The Early Marriage Question 



95 



in the world's history. It says intel- 

 lectually eminent men. The majorit}^ 

 of men are produced by breeding faster 

 than three generations to the century, 

 and it is easy to find mediocrities so 

 produced. There are more than 50,000- 

 000 of them in the United States. But 

 can you find a real intellectual giant so 

 produced? Are men like Copernicus, 

 Newton, Faraday, Kant, Goethe, Shake- 

 speare, Milton, Leibnitz, Lao-Tse, 

 Buddha, Mohammed, Loyola, Luther, 

 etc., produced by breeding as rapidly 

 as three generations to the century"" I 

 think not. 



"The offer in the tail-male line 

 included three cases of four generations 

 within a century. You give that only 

 in the ease of Buccleuch. The genera- 

 tions are 20 4-27 + 25-}- 26 = 98 years." 



After considering the two letters, the 

 council of the American Genetic Associa- 

 tion decided that no one had submitted 

 data fulfilling the requirements of the 

 offer, and ordered Mr. Redfield's certi- 

 fied check for $200 to be returned to 

 him. 



PROF. Johnson's position. 



Professor Johnson, whose advocacy 

 of early marriage brought forth Mr. 

 Redfield's challenge, has sent in the 

 following note reiterating his position: 



" Mr. Redfield is quite safe in holding 

 that in illustrious stocks the generations 

 are long. It is just this that I contend 

 calls for remedy. To conclude from 

 this, however, that late children are 

 superior mentally is wholly unwarranted. 

 Such late births will still be found to be 

 prevalent with the superior, irrespective 

 of whether late children shall be shown 

 to be c qual or superior to early children 

 from the same parents. The reasons 

 for these delayed marriages and births 

 are now too familiar to call for repeti- 

 tion here. 



"May I in turn suggest to Mr. 

 Redfield a sound method of testing his 

 hypothesis? Ascertain the number of 

 brothers and the ordinal position among 

 these of all the men in some standard 



collection of the names of illustrious 

 men which will furnish the desired 

 infomiation. Sisters, owing to the 

 different chance of becoming^ renowned, 

 and half-brothers and stepbrothers are 

 to be omitted. Compare the age of the 

 parents at the birth of the most illus- 

 trious with the average age for his 

 brothers in each family. 



"But aside from this, even if Mr. 

 Redfield's hypothesis prove correct, it 

 is still true that inferior stocks are 

 producing more early children as well 

 as children in general than are the 

 superior stocks. The mere lengthening 

 of the generations of all stocks will not 

 change the ill-balanced production of 

 the next generation. It is necessary to 

 increase the reproduction of the superior 

 relative to the inferior, no matter to 

 what other device resort may be made. 

 Later marriage of the superior as com- 

 pared with the inferior is therefore 

 necessarily dysgenic." 



Assuming for the sake of argument 

 that the children of young parents are 

 inferior, are' they inferior because their 

 parents are young, or are they inferior 

 merely because they are first-born 

 children' Readers will remember that 

 the English Biometrie school and other 

 investigators have reached the latter 

 conclusion; others have as strongly 

 denied it. To settle this point, an in- 

 vestigation somewhat similar to the one 

 suggested by Professor Johnson has 

 been set on foot by the Italian Anthro- 

 pological society.' When it is concluded, 

 there should be some adequate ground 

 for holding an opinion as to the supe- 

 riority or inferiority of the first-born. 

 In the meantime it should not be 

 supposed that the failure of anyone to 

 present such cases of genius produced 

 by rapid breeding as called for by Mr. 

 Redfield, settles the question of the 

 influence of age of parent on quality of 

 offspring. Though one of the most 

 important questions in constructive 

 eugenics, it is a question with many 

 sides, and its solution has only been 

 touched. 



- Preliminary results of this investigation indicate that first-born sons are as good as their 

 successors, if not better. See "Superiority of the Eldest," by Corrado Gini, in the Journal of 

 Her DiTY, VI, 1, p. 37, January, 1915. The opposite view, with a brief review of the whole 

 controversy, is givenbv John H. Chase, "Weakness of Eldest Sons," Journal of Heredity, V, 5, 

 209, May, 1914. 



