GOOD QUALITIES ARE CORRELATED 



Hope for the Eugenist, and One Objection Answered 



Frederick Adams Woods 

 Lecturer on Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 



IT is often gratuitously stated that the 

 aims of eugenists will be thwarted 

 because individuals and families 

 possessing rare and desirable quali- 

 ties are likely, in other important 

 ways, to be decidedly deficient. Ac- 

 cording to this theory, there is apt to 

 be compensation in the allotment of 

 human gifts. If "some are born fin- 

 gers, and some are born thumbs," it is 

 assumed that persons over-endowed 

 with thumbs are nevertheless rugged 

 and sturdy and probably staunch in 

 moral fibre. This theory of compensa- 

 tion has been popularized by the emo- 

 tionally appealing and widely read essay 

 of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which bears 

 the title "Compensation." The philos- 

 opher dealt chiefly with the problm of 

 happiness and its dependant spiritual 

 development, and here he may, or may 

 not, be right. However that may be, it 

 is a reasonable assumption that the 

 work of Emerson, as well as that of 

 hosts of other philosophers and preach- 

 ers, is responsible for the notion that 

 the poor, the sick, the stupid and the 

 generally unfortunate are "the pure in 

 heart," the hallowed possessors of di- 

 vinely bestowed virtues. 



That the exact opposite happens to be 

 the truth, will not interest certain 

 types of emotional and sentimental re- 

 formers ; but persons desirous of pro- 

 moting the science of heredity in its ap- 

 plication to human problems may be 

 interested in the evidence that accumu- 

 lates from time to time, all of ivhich 

 points in one direction. 



There is certainly a slowly growing 

 mass of statistical proof that important 



mental and moral qualities are corre- 

 lated. The number of researches is not 

 very extensive, but they should not be 

 overlooked. Most writers on eugenics 

 appear to be unacquainted with the ma- 

 terial bearing on this matter and seem 

 thoughtless as to even the existence of 

 such a question. Among authors who 

 have recognized the significance of in- 

 dividual correlations in eugenic dis- 

 cussions may be mentioned E. L. 

 Thorndike and latterly to some extent 

 Popenoe and Johnson in "Applied Eu- 

 genics." 



Thorndike in his chapter "Eugenics : 

 With Special Reference to Intellect and 

 Character,"^ accepts the idea of a gen- 

 eral correlation of superior and desir- 

 able qualities, and quotes Woods- as 

 proving the correlation of intellect with 

 morality, and morality with fecundity, 

 in statistics gathered for measurements 

 of royal families, but does not 

 specifically mention subsequent re- 

 searches, all of which lead to the view 

 that the correlation of superior qualities 

 is probably a general principle of nature. 



Thorndike states the matter as fol- 

 lows : 



"If we breed horses for speed, they 

 are likely to lose in strength and vigor. 

 Do we run such risks in breeding men 

 for intellect, or for morals, or for skill ? 

 This question has been neglected by 

 the hortatory type of enthusiasts for 

 eugenics. It has not received the at- 

 tention it deserves from the real work- 

 ers for racial improvement, probably 

 because the psychological investigations 

 which answer it are little known. They 

 do, however, give a clear and important 



1 "Eugenics : Twelve University Lectures." New York, 1914. 



^Popular Science Monthly, Oct. 1903, and "Heredity in Royalty." New York, 1906, 

 Mental and moral correlation was found to be r=:.30. 

 84 



