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0:38

This

0:40

is the memory pass, a native male.

0:47

The babies were white. Some

0:50

in bonnets, all in dresses, boys

0:52

and girls, as was the style in nineteen o

0:54

eight. Cool cotton for summer.

0:57

It is hot in Louisiana when the state fair

0:59

comes around. The

1:01

babies todled and cued, sat

1:03

upright. Some had just learned to do that.

1:06

Slap their hands down and delight in that way

1:08

that babies do when they're still not quite sure what

1:10

the things at the ends of their pudgy little wrist strap

1:12

for. When they don't yet

1:14

have the words to say, my mom makes me

1:16

happy or Wait. Where'd my dad's

1:18

face go? It was gone. And

1:20

then here it is again. The babies

1:23

weren't according to the rules between

1:25

six and twenty four months old. The

1:27

nurses also wore white. Crisp

1:29

collars and caps as they dutifully measure

1:32

those sweet pudgy wrists, made

1:34

notes about their smiles, the space

1:36

between their eyes, the circumference of

1:38

their torso, the relative strength

1:40

of their grips. The Trophy's

1:43

awarded that day in the nation's first better

1:45

baby contest were silver. There

1:47

is photo labeled nineteen o eight prize

1:49

winner of girl who appears to be about

1:51

two wearing a white gown and a

1:53

white graduation mortem boarderboard cap.

1:56

And what looks to me, and I'm sure I'm projecting

1:58

here, and I'm swayed by

1:59

the title and the supposed authority of the contest

2:02

governing body. She wears

2:04

a what looks like a self satisfied smile.

2:08

She is adorable.

2:10

One could believe that she is at at the very

2:12

least a better baby than most. The

2:16

contest was the brainchild of a woman named

2:18

Mary DiGarma.

2:19

She was a mother of two and very active

2:21

in her community.

2:22

She founded the girl's training school for

2:24

neglected children in Shreveport and

2:26

organized something called the Mother's Union there

2:29

in eighteen ninety. It was a club

2:31

for women to share tips about child rearing.

2:33

Here the occasional lecture from doctors and nutritionists

2:36

and the nineteenth century equivalent of child

2:38

psychologists. and it seems that she

2:40

was very proud of that work and was pleased

2:42

with the role she played in helping the children of her

2:44

peers, the well-to-do wives of Northwestern

2:46

Louisiana Thrive. She wanted to figure

2:48

out a way to spread the same kinds of basic information

2:51

about children's health and child rearing

2:53

best practices to people beyond her social

2:55

strata. And

2:56

she also wanna help with the problem.

2:58

She had learned from all her conversations over the years

3:00

with pediatricians and other medical experts

3:02

that there was at that time

3:05

a real need for statistical data about

3:07

human development. And so

3:09

Mary DiGarmo came up with a way to gather it.

3:12

Every year, thousands of people from most of your

3:15

walks of life came as they still do

3:17

to Louisiana State Fair, to

3:19

stroll the midway, to eat fried things

3:21

that aren't usually fried. play

3:23

some games and see some newfangled

3:25

gadgets. And of course,

3:27

one of the main attractions and functions

3:29

of a state fair is to display

3:32

and judge livestock, to

3:34

determine which among the cows and sheep

3:36

and chickens are worthy of ribbons. And

3:39

thanks to Mary DiGamo. In

3:41

nineteen o eight, the farm animals

3:43

were joined by human animals. The

3:46

better baby contest was a hit. Proud

3:49

parents were excited, the kids were cute.

3:52

The crowds loved it. Merida

3:54

gumma was by all accounts deleted. The

3:57

event had helped distribute important

3:59

basic health information, gather

4:01

important data.

4:05

Did it also judge children as though they

4:07

were livestock? as

4:09

though the worth of a child, what

4:12

would make one baby better than another, was

4:14

somehow linked to this circumference of a wrist.

4:17

the width of a back when measured from shoulder

4:20

to shoulder. There

4:22

is value in data. It is

4:24

useful to know when children can typically sit

4:26

up on their owner speak, manipulate

4:29

small objects. But what did

4:31

the judges of the contest value? Physical

4:34

attributes that would dismiss the disabled others

4:37

that were associated with whiteness, not

4:40

that non white kids were allowed to participate in

4:42

the better baby contest. And

4:44

let's remember that this is barely half a lifetime

4:46

since human beings were regularly judged

4:49

and bought and sold like livestock. in

4:51

Louisiana. And what bearing does

4:53

any of the categories used to judge the relative

4:55

quality of these children have

4:58

on the people they might turn out to be? Mary

5:02

DiGarmo's better baby contest was seized

5:04

upon by a national magazine. The

5:06

women's home companion which

5:09

encourage women's groups around the country to sponsor

5:11

their own contests. Before long,

5:13

the magazine's publishers had formed the better

5:15

baby's bureau. and developed a highly

5:18

detailed set of standardized scoring criteria.

5:22

In nineteen fourteen, as the contests

5:24

were picking up steam around the country, The

5:26

women's home companion wrote up the contest that

5:29

underneath the inviting charm of the idea

5:31

is a serious scientific purpose. healthy

5:35

babies, standardized berries,

5:38

and always year after year,

5:41

better baby And

5:44

if a phrase like standardized babies,

5:47

in the implied steady march toward

5:49

some sort of perfection among the baby population

5:52

gives you pause then. Five

5:55

out of five points on the place in the scorecard

5:57

that charts your ability to new spot Eugenics.

6:01

For

6:01

what started as a clever way to fill a

6:03

real need, and spread

6:05

and gather useful information, became

6:07

enlisted in a growing movement that sought

6:10

to eliminate so called undesirable traits

6:12

from the human race.

6:14

By breeding them out,

6:16

including many traits that are not at all

6:18

genetic, like poverty

6:21

and criminality and illiteracy. in

6:24

the teens, end twenties, end thirties,

6:26

the movement targeted people with disabilities, cognitive

6:29

differences, or who were simply

6:31

immigrants. or native Americans,

6:34

or not wet. And during

6:36

that period, after a handful

6:39

of years of relative innocence, The

6:41

better baby's contests grew more sinister.

6:44

By the nineteen twenties, babies

6:46

and eventually whole families were

6:49

judged by criteria included their parentage,

6:52

their stock. And what was fun

6:54

was now explicitly Eugenicist with

6:57

the educational components of the events

6:59

focus less on critical lessons about nutrition

7:02

or hygiene and more on spreading

7:04

false ideas about the gene pool. All

7:06

of those same ideas were taking hold

7:08

in Hitler's Germany.

7:12

The babies were cute, but

7:15

you can never tell how they'll grow.

8:05

This show gets research assistance from Liza

8:07

McGraw. is a proud member of radiotopia,

8:10

a network of independently owned and operated listener

8:12

supported podcast from PRX, a

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not for profit public media company. If

8:17

you would like to support the work that I do

8:19

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8:21

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8:24

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8:26

follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I'm

8:28

there at least for the time being

8:31

at the memory palace. You can

8:33

always drop me a line via email

8:35

at nate

8:36

at the memory palace

8:37

dot org. Thanks

8:39

for listening.

8:55

Radio to be From

8:59

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