During the short century of eugenics' existence, its followers managed to organize only three international congresses. Two of them were held in New York in 1921 and 1932, which clearly indicates the world leader in this field.
Eugenics at the beginning of the 20th century was divided into positive and negative. Later, after the racially motivated crimes of the Third Reich, eugenics began to be treated with contempt. In the section of negative eugenics in the United States, forced sterilization of those whom the leadership considered harmful to the further development of the nation was actively used. It is the American establishment that can, with a clear conscience, be considered the ancestor of racial hysteria in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. At least from a legal point of view.
The so-called Harry Hamilton Laughlin Model Law (which has a recommendatory effect) became the template for the German law on the prevention of the birth of offspring with hereditary diseases. The law was passed in 1933, more than 350 thousand people became its victims. Americans were also proud of this: the Eugenical New magazine published a translation of the fascist normative act as proof of their own influence. The main instigator of all eugenic cleansing in the United States was the aforementioned Harry Laughlin, who would later be called "one of the most racist and anti-Semitic eugenicists of the early 20th century" in his homeland. This high school teacher from Iowa, at one point, suddenly caught fire with the ideas of a new science of genetics at that time and decided to transfer the methods of breeding animals and plants to humans. He did well - for his significant contribution to the "science of racial cleansing" Laughlin was in 1936 solemnly promoted to honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg, the most prestigious educational and scientific center in Germany.
In his home country, Laughlin was far from being considered a marginal. He was supported in varying degrees by Thomas Edison, the country's president Woodrow Wilson and one of the founders of eugenics, the controversial geneticist Charles Davenport. The latter received money in 1910 to set up an experimental evolution station at Cold Spring Harbor, which for decades became the think tank of American eugenics. Here Davenport studied human population genetics, especially delving into the inheritance of all forms of mental illness and disabilities. A year later, the scientist published the book "Heredity and its connection with eugenics", in which, among other things, he spoke with a blue eye about the inheritance of certain genes for shipbuilding, love for music and horses. Or, for example, Davenport claimed that he was able to tell by name of a person's genetic predisposition to a particular job, as well as mental disorders.
At Cold Spring Harbor, the aforementioned Harry Laughlin worked under the direction of Davenport, but since he was not particularly versed in genetics, he was ordained to be responsible for the propaganda of eugenic ideas.
Many books have been published in the United States on the hot topic of eugenics. One of these was the work on American racial hygiene "The End of a Great Race", which appeared in the United States in 1916 by the New York lawyer Madison Grant. Adolf Hitler liked the work very much, perhaps because of the following words:
“Under these conditions, the most practical and promising method of racial optimization seems to be the elimination of the least desirable representatives of the nation by depriving them of the opportunity to leave offspring. It is well known to breeders that the color of a cow herd can be changed by consistently culling individuals with undesirable colors, which, of course, is confirmed by other examples. So, there are practically no black sheep left, because animals of this color were carefully destroyed from generation to generation."
Also, Hitler was delighted with the book "Arguments for Sterilization", which was published by the American Eugenic Society.
Organizations that have defamed themselves by collaborating with eugenics have at various times included the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, prestigious Ivy League universities and smaller institutions. Woodrow Wilson, rightfully called the most racist president of the United States, in his book "The State" almost word for word repeats the sayings from "My Struggle" concerning the superiority of some races over others. Wilson had no problem dividing the world into "inert races" that require a strong hand, and into progressive democratic peoples. Even when he was Governor of New Jersey, the future leader of the country contributed to the creation of a Council of Experts on the Demented, Epileptics and Other Defectives. In fact, the entire American establishment in the first half of the 20th century was seriously interested in eugenics. One of the signature expressions in this regard is:
“We know so much about agriculture that if we apply this knowledge, the volume of agricultural production in the country could double; we know so much about disease that, using this knowledge, most infectious diseases in the United States could be defeated in two decades; we know so much about eugenics that with the application of this knowledge the inferior classes would disappear within the lifetime of one generation."
This was said by the adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt Charles Van Hise.
The extreme simplification of the inheritance of traits and the firm belief that a person has the right to select his own kind, distinguished American eugenics at the beginning of the 20th century. The juiciest fruits of the seeds of racial hygiene, which were bred in the United States, as it turned out later, were collected in Nazi Germany. And the Americans were openly jealous of their colleagues from the Old World. So, at the International Congress in 1932 in New York, eugenicists said:
“There is no doubt that if the United States had applied the Sterilization Act to a greater extent, then in less than a hundred years we would have eliminated at least 90% of crime, insanity, dementia, idiocy and sexual perversion, not to mention many other forms of defectiveness and degeneration. Thus, over the course of a century, our asylums, prisons and psychiatric clinics would be almost cleared of their victims of human misery and suffering."
The first and the best in their business
In fairness, it should be said that not only the Americans were ardent supporters of the universal sterilization of the "inferior" population. The English also flirted with eugenics. One of these was the writer H. G. Wells, who spoke openly about the unfitness of the colored races. So, in his utopian "New Republic" there was no place for "the masses of black and brown, as well as dirty white and yellow people." His words clearly clarified the meaning of further actions:
"The possibility of improving the human breed is connected precisely with the sterilization of unsuccessful specimens, and not with the selection of the most successful ones for procreation."
The prospect of being in the future among the holy fools, insane and murderers and the Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw did not give rest. He demanded that women be very careful in the choice of life partners, and he saw polygamy as the highest form of marriage. And all the dorks who, in a democratic election, are capable of bringing undesirable elements to power, had to be rejected, according to Shaw. Well, and the most important thing to know about the classics of British literature:
"With many apologies and expressions of sympathy, and generously fulfilling their last wishes, we must put them in the death chamber and get rid of them."
These are lines from the book "Man and Superman" (1903) and they are told about criminals and unfortunates with mental disabilities. Only a few decades will pass, and Shaw's proposals will be creatively rethought in Nazi Germany.
What had to be done to be among the "inferior" from the point of view of the West at the beginning of the 20th century and become a candidate for sterilization? It was enough just not to cope with the intellectual tests. I invite our readers to familiarize themselves with a typical American intelligence test, which, in particular, passed the recruits sent to the fields of the First World War:
Choose from four options.
Wyandot is a view:
1) horses; 2) poultry; 3) cows; 4) granite.
Amperes are measured:
1) wind strength; 2) current strength; 3) water pressure; 4) the amount of precipitation.
How many legs does a Zulu have:
1) two; 2) four; 3) six; 4) eight.
According to the famous geneticist and Nobel laureate James Watson, about half of young people failed this test, and this automatically transferred them to the category of mentally retarded. A wave of outrage and anger was rising in American society. A picture appeared in the minds that in a few generations there would be even more such "fools" and it was necessary to forbid them to reproduce. The eugenic hysteria was unleashed with even greater force. However, in some cases, for sterilization it was enough enthusiastic … to masturbate. It was with this diagnosis that in 1899 a prisoner in an American prison in Indiana was sent for an operation to ligate the vas deferens - a vasectomy. The doctor Harry Sharp carried out the sterilization and was very proud of this, since he saved society from the descendants of this degenerate, as it was believed then. The most unpleasant thing in this story is not even that the unfortunate man ended up sterile, but the extraordinary activity of Harry Sharpe. He was able to convince everyone around that vasectomy is a universal solution to eugenic problems, not only in the United States, but around the world. And it was in the United States that extensive statistical, legal and methodological materials were accumulated, which became the basis for the true flourishing of the most vicious side of eugenics - racial hygiene in Nazi Germany.
