The Carnegie Institution's Station for
Experimental Evolution at Cold
Spring Harbor opened for business in 1904. But in the beginning,
little
happened. The experimental station's first years were devoted to
preparatory
work, mostly because Davenport was fundamentally unsure of just
how he would go about reshaping mankind in his image. "I have little
notion of just what we shall do," Davenport confided in a note. "We
shall
reconnoiter the first year." 1
So Davenport focused on the basics. Lab animals were purchased: a
tailless Manx cat, long-tailed fowl, canaries and finches for
breeding
experiments. Hundreds of seeds were acquired for Mendelian
exercises. A
staff was hired, including an animal keeper from Chicago, several
research
associates, an expert in botany and entomology, plus a gardener and
a
librarian. The librarian assembled shelf after shelf of the leading
English,
German and French biology publications: 2,000 books, 1,500
pamphlets,
and complete sets of twenty-three leading journals, including
American
Journal of Physiology, Canadian Entomologist, Der Zoologische Garten
and
L'Annee Biologique. Associates were recruited from the scholarly
ranks of
Harvard, the University of Chicago, Columbia University and other
respected institutions to actively research and consult.
Corresponding scientists
were attracted from Cambridge, Zurich, Vienna, Leipzig and
Washington, D.C. to share their latest discoveries from the fields
of entomology,
zoology and biology.2
Davenport was so busy getting organized that the Carnegie
Institution
did not issue its official announcement about the experimental
station until
more than a year later, in March of 1905.3
Indeed, only after Davenport had recruited enough scholars and
amassed enough academic resources to create an aura of eugenic
preeminence,
did he dispatch a letter to Galton, in late October of 1905,
inviting
him to become a so-called "correspondent." Clearly, Davenport wanted
Galton's name for its marquee value. "Acceptance of this
invitation,"
Davenport wrote, "[is] implying only [a] mutual intention to
exchange publications
and occasionally ideas by letter." But Galton was reluctant. "You
do me honor in asking," Galton scribbled back, " ... but I could
only accept
in the understanding that it is an wholly honorary office, involving
no duties
whatever, for I have already more on my head than I can properly
manage."
That said, Galton asked Davenport to "exercise your own judgment"
before
using his name "under such bald restriction."4
During the next two years, Davenport's new experimental station
confined
its breeding data to the lower life forms, such as mice, canaries
and
chickens, and he contributed occasional journal articles, such as
one on
hereditary factors in human eye color.s
But how could Davenport translate his eugenic beliefs into social
action?
Talk and theories gave way to social intervention at the December
1909
American Breeders Association meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
Subcommittees
had already been formed for different human defects, such as
insanity, feeblemindedness, criminality, hereditary pauperism and
race
mongrelization. Davenport encouraged the ABA to escalate decisively
from pure hereditary research into specific ethnic and racial
investigation,
propaganda and lobbying for legislation. He convinced his fellow
breeders
to expand the small Eugenics Committee to a full-fledged
organizational
section. ABA members voted yes to Davenport's ideas by a resounding
499
to 5. Among his leading supporters was Alexander Graham Bell, famous
for
inventing the telephone and researching deafness, but also a
dedicated
sheep breeder and ardent eugenicist.6
Now the real work began. Davenport and Bell had already devised a
socalled
"Family Record" questionnaire. Bell agreed to use his influence and
circulate the forms to high schools and colleges. The ABA also
agreed to
distribute five thousand copies. Davenport's eugenic form asked
pointed
questions about eye defects, deafness and feeblemindedness in any of
a suspect
family's ancestry. Bell wondered why Davenport would not also trace
the excellence in a suspect family, as well as its defects.7
But Davenport was only interested in documenting human defects in
other races and ethnic groups, not their achievements. He believed
that
inferiority was an inescapable dominant Mendelian trait. Even if a
favorable
environment produced a superior individual, if that individual
derived
from inferior ethnic or racial stock, his progeny would still
constitute a biological
"menace."8
Davenport's scientific conclusion was already set in his mind; now
he
craved the justifying data. Even with the data, making eugenics a
practical
and governing doctrine would not be easy. American demographics were
rapidly transforming. Political realities were shifting. Davenport
well
understood that as more immigrants filed into America's overcrowded
political arena, they would vote and wield power. Race politics
would
grow harder and harder to legislate. It mattered not. Davenport was
determined to prevail against the majority-a majority he neither
trusted
nor respected.
The inspiration to persevere against a changing world of ethnic
diversity
would come weeks later, during a visit to Kent, England. Davenport
called the experience "one of the most memorable days of my life."
That
morning, the weather was beautiful and Davenport could not help but
walk
several miles through the bracing English countryside. He found
himself at
Downe House, Darwin's longtime residence. For an hour, the American
eugenicist pondered Darwin's secluded walking paths and gardens. "It
is a
wonderful place," Davenport wrote, "and seems to me to give the clue
to
Darwin's strength-solitary thinking out of doors in the midst of
nature. I
would give a good deal for such a walk .... Then I would build a
brick wall
around it .... I know you will laugh at this," he continued, "but it
means
success in my work as opposed to failure. I must have a convenient,
isolated
place for continuous reflection."9
Davenport returned to America and began constructing his scientific
bastion, impervious to outside interference. The first step would be
to
establish the so-called Eugenics Record Office to quietly register
the
genetic backgrounds of all Americans, separating the defective
strains from
the desired lineages. Borrowing nomenclature and charting procedures
from the world of animal breeding, these family trees would be
called pedigrees.
