Conception Control and Its Effects on the Individual and the Nation | Page 9

group 85% Executive group 68% Artisan group 41%
Labour group 39%

In the "Journal of Educational Psychology," Vol. IX, 1916, Mr. A.W.
Kornhauser gives evidence from the examination of 1,000 children
drawn from five schools in Pittsburgh.
Schools A and B were attended by children of unskilled manual
workers.
Schools C and D by children of skilled artisans and small shopkeepers.
School E by children of parents in very comfortable circumstances.
The results are tabulated as--
Retarded, _i.e._, below average. Normal, _i.e._, average. Advanced,
_i.e._, above average.
| Retarded. | Normal. | Advanced. A } Manual workers {| 45.2 | 47.1 |
7.7 B } {| 36.7 | 55.9 | 7.4 | | | C } Artisans, etc. {| 29.4 | 50.2 | 20.7 D }
{| 28.8 | 50.2 | 19.5 | | | E Most comfortable | 12.7 | 62.7 | 24.6[A]
[Footnote A: I am indebted to Professor McDougall's book for
information here given.]
These experiments all shew the trend of intelligence (and with it will
power or power of concentration, and what we may call general
capacity) to be more concentrated in the so-called higher grades of
society, and to be less and less evident as we descend in the scale from
skilled to unskilled workers. It would, of course, be clear to all that the
children of mentally deficient parents can only be a burden on the State
or can rarely contribute anything of value to the common weal.
Now the teaching and advocacy of methods of conception control is
most easily assimilated and practised by the intelligent classes; indeed,
we may say with certainty that such methods can only be used
effectively by the intelligent members of the community, such as
leisured, professional and mercantile classes, skilled artisans and better
class workers, whereas the lowest type of casual labourers whose home
conditions render the use of preventive methods difficult or impossible,

and the mentally deficient and criminal classes, are unaffected by such
teaching.
The result in a few generations must be a marked decrease in the
numbers of the intellectual and efficient workers, while the hopelessly
unfit continue to produce their kind at the same rate as before.
The figures given do not suggest that individuals with marked ability
are to be found in the upper classes only, but they do indicate that there
is a larger proportion of boys and girls in the more comfortable classes
whose inherited ability is above the average, though this may be partly
due to the more intellectual atmosphere in which their early childhood
has been passed.
The provision of education for all, with facilities for children of every
class to pass on to higher grades of work, is essential if the latent
powers in all, whatever they may be, are to be developed to the utmost.
The point for our consideration at the moment, however, is that if the
production of all capable workers, whether mental or manual, is to be
curtailed and the numbers of the population maintained in greater
proportion from the mentally deficient or criminal classes, the result
must be national disaster. For in a very short time there will not be
enough leaders of real capacity to occupy positions of initiative and
responsibility in the various activities of the country at home and
abroad, nor will there be an adequate supply of good practical work: a
lowered standard of efficiency must result. From a national point of
view, therefore, we regard the propaganda in favour of conception
control to be a real and increasing danger.
The problem of the mentally deficient is of another order. In this case
another kind of control is urgently needed, but it is one which can only
be undertaken by the State, and not by the individual. It is to put in
force such a method of compulsory segregation as would ensure the
comfort and contentment of the mentally deficient, and safeguard them
and the nation from the reproduction of their kind.
The problem also of the insane and criminal classes in relation to

heredity is one which demands careful consideration by those
competent to give it.

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS
1. There are certain women who for medical reasons should be
prevented from bearing children.
2. There are couples with undesirable inheritance who rightly decline to
bear children.
3. There are many women of the poorer classes in whom child-bearing
is sometimes the last straw in circumstances all of which tend to
destroy health and vitality.
4. Public teaching on contraceptives, like medical advice advertised in
newspapers, is generally applied to cases for which it is unsuitable and
applied in the wrong way.
It is therefore detrimental to public health as well as being detrimental
to public morality.
5. A public opinion in favour of small spaced families does not