War Against the Weak Read online

  But Binet’s intent was turned upside down by American eugenicists. The key instrument of that distortion was psychologist Henry Goddard, an ardent eugenic crusader who became the movement’s leading warrior against the feebleminded. In 1906, the year after Binet published his intelligence test, Goddard was hired to direct the research laboratory at the Vineland Training School for Feebleminded Girls and Boys in Vineland, New Jersey. When the ERO was created a few years later, Goddard routinely made his patients available for assessment and family tracing.53

  In 1913, Goddard published an influential book in the eugenics world, The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeblemindedness. In the tradi- tion of The Jukes and The Tribe of Ishmael, Goddard traced the ancestry, immorality and social menace of a large family he named the Kallikaks. He created the surname by combining the Greek words for “beauty” and “bad.” The story of the Kallikaks presented more than just another defective genealogy. The book spun a powerful eugenic lesson and moral warning.54

  Family patriarch Martin Kallikak, from the Revolutionary War era, was actually a splendid eugenic specimen who fathered an illustrious line of American descendants by his legitimate and eugenically sound Quaker wife. But Goddard claimed that the same Martin Kallikak had also engaged in an illicit affair with a feebleminded girl, which spawned “a race of defective degenerates.”55

  Foreshadowing a philosophy that low intelligence was a hereditary curse, Goddard wrote that the bad Kallikaks were “feebleminded, and no amount of education or good environment can change a feebleminded individual into a normal one, any more than it can change a red-haired stock into a black-haired stock.” To drive his point home, Goddard included a series of photographs of nefarious-looking and supposedly defective Kallikak family members. These photos had been doctored, darkening and distorting the eyes, mouths, eyebrows, nose and other facial features to make the adults and children appear stupid. Although retouching published photos was common during this era, the consistent addition of sinister features allowed Goddard to effectively portray the Kallikaks as mental and social defectives.56

  Added to the ominous photos were highly detailed descriptions of the Kallikak family tree. Goddard had anticipated that some might question how such meticulous biographical information about Kallikak ancestors-often hailing back nearly a century and a half-could be reliably extracted from feebleminded descendants. His answer: “After some experience, the field worker becomes expert in inferring the condition of those persons who are not seen, from the similarity of the language used in describing them to that used in describing persons whom she has seen. “57

  For example, Goddard’s assistant asked one farmer, “Do you remember an old man, Martin Kallikak, who lived on the mountain edge yonder?” The book’s text quotes the exchange: “‘Do I?’ he answered. ‘Well, I guess! Nobody’d forget him. Simple,’ he went on; ‘not quite right here,’ tapping his head, ‘but inoffensive and kind. All the family was that.’” Goddard recited this documentation in a chapter entitled “Further Facts.”58

  Mass sterilization, in Goddard’s view, was merely the first step in corralling the feebleminded. Sterilization did not diminish sexual function, just reproductive capability. Therefore, Goddard asked, “What will be the effect upon the community in the spread of debauchery and disease through having within it a group of people who are thus free to gratify their instincts without fear of consequences in the form of children?… The feebleminded seldom exercise restraint in any case.”59

  His answer: mass incarceration in special colonies. “Segregation through colonization seems in the present state of our knowledge to be the ideal and perfectly satisfactory method.”60

  Davenport and Goddard both craved a more scientific measurement to identify the feebleminded they targeted. To that end, Goddard translated Binet’s intelligence test into English to create a new American tool for intelligence testing. Binet had originally labeled the highest class of retarded child débile, French for “weak.” Goddard changed that, coining a new word: moron. It was derived from moros, Greek for “stupid and foolish.”61

  Financing would be needed to prove Goddard’s new test reliable in the field. “It would be very valuable for the general problem of Eugenics,” Goddard outlined to Davenport in a July 25, 1912 letter, “…in connection with the heredity of feeble-mindedness because… we could judge the probable development of the child from the mental condition of the parents.” The problem? “Our finances have failed us,” wrote Goddard. “I trust you will be able to provide for some such work as this.”62

