ID# 1175:
C. Davenport letter to L. Barker about E. Cheever's criticisms of H. Laughlin's views on immigration
Date:
1924
Pages: (1|2|3)
Source:
The Harry H. Laughlin Papers, Truman State University, papers, C-4-1,5

C. Davenport letter to L. Barker about E. Cheever's criticisms of H. Laughlin's views on immigration

2. minded negroes is given as 15% of quota fulfillment and Australians as 188%. The Australian result is based on 3 individuals and the negro on 275. The "quota fulfillment" for Australians is an accident, so palpable that Laughlin did not calculate the probable error. The small "quota fulfillment" of the negroes is due to the fact that they are not institutionalized. It was not frank of "Ezekiel Cheever" - he did not have sense enough to know that the Mississippi population was not to be used in studying figures from New Jersey. The population, neither of Mississippi or of any other particular state was used but all states were thrown together to get larger numbers and secure results that would be most probably true under the limitations afforded by the material. Ezekiel Cheever makes a great point of the findings in epilepsy. As you know, states rarely provide care for epileptics in special institutions. Hence the epileptic group was Laughlin's smallest group, except that of the deformed. Assuming that E.C.'s calculations are correct and that the native stock archives its quota 103% instead of Laughlin's 97% and the foreign white stock 107%, as opposed to Laughlin's 138%, one may say, that epileptics are by law not admissible to the United States, and their true quota is not 100% but 0%, or some thing above that - not exactly calculable. At any rate they exceed their real quota much more than the natives do. This is a mere illustration of the fact that the factor of safety in Laughlin's results is so great that it is not misleading for persons to draw the conclusion that the recent foreign immigration has brought in an excessive number of defects. Of course the larger the number, the more you lump, the more reliable in one way the results. Thus I think Laughlin's Plate 8 in Table

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