BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



has a mere social urge for educational gloss is able to 

 obtain it. It would be a much better policy to reorganize 

 the whole educational system in a way which would 

 permit the establishment of specialized schools fitted to 

 the different requirements of our variant population. The 

 gifted child should be our special care. The progress of a 

 people depends largely upon the upper 1 per cent. Dr. 

 Cox has shown that the leaders of the world, the geniuses 

 of various types who have made civilization, have been 

 exceptionally intelligent as children. Intelligence tests 

 have been sufficiently perfected to enable us to select such 

 a group. Psychologists cannot guarantee that they will all 

 be leaders; they can guarantee that the leaders will come 

 from among them. What greater service to humanity could 

 a government perform than to select and train everyone who 

 shows promise of outstanding ability, no matter from what 

 walk of life he comes? 



If the members of each generation of United States citi- 

 zens were grouped and trained according to their gifts, it 

 might be well to give up the "one man, one vote" idea. 

 Plural voting for the higher grades of trained intelligence 

 is surely sensible, and it might be an incentive to accom- 

 plishment. It sounds so heretical, however, that I shall not 

 advocate it. Yet there is no reason why one should be over- 

 cautious in suggesting educational qualifications for suf- 

 frage that are high enough to insure some real fitness in 

 the electorate. The principle has been accepted, but as 

 applied to-day it means nothing. The requirement in the 

 most advanced states is merely the ability to read by rote a 

 few sentences of the constitution. The result is a democracy 

 of voters of which not over 50 per cent rationalize their 

 duties. The remaining half is a mob swayed by clerical 

 wowsers, venal editors, and political demagogues. 



These suggestions may seem too generally theoretical, 

 and therefore too vague to enlist general interest. Really 



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