Hall: Psychology and the War 



447 



it must be not by the method of regi- 

 mentation or any kind of organization 

 imposed from without, but by finding 

 the place in hfe for which each is best 

 fitted. Must we not study individuals 

 more than we study vocations, and thus 



perhaps some day may not the very apex 

 of democratic society be found in its 

 psychology, charged with the responsi- 

 bility of seeing to it that the best 

 powers of every man are discovered, 

 developed, and put to their highest use? 



Women's Separate Colleges Are Losing Ground 



As the marriage rate of graduates of 

 women's separate colleges is uniformly 

 very low, it is interesting to the eugenist 

 to note that colleges of this type are not 

 holding their own, of recent years. 

 "Fortunately," says Roswell H. Johnson 

 ("School and Society," 1917, p. 679), 

 "the percentage of women attending 

 coeducational colleges is growing very 

 rapidly. From 1895 to 1902 the number 

 of students in separate colleges for 



women increased from 14,049 to 15,544, 

 while the attendance of women in 

 coeducational colleges increased from 

 13,940 to 23,216. If we exclude Roman 

 Catholic colleges, the percentage of 

 coeducational colleges grew from 30% 

 in 1870 to 72% in 1902. These figures 

 may be in part owing to the attitude 

 indicated by graduates of separate 

 colleges whom I have heard deplore the 

 separateness." 



Money Not Enough to Save Child Lives 



The payment of maternity insurance 

 or benefits has often been mentioned as 

 an effective way of decreasing infant 

 mortality. Such payments are now 

 made in Great Britain but the London 

 New Statesman, reviewing recent statis- 

 tical reports, says that while they have 

 made the price of midwifery go up, 

 they have not had any effect on the 

 infant mortality. This has, indeed, 

 decreased during the war, but it is 



declared that no connection appears 

 between infant deaths and the payment 

 to poor mothers of sufficient money to 

 meet the expenses of confinement. 

 The New Statesman thinks the infant 

 mortality is most closely related to 

 overcrowding. It is quite likely, how- 

 ever, that this is merely symptomatic, 

 and that the fundamental cause of the 

 infant mortality is in a majority of cases 

 inherited weakness. 



A Decrease in American Intelligence 



Possibility of a slow fall in the average 

 intelligence of American towns appears 

 from a study made by Prof. Rudolf 

 Pintner ("School and Society," 1917, 

 p. 597). He reports on a survey made 

 of a town in the middle west (pre- 

 sumably Ohio), with 913 inhabitants. 

 There were 154 children in the grade 

 schools and all of these were examined 

 by means of mental tests. Only one 

 very bright child was discovered; there 

 were 94 with a mental index below 50 

 and 60 who were at 50 or above. The 

 average mentality of American children 

 of corresponding ages is 50. The me- 



dian of all the children tested was 40, 

 an indication that they are below the 

 average. It is significant that the 

 American population of the town was 

 found to be steadily decreasing, through 

 race-suicide, while the brighter high 

 school graduates usually leave town in 

 search of greater opportunities. The 

 town, therefore, deteriorates each year, 

 in the average of intelligence — a deteri- 

 oration which many eugenists think 

 would be shown, in a less degree, could 

 the necessary measurements be made 

 of the mentality of the nation's entire 

 population. 



