The Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit

In England, the pioneer feminist Victoria Woodhull published The Rapid Multiplication of the Unfit. And in the States, Edward A. Ross, trained in Germany—University of Wisconsin pioneer of American sociology—was writing The Old World in the New, saying that "beaten members of beaten breeds"[p.128] would destroy us unless placed under control. They were "subhuman." Ross was joined by virtually every leading social scientist of his generation in warning about the ill effects of blood pollution: Richard Ely, William Z. Ripley, Richard Mayo Smith, John R. Commons, Davis Dewey, Franklin Giddings, and many more. None disagreed with Ross. Morons were multiplying. The government had to be made aware of the biological consequences of social policy.