You’ve provided an interesting window upon the long history of eugenics in the U.S.
It sounds strange today to admit as I will that my grandparents were infused with eugenics thinking; it wasn’t unusual “back in the day” and lead to sayings such as, “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear” which was often used when considering a person’s prospective marriage to someone deemed to be an unacceptable choice. Similarly, principles rooted in eugenics applied to considerations of inter-racial marriage, i.e., “pity the poor children”. And of course, we’re all familiar with the old saying, “the apple never falls very far from the tree”, which I usually heard in referencing an offspring following the criminal career path of a parent.
In some defense of my ancestors thinking I’d submit that most all were well familiar with farming and ranching and the breeding of stock, cattle, and horses to produce certain effects as well as the cross pollination of flowering plants to produce new hybrids of roses and such. Thus, to them, the purposeful breeding “up” of humans seemed quite natural, as did of course, the sad example of what appeared to be breeding down.
Its a fascinating topic of research made all the more interesting by the fact that human genetics is so complicated. Our creator seems to have made a near limitless number of possibilities from human breeding. Just last week I observed with some amusement the spectacle of an obviously very bright child explaining cost analysis of a grocery store item to her obviously “dull” parent. The parent never did get it. And I’m talking a parent who appeared near in need of a drool bucket. The possibilities are endless.
Himmler was a chicken farmer, it's where he derived most of his warped racial theories.