Where would the ERO obtain the family details? "They lie hidden,"
Davenport told his ABA colleagues, "in records of our numerous
charity
organizations, our 42 institutions for the feebleminded, our 115
schools
and homes for the deaf and blind, our 350 hospitals for the insane,
our
1,200 refuge homes, our 1,300 prisons, our 1,500 hospitals and our
2,500
almshouses. Our great insurance companies and our college gymnasiums
have tens of thousands of records of the characters of human
bloodlines.
These records should be studied, their hereditary data sifted out
and properly
recorded on cards, and [then] the cards sent to a central bureau for
study ... [of] the great strains of human protoplasm that are
coursing
through the country."IO
At the same time, Davenport wanted to collect pedigrees on eminent,
racially acceptable families, that is, the ones worth preserving. II
The planned ERa would also agitate among public officials to accept
eugenic principles even in the absence of scientific support.
Legislation
was to be pressed to enable the forced prevention of unwanted
progeny, as
well as the proliferation by financial incentives of acceptable
families.
Whereas the experimental station would concentrate on quotable
genetic
research, the ERa would transduce that research into governing
policy in
American society.
In early 1910, just after the impetus for the new eugenics section
of the
American Breeders Association, Davenport swiftly began making his
Eugenics Record Office a reality. Once more, the undertaking would
require a large infusion of money. So once again he turned to great
wealth.
Reviewing the names in Long Island's Who's Who, Davenport searched
for
likely local millionaires. Going down the list, he stopped at one
name:
"Harriman."12
E. H. Harriman was legendary. America's almost mythic railroad
magnate
controlled the Union Pacific, Wells Fargo, numerous financial
institutions
and one of the nation's greatest personal fortunes. Davenport knew
that Harriman craved more than just power and wealth; he fancied
himself
a scientist and a naturalist. The railroad man had financed a famous
Darwin-style expedition to explore Alaskan glaciers. The so-called
"Harriman
Expedition" was organized by famous botanist and ornithologist C.
Hart Merriam, a strong friend of eugenics. In 1907, Merriam had
singlehandedly
arranged a private meeting between Davenport's circle of eugenicists
and President Theodore Roosevelt at the president's Long Island
retreat.13
Harriman died in 1909, leaving a fabulous estate to his wife, Mary.
14
Everything connected in Davenport's mind. He remembered that three
years earlier, Harriman's daughter, also named Mary, had enrolled in
one of
Cold Spring Harbor's summer biology courses. She was so enthusiastic
about eugenics, her classmates at Barnard College had nicknamed her
"Eugenia." Mrs. Harriman was the perfect candidate to endow the
Eugenics
Record Office to carry on her husband's sense of biological
exploration,
and cleanse the nation of racial and ethnic impurity. IS
Quickly, Davenport began cultivating a relationship with the newly
widowed
Mrs. E. H. Harriman. Her very name invoked the image of wealth and
power wielded by her late husband, but identified her as now
possessing the
power over that purse. Even though the railroad giant's wife was now
being
plagued by philanthropic overtures at every turn, Davenport knew
just how
to tug the strings. Skilled in the process, it only took about a
month. 16
In early 1910, just days after the ABA elected to launch the
Eugenics
Record Office, Davenport reconnected with his former student about
saving
the social and biologic fabric of the United States. Days later, on
January 13, Davenport visited Mary to advance the cause. On February
1,
Davenport logged an entry in his diary: "Spent the evening on a
scheme for
Miss Harriman. Probably time lost." Two days later, the diary read:
"Sent
off letter to Miss Harriman." By February 12, Davenport had received
an
encouraging letter from the daughter regarding a luncheon to discuss
eugenics. On February 16, Davenport's diary entry recorded: "To Mrs.
Harriman's to lunch" and then several hours later, the final
celebratory
notation: "All agreed on the desirability of a larger scheme. A Red
Letter
Day for humanity!"l7
Mrs. E. H. Harriman had joined the eugenic crusade. She agreed to
create
the Eugenics Record Office, purchasing eighty acres of land for its
use
about a half mile from the Carnegie Institution's experimental
station at Cold
Spring Harbor. She also donated $15,000 per year for operations and
would
eventually provide more than a half million dollars in cash and
securities. IS
Clearly, the ERO seemed like an adjunct to the Carnegie
Institution's
existing facility. But in fact it would function independently, as a
joint project
of Mrs. Harriman and the American Breeders Association's eugenic
section. "As the aims of the [ABA's] Committee are strongly
involved,"
Davenport wrote Mrs. Harriman on May 23, 1910, "it is but natural
that,
on behalf of the Committee, I should express its gratitude at the
confidence
you repose in it."19
Indeed, all of Davenport's numerous and highly detailed reports to
Mrs.
Harriman were written on American Breeders Association eugenic
section
letterhead. Moreover, the ABA's eugenics committee letterhead itself
conveyed the impression of a semiofficial U.S. government agency.
