ID# 1114:
"Biological aspects of immigration," Harry H. Laughlin testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization
Date:
1920
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12)
Source:
The Harry H. Laughlin Papers, Truman State University, papers, C-2-6,6

&quote;Biological aspects of immigration,&quote; Harry H. Laughlin testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization

Biological Aspects of Immigration. Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C., April 16, 1920. The committee assembled at 11:10 a.m., Hon. Albert Johnson (chairman) presiding. The Chairman. We have a gentleman here, Mr. Laughlin, who came at our request and whom we should hear. Statement of Mr. H. H. Lauglin, or the Eugenics Research Association, of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N.Y. Mr. Laughlin. Mr. Chairman, I want to present the biological and eugenical aspect of immigration. Some of my remarks will be of a general nature, but I will support them by special data. Mr. Box. What particular phase is he discussing? The Chairman. I presume checking immigration; we will give him permission to put his statistics in the record. Mr. Laughlin. The character of the nation is determined primarily by its racial qualities; that is, by the hereditary physical, mental, and moral or temperamental traits of its people. We have trained field workers who visit insane hospitals, prison, and other institutions for the socially inadequate, get in touch with the inmates or patients find out whether of native or foreign stock, and then go to their home territories and determine what kind of hereditary material that are made of; in fact, we are trying to solve the problem of the relative influences of heredity and environment in making these degenerate Americans. Since coming under national control our immigration policy has been determined largely upon an economic basis; this was especially true in the earlier years of Federal control, but in later years the sanitary feature quite properly entered, and during the war the element of immediate national safety ruled. It is now high time that the eugenical element, that is, the factor of natural hereditary qualities which will determine out future characteristics and safety, receive due consideration. We are beginning to study this eugenical situation and to insist that it shall be given due consideration. Permit me to set forth a plan which our investigators thought should be enforced in testing the worth of immigrants. There are two features which if added to our immigration laws would, we believe, result in the development of a practical eugenical standard. First, we think that an examination of the immigrants should be made in their home towns, because that is the only place where one can get eugenical facts. If the investigator goes to an institution, a prison, a school for the feeble 3

Copyright 1999-2004: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; American Philosophical Society; Truman State University; Rockefeller Archive Center/Rockefeller University; University of Albany, State University of New York; National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument; University College, London; International Center of Photography; Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin-Dahlem; and Special Collections, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The images and text in this Archive are solely for educational and scholarly uses. The materials may be used in digital or print form in reports, research, and other projects that are not offered for sale. Materials in this archive may not be used in digital or print form by organizations or commercial concerns, except with express permission.