Progressive Era Archives | Eugenics and Other Evils

Margaret Sanger on “human weeds” — “Real Facts About Birth Control”

Filed under 1923, Annie Besant, Bertrand Russell, birth control, birth rate, China, Dean Inge, death rate, feeble-minded, feminism, fertility control, H. G. Wells, Havelock Ellis, human weeds, immigration, infanticide, IQ, Japan, John Stuart Mill, legislative eugenics, Malthus, Margaret Sanger, Progressive Era, race suicide, scientific racism, scientism, unfit

Margaret Sanger, “Apostle of Birth Control Sees Cause Gaining Here,” 8 Apr 1923. Source. Which asserts it comes from from the “New York Times, Apr. 8, 1923, XII..” and also says: “This article was reprinted by the American Birth Control League in a flyer with two other newspaper articles as “Real Facts About Birth Control,” …

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The ‘Minimum Wage’ as a way to make ‘defectives stand out’ for possible eugenic selection, 1913

Filed under 1913, birth defects, compulsory sterilization, concentration camps, defectives, dysgenic breeding, Efficiency Movement, idiots, legislative eugenics, Progressive Era, Progressives, race, right to reproduce, segregation camps, sterilization, unemployable, Year

Henry R. Seager, “The Minimum Wage as Part of a Program for Social Reform.” 1913. [SOURCE] As the enumeration of these benefits suggests, important reform to accompany minimum wage be comprehensive provision for industrial and trade education vocational guidance. Starvation wages are due frequently to exploitation, frequently to physical, mental and moral defects in the …

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EA Ross — The Coolie cannot outdo the American, but can underlive him

Filed under duty, E.A. Ross, Expertise, minimum wage, Progressive Era, Progressives, race, science, scientific world view, transcription needed

SOURCE [This article needs proofreading. Feel free to check the original and send a corrected version to us] DR. EDWARD A. ROSS RESIGNS. The Head of the Department of Economics Leaves the University at the Demand of Mrs. Stanford. Dr. Edward A. Ross, head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, and one of the …

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Taussig: The breeding of men, eugenics, and progress. 1911

Filed under 1911, American Eugenics, aristocratic, birth rate, breeding horses or cattle, civilization, criminals, death rate, defectives, duty, eugenics, family (the institution of), family planning, Frank Taussig, human breeding, John Stuart Mill, laws of heredity, national stock, Parasitism, pauperism, paupers, Political Economy, poverty, progress, Progressive Era, Progressives, race suicide, racial progress, rational selection, science, Scientific Management, society, Year

SOURCE: Frank Taussig, Principles of Economics, Volume II, 1911. Pages 233-237. This movement is steadily extending, and is gradually affecting not only those who are usually thought of as being in a more special sense “native born,” but the descendants of the immigrants as well. The influence of free institutions and of free opportunities is …

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Eugenics as a Religion and Social Darwinism, Collin Wells

Filed under 1907, American Eugenics, applied biology, Biological Laws, China, Christianity, civilization, degeneration, democracy, duty, education, eugenics as religion, Evolution, family (the institution of), family planning, family size, fertility control, Fit and Unfit, Francis Galton, human breeding, individualism, intelligence, Japan, Karl Pearson, man as animal, marriage, Mormonism, national degeneration, Progressive Era, race suicide, religion, science, Scientific Management, sentimentalism, socialism, Sydney Webb, unfit, Year

Source: Dr. Collin Wells, “Social Darwinism” a paper presented in 1907, found in The American Journal of Sociology, pages 706-709 Finally, what is the evolutionary value of certain ideals? Let us take individualism, the ideal of democracy, which has tacitly figured in many of the phenomena to which I have already referred. Let us go …

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E.A. Ross and the Difference in Races

Filed under 1907, American Eugenics, Charity, E.A. Ross, human breeding, minimum wage, Progressive Era, Progressives, race, race hygiene, scientific racism, society, Wisconsin, Year

Source: E.A. Ross, discussing ‘Social Darwinism’ in American Journal of Sociology 12 (March 1907), 715. Strongly attracted as I am by the hopeful and noble views that have been expressed, I cannot but feel that Dr. Wells’s is right. The theory that races are virtually equal in capacity leads to such monumental follies as lining …

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Sterilization Like Vaccination!

Filed under 1907, 1960, American Eugenics, compulsory sterilization, compulsory vaccination, education, legislative eugenics, Progressive Era, Progressives, sterilization, vaccination, Year

The argument that compulsory sterilization was justified on the same grounds as compulsory vaccination was common, and eventually won Supreme Court Sanction in Buck vs. Bell. Source: “Sterilization: A Progressive Measure?” In Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring of 1960, wisconsin-sterilization-progressives-21585 As Dr. T.W. Williams of Milwaukee wrote, the fate of the present [compulsory sterilization] bill …

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Objections to Compulsory Sterilization “are essentially sentimental.”

Filed under 1907, 1960, birth control, compulsory sterilization, E.A. Ross, eugenics quote of the day, Fit and Unfit, legislative eugenics, Progressive Era, Progressives, public health, sentimentalism, sterilization, vasectomy, Year

While eugenics today is castigated as ‘pseudoscience,’ the eugenicists themselves might say that the chief difference between progressives then versus now, is the latter is hindered by ‘sentimentality.’ E.A. Ross, Letter to Charles McCarthy, January 30, 1907. (As found in Rudolph J. Vecoli’s “Sterilization: A Progressive Measure” in Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 1960. LINK: wisconsin-sterilization-progressives-21585 …

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Sydney Webb: The parasites should not be allowed to compete as wage-earners, for it prevents natural selection from working…

Filed under 1920, Charitable organizations, Charity, criminals, death as creative, defectives, degeneration, Fit and Unfit, idiots, lunacy, mental defectives, minimum wage, moral perverts, morality, national efficiency, Natural selection, Parasitism, pauperism, poverty, Progressive Era, public welfare, social organism, Year

Sydney Webb in Industrial Democracy (regarding the minimum wage) – 1920 The problem of the Unemployable is not created by the fixing of a National Minimum by law. The Unemployable we have always with us. With regards to certain sections of the population, this unemployment is not a mark of social disease, but of social …

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Eugenics Quote of the Day: ‘Defective (ie, ‘disabled’) people should not be allowed to reproduce for the good of the state.’ RZ Mason, mayor of Appleton, WI

Filed under 1879, American Eugenics, Biological Laws, birth defects, Charity, defectives, degeneration, duty, education, eugenics, eugenics quote of the day, euthanasia, Evolution, feeble-minded, Fit and Unfit, Herbert Spencer, Natural selection, Progressive Era, rational selection, right to reproduce, scientism, Wisconsin, Year

R.Z. Mason, mayor of Appleton, WI, “The Duty of the State in its Treatment of the Deaf and Dumb, the Blind, the Idiotic, the Crippled and Deformed, and the Insane.” [Source] In the progress of modern civilization, the state has come slowly to a recognition of certain duties and obligations to these unfortunate classes. At …

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Category: Progressive Era