Prominently featured at the top of the stationery were the names of
ABA
president James Wilson, who was also secretary of the Department of
Agriculture, and ABA secretary W. M. Hays, assistant secretary of
the
Department of Agriculture. In fact, the words "U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington D.C." appeared next to Hays's name, as a
credentia1.20
The project must have seemed like a virtual partnership between
Mrs. Harriman and the federal government itself.21
Although the establishment of the Eugenics Record Office created a
second
eugenics agency independent of the Carnegie Institution, the two
facili
ties together with the American Breeders Association's eugenic
section in
essence formed an interlocking eugenic directorate headquartered at
Cold
Spring Harbor. Davenport ruled all three entities. Just as he
scrupulously
reported to Carnegie trustees in Washington about the experimental
station,
and ABA executives about its eugenic section, Davenport continuously
deferred to Mrs. Harriman as the money behind his new ERO. Endless
operational
details, in-depth explanations regarding the use of cows to generate
milk for sale at five cents per quart to defray the cost of a
caretaker, plans to
plant small plots of hay and com, and requests to spend $10 on
hardware and
$50 on painting-they were all faithfully reported to Mrs. Harriman
for her
approvalP It gave her the sense that she was not only funding a
eugenic institution,
but micromanaging the control center for the future ofhumanity.
While the trivialities of hay and hardware consumed report after
report
to Mrs. Harriman, the real purpose of the facility was never out of
anyone's
mind. For example, in his May 23, 1910 report to Mrs. Harriman,
Davenport again recited the ERO's mission: "The furtherance of your
and
its [the ABA's] ideal to develop to the utmost the work of the
physical and
social regeneration of our beloved country [through] the application
... of
ascertained biological principles." Among the first objectives,
Davenport
added, was "the segregation of imbeciles during the reproductive
period."
No definition of "imbeciles" was offered. In addition, he informed
Mrs.
Harriman, "This office has addressed to the Secretary of State of
each State
a request for a list of officials charged with the care of
imbeciles, insane,
criminals, and paupers, so as to be in a position to move at once
... as soon as
funds for a campaign are available. I feel sure that many states can
be
induced to contribute funds for the study of the blood lines that
furnish
their defective and delinquent classes if only the matter can be
properly
brought to their attention."23
Referring to the increase in "defective and delinquent classes" that
worried
so many of America's wealthy, Davenport ended his May 23 report by
declaring, "The tide is rising rapidly; I only regret that I can do
so little."24
Davenport could not do it alone. Fundamentally, he was a scientist
who
preferred to remain in the rarefied background, not a ground-level
activist
who could systemize the continuous, around-the-clock,
county-by-county
and state-by-state excavation of human data desired. He could not
prod the
legislatures and regulatory agencies into proliferating the eugenic
laws
envisioned. The eugenics movement needed a lieutenant to work the
trenches-someone with ceaseless energy, a driven man who would never
be satisfied. Davenport had the perfect candidate in mind.
"I am quite convinced," Davenport wrote Mrs. Harriman, "that Mr.
Laughlin is our man."25
Fifty-five miles west of where northeast Missouri meets the
Mississippi
River, rolling foothills and hickory woodlands veined with lush
streams
finally yield to the undulating prairie that seats the town of
Kirksville. In
colonial times, mound-building Indians and French trappers prowled
this
region's vast forests hunting beaver, bear and muskrat pelts. After
the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803, only the sturdiest pioneers settled what
became known as the state of Missouri. Kirksville was a small rural
town in
its northeast quadrant, serving as the intellectual and medical
center of its
surrounding agricultural community.26
In 1891, the Laughlin clan was among the tough middle-class pioneer
families that settled in Kirksville, hoping to make a life. George
Laughlin, a
deeply religious college professor, migrated from Kansas to become
pastor
at Kirksville's Christian Church. The next year, the classically
trained
Laughlin was hired as chairman of the English Department of the
Normal
School, the area's main college.27 Quickly, the Laughlins became a
leading
family of Kirksville.
In a modest home on East Harrison Street, the elder Laughlin raised
ten
children including five sons, one of whom was Harry Hamilton
Laughlin.
Young Harry was expected to behave like a "preacher's kid," even
though his
father was a college professor and no longer a clergyman. Preacher's
kid or
not, Harry was prone to youthful pranks and was endearingly
nicknamed
"Hi Yi" by his siblings. Once, on a sibling dare, Harry swung an axe
at his
younger brother Earl's hand, which was poised atop a chopping block.
One
of Earl's fingers was nearly severed, but was later reattached.28
Ancestry and social progress were both important in the Laughlin
household. Reverend Laughlin could trace his lineage back to England
and
Germany, and it included U.S. President James Madison. His mother,
Deborah, a Temperance League activist, acknowledged that her
greatgrandfather
was a soldier in the English Light Dragoons during colonial
times.29
When a well-educated Harry Laughlin graduated from college, he saw
himself destined for greater things. Unfortunately, opportunity did
not
approach. So Laughlin became a teacher at a desolate one-room
schoolhouse
in nearby Livonia, Missouri. Life in Livonia was an unhappy one for
Laughlin. He had to walk through a small stream just to reach the
front
door of the schoolhouse. Laughlin referred to his ramshackle school
as
being "20 miles from any civilized animal." Sneering at the locals,
he
wrote, "People here are 75 years behind the times." Laughlin
denigrated
his students as "very dull" and admitted to "a forced smile" when he
wasn't
grumbling.30
Laughlin returned to Kirksville at his first chance. Initially, he
hired on
as principal of the local high school in 1900. However, he soon
advanced to
the Department of Agriculture, Botany and Nature at his college alma
mater, the Normal School. His wife Pansy had also graduated from
there.
