THE EFFECT OF WIDESPREAD CONCEPTION CONTROL ON NATIONAL EFFICIENCY
In every nation individual capacity varies within wide limits. We have
men and women of brilliant attainments, and of all grades of
intelligence ranging downwards to the mentally defective. There is no
doubt that all grades of intelligence can be improved by education,
but there appears to be a limit to the capacity of development of each
individual. Lower intelligence, therefore, is not only due to lack of
opportunity, but to an inborn constitutional defect.
Further study has shewn this defect to be hereditary--the parents or
grandparents of such people shew defective intelligence, and their
offspring are likely to do the same; indeed, if two mentally defective
people marry it is fairly certain that their children will all be
mentally defective.
There are, however, no sharply defined classes of intelligence; just
as the mentally defective are in many grades, so ordinary men and
women vary from low or average intelligence up to outstanding cases of
genius or capacity.
By the newer methods of mental testing it has been shewn that children
of various classes of the community, as well as men and women of
different races, can be grouped according to their intellectual
capacity, and that no educational facilities will develop that
capacity beyond a certain point.
Professor W. McDougall, F.R.S., in his most useful and interesting
book on _National Welfare and National Decay_, reaches the important
conclusion "that innate capacity for intellectual growth is the
predominant factor in determining the distribution of intelligence in
adults, and that the amount and kind of education is a factor of
subordinate importance." He claims that the evidence is overwhelming
as to the validity of the results obtained by mental testing.
A few examples of experimental work given in Professor McDougall's
book will suffice to show the trend of these results.
Tests of intelligence were carried out on recruits for the American
Army, white and coloured, and they shewed marked superiority of the
white race.
A special test was carried out in Oxford by Mr. H.B. English, who
compared the capacity of boys in a school attended by children of the
intellectual classes with that of boys in a very good primary school,
whose fathers were shop-keepers, skilled artisans, etc., coming from
homes which were good, with no sort of privation. The result showed
marked superiority of the sons of intellectual parents. Mr. English
concludes that the children of the professional classes, between 12
and 14 years of age, exhibit very marked intelligence, and he is
convinced that the hereditary factor plays an altogether predominant
part.
In another experiment, Miss Arlitt, of Bryn Mawr College, tested 342
children from primary schools in one district, who were divided into
four groups:--
Group 1. Professional.
Group 2. Semi-professional and higher business.
Group 3. Skilled labour.
Group 4. Semi-and unskilled labour.
Marked differences between the groups were shewn. The intellectual
capacity was represented by figures as follows:--
Group 1 125
Group 2 118
Group 3 107
Group 4 92
A further research of 548 children, grouped according to the
occupation of their father, gave its results in terms of the
percentage of children in each group who scored a mark higher than the
median for the whole 548. They are as follows:--
Professional 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 serve
the best interests of the children or of their mother.
6. Married love should express itself at once in the usual way without
the use of artificial contraceptives.
7. The diminishing fertility of the more capable classes is a national
peril.
To counteract this tendency every encouragement should be given to the
intelligent and efficient classes of the community to bear healthy
children.
The study of problems which give rise periodically to a propaganda in
favour of the practice of conception control reveal the fact that
excessive child-bearing is found in those classes who suffer the
greatest privation, and in whom large families are a real hardship,
while many couples among the well-to-do are childless though greatly
desiring children.
Such facts suggest that the true remedy for the general problem lies
in raising the standard of living among working-class mothers and
advising a more simple life to the more richly endowed.
8. It is desirable that the Government should make provision for
methods which will arrest the propagation of the mentally deficient,
insane and criminal classes.