Evening star., 1938-07-02
OF STARS
MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Prosres.
in Field, Laboratory
and Study.
By THOMAS r. HENRY.

go - A~A>~S A~0~OA ~hOAS
and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
OTTAWA, July 2-The "tele," newly
discovered social force, was introduced
to the psychologists of the American
Association for the Advancement of Sci
ence here last week.
1t is the measurable attraction or
repulsion between races in contact with
each other, according to its discoverer,
DR.. J. L. Moreno. New York psychiatrist.
"Tele'- Greek for distance - can be
positive or negative like electricity, he
said, and seems to have some analogy to
sex attraction and repulsion among in
dividuals
His findings reported today were based
on studies of prisoners in Sing Sing, girls
in reform school, public school children
In New York City. kindergarten and
nursery children, two Resettlement Ad-
ministration projects, and several open
villages where folks could come and 20 as
they pleased.
The "tele," he said, measurably veers
from positive to negative when the num-
bers Of minority race in a community
reach a certain saturation point and as
the negative charge increases there are
race hatreds and clashes. It could be
studied with some eXactness, DR., Mo-
reno pointed out, in such closed COM
munities as Sing Sing or the reform
school where various numbers of differ
ent races could be mixed together and
the results studied. For example, the
number Of Negroes in a white group
could be gradually increased and the
feeling of the majority would gradually
change from liking to Indifference TO
hatred.
Positive "tele" he stressed, has been
a major force in knitting society toeeth-
er. Among school children he found a
curious variation with age. Thus up to
the age of or there is a notable
attraction between white and colored
children and between children of differ
ent white races. They seem to prefer
playmates from the other race rather
than from their own.
Then the 'tele" swings rapidly toward
the negative pole and at about the 1lth
year reaches the point of positive repul-
sion and cleavage-the degree varying
with the initial differences between the
races. Then there may be a swing back
toward indifference, or even liking if
the numbers of the other race or not
too great.
This is almost the same age relation.
he said, as is found in the associations
between boys and girls. The point of
farthest cleavage from children of an
other race comedies with the point at
which boys are most ashamed to be seen
with the opposite sex.
"Tele" measurements. he said, must
be taken into consideration in COM
munity settlement projects and in the
regulation of immigration from the
South to the North or from Europe
The United States. he stressed, can
stand vastly more immigration from all
the European countries than it now
allows If the immigrants are so dis
trlouted that their numbers in any one
community do not throw the "tele" of
the dominant race out of balance.
Foreigners. he stressed are usually
liked when there are only few of them.
Dislike grows sharply when racial sat-
uration point, which can be determined
in advance, is reached.
Some major element in the develop
ment Of the human brain depends on
what happens to it in early infancy.
Evidence for this was presented to
psychologists Of the association by DR..
Frank s. Freeman of Cornell University.
Various experiments have shown, he
said. that intelligence as measured by
tests can be increased markedly by
changing children from bad to good diets
and environments. 1t now appears that
tho ic roIo TOD - to
age at which the change is made
He cited one test in which malnour-
ished children between ages of and
were placed on adequate diets and
gained an average of 10 points in I. @.
over three years and half. But those
for whom the change took place at 2
years gained IS points. the 3-year- -olds
IA points. the 4-year-olds points, and
all the others only an average of 2
points.
He also told of experiments with rats
by his associates at Cornell in which
physique, longevity and behavior were
notably changed by different diets from
infancy. Here also the change in be-
havior. comparable to human mental
behavior, depended on the age at which
an enriched diet was given. An intensive
chemical examination of the brains of
these rats now is planned, he said, in an
effort to find the eclusive factor.
This stage of brain growth has been a
sadly neglected factor in education, he
said. States have gone to great expense
to open up all possible higher education
for all children with brains to take ad-
vantage of it. They have passed over
the stage at which the higher class of
brains might be differentiated from the
average by giving them enough to eat.
There is widespread fallacy, he said,
that the degree of intelligence is deter
mined entirely by heredity and that even
If it could be raised slightly by better
environment for the race as a whole the
relative status of individuals would not
be changed. Actually, he insisted, many
potential high intelligences that are
dwarfed during the critical infancy
period could be given q chance to
develop
Even the potentialities of the adult
brain, he stressed, are brought out to a
greater degree by such drugs as ben
zedrine sulfate, now often used by COL
lege students before an examination.
Environmental factors which may
lower the intelligence with which child
is born, he said, probably include depri-
vation of oxygen at the time of birth
and in severe infancy cases of pneu-
monia or whooping cough.