The Pioneer Fund and the scientific study of human differences.

• Author: Rushton, J. Philippe

INTRODUCTION A. For the Record B. A Roster of Distinguished Americans C. Pioneer's Contributions to the Science of Human Diversity I. ARE LOMBARDO'S CHARGES CREDIBLE? A. Is the Bell Curve really "Link(ed) to the Holocaust?" B. Was Laughlin Really "Preoccupied" With German Eugenics? C. Did Pioneer Grants Really Support White Supremacy? D. Did Laughlin Really Define "The American Breed" to "Exclude Jews"? E. Is Truth About Race No Defense? A Personal Note II. PROVIDING THE NECESSARY CONTEXT A. The Scientific Context B. The Eugenics Context C. The Historical Context III. UNDERSTANDING THE ANIMUS AGAINST THE PIONEER FUND A. The Nature-Nurture Wars B. Race-Realist v. Hermeneuticists CONCLUSION: THE PIONEER FUND IN THE NEW MILENNIUM APPENDIX: THE PIONEER FUND'S CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION INTRODUCTION

A. For the Record

When I succeeded the late Harry F. Weyher (1) as President of the Pioneer Fund, a New York Not-for-Profit Corporation, I intended my first priority to be studying new grant proposals and seeking support for Pioneer Fund research from other foundations, individuals, and government agencies to further our mandate, which is the scientific study of human differences.

Instead, I find that my first duty must be to refute a series of false charges in an article entitled "The American Breed": Nazi Eugenics and the Origins of the Pioneer Fund by Paul Lombardo, a lawyer and bio-ethicist at the University of Virginia, that appeared in the Albany Law Review in May 2002. (2)

Lombardo's article consists of an Introduction, three Parts, and a Conclusion. It opens and closes with a polemic against Herrnstein and Murray's 1994 bestseller The Bell Curve, (3) which was not supported by the Pioneer Fund. Representative of Lombardo's inflammatory style is his statement that The Bell Curve's conclusions "are drawn from ... a political movement that provides America's most enduring link to the Holocaust." (4) The remainder of his article continues in similar style, filled with rancor and epithets. In Part I, Lombardo presents a highly selective and misleading survey of the contents of the Eugenical News from 1932 to 1937, edited by Harry Laughlin, in an attempt to prove Laughlin's "captivation" (5) and "preoccupation with the Nazi eugenics program." (6) In Part II, Lombardo selects instances and quotations to lead his readers to believe that Wickliffe Draper (one of Pioneer's founders, a director from 1937 to 1972 and its main benefactor) was guilty of "rabid racism," (7) and "white supremacy." (8) In Part III, Lombardo alleges that Harry Laughlin (another of Pioneer's founders and its first president serving from 1937 to 1941) sought to define a new "American Breed" that "would emphatically exclude the nonwhite, particularly the Jew." (9) Lombardo's Conclusion provides a selected list of thirteen Pioneer Grants (including one to the present writer), which he offers as proof of the Pioneer Fund's support for "white genetic and intellectual superiority." (10)

Of the many allegations in that article, the most outrageous are that in 1937, "pro-Nazi" Americans established the Pioneer Fund "in hopes of duplicating Nazi legal and social policy" (11) and that since its founding, Pioneer has promoted a "white supremacist," "pro-Nazi," "racist," and "anti-democratic" political agenda. (12) Lombardo's accusations are contradicted by the facts. The sheer implausibility that an organization founded by "crypto-Nazis" in 1937 could have survived World War II (1941-1945) without being challenged should have called into question the veracity of the entire article. Indeed, all of Pioneer's founders who could do so participated in the war against the Nazis.

Two other remarkably similar critiques of the Pioneer Fund and its origins in the eugenics movement appeared while this response was being prepared. (13) Revealingly, all three critiques (Lombardo, Kenny, and Tucker) begin and end with Herrnstein and Murray's 1994 bestseller The Bell Curve, (14) which examines social stratification in America. Although the Pioneer Fund did not support either The Bell Curve or its two authors, it is not altogether surprising that those who oppose The Bell Curve's conclusions attack the Pioneer Fund because The Bell Curve cited much research published by Pioneer Fund grantees, and because the present writer's book Race, Evolution, and Behavior (15) appeared at the same time as The Bell Curve and also dealt with race and IQ. Indeed, in Part III, I will suggest that the main reason for this outbreak of "history-based" and "ethical" attacks on the Pioneer Fund is an attempt to discredit the recent research on race and IQ.

