Eugenic Nation

by Stern, Alexandra Minna

  98. Ibid., 5.

  99. Ibid., 9–10.

  100. Jordan, Days of Man, 1:226.

  101. David Starr Jordan, California and the Californians (San Francisco: Whitaker-Ray, 1903), 13.

  102. David Starr Jordan, “Eugenics and War,” in Official Proceedings of the Second National Conference on Race Betterment (Battle Creek, Mich.: Race Betterment Foundation, 1915), 22.

  103. Jordan, Days of Man, 1:434.

  104. “Two University Presidents Speak for the City,” Sunset 20, no. 6 (1908): 546.

  105. Starr, Americans and the California Dream, 312.

  106. Jordan, Days of Man, 1:369. On Jordan and the founding of Stanford, see Starr, Americans and the California Dream, chap. 10.

  107. David Starr Jordan, ed., Footnotes to Evolution: A Series of Popular Addresses on the Evolution of Life (New York: D. Appleton, 1907).

  108. Ibid., 289.

  109. Ibid., 309.

  110. Quoted in Starr, Californians and the American Dream, 309.

  111. David Starr Jordan (DSJ) to Charles B. Davenport, June 1, 1925, Papers of Charles B. Davenport, B:D27, American Philosophical Society.

  112. “Conservationist Goethe Is Dead,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 11, 1966, contained in File: Mary Glide Goethe Memorial Grove (MGGMG), MG, SRL, SF.

  113. Ibid.

  114. “Dr. C. M. Goethe, 91, Philanthropist, Dies,” Sacramento Bee, July 11, 1966, Folder 1, Box 85D, Papers of Charles Matthias Goethe (CMG), University Archives (UA), California State University at Sacramento (CSUS).

  115. Ibid.

  116. Ibid.

  117. See “Conservationist Goethe Is Dead.”

  118. Charles M. Goethe, Seeking to Serve (Sacramento: Keystone Press, 1949), 28.

  119. Ibid.

  120. Ibid., 184.

  121. Ibid., 96.

  122. Andrew Schauer, “Charles Matthias Goethe, 1875–1966,” Foundation of the California State University Sacramento, 1976, 85 A:1, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  123. Ibid., 7.

  124. Ibid., 18.

  125. Ibid.

  126. [Rodger Bishton], In Commemoration of the C. M. Goethe National Recognition Day on His Ninetieth Birthday, March 28, 1965, pamphlet in CMG, UA, CSUS.

  127. Quoted in Schauer, “Charles Matthias Goethe,” 35; and CMG, Diary, Oct. 16, 1903, 85F:7, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  128. See untitled document that seeks to answer the question “How Much Was Goethe Actually Worth and How Did He Accrue His Extensive Estate?” 85F3:45, CMG, UA, CSUS. For the most part, these were cheaper lots on the city’s outskirts and, in the 1930s, included the Oak Park, Fruitridge, Stockton, Del Paso Heights, and Elmhurst subdivisions.

  129. Ibid., 9.

  130. Ibid., 12. For a thorough accounting of Goethe’s estate and property, including his library, see Tony Platt, “What’s in a Name? Charles M. Goethe, American Eugenics, and Sacramento State University” (self-published report, Feb. 2004).

  131. Lewis M. Terman (LMT) to California Historical Society, Aug. 8, 1953; California Historical Society to LMT, Aug. 17, 1953; Folder 12, Box 14, Papers of Lewis M. Terman (LMT), SU 38, Special Collections (SC), Stanford University (SU).

  132. See Carl Russell, “A 40th Anniversary,” Yosemite Nature Notes 39, no. 7 (1960): 153–55.

  133. James C. Mullaney to Dr. Thomas Gunn, Feb. 2, 1967; Invoice, Sacramento State College Foundation, Feb. 28, 1967, 85B:22, CMG, UA, CSUS; Platt, “What’s in a Name,” 41.