Hence, it was where Laughlin felt most comfortable. Indeed, despite
the
wide travels and illustrious circles he ultimately attained,
Laughlin always
considered simple Kirksville his true home and refuge.31
Still, Laughlin was convinced his days at Normal were temporary. A
political dreamer, Laughlin had already drafted the first of
numerous outlines
for a one-world government comprised of six continental
jurisdictions,
complete with an international parliament apportioning seats in
favor of the hereditarily superior nations. In Laughlin's world
scheme, the
best stocks would rule. Laughlin submitted his detailed plans to
heads of
state and opinion makers, but to no avail. No one paid attention.32
Highfalutin proposals for a personally crafted world order were only
the outward manifestations of a man who desperately sought to make a
mark, and not just any mark, but an incandescent mark visible to
all. In pursuit
of this, LaugWin spent a lifetime submitting his writings on
everything
from politics to thoroughbred horseracing to world leaders and
influential
personalities, seeking favorable comments, approval and recognition.
And
if none of that was possible, just a simple "thank you" would do.
It was not unusual for Laughlin to mail an obscure journal article
or scientific
paper to dozens of perfect strangers in high places, soliciting any
measure of written approbation. These reply letters typed on
important
letterheads were then filed and cherished. Many were little more
than
polite but depthless two-sentence acknowledgments written by
well-placed
people who scarcely understood why they had been contacted. For
example,
Laughlin sent one immigration study to dozens of embassies,
newspaper
editors, business tycoons and private foundation leaders seeking
comment. The Columbian Ambassador to Washington formally wrote
back: "I take pleasure in acknowledging receipt of ... the books ...
which I
will be glad to look over." The editor of Foreif!?l Affairs magazine
issued a
curt two-sentence thank you, indicating, "It will be useful in our
reference
files." An assistant in Henry Ford's office dashed off a
two-sentence pro
forma note, "We ... wish to take this opportunity of thanking you on
behalf
of Mr. Ford for the copy of your work .... "33
Self-promotion was a way of life for Laughlin.34 But no matter how
high his station, it was never high enough. "If I can't be great,"
Laughlin
once confessed to his mother, at least "I can certainly do much
good."35
Laughlin's desperate quest for greatness turned a historic corner on
May 17, 1907, when he wrote to Davenport asking to attend one of
Cold
Spring Harbor's continuing summer biology courses. His application
was
immediately approved.36 The relationship between Davenport and
Laughlin finally ignited in January of 1909 when both men attended
the
American Breeders Association meeting in Columbia, Missouri.37 The
next
year, after Mrs. Harriman approved the ERO, Laughlin was Davenport's
number one choice.
Within Davenport's grandiose ideas about reshaping mankind,
Laughlin could both find a niche and secure personal gratification.
Working in the eugenics movement, with his notions of a one-world
government,
Laughlin might achieve a destiny he could barely imagine in any
other endeavor.
Davenport understood Laughlin's deeply personal needs. As such, he
structured Laughlin's employment to be more than just a career. The
Eugenics Record Office would become Laughlin's life-from morning to
night and into the next morning. Laughlin found such rigor
comforting; it
represented a personal acceptance he'd never known. Davenport had
certainly
chosen the right man.
Stressing to Mrs. Harriman that the ERO's task was a long-term
project,
Davenport proposed that Laughlin be hired for at least ten years.
Laughlin's residence would actually be on the grounds of the
Eugenics
Record Office, and his title would be "superintendent." Davenport
understood
human nature. The very title "superintendent" was reminiscent of
railroad station managers, the kind who had catered to Mrs.
Harriman's
late husband's steel-tracked empire. "Do you wish first to see Mr.
Laughlin," Davenport asked Mrs. Harriman with apparent deference,
but
quickly added, "or do you authorize me to offer Mr. Laughlin $2,400
for
the first year?"38
Mrs. Harriman approved. Davenport notified Laughlin. The campaign
to create a superior race would soon be launched.
By late 1910 the Laughlins had arrived at Cold Spring Harbor to open
the
facility. They lived on the second floor of the ERO's main building,
where
they enjoyed four large rooms and a fifth smaller one. Laughlin
would have
continuous access to the library, dining room and kitchen adjacent
to the
main business area on the first floor. He would eat and sleep
eugenics.
Working fastidiously on the smallest details of the ERO's
establishment, it
was not uncommon to find him in the office seven days a week
including
most holidays.39
The Eugenics Record Office went into high gear even before the doors
opened in October of 1910. Its first mission was to identify the
most defective
and undesirable Americans, estimated to be at least 10 percent of
the
population. This 10 percent was sometimes nicknamed the "submerged
tenth" or the lower tenth. At the time, this amounted to millions of
Americans. When found, they would be subjected to appropriate
eugenic
remedies to terminate their bloodlines. Various remedies were
debated, but
the leading solutions were compulsory segregation and forced
sterilization.40
No time was wasted. During the ERO's preparatory summer months, a
dozen field workers, mainly women, were recruited to canvas prisons
and
mental institutions, establishing good working relationships with
their
directors. The first junket on July 15,1910, proved to be typical.
