54 



The Journal of Heredity 



These ohservations strongly support 

 the view that some of the highly 

 fecund stocks (Russians, Poles. Ital- 

 ians, etc.). which form a large part 

 of our more than thirteen millions of 

 foreign-born whites, are of compara- 

 tively low intelligence. This does not 

 mean that the average intelligence in 

 the particular countries from which 

 these immigrants came is inferior to 

 ours ; it may only signify that the 

 poorer material migrates to us. 



Such rather unpromising strains are 

 helping to fill the gaps left by the 

 dwindling old American families that 

 have made the country what it is. 

 We should welcome those immigrants 

 who are morally and mentally our 

 equals or superiors ; they may bring 

 us strength and stability. But we must 

 be cautious about admitting inferior 

 strains. The whole problem of im- 

 migration should be very carefully 

 studied at this time, not by politicians, 

 but by scientifically-minded persons 

 who are competent to discover the 

 facts, and to recommend which types 

 should be admitted and which excluded. 



The Families of College Graduates 



Let us turn now to a consideration 

 of the reproductive rate among college 

 graduates. Keeping in mind the fact 

 that mental ability may be inherited, 

 the marriage and birth rates among 

 college graduates are eugsnically im- 

 portant, because these persons are un- 

 doubtedly above the average mentally. 

 Anyone who has run the gauntlet of 

 the public school and college courses 

 realizes that the vast majority of his 

 schoolmates (not far from 09 per 

 cent according to the report on the 

 army mental tests) drop out of the 

 race before graduation from college. 

 Many leave school, no doubt, for eco- 

 nomic or temperamental reasons, but 

 unquestionably a large proportion de- 

 part because they are mentally unable 

 to maintain the pace. The army 

 mental tests confirm this view (Part 

 III, Chapter X). The examiners con- 

 clude : 



"Distinctly more than average in- 

 telligence would seem to be a pre- 

 requisite to a college education, and 

 almost as strictly a prerequisite to 

 graduation from or even entering high 

 school." 



It is disquieting to note, in the 

 light of the facts stated in the last 

 paragraph, that the birth rate in this 

 selected group, college graduates, is 

 comparatively low. 



Johnson and Stutzmann^' have 

 studied the classes of Wellesley Col- 

 lege which graduated from 1879-1888. 

 Only fifty-five per cent of the women 

 had married. The number of children 

 per graduate was .86 ; per wife, 1.56 

 Such absurdly small families obviously 

 fall far short of replacing the excellent 

 stock from which these girls doubtless 

 came. 



Popenoe and Johnson" furnish the 

 data for the following citations. The 

 number of children per graduate from 

 Mount Holyoke College has declined 

 from 2.37, for classes graduating from 

 1843 to 1849, to .95 per graduate for 

 those graduating during the years from 

 1890 to 1893. Bryn Mawr graduates in 

 the classes from 1888 to 1900 had borne 

 only .37 of a child per graduate by 

 1913. Sprague finds that of the grad- 

 uates of Vassar College in the classes 

 from 1867 to 1893, 53 per cent mar- 

 ried. There was an average of 1.91 

 children per married graduate, and but 

 1.00 child per graduate. 



Phillips^' has studied the birth and 

 marriage rates among the graduates of 

 Harvard and Yale in the classes from 

 about 1850 to 1890. At Harvard the 

 average number of children per gradu- 

 ate has decreased from 1.98 (1861- 

 1870) to 1.55 (1881-1890). At Yale 

 the corresponding data are 3.53 children 

 (1850-1859), and 1.53 (1881-1890). 



Banker'" has demonstrated a decrease 

 of the birth rate in the families of 

 men and women liberal arts graduates 

 of Syracuse University. The average 

 number of surviving children of the 

 women graduates, per graduate, of the 

 classes of 1853 to 1861 was 1.73. This 