  134. Discussions about naming the CSUS science building after Goethe began in 1963. See Rodger Bishton (RB) to CMG, Oct. 11 1963; CMG to RB, Oct. 14, 1963; 85F3:9, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  135. “Proclamation issued by the Mayor, City of Sacramento, Dr. Charles M. Goethe Day, March 28, 1964,” 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  136. See “Charles M. Goethe Grove,” MG, SRL, SF. The SRL matched $100,000 (withdrawn from Goethe’s probate estate) to pay for this forty-acre grove.

  137. C. M. Goethe, What’s in a Name? (Sacramento: Keystone Press, 1949), xv.

  138. Ibid., xvii.

  139. Ibid.

  140. See Myrtle Shaw Lord, A Sacramento Saga: Fifty Years of Achievement—Chamber of Commerce Leadership (Sacramento: Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, 1946).

  141. Joanne E. Ornellas. “An Historical Study of the Playground Movement in the City of Sacramento” (M.S. thesis, California State University, Sacramento, 1977); “C. M. Goethe Back from Abroad, Studied Playgrounds in Many Lands,” Sacramento Union May 17, 1912, SSCF (scrapbook) 19, 85F2, CMG, UA, CSUS. The story is more complicated. There were actually two parallel groups working to establish playgrounds in Sacramento in the early 1910s and, technically, the Goethes were second, but their playground was staffed with a supervisor, whom they had personally interviewed for the job.

  142. See Goethe, “Early Boy Scout Memories,” n.d., 85D:4, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  143. Ornellas, “Historical Study,” 67. Also see correspondence with David Starr Jordan regarding nature study. CMG to DSJ, July 10, 1917, 95/847; form letter, Jan. 1, 1948, Papers of David Starr Jordan, SC, SU.

  144. Goethe, Seeking to Serve, 106.

  145. Interview of Harold C. Bryant and Newton B. Drury, “Development of the Naturalist Program in the National Park Service,” by Amelia B. Fry, 1964, p. 3 (transcription), ROHO, BL, UCB.

  146. Carl Russell, “Revealing Parks to the People,” Sierra Club Bulletin (1960): 4–6, C. M. Goethe Memorial Grove (CMGMG), MG, SRL, SF; C. M. Goethe, “Nature Study in National Parks Interpretive Movement,” Yosemite Nature Notes 39, no. 7 (1960): 156–58.

  147. Goethe, “Nature Study.”

  148. Quoted in John Ise, Our National Park Policy: A Critical History (Baltimore: Resources for the Future/Johns Hopkins University Press, 1961), 194. There is disagreement among environmental historians about the nuances of the meanings of preservation and conservation. I follow the definitions offered by Gottlieb in Forcing the Spring and believe that my reading of this distinction works fairly well for the environmental groups and initiatives under consideration in early to midcentury California.

  149. There are several renditions of this story; in one Mather received a note from Bryant and traveled across the lake in a boat to hear the lecture; in another, this encounter resulted in the invitation of the Goethes to Mather’s Christmas party, where Charles pledged that he would fund the work of Bryant and Miller the following summer in Yosemite. See Goethe, “Nature Study.” Also see Loye H. Miller, “The Nature Guide Movement in National Parks,” Yosemite Nature Notes 39, no. 7 (1960): 159–60; and Harold C. Bryant, “The Beginning of Yosemite’s Educational Program,” Yosemite Nature Notes 39, no. 7 (1960): 161–65.

  150. Interview of Bryant and Drury; Don Carlos Miller, “Founder of the World’s Largest Summer School,” American Forests, Sept. 1961, 85D:1 CMG, UA, CSUS. Also see Ise, National Park Policy, 199–202.

  151. Miller, “Founder of the World’s Largest Summer School”; see Yosemite Nature Notes 2, no. 1 (June 1923).

  152. “A Personal Invitation,” Yosemite Nature Notes 4, no. 1 (1925): inside front cover.

