Proceedings of the third Race Betterment Conference, January 2-6, 1928 : under the auspices of the Race Betterment Foundation, Battle Creek, Michigan.

  • National Conference on Race Betterment 1928 : Battle Creek, Mich.)
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Proceedings of the third Race Betterment Conference, January 2-6, 1928 : under the auspices of the Race Betterment Foundation, Battle Creek, Michigan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    154/802 (page 116)
    116 THE THIRD RACE BETTERMENT CONFERENCE and the Teaching Staff of Battle Creek College, while the Eugenics Record Office will probably function in an advisory capacity. Our tentative scheme proposes an annual examination of all members of certain selected families over a period of at least five years, at the end of which time the advisability of continuing for another five years would be considered. These examinations would be many times more extensive than those now employed in the Fitter Families Contests, and should, if properly conducted, yield a mass of data exceedingly helpful in organizing further enterprises along these lines. Besides arriving at more accurate methods of measuring, the project might be expected to arrive at the following objectives: (1) To estab¬ lish a scientific definition of what we mean by the normal individual as contrasted with the average, also thus to arrive at a scientific defi¬ nition of the so-called superior type; (2) to pave the way for as¬ certaining the true aristocracy of a community or a nation as opposed to false standards of aristocracy now in vogue, and to extend due rec¬ ognition to those stocks determined to be genetically superior; (3) the most logical recognition would be admission to the Eugenics Registry which thus would become a more valuable source of record for stu¬ dents of American genealogy and at the same time better fulfill its original purpose as a means of stimulating a eugenic conscience in the minds of our best people. THE EUGENICS REGISTRY The Eugenics Registry is a very properly conceived idea for plac¬ ing the truly superior stocks on record, and the idea has met with the approval of most individuals concerned with eugenic work. Its greatest limitations have come from the fact that our methods of measuring superiority have been somewhat haphazard and undependable. The only solution lies, of course, in the accumulation of a mass of sound and scientific data bearing directly on just what constitutes fitness for life under the civilized conditions that now obtain. Such a research enterprise as Dr. Sherbon suggests should furnish the exact material needed for establishing the Eugenics Registry on a sound basis. EUGENICS EDUCATION It appears that the time has come even with the limited knowledge at our disposal to stimulate greater interest in human inheritance by means of contests, lectures, demonstrations, newspaper publicity and other similar agencies. It has been proposed to extend especially the scope and activity of the Fitter Families Contest. This work hitherto has been entirely in the hands of the Popular Education Committee of the American Eugenics Society. It is practically impossible, however, for that organization materially to enlarge this work without additional