On September 30, 1926, Milton A. Miller, editor and proprietor of the Elizabethville Echo, Elizabethville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, published an editorial which seemed to indicate that he favored the selective breeding of human beings, a practice known at the time as “eugenics.”
HUMAN STOCK SHOWS
This is the season of fairs. Primarily, an agricultural exhibition consists of prize-winning domestic stock – horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. Several years ago Kansas asked these questions. Why not prizes for the best specimens of manhood and womanhood? Why shouldn’t there be recognized standards of excellence for human stock?
Since Kansas started asking these questions and incorporating a human stock show in her state fair at Topeka, the idea has spread. There is regular provision for the registration of human beings, as regards their hereditary, intelligence and health, under the auspices of the American Eugenic Society, not only in Kansas, but at the state fairs of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts and Michigan. This year it is said a dozen other states are having similar departments. Much will be hears later about this new enterprise.
Was Miller promoting eugenics with this editorial or was he merely reporting what was happening in other states?
Pennsylvania had a long an sordid history related to the sterilization of human beings. Castrations were routinely performed in public institutions as early as 1889 up through 1931 and there were several attempts made to pass state laws to insure that so-called inferior persons were not permitted to “breed.”
The first bill passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature was in 1905 and was entitled “An Act for the Prevention of Idiocy.” It was vetoed by the governor with the statement that it was “inflicting cruelty on a helpless class.” Similar attempts were made up thought 1921, when a second bill passed the legislature. It was also vetoed.
The main facility in Pennsylvania where these sterilizations were performed was at Elwyn, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and the two medical professionals responsible for these acts of cruelty were Dr. Isaac Newton Kerlin and Dr. Martin W. Barr. While they both pushed for laws to be passed to approve what they were doing at Elwyn, they nevertheless continued to perform the sterilizations in the absence of laws.
The Pennsylvania bills, not passed, defined those who were eligible for the “treatment” as persons who were “idiotic,” “imbeciles,” “epileptic,” “feeble-minded,” and “insane”. It was only a short step to apply these terms to racial and ethnic groups.
In the early 1920s, there was an increased effort in the United States to define persons who had roots in southern and eastern Europe as “inferior” and attempts were made to close the borders of the United States to immigrants from these area. One result of this was the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924. This Act, coupled with the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, which through acts of intimidation and violence, made life increasing difficult for anyone not considered to be of the “best breeding.”
Eugenics was promoted as the scientific basis for the belief that a “master race” could be created through “selective breeding.” Thus, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants from certain areas of the world, had to be prevented from procreating.
Internationally, this led to the rise of Adolph Hitler, and the genocide known as the Holocaust.
Milton A. Miller died in 1937. His obituary mentions nothing about his support or opposition to eugenics, but it does name his religious and social affiliations. See:
See also articles published in the Echo in 1926, which seem to “normalize” the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.
Additional research must be done on Miller’s life and views to determine his intent in publishing the editorial in 1926.
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News clipping from Newspapers.com.
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