  153. See Harold C. Bryant and Wallace W. Atwood Jr., Research and Education in the National Parks (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1932).

  154. See pamphlets and clippings in scrapbook SSCF-C including Immigration Study Commission, “Your Grandchildren’s America Will Be What Your Generation Makes It,” “Mexican Immigration Opposed by C. M. Goethe,” Sacramento Bee, Nov. 26, 1927, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  155. See Goethe, “Racial Extinction Threatened,” Arroyo Grande (Calif.) Herald Recorder, Nov. 10, 1927, SSCF-C, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  156. C. M. Goethe, Letter to the Editor, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Oct. 4, 1927, SSCF-C, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  157. Goethe, “Field Studies on the Eugenical Aspects of Mexican Immigration,” Eugenical News 12, no. 8 (1927): 109.

  158. CMG to S. W. Ward, Feb. 26, 1926, C-4–1, Papers of Harry H. Laughlin, Special Collections, Truman State University.

  159. I have reconstruc
ted these correspondence networks almost entirely through reviewing the papers of the eugenicists who received numerous letters from Goethe. The Goethe collection, housed at CSUS, contains almost no letters before the 1950s. Although the story is uncorroborated, it appears that before Goethe’s papers were officially donated to the University Archives they were “sanitized,” perhaps by Rodger Bishton, a longtime colleague who probably wanted to protect his mentor and friend from any associations with bigotry and Nazism. In addition, in 1970, when there was growing pressure to figure out how to handle his estate, CSUS hastily arranged for the auction of Goethe’s voluminous personal library (more than two thousand books, one hundred periodicals, and ephemera). It was purposely auctioned off to a wholesale dealer in Los Angeles so that it would be difficult to trace back to Sacramento. According to the gallery partner who oversaw the auction, the collection was full of disturbing racist material that seemed to him important for historical research, but “the university wanted it gone.” See Platt, “What’s in a Name,” 61. Platt carried out painstaking detective work to determine why most of the Goethe collection disappeared and, in addition, has sought to encourage discussion about how CSUS, a multicultural campus community, can productively reckon with Goethe’s legacy.

  160. “Eugenics Research Association,” Eugenical News 20, no. 4 (1935): 59; “Eugenics Research Association,” Eugenical News 21, no. 4 (1936): 78.

  161. Charles M. Goethe, “Patriotism and Racial Standards,” Eugenical News 21, no. 4 (1936): 66.

  162. Charles M. Goethe, “Extinction of the Inca Highcastes,” Eugenical News 22, no. 4 (1937): 57.

  163. See Goethe, Seeking to Serve.

  164. “Eugenics Society of Northern California,” Eugenical News 23, no. 4 (1938): 76. Pitts drafted a eugenic education plan in the late 1930s, which he envisioned being launched county by county across the nation by dedicated committees who used schools, civic groups, and newspapers to disseminate their message. For his part, Pitts spread the word through local radio broadcasts, such as “The Need of at Least Four Children in the High-Powered Stocks,” and “The Cost to Taxpayers of the Increased Multiplication of Social Inadequates.” See Eugene H. Pitts, “Educating the Public to Eugenics,” Eugenical News 23, no. 1 (1938): 1–3; and “Radio Lectures on Eugenics by Dr. E. H. Pitts,” same issue, 3.

  165. A handful of these pamphlets are contained in the Goethe papers at CSUS. However, the most complete collection was bound at the University of Minnesota and includes three volumes of eighty-nine pamphlets. They are not dated, but my best inference is that they ran from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. For a longer explanation of the egret, see Goethe, The Elfin Forest (Sacramento: Keystone Press, 1953), 70. For Goethe, the plight of the egret symbolized the dangers of “race suicide”: “In pioneer days, when egrets were numerous, human families numbered 8, 10, even 14 children.”

