RACE AND FAMILY IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN 

 INSTITUTIONS 



WILHELMINE E. KEY 



Somers, Connecticut 



A basic problem in Eugenics is the attempt to discover a relation between 

 the history of a nation and the salient traits and tendencies of its people. 

 Needless to say this problem is beset with difficulties. These lie largely in 

 the impossibility of measuring accurately human traits either in their "in- 

 nate" condition or as they have been influenced by the cultural milieu in 

 which they are immersed. Yet however difficult such evaluation may be, 

 and however inadequate our knowledge of the great variety of factors en- 

 tering into the problem, such inquiry should be highly rewarding. 



Nothing is more elusive than human nature, yet nothing is more obvious 

 than fundamental differences in human nature. We may set out from the 

 general proposition that the native equipment of salient traits differs from 

 individual to individual. If individuals differ, then groups of individuals 

 may be conceded to vary or differ from one another, both as they constitute 

 those blood networks we know as families and those larger groups of remoter 

 derivation from a common stock known as races. It is essential that we 

 seize on the differences which remain relatively independent of the environ- 

 ment or which influence the environment in contradistinction to such as are 

 to a greater degree the product of the environment. 



So in the study of the historical process, in particular that pertaining to 

 the social and political organization conditioning national progress, we have 

 on the one hand, over-emphasis on the cultural factors to the neglect of the 

 heritable factors, and on the other hand, over-emphasis on the latter to the 

 neglect of the cultural factors. The same confusion exists in accounting 

 for leaders, whether technological, intellectual, political. We talk of 

 educating for leadership. But what made the leaders in the past? No 

 school is responsible for Edison, Lincoln, Hamilton. Rather are they and 

 their kind remarkable for their lack of formal schooling. 



Edison was notoriously at odds with his teachers ; he had access to the com- 

 mon store of scientific knowledge of today. Yet only he, in virtue of his 

 peculiar gifts was able to realize on that common knowledge in his inven- 

 tions. Lincoln led this nation in a period of civil strife. He shared with all 



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