The present article sets the record straight about the Pioneer Fund--its directors and their various views, the historical and scientific context, and Pioneer grant recipients and their findings. (16) It begins with a brief description of some of Pioneer's directors, many of whom served their country against the Nazis, followed by a few of the important scientific contributions made by Pioneer grant recipients. Part I provides a detailed refutation of Lombardo's false charges. Section A describes the actual findings of The Bell Curve, thereby discrediting Lombardo's allegation that it is linked to the Holocaust. Section B provides a fuller content analysis of the Eugenical News, edited by Harry Laughlin--who later became Pioneer's first president, from 1932 through 1937--and shows the full range of the international news covered, thereby rebutting Lombardo's false claim of Laughlin's "obsession" with Nazis. Section C points to a much wider range of research on race differences associated with Pioneer directors and grantees, such as the finding that East Asians average higher on IQ and educational achievement tests than do Whites, thereby refuting Lombardo's claim of their promoting "white supremacy." Section D provides the transcript of the actual definition of the "American Breed" given by Laughlin before the U.S. Congress in 1924, which demonstrates that, contra Lombardo, it did not exclude Jews. Section E provides an accurate description of the present writer's book Race, Evolution, and Behavior, once again refuting the one presented by Lombardo. Had Lombardo given the reader all the evidence, his smoking guns would have turned into pop guns. The complete evidence shows that Lombardo's article contains so many obvious errors, sins of omission, and patent misrepresentations, that it sacrifices any claim to scholarly value.

Part II contains additional general background and historical information. It surveys the scientific and historical context of the eugenics movement of the 1920s and 1930s in which Laughlin, Draper and the other protagonists played out their lives, and against which all past events and statements by individuals must be viewed, thereby highlighting Pioneer's core scientific values. In Part III, I offer my own explanation of what motivates such otherwise serious scholars as Lombardo to abandon judicial temperament for an advocate, if not agitprop, mindset. I conclude with a brief statement setting out the goals of the Pioneer Fund for the new millennium.

B. A Roster of Distinguished Americans

Here are the facts concerning the Pioneer Fund and its Directors. The Pioneer Fund's main benefactor was Wickliffe P. Draper, an investor, who also served on its five-person Board of Directors from 1937 until 1972. He had been wounded and was decorated fighting against the Germans in World War I. In World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Intelligence as a Lieutenant Colonel. (17) The first president of the Pioneer Fund (1937-1941) was Harry H. Laughlin, the long-time director of the Eugenics Record Office, located at the famed Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. During the 1920s and 1930s he served as an advisor to several Congressional Committees. He retired in 1941 and died in 1943. (18) The second president (1941-1958) was Frederick H. Osborn who was also affiliated with the armed forces during the Second World War via his position as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Selective Service as a Major General. Osborn continued his public service after wars end by serving on the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission from 1947 to 1950 as Deputy U.S. Representative. (19) Another of the first directors was John M. Harlan (1937-1954), the highly respected U.S. Supreme Court Justice. During World War II Harlan led the Operational Analysis Section of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, for which the U.S. awarded him the Legion of Merit and both France and Belgium awarded him their Croix de Guerre. (20) Still another of the initial directors was Malcolm Donald (1937-1949), a graduate of Harvard Law School and editor of the Harvard Law Review. He worked in the War Department during the First World War and in the Pentagon during the Second World War. (21)

If the above individuals were alive today, I am sure they would object to any allegation that they had "pro-Nazi" leanings. So too would John M. Woolsey, Jr., a subsequent member of the Board (1954-1959), whose distinguished legal career included serving as a staff attorney at the Nuremberg Tribunal prosecuting Nazi war criminals, for which he received the Order of the White Lion from the Czechoslovakian Government. (22) Another director, Marion A. Parrott (1973-2000), served during World War II with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. He took part in the Landings at Normandy on D-Day and was wounded and captured in northern France. He escaped from prison camp in occupied Poland during 1945 and made his way to Russia. From there he returned to his unit in France and took part in the final advance into Germany at war's end, at which point he was discharged as a Major. (23)

Another eminent member of the Board was Charles Codman Cabot who served on the board from 1950 until 1973. His family was renowned in Boston and was the subject of the quip, the Lowells talk only...