First, field
workers visited the notorious prison at Ossining, New York, known as
Sing
Sing, where they were granted a complete tour of the "hereditary
criminals"
they would be studying. After Sing Sing, the group traveled to the
State Asylum at Matteawan, New York, where Superintendent Lamb
promised to open all patient records to help "demonstrate at once
the
hereditary basis of criminal insanity." An albino family was then
examined
in nearby Millerton, New York. The eugenic investigators ended their
outing
at a school for the feebleminded in Lakeville, Connecticut. In
Lakeville,
once again, "the records were turned over to us," Davenport reported
to Mrs. Harriman, enabling the "plotting on a map of Connecticut the
distribution
of birth-places of inmates." None of the institutions hesitated to
turn over their confidential records to the private ERO-even before
the
agency opened its doorsY
After a few weeks of training in eugenic characteristics and
principles,
Laughlin's enthusiastic ERO field investigators swept across the
eastern
seaboard. Their mission was to identify those perceived as
genetically inferior,
as well as their extended families and their geographic
concentrations.
By pegging hotspot origins of defectives, eugenic cleansing
priorities could
be established. By no means was this a campaign directed solely
against
racial groups, but rather against any individual or group-white or
blackconsidered
physically, medically, morally, culturally or socially inadequate
in the eyes of Davenport and Laughlin. Often there was no racial or
cultural
consistency to the list of those targeted. The genuinely lame,
insane
and deformed were lumped in with the troubled, the unfortunate, the
disadvantaged
and those who were simply "different," thus creating a giant
eugenic underclass simply labeled "the unfit."
ERO researcher A. H. Estabrook traveled to western Massachusetts
and Connecticut to collect family trees on albino families. He was
then
"attached" to the State Asylum at Matteawan to research criminal
insanity.
Thereafter, Laughlin assigned him to search for "degenerates in the
isolated
valleys around the upper Hudson [River]." Estabrook developed 35
pages of pedigrees and 168 pages of personal descriptions in his
first forays,
but Laughlin became most interested in one "large family with much
intermarriage
that promises to be as interesting as the Juke or Zero family."42
Mary Drange-Graebe was assigned to Chicago where she worked with
the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute under Dr. William Healy. After
four
months in Chicago, she was reassigned to track down the so-called
Ishmael
clan of nomadic criminals and vagabonds in and around Indianapolis.
The
tribe of racially mixed white gypsies, Islamic blacks and American
Indians
had been described years earlier in the study The Tribe of Ishmael:
a Study in
Social Degeneration, as a prime example of genetic criminality. This
book
had become a fundamental text for all eugenics. Now the ERO
considered
the book, written a generation earlier, as "too advanced for the
times." So
Drange-Graebe would resume tracing the family lineages of the
infamous
Ishmaelites. Within months, she had assembled 77 pages of family
pedigrees
and 873 pages of individual descriptions.43
Criminal behavior was hardly a prerequisite for the ERO's scrutiny.
Field worker Amey Eaton was assigned to Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania,
to report on the Amish. Buggy-riding Amish folk, the most
conservative
wing of Mennonite Christians, were among the most law-abiding,
courteous and God-fearing people in America. But they were also
known
for their unshakable pacifism, their peculiar refusal to adopt
industrial
technology and their immutable clannishness. This made them
different.
"In this small sect," Laughlin reported, "considerable intermarriage
has
occurred. These people kindly cooperated in our efforts to learn
whether ... these consanguineous [family-linked] marriages had
resulted in
defective offspring."44
The ERO's sights were broad, so their workers continued fanning out.
Helen Reeves sought records of so-called feebleminded patients in
various
New Jersey institutions. Another researcher was sent to trawl the
files of
the special genealogy collection of the New York Public Library,
looking
for family ties to unfit individuals. Various hospitals around the
country
were scoured, yielding records on eighty immigrant families with
Huntington's chorea, a devastating disease of the central nervous
system.
Even when Davenport vacationed in Maine, he used the occasion to
visit
the area's islands and peninsulas to record the deleterious effects
of intermarriage
in groups considered unfit. Idyllic Washington and Hancock
counties in Maine were of particular interestY
Epileptics were a high-priority target for Laughlin and the ERO.
Field
worker Florence Danielson was dispatched to collect the family trees
of
epileptics at Monson State Hospital for Epileptics in Massachusetts.
Monson had previously been an almshouse or poorhouse. In line with
eugenic thought, Monson's administrators believed that epilepsy and
poverty were genetically linked.46
Laughlin dispatched a second ERO investigator, Sadie Deavitt, to the
New Jersey State Village for Epileptics at Skillman to chart
individual pedigrees.
