The Cordova daily times., 1922-05-16
MENTAL TESTS

Opposition to the law restricting immigra- tion has centred largely in the feeling that it discriminates against certain nations aluI in favor of others While &he per cent o.G is based with seeming impartiality O . actual
 number of each nationality already here, the result in practice is to admit all corners from our kindred races of the north and west ot
 Europe and to exclude vast numbers of the "new' immi grafton from the centre and the south. A strong light is thrown on the prob blem by Arthur Sweeney, Professor of Medl- cal Judsprudence at the University of Min nesota. in The North American Review ~for
 Nav During the war he was attached to the Neuro-P -Psychiatrc Department of the army, and his article, ''Mental Tests for Immi- crants," is based on the mental census of draft men made by Major Yerkes ''The psy- chological test" he says, "has furnished us with the necessary yardsticl to measure the desirabIity of the immigrant"
 i, The proposal is to exclude what Major Yer
 llcs describes as "De man" from whatever nation they come-those mentally incapable
 of progressing beyond the fifth grade of our
 elementary schools Of the foreign born III our
 army almost one-haf (45.G per cent were D men or worse ''Beng constitutlonally In- ferior, they are necessarily socially inadequate,
 They cannot conform to the normal GUS toms of society," Creatures of transient and often violent emotions, they are sWayed by flIe voice of the domago@uc, with consequences danoerous to orderly government They are incanabe of becoming good citizens by reason
 of intellectual deficiency, and they should be allowed no place in this country and no voice 4l,o tpcf lS unfair. excluding men of great natural mtell-
 gence who have the misfortune to have no Schooling, the mental test reveals their native
 ability irrespective of education. The cand1- date for passport will be asked, m hls own
 tongue, to supply missing parts of plctures'
 trace his way through mazes, count cubes variously arranged and the like. This "Beta test is no easier than the "Alpha" test set for those who can read and write, and as regards the lower ranges of intelligence 1t gives re-
 suits of equal value. Dr. Sweeney urges that the mental test, together with the customary physical tests, be made in foreign ports be- fore embarkation
 Statistics quoted from Major Yerkes show that, if there has been a purpose to dlscrn- mate if is not without reasonable foundation. With the exception of single small nation, all
 the nations of the old immigration stand high
 CT than those of the new. Thus Russia, Poland
 and Italy showed more than seven times as
 many D and D minus men as England. Of A
 men and B men, Poland and Italy had less Fthan one-twentieth as many as England and
 Russia less than one-seventh Next below En- land came Holland, Scotland and Germany.
 France was not represented. The American
 white draft, which was of largely composite
 ancestry, had 12.1 per cent and 5 men, as against England's 19.7, and 241 per cent of D and D minus men, as against only ol for
 England Our selective immigration thus tends
 strongly to admit the able and exclude the
 mentally weak.
 1 Thn editorial in vesterdaY's issue. under