212 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



tion. It was quite likely, according to Cattell, that the whole 

 British population was declining in average intelligence at 

 a rate of more than two I.Q. points per generation, and that 

 the rate would tend to increase in the future. 



From this and other studies, notably the long-range sur- 

 vey of population initiated in 1932 by Sir Godfrey Thomp- 

 son, English civic leaders found reason to be alarmed. In 

 1942 the Churchill government appointed a 14-member 

 Royal Commission on Population with instructions to ex- 

 amine the facts relating to population trends, to investigate 

 the causes and consequences of these trends, and to recom- 

 mend measures, if any, that should be taken to influence such 

 trends in the national interest. The Commission was com- 

 posed of men and women from the fields of government, 

 statistics, economics, medicine, and biology, and it invited 

 spokesmen for professional, sociological, ecclesiastical, and 

 technical societies to air their views and submit reports. For 

 several years the work went on and all phases of the prob- 

 lem were probed. Then in 1949 the Commission presented 

 its report and the Labour Government promptly published 

 it. 



The report is very frank and direct in its wording and 

 looks squarely at the issue of quantity and quality of popu- 

 lation. The Commission recognized the absolute necessity 

 of controlling fertility in Great Britain; otherwise, if early 

 twentieth-century rates of growth continued, it would 

 mean "an increase of the population to 130 millions by the 

 year 2000 and 460 millions by 2100." The report saw a 

 grave danger in differential fertility rates and accepted in 

 general the assumption of the loss in average intelligence in 

 successive generations in these words: ". . . they all point 

 to a rather serious drop in average intelligence with a more 

 than corresponding increase in mental deficiency and de- 

 crease of high intelligence (say of scholarship standard)." 



The Commission advocated measures to encourage people 

 of above-average mentality to have more children but did 



