SELECTIVE STERILIZATION FOR RACE CULTURE 207 



married, while out of a group of exceptionally distinguished Yale alumnae 

 (average age 54) 95 per cent were married. It was al&o found that the num- 

 ber of Harvard graduates married was 10 to 24 per cent higher than the 

 number of married graduates of Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, and 

 Mt. Holyoke. Thus it appears that the influence of the women's colleges 

 is towards the wholesale suppression of marriage among the selected best 

 of the nation, resulting in the annihilation (or sterilization) of the fittest of 

 the race. In corroboration of this a study of the graduates of one woman's 

 college (Mt. Holyoke) showed that 50 years ago 85 per cent of the graduates 

 married but only 50 per cent married at the end of this 50 year period — show- 

 ing a gradual decrease from one decade to another. 



These figures do not completely show the seriousness of the situation, 

 however, for in addition to the fact that fewer of our female intelligentsia are 

 marrying, the smaller proportion who do marry are having only one third as 

 many children as are the women of the nation at large. Thus again we see 

 that we are figuratively sterilizing the fittest. What could be more fitting 

 than the words of Dr. Raymond Pearl, of Johns Hopkins who has recently 

 said, "The wrong kind of people have too many children and the right kind 

 too few." 



We have always devoted much effort to the controlled breeding of animals. 

 Witness the pedigreed dogs, horses, etc. that are displayed at various shows. 

 Yet we have heretofore taken it for granted (quite unwarrantedly) that some 

 Divine power would see to it that only desirable humans would be propa- 

 gated. What more fallacious position would it be possible to assume con- 

 sidering the fact that man possesses the greatest possibilities of all the ani- 

 mals, so far as fertility is concerned (because of the lack of seasonal or other 

 oestral cycles in the human species) — and knowing the extent of human 

 thoughtlessness so far as posterity is concerned. We allow the most impor- 

 tant group inhabiting the earth, the human species, to propagate blindly 

 and without limit — while we control with the most scientific care the breed- 

 ing of the lower animals. 



There are probably in this group very few who have not read the descrip- 

 tion of the trail of crime, murder, pauperism, prostitution, illegitimacy and 

 incest which is found in the history of the famous Jukes and Kallikak fami- 

 lies. It was demonstrated that the main factor in these ignoble family 

 histories was mental deficiency. It would have cost but $150.00 to have 

 sterilized the original couples, to cut off the seemingly endless social sores 

 resulting wherever members of these families have settled. Yet the actual 

 cost in relief alone of only one of these families was estimated at over $2,000,- 