  166. Schauer, “Charles Matthias Goethe,” 125; also see Platt, “What’s in a Name?”

  167. See interview of Charles Matthias Goethe by Giles T. Brown, Apr. 4, 1966, ROHO, BL, UCB. Goethe claimed to have sent out about seventeen thousand publications over the course of his life. If these were ever returned or rejected, Goethe became very upset. In fact, in the 1950s, Stanford University inadvertently lost out on a potentially sizable bequest when its librarian sent Goethe a letter stating, “These publications do not receive the use that would justify our continuing to impose on your generosity. Will you therefore please remove our name from your mailing list.” Goethe was offended and “surprised at this letter. The constant stream of correspondence thru my desk shows that most of the universities and colleges are making very heavy use of it. . . . We are glad not to send material where it is not wanted.” Terman, who had been receiving donations from Goethe for his “gifted children” study, was clearly perturbed at this forfeited opportunity. See F. S. Randall to CMG, Mar. 8, 1951; CMG to Randall, Mar. 12, 1951, Folder 12, Box 14, LMT, SC38, SC, SU.

  168. His books, all apparently self-published through Sacramento’s Keystone Press, included Sierran Cabin . . . from Skyscraper: A Tale of the Sierran Piedmont (1943), War Profits and Better Babies (1946), Geogardening (1948), What’s in A Name? (1949), Seeking to Serve (1949), The Elfin Forest (1953), and Garden Philosopher (1955).

  169. See Goethe, War Profits and Better Babies.

  170. Quoted in William H. Schneider, Quality and Quantity: The Quest for Biological Regeneration in Twentieth-Century France (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 124.

  171. Goethe, Geogardening, 9.

  172. Strom Thurmond to CMG, Mar. 11, 1957, 85F3:12, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  173. CMG to the SRL, Apr. 12, 1948, MGGMG, MG, SRL, SF. In this letter Goethe explained his long-term intentions: to remit the unpaid balance on his wife’s grove, contribute five thousand dollars toward a “Bible Toter Jedediah Smith Memorial Grove,” fund a hospice in the redwoods for hikers, and support a Newton and Aubrey Drury Grove.

  174. Correspondence indicates that he began to support the SRL financially as early as 1922, although his first official donation of $25,000 wasn’t recorded until 1948. Each year thereafter he made sizable contributions to the SRL and after his death the league continued to receive annual payments from the Goethe trust ranging from $1,500 to $616,000. For his earliest contributions, see “Membership Record, Sep 5, 1941,” which lists a Feb. 2, 1922, donation of two dollars, MGGMG, MG, SRL, SF; “Constituent Profile,” SRL, SF; and Saving the Redwoods, 1948–49, 10.

  175. CMG to Aubrey Drury, Jan. 18, 1947, MGGMG, MGA, SRL, SF. Goethe asked that the inscription on the plaque read: “this grove in memory of my wife Mary Glide Goethe who loved these sequoias.” See also John B. Dewitt to William Allison, June 15, 1976, MGGMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  176. “Terms of Establishment of the Mary Glide Goethe Memorial Redwood Grove” (approved Apr. 30, 1948), and financial statement, “Mary Glide Goethe Memorial Redwood Grove,” MGGMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  177. Charles M. Goethe, “When Help Came from the Mountains,” Yosemite Nature Notes 29, no. 1 (1950): 3; Gudde, California Place Names, 298. See Bright, 1500 California Place Names, 144.

  178. Frederick C. Gale, “Jedediah Smith Meets Indians and Vice Versa,” Pacific Historian, 1966, contained in File: Jedediah Smith Memorial Grove (JSMG), MG, SRL, SF.

  179. Aubrey Drury (AD) to the California State Park Commission, July 23, 1949, JSMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  180. Ibid.; CMG to AD, Apr. 12, 1948, JSMG, MR, SRL, SF.

  181. CMG to AD, Aug. 23 1949, and photograph of plaque, JSMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  182. AD to CMG, Mar. 20, 1958, JSMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  183. On plaques, memorials, and historical memory, see Lowenthal, Past Is a Foreign Country.

