DANGER OF DECLINING INTELLIGENCE 211 



achievement. For instance, women with four years or more 

 of college education fall far short (by minus 44 per cent) of 

 replacing themselves, whereas women with only one to four 

 years of grade school are doubHng their numbers. The re- 

 port shows that high school graduates, even though they do 

 not continue their education, fail reproductively by some 

 minus 20 per cent to replace themselves. All plus reproduc- 

 tive activity is carried on below the level of third-year high 

 school, most of it at the one-to-six-year grade school level. 



The same survey also shows a very great difference be- 

 tween the reproductive performance of women at the vari- 

 ous economic levels. The reproductive gain at the lowest 

 economic level more than doubles that segment of the pop- 

 ulation each generation, whereas at the highest level the re- 

 placement falls short by some minus 17 per cent. 



On the basis of this study, sponsored by the United States 

 government itself, our future population will come mostly 

 from the least educated and poorest segment of the people. 

 Add to this the differential I.Q. studies listed above and the 

 future prospect is not a happy one, but still no public official 

 or churchman, or for that matter medical man or pubHc 

 health authority, has anything but silence to offer when the 

 prospect is called to their attention. The opposition either 

 ignores or states categorically that the claims for I.Q. decline 

 are not supported by the evidence. 



Various studies have shown that the differential birth 

 rate which is bringing about a decline in the average level 

 of intelligence in the United States is also operating in 

 England and at about the same ratio. Raymond Cattell, a 

 British psychologist, tested the I.Q.'s of all ten-year-old 

 children in Leicester and in rural Devon and correlated 

 these findings with the fertility rates of the actual popula- 

 tions in these two locations. Cattell reported that the aver- 

 age intelligence of the rural population was declining more 

 than two I.Q. points per generation, and the city of Leices- 

 ter population a little less than two I.Q. points per genera- 



