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MEMOIRS NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



[Vol. XV, 



C. Level of good white privates ; the large average group of the white draft. 



D. Inferior. Only just good enough to make a satisfactory soldier. 



E. Very inferior. Too poor to make a satisfactory soldier. 



If there were not as many as 10 men who fell certainly within the A group or the E group, 

 as many were to be reported as seemed capable of certain classification in these groups. A 

 rating on military value in relation to white troops was expressly asked for, since what was 

 desired was an estimate of the absolute rather than of the relative value of the men. Such 

 ratings were requested from two different groups of drafted negroes. 



From this procedure there resulted 238 negro cases for which the examiner had both a 

 rating on military value and a psychological rating. The following is the correlation table for 

 these two ratings, for which the coefficient of correlation is 0.60. 



The results of the investigation are summarized as follows: 



(a) Less than 2 per cent of negroes are of A value to the military service when compared with white troops. 

 (6) About 25 per cent are considered by their officers as " too poor to make a satisfactory soldier." Most of these 

 are D intelligence or less. 



(c) Nearly all the negroes who rate D — or E in intelligence and about half of those who rate D in intelligence are 

 reported as "too poor to make a satisfactory soldier." 



(d) D — intelligence is seldom more than just barely satisfactory. 



Written comment was invited from the officers who made the ratings and their responses 

 are summarized as follows: 



(a) All officers without exception agree that the negro lacks initiative, displays little or no leadership, and can not 

 accept responsibility. Some point out that these defects are greater in the southern .negro. 



(6) All officers seem further to agree that the negro is a cheerful, willing soldier, naturally subservient. These 

 qualities make for immediate obedience, although not necessarily for good discipline, since petty thieving and venereal 

 disease are commoner than with white troops. 



A confirmation of correspondence between psychological ratings and officers' estimates of 

 military value of negroes at the lower end of the scale is contained in a report from Camp 

 Taylor (October 1, 1918). Two hundred and twenty-one negroes of the Eight hundred and 

 fourteenth Pioneer Infantry were referred to the psychological board by the camp surgeon, 

 these men having been selected by their company commanders as those who were inapt and slow 

 and not able to drill. These men were given psychological examinations and 109 of the 221 were 

 found mentally unfit for military service. The remainder were recommended for development 

 battalion. None rated higher than 7.8 years mentally. 



In the case of white recruits a high correlation has been found to exist between psychological 

 rating and military value. The report from Camp Upton indicates that the same is true in the 

 case of negroes, and that just as they are inferior to the whites in intelligence, so also are they 

 inferior in their value to the military service. It should be noted that estimates of the military 

 value of the negro are available for correlation with intelligence ratings only from officers who 

 have observed the men in camp and during their training period. The question of the military 

 value of the negro fighter when he gets actually into action may well be quite a separate one 

 and it is at all events one which our present data do not enable us to discuss. 