At Skillman, Deavitt deftly interviewed patients and their families
about the supposed traits of their relatives and ancestors. The
ERO's scientific
regimen involved ascribing various qualities and characteristics to
epileptic patient family members, living or dead. These qualities
included
medical characteristics such as "deaf" or "blind," as well as
strictly social
factors such as "wanderer, tramp, confirmed runaway" and
"criminal."47
The definition of "criminal" was never delineated; it included a
range of
infractions from vagrancy to serious felony.
Miss Deavitt employed warmth and congeniality to extract family and
acquaintance descriptions from unsuspecting patients, family members
and
friends. A New Jersey State instructive report explained, "The
investigator
visits the patients in their cottages. She does this in the way of a
friendly
visit and leads the patient on to tell all he can about his friends
and relatives,
especially as to addresses. Often they bring her their letters to
read and
from these she gleans considerable information. Then comes the visit
to
the [family's] home. It is the visitor's recent and personal
knowledge of the
patient that often assures her of a cordial welcome." By deftly
gaining the
confidence of one family member and friend after another, Miss
Deavitt
was able to map family trees with various social and medical
qualities
penned in with special codes. "Sx" meant "sexual pervert"; "im"
stood for
"immoral."48 None of the hundreds of people interviewed knew they
were
being added to a list of candidates for sterilization or segregation
in special
camps or farms.
Laughlin and the ERO focused heavily on the epileptic menace because
they believed epilepsy and "feeblemindedness" were inextricably
linked in
human nature. Indeed, they often merged statistics on epileptic
patients
with those of the feebleminded to create larger combined numbers.
The
term "feeblemindedness" was never quite defined; its meaning varied
from
place to place, and even situation to situation. The eugenically
damning
classification certainly included genuine cases of severely retarded
individuals
who could not care for themselves, but it also swept up those who
were
simply shy, stuttering, poor at English, or otherwise generally
nonverbal,
regardless of their true intellect or talent.49 Feeblemindedness was
truly in
the eye of the beholder and frequently depended upon the dimness or
brightness of a particular moment.
But there was little room for gray in Laughlin's world. To
accelerate the
campaign against epileptics, Laughlin distributed to hospital and
institutional
directors a special thirty-page bulletin, filled with dense
scientific
documentation, number-filled columns, family charts and impressive
Mendelian principles warning about the true nature of epilepsy. The
bulletin,
entitled "A First Study of Inheritance of Epilepsy," and first
published
in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, was authored by
Davenport and a doctor employed by New Jersey's epileptic village.
The
treatise asserted conclusively that epilepsy and feeblemindedness
were
manifestations of a common defect, due to "the absence of a
protoplasmic
factor that determines complete nervous development." The bulletin
emphasized that the genetic menace extended far beyond the family
into
the so-called genetic "fraternity," or the lineages of everyone
related to
every person who was considered epileptic. The more such "tainted"
defectives were allowed to reproduce, the more numerous their
epileptic
and feebleminded descendants would become. In one example, the
research declared that "in 28 families of normal parents of
epileptic children
every one shows evidence of mental weakness."50
The ERO dismissed the well-known traumatic causes of epilepsy or
insanity, such as a fall or severe blow to the head, in favor of
hereditary factors.
In one typical insanity case originally blamed on a fall, the
bulletin
explained, "This defect may be purely traumatic but, on the other
hand, he
has an epileptic brother and a feeble-minded niece so there was
probably
an innate weakness and the fall is invoked as a convenient
'cause.'''51
Strikingly, the ERa's definition of epilepsy itself was so sweeping
that it
covered not only people plagued by seizures, but also those
suffering from
migraine headaches and even brief fainting spells possibly due to
exhaustion,
heat stroke or other causes. "Epilepsy is employed in this paper,"
Davenport wrote, "in a wide sense to include not only cases of
well-marked
convulsions, but also cases in which there has been only momentary
loss of
consciousness."52
The prospect of epileptics in the population would haunt Laughlin
for
decades as he feverishly launched every effort to identify them.
Once he
identified them, Laughlin wanted to neutralize their ability to
reproduce.
The ERa's epilepsy bulletin concluded: "The most effective mode of
preventing
the increase of epileptics that society would probably countenance
is the segregation during the reproductive period of all
epileptics."53
America's geography was diverse. Since the western regions of the
United States were still being settled, the ERa understood that many
family
trees in those regions would be incomplete. Indeed, many people
moved
out West precisely because they wanted to begin a new life detached
from
their former existence. Public records in western locales often
lacked information
about extended family and ancestry. Overcoming the challenge of
documenting the population of a vast continent with only broken bits
of
family data, the ERa promised that "the office is now prepared to
index
any material, no matter how fragmentary or how extensive, concerning
the
transmission of biological traits in man; and it seeks to become the
depository
of such material." To that end, the ERa contacted "the heads of all
institutions in the United States concerned with abnormal
individuaIs."54
Extending beyond the reach of his field workers, Laughlin promised
the eugenics movement that the ERa would register information on all
Americans no matter where they lived to "[prevent] the production of
defective persons." While defectives were to be eliminated, the
superior
families were to be increased. The eugenics movement would seek out
and
list "men of genius" and "special talents," and then advocate that
those
families receive special entitlements, such as financial rewards and
other
benefits for increased reproduction. 55Eventually, the superior race
would
be more numerous and would control American society. At some point,
they alone would comprise American society.
