Letter, H.F. Perkins to Marion B. Rustedt: a machine readable edition H.F. Perkins Creation of machine-readable version: Nancy Gallagher Additional scanning and OCR: Ben Schacher Conversion to TEI.2-conformant markup: Mary Margaret Welch Additional markup by: Hope Greenberg, Shane Barney ca. 6 kilobytes University of VermontBurlington, Vermont USA

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July/2000 Letter, H.F. Perkins to Marion B. Rustedt <author>H.F. Perkins</author> <editor/> </titleStmt> <editionStmt> <p/> </editionStmt> <publicationStmt><publisher/><pubPlace/><date>October 27, 1932</date></publicationStmt> <notesStmt> <note/> </notesStmt> </biblFull> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc><encodingDesc> <projectDesc> <p>Prepared for the University of Vermont Electronic Text Archive.</p> </projectDesc> <editorialDecl> <p>Scanner: Visioneer 6100 (36 bit, 600x1200). Text OCR by Visioneer. </p> <p>Quote marks retained as data. All "M" and "N" dashes converted to two hyphens or one hyphen, respectively. All unambiguous end-of-line hyphens have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line. Some text realigned to left for purposes of readability, at discretion of editors.</p> </editorialDecl> </encodingDesc><profileDesc> <creation> <date>October 27, 1932</date> </creation> <textClass> <keywords scheme="#"> <term>WE'LL LET NANCY DETERMINE THESE</term> </keywords> </textClass> </profileDesc></teiHeader> <text> <front> <div1> <bibl> <title level="u">Letter, H.F. Perkins to Marion B. Rustedt October 27, 1932 Eugenics Survey of Vermont Papers, General: "Adult Education in Eugenics" Permission required for reproduction. Vermont Public Records. October 27, 1932 Dear Marion:

I am now ready to give you a little more time on this matter of your matter of your Eugenics Study Group. I am sending you a little material,

(a) a brief list of general work on Eugenics and (b) a rather full bibliography that our Miss Anderson has extracted from a much longer list. I am also going to write to the publishers of Eugenical News and order for you a copy of the issue which carried an article by my friend Frederick Osborn giving the best statement available of the fields of eugenical research.

I suggest taking up the study under four heads.

a. Eugenics and the family. b. Eugenics and immigration. c. Eugenics and social problems. d. Eugenics and government. Laws on immigration, birth control, marriage, divorce, and sterilization.

Each of these is divided and I will give you an example together with the promise of a similar analysis if you want it.

Eugenics and the family:‐‐

The historical basis. The family in patriarchal and so‐called savage peoples. The basis of parental authority. Modern conception of the family. The family and divorce. The eugenical implications of broken families. What is the ideal number of children per family? The training of children in sex physiology. The responsibility of the school for the family. The responsibility of the church for the family. The present day basis of or substitute for authority for parents.

This is merely an attempt to suggest how the study of the family as a basis for eugenical improvement can be handled. You can easily see that other headings can be treated in a somewhat similar fashion, giving you as long a series of separate subheadings as you might wish. If your funds are pretty limited, as I understand they are, you might see what can be done towards persuading individual members of the group to buy one book each with the promise that they become the property of the library at the termination of the course of study. The brief mimeographed list would embody many recommendations on this score.

I should like very much to have the opportunity to pay a personal visit to one of your sessions and it may be that both Miss Anderson and I can arrange to call on you if it would be agreeable to you and to the members of the group. If you have someone in the crowd who can handle a round table discussion effectively, using a blackboard and the accepted methods of such discussions, I suggest that as a pleasant and profitable variation of the stereotyped study hour ‐‐something to be brought in once in four or five meetings by way of change.

Let us know how this program appeals to you and be perfectly free to write for further hints and help.

I saw Rob Wilson, now rector of the church in Windsor at the Social Workers Conference last Thursday and Friday. He sat with Mrs. Perkins and me at the banquet Thursday night. I told him that I had heard from you and he sent his regards. It has been a real pleasure to have this renewed contact and I am grateful for the opportunity to make a few suggestions.

Faithfully yours, [Harry Perkins]

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