American Breeders' Association
James Wilson, President
W.M. Hays, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C. Secretary
Committee on Eugenics
David Starr Jordan, Chairman
Alexander Graham Bell
Luther Burbank
W.E. Castle
C. R. Henderson
A. Hrdlicka
R. H. Johnson
V.L. Kellogg
Adolf Meyer
J. Arthur Thomson
W. L. Tower
H. J. Webber
C. E. Woodruff
Frederick A. Woods
C. B. Davenport, Secretary
Office of the Secretary
Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. July 20, 1910.
Mrs. E. H. Harriman,
1 East 69th Street,
New York, N.Y.
Dear Mrs. Harriman;-
The class in eugenics is now practically all arranged and working together like a well assembled machine. We have already determined in a preliminary way two things that were not known before: namely, that the children of two tall parents are tall and that the children of two slender parents are usually (or always!) slender. These may seem like trivial things but they show the applications of the new laws of heredity in directions in which I did not anticipate they would hold. We are now studying in the same fashion artistic and musical ability, mathematical [strikeout]calculating[end strikeout] and so on.
Last Friday morning the class left Cold Spring Harbor: proceeded to Sing Sing and inspected the prison. We then went to Matteawan where we were received by the superintendent, Dr. Lamb, and his chief assistant, Dr. Baker. Dr. Baker gave a preliminary lecture to the class on the aims and scope of the institution and answered several score of questions. He and Dr. Lamb then stated that the entire set of records of the insitution are open to inspection and study by the field workers of the Committee on Eugenics and that the institution will do everything in its power to further studies upon the pedigrees of inmates. This offer is of the highest importance, as I believe that we shall be able to demonstrate at once the hereditary basis of criminal insanity. Of the workers who will be available here in the Autumn I propose to put one to work upon the