  Goddard was provided for. By 1913, he had taken his new intelligence test and a team of testers to Ellis Island to conduct experiments. American eugenicists long believed that the majority of immigrants, especially brown-haired Irish, Eastern European Jews and southeastern Italians, were genetically defective. As such, they could be expected to contribute a disproportionate number of feebleminded to American shores. At Ellis Island’s massive intake centers, Goddard’s staff initially selected just twenty Italians and nineteen Russians for assessment because they “appeared to be feebleminded.” He believed in the “unmistakable look of the feeble-minded,” bragging that to spot the feebleminded, just “a glance sufficed.” Ultimately, 148 Jews, Hungarians, Italians and Russians were chosen for examination.63

  Predictably, Goddard’s version of the Binet test showed that 40 percent of immigrants tested as feebleminded. Moreover, he wrote, “60 percent of the [Jewish immigrants] classify as morons.” In reporting his results in the Journal of Delinquency, Goddard further argued that an improved test would reveal even greater numbers of feebleminded immigrants. “We cannot escape feeling,” wrote Goddard, “that this method is too lenient… too low for prospective American citizens.” He explained, “It should be noted that the immigration of recent years is of a decidedly different character from the earlier immigration. It is no longer representative of the respective races. It is admitted on all sides that we are now getting the poorest of each race.”64

  Goddard’s version of Binet’s test, and the new term moron, began to proliferate throughout eugenic, educational, custodial, psychological and other scientific circles as a valid-if still developing-form of intelligence testing. Mental testing, under different names and on different scales, quickly emerged as a fixture of social science, frequently linked to eugenic investigation and sterilization efforts. Such tests were invariably exploited by the ERO for its eugenic agenda. In 1915, for example, Detroit’s superintendent of schools tested 100 teenagers who had attended special classes. The Eugenics Record Office circulated a note in connection with the test: “It would be very interesting to secure the family history of those children who improve and did not markedly improve.” Mental examinations as a condition of a marriage licenses were advocated by the president of New York’s Association of County Superintendents of Poor and Poor Law Officers; moreover, the association president also urged the sterilization of any children who could be shown as feebleminded or epileptic by age twelve.65

  Chicago’s central jail, the House of Correction, studied the “practicality of the Binet Scale and the question of the border line case.” By including the so-called “borderline,” who tested near but not within the moron range, more persons could be classed as feebleminded or “nearly feeble-minded.” Chicago Municipal Chief Judge Harry Olson, responsible for sentencing prisoners to the House of Correction, was a revered leader of the eugenics movement. At the time of the House of Correction study, he reminded colleagues, “We have laid too great importance on the environmental factors and paid too little attention to the problem of heredity.”66

  Mental tests applied to Blacks led to an article in the Archives of Psychology reporting that when 486 whites and 907 Blacks were examined, Blacks scored only three-fourths as well as their white counterparts. The article noted that pure Blacks tested the lowest, about 60 percent lower than whites. But as the amount of white blood increased in their ancestry, so did the test s
cores. The authors concluded, “In view of all the evidence it does not seem possible to raise the scholastic attainments of the negro…. It is probable that no expenditure of time or of money would accomplish this end, since education cannot create mental power.”67

  In 1916, a conference on feeblemindedness and insanity assembled in Indiana to an overflowing attendance, where, as eugenicists reported, “The keynote of the whole conference was prevention rather then cure.” The group heard many papers on “mental tests and their value.” Even though many conferees claimed these mental tests were still in their infancy, eugenicists insisted the examinations did not need to be judged because they were merely “short-cuts” to “the final test of the person’s mentality.”68

  Nonetheless, many openly disputed the validity of Goddard’s intelligence test. In one case, the Magdalen Home for the Feebleminded commenced an involuntary commitment of a slow-learning twenty-one-year-old New York woman, based on her low Binet scores. The woman’s fervent protest against incarceration was vindicated by a New York judge, who ruled in her favor, declaring: “All criteria of mental incapacity are artificial and the deductions therefrom must necessarily lack verity and be, to a great extent, founded on conjecture.”69