The eugenic visions offered by Davenport and Laughlin pleased the
movement's wealthy sponsors. On January 19, 1911, Andrew Carnegie
doubled the Carnegie Institution's endowment with an additional ten
million
dollars for all its diverse programs, including eugenics. Mrs.
Harriman
increased her enthusiastic grants. John D. Rockefeller's fortune
also contributed
to the funding. A Rockefeller philanthropic official became "much
interested in eugenics and seems willing to help Dr. Davenport's
work,"
reported one eugenic leader to Mrs. Harriman in a handwritten
letter. "His
preference is to give a small sum at first ... raising the amount as
the work
advances." Initial Rockefeller contributions amounted to just $21
,650 in
cash and were earmarked to defray field worker expenses. But the
highly
structured Rockefeller philanthropic entities donated more than just
cash;
they provided personnel and organizational support, as well as the
visible
name of Rockefeller. 56
Clearly, eugenics and its goal of purifying America's population was
already more than just a complex of unsupported racist theorems and
pronouncements.
Eugenics was nothing less than an alliance between biological
racism and mighty American power, position and wealth against the
most vulnerable, the most marginal and the least empowered in the
nation.
The eugenic crusaders had successfully mobilized America's strong
against
America's weak. More eugenic solutions were in store.
On May 2 and May 3, 1911, in Palmer, Massachusetts, the research
committees
of the ABA's eugenic section adopted a resolution creating a special
new committee. "Resolved: that the chair appoint a committee
commissioned
to study and report on the best practical means for cutting off the
defective germ-plasm of the American population." Laughlin was the
special
committee's secretary. He and his colleagues would recruit an
advisory
panel from among the country's most esteemed authorities in the
social and
political sciences, medicine and jurisprudence. The advisory panel
eventually
included surgeon Alexis Carrel, M.D., of the Rockefeller Institute
for
Medical Research, who would months later win the Nobel Prize for
Medicine; O. P. Austin, chief of the Bureau of Statistics in
Washington,
D.C.; physiologist W. B. Cannon and immigration expert Robert
DeCourcy Ward, both from Harvard; psychiatrist Stewart Paton from
Princeton; public affairs professor Irving Fisher from Yale;
political economist
James Field from the University of Chicago; renowned attorney Louis
Marshall; and numerous other eminent men oflearning.57
Commencing July 15, 1911, Laughlin and the main ABA committee
members met at Manhattan's prestigious City Club on West
Forty-fourth
Street. During a number of subsequent conferences, they carefully
debated
the "problem of cutting off the supply of defectives," and
systematically
plotted a bold campaign of "purging the blood of the American people
of
the handicapping and deteriorating influences of these anti-social
classes."
Ten groups were eventually identified as "socially unfit" and
targeted for
"elimination." First, the feebleminded; second, the pauper class;
third, the
inebriate class or alcoholics; fourth, criminals of all descriptions
including
petty criminals and those jailed for nonpayment of fines; fifth,
epileptics;
sixth, the insane; seventh, the constitutionally weak class; eighth,
those predisposed
to specific diseases; ninth, the deformed; tenth, those with
defective
sense organs, that is, the deaf, blind and mute. In this last
category,
there was no indication of how severe the defect need be to qualify;
no distinction
was made between blurry vision or bad hearing and outright blindness
or deafuess.58
Not content to eliminate those deemed unfit by virtue of some
malady,
transgression, disadvantage or adverse circumstance, the ABA
committee
targeted their extended families as well. Even if those relatives
seemed perfectly
normal and were not institutionalized, the breeders considered them
equally unfit because they supposedly carried the defective germ-plasm
that
might crop up in a future generation. The committee carefully
weighed the
relative value of "sterilizing all persons with defective germ-plasm,"
or just
"sterilizing only degenerates." The group agreed that "defective and
potential
parents of defectives not in institutions" were also unacceptable.
59
Normal persons of the wrong ancestry were particularly unwanted.
"There are many others of equally unworthy personality and
hereditary
qualities," wrote Laughlin, "who have ... never been committed to
institutions."
He added, "There are many parents who, in many cases, may themselves
be normal, but who produce defective offspring. This great mass of
humanity is not only a social menace to the present generation, but
it harbors
the potential parenthood of the social misfits of our future
generations."
Davenport had consistently emphasized that "a person who by all
physical and mental examinations is normal may lack in half his germ
cells
the determiner for complete development. In some respects, such a
person
is more undesirable in the community than the idiot, (who will
probably not
reproduce), or the low-grade imbecile who will be recognized as
such."60
How many people did the eugenics movement target for
countermeasures?
Prioritizing those in custodial care-from poor houses to hospitals
to prisons-the unfit totaled close to a million. An additional three
million
people were "equally defective, but not under the state's care."
Finally, the
group focused on the so-called "borderline," some seven million
people,
who "are of such inferior blood, and are so interwoven in kinship
with
those still more defective, that they are totally unfitted to become
parents
of useful citizens." Laughlin insisted, "If they mate with a higher
level, they
contaminate it; if they mate with the still lower levels, they
bolster them up
a little only to aid them to continue their unworthy kind." The
estimated
first wave alone totaled nearly eleven million Americans, or more
than 10
percent of the existing population.6\
Eleven million would be only the beginning. Laughlin readily
admitted
that his first aim was at "ten percent of the total population, but
even this is
arbitrary." Eugenics would then turn its attention to the extended
families
deemed perfectly normal but still socially unfit.62 Those numbers
would
add many million more.
