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OCR for page 15
Scientific Problems of Hannah Migration: Wissler ~5
sample recent crossings of European types, and old American stock,
but also negroes and their white crosses. As everyone recognizes, the
Negro~White crosses offer a field for the study of intermixture from
many points of view, and since a comprehensive estimate of migration
as a population producer depends even more upon matters of mentality
and temperament, a study of intermixture by psychological methods is
urgent. Such studies were under way in Nashville, Tennessee, and it,
therefore, seemed advisable to assist in their further development and
also to provide in this way for try-outs with test techniques to be de-
veloped by the psychological projects outlined in the preceding pages.
Finally, it was considered that in the study of physical inheritance, as a
check upon the results from vital statistics and mental measurements,
an intensive study of qualitative characters was needed, especially ex-
perimentation within a number of race stocks and such mixed strains as
were readily accessible. A beginning had been made in Hawaii which
it seemed best to carry through, supplemented by new studies in the
United States. All studies projected along these lines were to be pre-
liminary, but promised to point to more specific attacks upon human in-
heritance through the study of family strains. In accordance with these
opinions, the Committee approved projects numbers 5, 6, and ~2, and
minor projects, b, c, and d.
In conclusion, note should be taken of one practical contribution to
the technique of research, namely, the perfecting of an automatic cor-
reIation computing machine by Professor Clark L. Hull. A grant to this
end was considered justifiable because the use of the correlation coeffi-
cient is now regarded as essential not only in the validating and the use
of mental measurement technique, but in all the other types of biological
investigation recommended by the Committee. The amount of time
consumed and the expense of clerical services involved in the making
of correlations in the usual way is so great that any successful mechan-
ical device by which this burden may be lightened would, by the very
nature of things, be an important contribution to research. A successful
machine was built and its ownership acquired by the Committee and
transferred to the National Research Council, which organization has
made arrangements by which data can be worked up at low cost. Hence,
so long as this machine endures, it should stand as one of the achieve-
ments of the work supported by the Committee.
SUMMARY OF INVESTIGATIONS
As previously stated twelve major projects were supported by the
Committee, upon which annual reports of progress were made by the
several investigators, each of whom has submitted to the Chairman a
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~6 Scientific Pro bleats of Human Migration.
Wissler
summarized statement of progress and results. To summarize these
statements adequately, one must needs be equally familiar with the sev-
eral project backgrounds, a requirement the Chairman can in no way
meet. However, a mere enumeration of end results may serve to give
some synthetic perspective. Thus there have been added, in the way
of research experience! and equipment, a series of tests to minimize
language handicaps in mental-measurement; a special group of tests
for rating and analyzing mechanical aptitude; some fundamental pioneer-
ing in the analysis of personality, the most baffling aspect of the human
problem, but one that must be faced squarely when dealing with migrat-
ing peoples; an attempt to reach the fundamental psycho-neural re-
sponses, upon the basis of which to project tests of social effectiveness;
an effort to develop an approach to organic differences in peoples
through data as to pathology; and an attempt to test out qualitative
anthropometric characters as a method in the analysis of mixed races.
The methodological character of the program is thus clear, the
emphasis being upon the more strictly psychological side. It was not
anticipated that the three years allowed for the work would more than
launch these investigations, all being more or less of a pioneer char-
acter, but it was expected that a start should be made with develop-
ments that are essential to progress with the psychological and the
genetical side of migration studies.
The present status of the subject seems fully to justify this expecta-
tion, for the social science and historical sides of migration research have
been taken up by the Social Science Research Council in much the same
way, and we can now report, that through coordinate activities tines
two Councils are maturing two major research programs, one for the
intensive analysis of populations and the other for an exhaustive study
of areas of settlement, or " Pioneer Belts." In either case, the experi-
ence and technique resulting from the initial investigations of this Com-
mittee will constitute a distinct asset, and the community of interests
initially enlisted promises to become more and more productive under
new auspices.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
producer depends