  More sophisticated tests than Goddard’s began to appear. The Yerkes-Bridge Point Scale for Intelligence, for instance, was employed by ERO field workers “measuring the intelligence of members of pedigrees that are being investigated.” The ERO printed special rating forms for the test. The test’s creator, Harvard psychologist Robert Yerkes, was a leading eugenic theorist and a former student of Davenport’s. Yerkes was a member of many elite eugenic committees, including the Committee on the Inheritance of Mental Traits and the Committee on the Genetic Basis of Human Behavior. Two years after helping invent the Point Scale, Yerkes became president of the American Psychological Association.70

  Europe exploded into war in 1914. America did not join the fray until 1917, but when it did, Washington struggled to classify more than three million drafted and enlisted soldiers. American Psychological Association president Yerkes pleaded for intelligence testing. He gathered Goddard and Stanford University eugenic activist Lewis Terman and others to help develop standardized examinations. Working from May to July of 1917 at Goddard’s laboratory at the Vineland Training School for Feebleminded Girls and Boys in New Jersey, these eugenic psychologists and others jointly developed what they portrayed as scientifically designed army intelligence tests. These were submitted to the army, and the surgeon general soon authorized mass testing71

  Two main tests were devised: the written Army Alpha test for English-speaking literate men, and the pictoral Army Beta test for those who could not read or speak English. The Alpha test’s multiple-choice questions could certainly be answered by sophisticated urbanites familiar with the country’s latest consumer products, popular art and entertainment. Yet most of America’s draftees hailed from an unsophisticated, rural society. Large numbers of them had “never been off the farm.”72 Many came from insular religious families, which disdained theater, slick magazines and smoking. No matter, the mental capacity of everyone who could read and write was measured by the same pop culture yardstick.

  Question: “Five hundred is played with… “ Possible answers: rackets, pins, cards, dice. Correct response: cards.

  Question: “Becky Sharp appears in…” Possible answers: Vanity Fair, Romola, The Christmas Carol, Henry IV: Correct response: Vanity Fair.

  Question: “The Pierce Arrow car is made in…” Possible answers: Buffalo, Detroit, Toledo, Flint. Correct response: Buffalo.

  Question: “Marguerite Clark is known as a…” Possible answers: suffragist, singer, movie actress, writer. Correct response: movie actress.

  Question: “Velvet Joe appears in advertisements for…” Possible answers: tooth powder, dry goods, tobacco, soap. Correct response: tobacco.

  Question: “‘Hasn’t scratched yet’ is used in advertising a…” Possible answers: drink, revolver, flour, cleanser. Correct response: cleanser.73

  Americans and naturalized immigrants who could neither read nor write English were administered the Beta picture exam. For example, Beta Test 6 offered twenty simple sketches with something missing. “Fix it,” the subject was instructed. He was then expected to pencil in the missing element. Bowling balls were missing from a bowling lane. The center net was subtracted from a tennis court. The incandescent filament was erased from a lightbulb. A stamp was missing from a postcard. The upper left diamond was missing from a sketch of the jack of diamonds on a playing card.74

  A third test was administered to those who could not score appreciably on either the Alpha or Beta tests. Dr. Terman of Stanford had created a so-called Stanford revision of the Binet test, later named the Stanford-Binet Test. This test was only an update of Goddard’s work.75

  Predictably, Yerkes’s results from all three tests identified vast numbers of morons among the eugenically inferior groups-so many that Yerkes asserted the army could not afford to reject all of them and still go to war. “It would be totally impossible to exclude all morons,” reported Yerkes, because “47 percent of whites and 89 percent of Negroes” were shown to have a mental capacity below that of a thirteen-year-old. By contrast, the tests verified that feeblemindedness among eugenically cherished groups was indeed miniscule: Dutch people, a tenth of a single percent; Germans, just two-tenths of one percent; English, three-tenths; Swedes, less than half of one percent.76