Indeed, the eugenicists would push further, attempting a constantly
upward genetic spiral in their insatiable quest for the super race.
The
movement intended to constantly identify the lowest levels of even
the
acceptable population and then terminate those families as well. "It
will
always be desirable," wrote Laughlin on behalf of the committee, "in
the
interests of still further advancement to cut off the lowest levels,
and
encourage high fecundity among the more gifted."63
The committee was always keenly aware that their efforts could be
deemed unconstitutional. Legal fine points were argued to ensure
that any
eugenical countermeasure not "be considered as a second punishment
...
or as a cruel or unusual punishment." The eugenic committee hoped to
circumvent
the courts and due process, arguing that "sterilization of
degenerates,
or especially of criminals, [could] be legitimately effected through
the
exercise of police functions." In an ideal world, a eugenics board
or commission
would unilaterally decide which families would be the targets of
eugenic procedures. The police would simply enforce their
decisions.64
Human rights attorney Louis Marshall, the committee's main legal
advisor, opined that eugenic sterilization might be legal if ordered
by the
original sentencing judge for criminals. But to venture beyond
criminals,
he wrote, targeting the weak, the diseased and their relatives,
would probably
be unconstitutional. "I understand that the operation of vasectomy
is
painless," wrote Marshall, "... other than to render it impossible
for him to
have progeny .... The danger, however, is that it might be inflicted
upon
one who is not a habitual criminal, who might have been the victim
of circumstances
and who could be reformed. To deprive such an individual of
all hope of progeny would approach closely to the line of cruel and
unusual
punishment. There are many cases where juvenile offenders have been
rendered
habitual criminals who subsequently became exemplary citizens ...
the very fact that they exist would require the exercise of extreme
caution in
determining whether such a punishment is constitutional."65
Marshall added with vagueness, "Unless justified by a conviction for
crime, it [eugenical sterilization] would be a wanton and
unauthorized act
and an unwarranted deprivation of the liberty of the citizen. In
order to justify
it, the person upon whom the operation is to be performed has,
therefore,
the right to insist upon his right to due process of law. That right
is
withheld if the vasectomy is directed ... by a board or commission,
which
acts upon its own initiative .... I fear that the public is not as
yet prepared to
deal with this problem."66
But Laughlin and his fellow breeders envisioned eugenical measures
beyond mere sterilization. To multiply the genetically desired
bloodlines,
they suggested polygamy and systematic mating. Additional draconian
remedies that were proposed to cut off defective germ-plasm included
restrictive marriage laws, compulsory birth control and forced
segregation
for life-or at least until the reproductive years had passed.
Davenport
believed mass segregation or incarceration of the feebleminded
during
their entire reproductive years, if "carried out thoroughly" would
wipe out
most defectives within fifteen to thirty years. All the extra
property
acquired to incarcerate the inmates could be sold off for cash. As
part of any
long-term incarceration program, the patient could be released ifhe
or she
willingly submitted to sterilization "just prior to release." This
was viewed
as a central means of bypassing the need for a court order or even a
commission
decision. These sterilizations could then be called "voluntary."67
One option went further than any other. It was too early to
implement.
However, point eight of the American Breeders Association plan
called for
euthanasia.68
Despite the diversity of proposals, the group understood that of the
various debated remedies, the American public was only ready for
one:
sterilization. The committee's tactic would be to convince America
at large
that "eugenics is a long-time investment" appealing to "far-sighted
patriots."
The agenda to terminate defective bloodlines was advocated and its
underlying science was trumpeted as genuine, even as the committee
confessed
in their own summary report, "our knowledge is, as yet, so limited."
Laughlin and his colleagues pursued their mission even as the
original
Galtonian eugenicists in London publicly declared they were "fully
conscious
of the slenderness of their data." American eugenicists pressed on
even as Pearson of the Eugenics Laboratory openly quoted criticism
by a
fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, "The educated man and the
scientist
is as prone as any other to become the victim ... of his prejudices
.... He
will in defence thereof make shipwreck of both the facts of science
and the
methods of science ... by perpetrating every form of fallacy,
inaccuracy and
distortion."69 America's eugenicists continued even as their elite
leaders
acknowledged, "public sentiment demanding action was absent."7o
Laughlin and the American eugenics movement were undeterred by
their own lack of knowledge, lack of scientific evidence, and even
the profound
lack of public support. The crusade would continue. In their eyes,
the future of humanity-or their version of it-:was at stake.
Moreover, America's eugenicists were not satisfied with merely
cleansing
the United States of its defectives. The movement's view was global.
The last of eighteen points circulated by Laughlin's committee was
entitled
"International Cooperation." Its intent was unmistakable. The ERO
would
undertake studies "looking toward the possible application of the
sterilization
of defectives in foreign countries, together with records of any
such
operations." Point eighteen made clear that Laughlin's ERO and the
American eugenics movement intended to turn their sights on "the
extent
and nature of the problem of the socially inadequate in foreign
countries."7l
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