THE HEREDITARIAN THEORY OF IQ 263ferent things, and each was internally inconsistent in any case. Each
nation was represented by a sample of recruits who had taken
Alpha and Beta in differing proportions. Nations could not be
compared at all (Brigham, 1930, p. 164):
As this method of amalgamating Alphas and Betas to produce a com-
bined scale was used by the writer in his earlier analysis of the Army tests
as applied to samples of foreign born in the draft, that study with its entire
hypothetical superstructure of racial differences collapses completely.
Secondly, Brigham acknowledged that the tests had measured
familiarity with American language and culture, not innate intelli-
gence:
For purposes of comparing individuals or groups, it is apparent that
tests in the vernacular must be used only with individuals having equal
opportunity to acquire the vernacular of the test. This requirement pre-
cludes the use of such tests in making comparative studies of individuals
brought up in homes in which the vernacular of the test is not used, or in
which two vernaculars are used. The last condition is frequently violated
here in studies of children born in this country whose parents speak
another tongue. It is important, as the effects of bilingualism are not
entirely known.... Comparative studies of various national and racial
groups may not be made with existing tests.... One of the most preten-
tious of these comparative racial studies—the writer's own—was without
foundation (Brigham, 1930, p. 165).
Brigham paid his personal debt, but he could not undo what
the tests had accomplished. The quotas stood, and slowed immi-
gration from southern and eastern Europe to a trickle. Through-
out the 1930s, Jewish refugees, anticipating the holocaust, sought
to emigrate, but were not admitted. The legal quotas, and contin-
uing eugenical propaganda, barred them even in years when
inflated quotas for western and northern European nations were
not filled. Chase (1977) has estimated that the quotas barred up to
6 million southern, central, and eastern Europeans between 1924
and the outbreak of World War II (assuming that immigration had
continued at its pre-1924 rate). We know what happened to many
who wished to leave but had nowhere to go. The paths to destruc-
tion are often indirect, but ideas can be agents as sure as guns and
bombs.