  In 1912, the German psychologist William Stern had begun referring to Binet’s original “intelligence level” as an “intelligence age.” Stern went further, dividing the intelligence age by the chronological age to create a ratio. In doing so, he coined the term intelligence quotient. Four years later, after Terman created the Stanford version of Goddard’s Binet test, Terman and Yerkes wanted a more identifiable number, one that could be popularized. In 1916, using the Stanford-Binet test, Terman divided mental age by chronological age, and then multiplied by 100. This became the American version of the intelligence quotient. Terman nicknamed it IQ. The moniker became an instant icon of intelligence. Scales and rankings were devised. Those classified below a certain level, 70 scale points, were graded as either “morons,” “imbeciles,” or “idiots.”77

  Feeblemindedness now had a number. Soon everyone would receive one. Terman knew how such a number could be used. While studying California public school children, he argued, “If we would preserve our state for a class of people worthy to possess it, we must prevent, as far as possible, the propagation of mental degenerates.”78

  Yerkes’s work was advanced by another eugenic activist, Princeton psychologist Carl Brigham. A radical raceologist, Brigham analyzed Yerkes’s findings for the world at large, casting them as eugenic evidence of Nordic supremacy and the racial inferiority of virtually everyone else. Brigham’s 1922 book, A Study of American Intelligence, published by no less than Princeton University Press, openly conceded that the volume was based on two earlier raceological books, Madison Grant’s virulently racist Passing of the Great Race, and William Ripley’s equally biased Races of Europe. Before Brigham’s book was published, a team of prestigious colleagues from the surgeon general’s office, Harvard, Syracuse University and Princeton pored over his manuscript, verifying his conclusions, as did Yerkes himself, who also wrote the foreword.79

  “We still find tremendous differences between the non-English speaking Nordic group and the Alpine and Mediterranean groups,” wrote Brigham. “The underlying cause of the nativity differences we have shown is race and not language.” Moreover, “The decline in intelligence is due to two factors: the change in the races migrating to this country, and to the additional factor of the sending of lower and lower representatives of each race…. The conclusion [is] that our test results indicate a genuine intellectual superiority of the Nordic group over the Alpine and Mediterranean groupS.”80

  According to Brigham, Negro intelligence was predestined by racial hered
ity, but could be improved by “the greater amount of admixture of white blood.”81

  Brigham concluded, “According to all evidence available, then, American intelligence is declining, and will proceed with an accelerating rate as the racial admixture becomes more and more extensive. The decline of American intelligence will be more rapid than the decline of the intelligence of European national groups,” he warned, “owing to the presence here of the negro.” He added, “The results which we obtain by interpreting the Army data… support Mr. Madison Grant’s thesis of the superiority of the Nordic type…. “82

  Quickly, A Study of American Intelligence became a scientific standard. Shortly after its publication, Brigham adapted the Army Alpha test for use as a college entrance exam. It was first administered to Princeton freshman and applicants to Cooper Union. Later the College Board asked Brigham to head a committee to create a qualifying test for other private colleges in the Northeast and eventually across the country. Brigham’s effort produced the Scholastic Aptitude Test, administered mainly to upper middle-class white students. The test quickly became known as the SAT and was eventually employed at colleges across the country. Over time, more and more colleges required high school students to take the test and score high enough to qualify for application.83

  The deeply flawed roots of the IQ test, the SAT and most other American intelligence tests were more than apparent to many thinking people of the period. It became glaringly obvious that the tests were vehicles for cultural exclusion. Poor-scoring southern Italian immigrants would not have known who the latest Broadway stars were or which brands of flour were popular. They were, however, steeped in the arias of operatic masters, the arts in general, and had discovered the secrets of fine cooking centuries before. Jews-who overwhelmingly scored as moronic-were often only literate in Yiddish. But they enjoyed a rich tradition of Talmudic scholarship that debated to abstraction the very essence of life and God’s will. Farm boys may not have been aware that Velvet Joe was a cigarette advertising character, but they grasped the intricate agrarian tenets of growing and curing tobacco leaves to produce the perfect smoke.