The New York herald., 1922-05-21


in environment that we must look
to racial Improvement, but in he
reditY.
From the studies of Galton and
others it appears clear enough that
superiority (and inferiority too) are
family affairs. Intelligence is pre-
determined by heredity: individuals
come into the world differing vastly
in mental qualities; such differences
remain virtually constant throughout
life and cannot be lessened by en-
vironment or education"
Mr.. Stoddard quotes from numer-
Gus mental tests of children to show
that, on the whole, those of superior
social status are of higher intelli-
gence. This is of course not abso-
lutely true. Many very superior per-
sons come from artisan or lower
class parents. But the fact that in
America. with it's morS fluid social
system, the talented may and usually
do rise in status results in a. con-
slant draining Of the better stocks
from tn. lower to the upper classes.
Despite the fact that our social sys-
tenn frequently handicaps superiors
and exalts interiors, "the imparious
urge of superior germplasm beats
against man made barriers" tends
to lift the individuals who bear it
into a social status commensurate
with their hereditary advantages.
This strikes one as a reasonable
process and suggests that democracy
may after all not involve what Ralph
Adams Cram called "the nemesis of
mediocrity." But as the individual
rises in the social scale he demands
a higher standard of living. He>mar-
ries later. He has fewer children.
Those from the original American
stock of British and other northern
races are the highest type in the
country. And they are barely re-
producing their numbers, while the
>inferior stocks are multiplying at a
rapid rate. Intelligence is to-day be-
ing rapidly bred out of the American
population"
A rather startling conclusion. 1t
is one that has claimed the attention
of many of the more foresighted in
recent years. Mr.. Stoddard supports
it with reference to the army psyche
logical tests, made upon 100000
men during the war. If one assumes
that these men were a representa-
tive sample of the population. these
studies indicated that the average
mental age of Americans was only
about fourteen years; that 45,O00,-
900, or nearly half the total popula-
ton, will never develop mSntal ca
pacity beyond the stage represented
bv a normal twelve year-old child:
that only 13,5O0.eo0 will ever show
superior intelligence. and that only
4. soc. 900 can be considered talented"
Remembering that these tests
measure, not education or knowledge,
but mental capacity, one wonders
that they have not simply stunned
all who are not morons into studious
thought of the nations future. But
it is in academic circles alone that
this first great psychological stock
taking of our national life appears
to have made any appreciable i'm
preston.
Turning to the social revolutionary
forces that came to the fore in Rus
sia in. 1917 and have since rather
monopolized the attention Of the
western world. Mr.. Stoddard ana
lives them in the light of this new
biological and psychological knowl-
edge of race quality. His conviction
is that the ultimate impulsion be-
hind them is atavism. the revolt OF
the under man." the inferior who is
the natural enemy of civilization. He
shows from the utterances OF revo-
lutionary leaders. past and present.
that many frankly wanted to smash
civilization (though the more intelli-
gent would specify that>the design
was to destroy the particular type
of civilizatiop that now preyailS in