  184. Saving the Redwoods, 1948–49; File: Luther Burbank Memorial Grove and File: MG, SRL, SF.

  185. “C. M. Goethe Arboretum Society,” June 11, 1960, 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  186. “By-Laws of the C. M. Goethe Arboretum Society,” Aug. 17, 1960, 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  187. Guy A. West (GAW) to A. L. Delisle (ALD), Mar. 18, 1960, 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS. Goethe and Bishton corresponded regularly in the 1960s, and sometimes, in letters marked “confidential,” discussed their shared belief in eugenics: “Eugenics seems to me to be such a logical and rational control for man to use if he is sincerely interested in guiding and directing the evolutionary change of man and society.” RB to CMG, Dec. 17, 1963, 85F3:9, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  188. Sacramento Bee, Mar. 23, 1961, 85A; CMG to GAW, Feb. 26, 1959, 85A:2; ALD to GAW, Mar. 16, 1960: GAW to ALD, Mar. 18, 1960, Box 85A:4A, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  189. “SSC Plaque, Speakers Honor C. M. Goethe,” Sacramento Bee, Mar. 26, 1961, 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  190. May Second Committee, “Sacramento State’s Own Doctor Strangelove: New Multimillion Dollar Science Building at S.S.C. to Be Named after C. M. Goethe, Prominent Racist and Eugenist,” circa 1965, 85D:9, CMG, UA, CSUS

  191. Despite the idealism behind the arboretum when it was created, by the 197
0s it had fallen into disarray, was littered, and in a “deplorable” state; it had been vandalized, benches were destroyed, and the redwood marker was damaged. See ALD to Mrs. Florence Marsh and Mr. Glen Carlson, Oct. 10, 1971, 85A:2, CMG, UA, CSUS. Today it suffers not so much from abuse as from neglect; the arboretum, with its wilting markers for native plant species and stolid redwood marker still intact, sits on the other side of the CSUS parking lot and, as far as one can tell, is completely ignored by the students.

  192. “Julia Morgan House,” 85D:9, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  193. Goethe’s will was dispersed in six allotments that totaled more than twenty-four million dollars. See “Estate of Charles Matthias Goethe,” CMGMG, MGA, SRL, SF; Schauer, “Charles Matthias Goethe”; and Platt, “What’s in a Name?”

  194. “Estate of Charles Matthias Goethe,” CMGMG, MGA, SRL, SF; John B. Dewitt (JBD) to J. Frank Frain (JFF), Aug. 26, 1976, CMGMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  195. “Estate of Charles Matthias Goethe,” CMGMG, MG, SRL, SF.

  196. See Platt, “What’s in a Name?”; “Glide Goethe Memorial Fund, Balance, November 30, 1976,—by Sub-Account” and “Synopsis Re: Goethe Will,” 1970, 85A:16, CMG, UA, CSUS.

  197. “Glide Goethe Memorial Fund, Balance, November 30, 1976,—by Sub-Account” and “Synopsis Re: Goethe Will,” 1970, 85A:16, CMG, UA, CSUS. See Platt, “What’s in a Name?” for a discussion of CSUS’s problematic handling of the Goethe estate.

  198. “Dr. C. M. Goethe, 91, Philanthropist, Dies,” A4, 85D: 1; [Bishton], In Commemoration of the C. M. Goethe National Recognition Day, 85.

  199. [Bishton], In Commemoration of the C. M. Goethe National Recognition Day, 85.

  200. Schauer, “Charles Matthias Goethe,” 146.

  201. See Maurice A. Bigelow to Paul Popenoe, Oct. 10, 1949, Box 16, Papers of Paul Bowman Popenoe, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

  202. See Racing Camels . . . Japan’s Longtailed Cocks . . . Galton’s Gifted Families . . . California’s Incest Prisoner . . . (eugenics pamphlet, n.d., probably early to mid-1960s), 4.