to be not
ed that this view gets d good deal
of confederation in every day life.
How often you hear it said of some
man that he is just great big
Over-grown boy" That may. ac-
cording to the psychologists. be sci
entific description of his mind and
personality.
GrOwn-up Babies.
Many women are wont TO remark
that their husbands, brothers. Or
even their fathers are just big
boys, but a good deal of evidence
can be brought forward to show
that women are on an average even
more infantile than men Men, N
order to make a living, have to
achieve a certain degree of matur-
ity. They NAV have boyish traits
but they cannot afford to have the
helplessness of children. Women,
on the other hand, know that an
appearance of helplessness, if &C
companied by good looks. is often
great asset ill the pursuit of a
husband. Thus society encourages
women to hold onto any infantile
traits they may have. The cute
ness" the helplesSness, the ignor-
ance, which so many of them af-
feet. are infanti;e. The woman may
use these tricks consciously in pur-
suit of man, but the mere fact
that she uses such tricks at all is
an indication, according to the psy-
biologists, that she has never be-
come fully adult. This prevailing
infantilism of women is widely
recognized in popular slang and
popular songs, which reveal far
more of our folk psychology than
does our formal literature When
grown-up ladies. act like babies,
I've Just got to love EN-, that's
ALL"
The ladies know that And it is
no trouble at all for them to act
like babies, because most of them
have not grown mentally and NOR
ally nearly as fast as they have
grown physically. say the scien-
fists.
1t is not possible TO summarize
here all of the evidence which
might be brought forward TO prove
that the public as a whole has new