by Joan Liu

Created on: May 26, 2008   Last Updated: May 27, 2008

THE ORIGINS OF EUGENICS
"The statesman who would advance the welfare of his citizens should, like the fancier of birds, or dogs, or horses, take care to breed from the best only," writes Plato, quoted by James A. Field. This ideology, the attempt to better the human race through selective breeding, has existed since the beginning of Western civilization, but was not formally identified as the theory of eugenics until the late nineteenth century by Sir Francis Galton. The event coincided with a series of major advancements in biological science, the discoveries of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, of which Galton based his theories upon. What were previous conjectures based on observation of animals and their offspring now had the scientific proof to back it up. In the United States, the beginnings of the Eugenics movement can be traced to the first twenty years of the twentieth century, where the huge influx of immigrants caused unrest among the native-born. Feelings of xenophobia and nativism permeated through all levels of society, and eventually Eugenics found supporters among highly influential men such as politicians and scientists, ultimately leading to government funded programs using crude and questionable practices all for the "improvement of the human race".

In the beginning of the twentieth century, large numbers of immigrants entered the United States, unnerving the residents. These people, largely from Europe and the far east, entered the country with barely anything to their names, were willing to work for far less than native residents. Employers began to hire immigrants more often, displacing the native residents from the available jobs. By the late 1920s, the immigrant population of the United states had increased more than fourfold since the late 1800s, jumping from nearly three million people to almost fifteen million people, accounting for a quarter of the workforce (Hirschman 594). Not only did the loss of jobs worry the native Americans, the sheer number of immigrants among the urban population became a concern also. The immigrants, regardless of background, were considered "non-white" and subject to a considerable amount of prejudice. They were blamed for everything, from drunken riots in the street to the high crime rate. At the time, immigrants were the perfect scapegoat, "facing acculturation and assimilation problems that most natives do not" and "tend[ing] to settle in disorganized neighborhoods characterized by characteristics often

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