The Deterioration of National Intelligence
The use of the Army Alpha and Beta tests rekindled eugenic concerns about the deterioration of the nation’s intelligence level. About half of the white males tested in the army had native intelligence equal to that of a 13-year-old or lower, and the sit- uation was even worse for black soldiers. Goddard’s response was that people with low mental ability should not be allowed to vote. Along with God- dard, Terman and Yerkes were very concerned about the deterioration of the nation’s intelligence, which they believed was caused by immigration and the fact that “intellectually inferior” individuals were reproducing faster than normal or above-normal individuals.
As was common at the time, Yerkes (1923) believed that many of the nation’s ills were being caused by people of low intelligence and that immi- gration policies were only aggravating the problem:
with point scores all individuals take the same tests without regard to their age or level, Yerkes’s method is conducive to group testing, whereas the Binet– Simon test has to be given to one person at a time. Soon Yerkes would see his method tried on a level he never dreamed possible.
