Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-11-15
Science Tries to
ExpIoin Mans
Stupidity
<xrHE WORLD chaos of to-
day is due to the debased
intelligence OF the mass


Of civilized men and TO nothing
else" asserts DR.. Ernest Albert
Hooton, Professor of Anthropol-
ogy at Harvard University. in a
new book which will make some
people very angry because he
points an impolite II learned
finger at certain ones who make
a business of debasing that in
telligence.
The book, published by the
Princeton University Press, goes
into the private lives of apes,
monkeys and other primates
whose relationship to man is sus-
pected of being partly the cause
OF his stupid behavior and bears
the title. why Men Behave Like
Apes and Vice Versa" But the
E most startling message is found
in a foreword, which says:
"Of course, we have been SOW
ing the wind for the larger part
of a century and we have now
reaped the whirlwind. The de-
mocracies have drugged them
selves with soporific piatitudes
while demagogues and dictators
have wrought havoc. in a de-
bauched and moronic society"
The author tells OF listening to
the "resounding and witless ver-
bosity" from the chairman Of a
national political convention, ad-
dressing his party in an hour OF
great national danger" But IL
is not the demagogue who knows
how to speak the language of
the moron, that worries the pro-
fessor, but why there are so
many morons to listen. The stu
alton, he says, is this:
The biological fibre of man
has been rotted by Incidence and
inertia so that degenerative be-
havior has become the rule and
not the exception The cultural
causes of human atrophy through
idleness, are machines and public
charity. The human animal must
work with his brain and with his
hands in order TO maintain his
health and his biological status"
Above ali, Professor Hooton
protests the modern fad Of pre-
tending that all men are born
equal mentally and morally and
that the difference between the
law-abiding and the criminal. the
success and the failure, are all
due to environment. ignoring
heredity.
The whole trouble with med
ical science" the professor says,
is that II knows enough To keep
diseased and debilitated men
alive but not enough 10 cure
them. Medicine. in its present
semi-skilled status, saves mil
lions of lives, the most of which
are not worth saving, because
they are infir1m in body and
mind. Medical science should
take note of the Biblical admoni-
ton Whose loseth his life shall
save IL, which in terms Of biolog-
ical salvation means that the
elimination of inferior and dis
eased human stock by natural
selection, insures the preserva-
ton Of the race, through the
limitation Of breeding TO the
filter individuals.
Society can perhaps tolerate
the burden Of supporting hun
dreds Of millions Of patched-up
cripples and invalids who have
become casualties through war
and the ravages Of acute infec-
tions. but IL cannot withstand
the drain upon it's economic and
biological resources which re-
suits from the breeding Of the
constitutional interiors, heredita-
rily-diseased, feeble-minded and
insane"
The author makes clear that
not too much of this is 10 be
blamed on the medical man who.
bound by the oath of Hippo
crates and the laws Of the land.
has little choice but 10 make
every patient live as long as
possible, regardless
From an anthropologist's or
stock-breeder's point of view.
Professor Hooton is puzzled by
the behavior of modern Ger
many. He is unable to put his
finger on any hereditary element
in that nation and say that this
corrupted the stock.
The Germans" he writes.
ARE merely a mysterious exam
pie of a racial blend which has
turned out to be bad. There
occur in the best Of families in
dividuals in whom. apparently.
most of the hidden weaknesses
and recessive vices of the paren-
tai stocks deplorably combine to
produce a hideous, unexpected
and quite uneducatable human
animal. 1t is difficult to conceive