THE HEREDITARIAN THEORY OF IQ 255tions of immigration to national progress and welfare (in Brigham, 1923,
p. vii).
Since Brigham derived his "facts" on group differences entirely
from the army results, he had first to dismiss the claim that Yerkes's
tests might not be pure measures of innate intelligence. He admit-
ted that Alpha might mingle the impact of education with native
ability, for it did require literacy. But Beta could only record
unadulterated innate intelligence: "Examination Beta involves no
English, and the tests cannot be considered as educational mea-
sures in any sense" (p. 100). In any case, he added for good mea-
sure, it scarcely matters whether the tests also record what Yerkes
had called "the better adaptation of the more thoroughly Ameri-
canized group to the situation of the examination" (p. 93), since (p.
96):
If the tests used included some mysterious type of situation that was "typ-
ically American," we are indeed fortunate, for this is America, and the
purpose of our inquiry is that of obtaining a measure of the character of
our immigration.* Inability to respond to a "typically American" situation
is obviously an undesirable trait.
Once he had proved that the tests measure innate intelligence,
Brigham devoted most of his book to dispelling common impres-
sions that might threaten this basic assumption. The army tests
had, for example, assessed Jews (primarily recent immigrants) as
quite low in intelligence. Does this discovery not conflict with the
notable accomplishments of so many Jewish scholars, statesmen,
and performing artists? Brigham conjectured that Jews might be
more variable than other groups; a low mean would not preclude
a few geniuses in the upper range. In any case, Brigham added, we
probably focus unduly on the Jewish heritage of some great men
because it surprises us: "The able Jew is popularly recognized not
only because of his ability, but because he is able and a Jew" (p.
190). "Our figures, then, would rather tend to disprove the popu-
lar belief that the Jew is highly intelligent" (p. 190).
But what about the higher scores of Northern vs. Southern
blacks? Since Yerkes had also shown that Northern blacks, on aver-
age, attended school for several more years than their Southern
counterparts, didn't the scores reflect differences in education
|In all other parts of the book, he claims that his aim is to measure and interpret
mnate differences in intelligence.