Professor Karl Pearson rarely took media interviews. It was a point of principle. It also was a point of privilege. He hated criticism, and he had an extremely fragile personality. He deliberately insulated his work from external scrutiny. When Pearson invited the public in, he invited them in – into the university, into the “Eugenics Laboratory,” it was into a space where he had unquestioned dominance.
Pearson’s general approach makes this particular media interview unusual. It’s for a London-based newspaper, Public Opinion.
The story appeared in Public Opinion for 08 July 1912. Alvar Ellegard classified this newspaper as politically neutral, religiously neutral, middle-brow in education, and with a circulation in the 10,000s in the 1870s (the last decade of their data). The full citation is here.
“Children Do Not Pay: The Eugenic Problem of the Hour to be Discussed by a World Parliament in London – The Prolific Unfit – the Sterile Fit,” Public Opinion: A Weekly Review of What People Think, Say, and Do, volume 102, number 2647, 08 July 1912.
The context for this interview is the International Eugenics Congress, held in the summer of 1912 in London and sponsored by University of London. Pearson was not promoting the congress. In fact, he banned his staff from attending. He was trying to promote the Francis Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics, which was just placed on more secure financial footing and which was in the middle of a fundraising campaign to build a standalone facility on the grounds of University College, London (now UCL).
Public Opinion for 08 July 1912
For the avoidance of doubt. This material is posted here not because I agree with the views expressed. I do not. It is here to aid scholarship into UCL’s history involving eugenics and promotion. The more light, the better.