The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1922-05-01
The Figures ON Ourselves.

What we as people for uor own nj
ltegrity's sake need to do, is to loob
truth in the face. We can derive rules
| of conduct from facts, not from pre-.
conceptions Our army in the late
war furnished human laboratory
which psychologists took advantage OF
| Seventeen hundred thousand officers
and men were subjected to intelligence
tests. The results have now been care.
fully Analysed, SO that we are fur
nished "a line" on ourselves, or pre-
scented with "a significant psychological
picture OF the young manhood Of the
country" to quota Cornella James
Cannon, who epitomizes the results for
the February Atlantic.
Twelve per cent of the white men in
our country are mentally superior, six
lty-six per cent averagely mentally en-.
dowed, and twenty-five per cent in
ferior Those are the basic figures
Mentality, not education, is the stand
ard Of division
The foreign-born showed forty-six
per cent of low grade intelligence. But
of these the English and the Hollanders
were exceptions; they showed higher
percentage of good mentality than our
native born.
The progress Of civilization, nay.
LISTS maintenance, depends upon the
existence and operation Of the superior
minds, the twelve per cent Of them
amongst us. They furnish the invent
ors, scientists, organizers, managers,
statesmen, artists, great innovators.
and rebels, thinkers. To quote Mrs.
Cannon:
"These are the members of our race
who have led us up from barbarism,
and keep us from sinking back into it
There is nothing of the wisdom of the
ages which can be offered to them, no
opportunity for advancing them which
does not bring rich dividends OF added
prosperity and happiness to the rest Of
us
Ideally democracy ought to be the
social form least obstructive to super
ior minds careers. We may fatter our
selves that America has allowed
superior minds to lead But the America
that did that had less percentage of
inferior minds by good deal.
And this present America we are
further deleting of the proportion of
superior minds by admission Of races
that average seventy and sixty-three
per cent Of inferior minds We have
been adding low mentality TO our men,
tai outfit with vengeance for forty
years now, and the inferiority is
reflected in our politics, our writing,
our morals.
There is place for inferior mentality
in the community In fact. the inferior
mentality is Indispensable Were
everybody of superior mentality il
would be condition as unavoidable as
the prependerance of the inferior mem
tality would be destructive.
We are, however. not in the slightest
danger of too many superior minded
men and women.
What we are in positive danger of Is
the preponderance of the inferior minde
who increase in numbers and in power
They giveindication of refusal TO follow
the superior minded. if not of such re-
volt as Lenin has directed in Russia
They are not the Immediate danger,
however. The immediate danger lies
in the supineness OF our majority the
sixty-six per cent of average men men
tally. who impose their supineness too
much upon the community They are
the men of routine who ara efficient.
do well in their activities. but really
refuse to think much out Of them. TO