Evening star., 1923-10-07
Pick Senators BY Measure
In 5000 A. d., Says Science
Anthropolosisf Publishes
Study Of U. S. Upper
House.
Man Is
Found Ideal by DR..
Mcdonald.

Election day in the District OF CO.
lumbia, 5000 AID.
The populace is massed In front OF
the Smithsonian Institution. where a
senator is being selected to represent
the Capital city.
It has been an exciting contest. For
weeks Lawyer Smith and DR.. Jones
ran neck to neck. Smith suffered a
bad setback when the microscope re-
vealed that the big toenail on his left
foot was one-thousandth OF an inch
/, above the senatorial normal. while
that of his rival exactly met the re-
quirements. This. however. was Offset
when, it was discovered that Jones
had only 1928 hairs on his head,
while the lawyer had 1927. the exact
number which. statistics had shows,
must be possessed by the ideal sena-
tor.
The contest had see-sawed back
and forth. Everything had been
measured except the noses Of the. two
candidates-which was reserved for
the last day.
Public Measurements.
=
institution scientists are engaged In
the measurements that will decide
the momentous contest. With delicate
Instruments the dimensions Of Smiths
nose have been taken. It is .0023S4 of
an inch longer than normal. with
suppressed excitement which recalled
the old, crude ballot box elections OF
centuries before the crowd waits for
the announcement concerning Jones
which would decide the contest.
At last 1t comes.
nounced the Chairman Of the scien-
lists. ".oooo71 longer than that Of Mr..
Smith. This leaves us no choice.
Mr.. Smith Is tho next senator"
A wild howl goes up from the
dejectediy on the. platform. sudden
ly draws q revolver from his hip
pocket ana shoots himself through
the heart.
Thus ends the election.
May Como to This.
VIII. II ever come to this? DR..
Arthur Mcdonald, specialist Of the
nationally known anthropologist. be-
lieves there may be time when
public ofYicials win be chosen by ex-
act mental measurements. at least,
rather than by unbiased estimates.
aid has Just published In Italy the
first scientific anthropological study
ever made of the United states Senate
in average session, including tables OF
ris'esS rissy Of sources ssse on % the relation Of
lawmaking efficiency to type.
The conclusions to be drawn still
are vague. DIR. Mcdonald admits. but
he thinks his tables may be start
later on.
Best from CsuAtry.
For example. the ideal senator. ac-
cording to the tables. is q profess
sional man, born in the country, with
a common school but not college
or university education. Professional
scss -. tan.s nn' os n .ol
men. Senators with only q common
school education rate '47o efficiency
units as compared with 416 for sem
ators with q college education and
cation. The average Of those born
in the city rates only 13o units COM
pared with 143 for the average of
those born the country.
DR.. Mcdonald arrives at his scale
of unit measurement by a compli-
Gated process in which are credited
the number of legislative measures
introduced, the number successfully
put through the Senate, the num-
Der Of speeches made. the length.
the nature OF bills. etc.
Slowly the quality of statesmen Is
becoming poorer. DR.. Mcdonald holds.
This, however, he attributes to the
working OF q natural law which is
human race, the workings OF which
have been noticeable since humanity
was on one of its highest planes dur
Ing the century or SO OF Athenian
culture.
In other words. he holds that man
Kind Is growing "dumber" as It grows
older, and finally. many thousands Of
years after the Smith-Jones contest
In 3000 AID. will have degenerated
to point where reasoning intelli-
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