DANGER OF DECLINING INTELLIGENCE 213 



not clearly outline methods of preventing the overrepro- 

 duction of the substandard people. The report did make it 

 clear that any effort to equalize opportunity without cor- 

 recting birth differentials would make matters worse. In 

 this case, one would be lifting a desirable complex of genes 

 out of the reproductive pool. The gifted children would be 

 moved up the social and economic ladder and would then, 

 if they reproduced at the present suicide rate of the higher 

 groups, have the effect of actually speeding up the adverse 

 selection which is lowering the over-all average of ability. 

 In concluding its report, the Commission urged the govern- 

 ment to be fearful of the whole population situation and to 

 set up research facilities whereby more exact knowledge 

 could be obtained, particularly in the phases of control. 



More recently in the United States there has been some 

 optimism reflected in the statement of a special UNESCO 

 committee in which the widely assumed negative associa- 

 tion between intelligence and the number of children per 

 family is questioned. This committee did not think that 

 there is at the present moment reason for "great concern 

 over an impending decline in intelligence." The committee 

 did admit that there seemed to have been a tendency for 

 peoples of high intellect to have too few children, thus pro- 

 ducing a differential fertility which acted, at least, to keep 

 the average intelligence from improving. The committee, 

 however, was of the opinion that whatever the effect, it 

 was now disappearing; that is, that people of high intellect 

 were now reproducing more children. 



Other experts in population genetics insist that there is 

 an immediate danger. Frederick Osborn is of the opinion, 

 based on large-scale samples, that there is a definite need 

 for measures which would give better and earlier economic 

 security to high-intellect people and thus reduce the pres- 

 sures favoring late marriages. Of course, among the pres- 

 sures delaying marriage in well-endowed individuals is the 

 long and costly education necessary for professional voca- 



