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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1920)
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, POBTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 8, 1920.' - r A Sight Harry S. New, Who Shot Miss Lesser in His Automobile, Is Held Responsible for the With your pencil make a dot Over any one of these letters P O H IJ, and & comma after the longest of these three words: boy mother girl. Then, if Christmas comes in March, make a cross right here....bnt if not, pasa along to the next question, and tell where the sun riseg If you believe that Edison discov ered America, cross out what you just wrote, but if it was some one elsefput in a number to complete this sentence: "A horse has ..... . feet." Write yes, no matter whether j China is in Africa or not ; and then give a wrong answer to this question: "How many days are there in the week?" Write any letter except g just after this comma . . .and then write no if 2 times 5 are 10 Now, if Tuesday comes after Monday, make two crosses here ; but if not, make a circle here. . . . . or else a square here. ..... Be sure to make three crosses be tween these two names of boys. George Henry. Notice these two numbers: 3, 5, If iron is heavier than water, write the larger number here , but if iron is lighter write the smaller number here Show by a cross when the nights are longer; in summer? in winter? Give the correct answer to this question: "Does, water run uphill?'' and repeat your answer here Do nothing here (57 ), unless you skipped the preceding question; but write the.flrst letter of your first name and the last letter of your last name at the end of this line: , Cruel Murder Even Though the Experts Declared He Was Feeble Minded According to Their Intelligence Tests One of the Tests of H. S. New Brain Development: Tha Tit Above Take the Average Adult 125 seconds. Fifty Per Cent of Average Educated Adults Come Some where Between 100 Setonds and 150 Seconds. To Take Less. Than 100 Seconds I to Be in the Superior 25 Per Cent. To Take More Than 150 Seconds Is to Be in the Poorest 25 Per Cent. If People Are Divided Into Excellent, Fair and Poor, Excellent' Will Be Anything- Less Than 100 Second; 100 to 125 Will Be Good; 125 to 150 Will Be FJr, While Over 150 Will Be Poor. IN the early morning hours of Saturday, July 5, of last year, an automobile drove up to a police station in Los Angeles. A full sized, able bodied young man got out, ran up the steps and astonished the police officer at the desk by announcing that he had murdered a young girl and that her lifeless body was outside in the tonneau of his car. Harry S. New, he gave his name, ana said that he was the unrecognized son el United States Senator New, of Indiana. He had quarreled with and had shot to death his sweetheart, Miss Freda J. Lesser, he admitted, early in the evening of the previous day. Wrapping the bleeding corpse in a carriage robe and comfortably sitting it up on the rear seat of the auto mobile, the murderer had been driving back and forth around the oouDtry and through the streets of Los Angeles during the rest of the night until he ran out of gasoline and brought his journeyings to an end in front of the police station. Harry S. New has been on trial recently in the Los Angeles cfYminal courts, and the Jury listened to the interesting testi mony of many psychologists and medical specialists who explained how they had tested the murderer's brain3 and found he had tho mind of a child of twelve years old. In spite of this the Jury decided that New was responsible and guilty of murder In the second degree. There was nothing to indicate to any body that Harry S. New was not as able bodied, mentally and physically, as any body else in the court room. There wa3 nothing to lead poor Freda Lesser to sus pect that her sweetheart was not. as com petent and responsible as any other young man of her acquaintance. Harry S. New had been able to support himself at various employments and had been a member of the United States Army. He had served in army uniform in the in fantry, performing without difficulty or complaint from the authorities whatever service he was assigned to by the officers of his company. Nobody passing him in the street, seeing him at his meals, watching him at his work, listening to his conversation, or ob serving him at the wheel of his automobile would know that his mind was inferior. How then did the scientists who ap-. peared one after another and gave their testimony at the trial arrive at the posi tive conclusion that Harry S. New, ex soldier, aged thirty-two. had the brains of a child of less than twelve years old? Judge Rush, one of the counsel for the murderer, in his plea to the Jury, said: "Every doctor on the stand has agreed that Harry New never has had a mina more developed than that of a twelve-year-old boy. The prosecution admits it. He has a man's body and a child's mind. You must not hang a human being for a crime committed by the mind of a child for It was with his mind he committed this crime." Itis only of recent year3 that science has undertaken to measure mental age and fix. with exactness what degree of mental capacity is to be expected of the normal child at every year of its life until it reaches maturity. Nobody expects a twelve-year-old boy to be as tall or as strong or to have the physi cal endurance of a man of twenty-five. Nobody expects the twelve-year-old boy to bave a brain as well developed as the man of twenty-five, but just how much of a brain the average twelve- year-old boy should iave has only recently been established by carefully, scientifically devised tests of thou sands of twelve-year-old children. In the. same way endless tests of children from the age of three years up to maturity have established exactly what should be expected In mental de velopment of a normal child at-any year in its life. On the strength of these tests the ex perts claimed that Harry S. New has the brain of a child less than twelve years old, although he has the height, figure and physical development which fitted his actual age of thirty-two. These tests cover a wide range and are designed to demonstrate intelligence, quickness, Judgment, resourcefulness, alert ness, physical sensitiveness and other qualities. They include the counting of blocks, answering puzzling questions, re placing missing parts of pictures, making sense of disarranged sentences and the use of machines that record whether a person has the normal quickness and re sponsiveness to sensations. Certain of 'the tests, known as the Binet Simon tests, were invented to discover and help backward children. "When a child shows lower mental age than his actual years he needs special education. Recently the tests have been developed and more widely used. Columbia, Penn sylvania and other universities employ such tests to decide whether students are qualified - to enter college. If a student does not 6how "the mental age of a su perior adult." he is not considered fit for college. Learned scientists have decided that a little puzzling question will elicit more information about a student's intelli gence than an elaborate examination in Greek or mathematics. The question is apparently simple, but really tricky, and is planned to test a man's general Intelli gence, quickness and judgment, and not his learning. A similar system was employed with great success during the late war in the classification of soldiers and their assign ment to special duties. In the New trial the defence summoned eight scientists to demonstrate the pris oner's mental age. Dr. E. B. Hoag, one of these witnesses, testified that he had tried on New the tests used on 2,000,000 men in the army. The witness said the ordinary private ranked 100 in these mental tests, while New ranked 34. An average officer in the army ranked 135, and a child in the fifth grade ranked 60. Here are some interest ing parts of this scientist's testimony. Q. How old is the prisoner?- A. Slightly less than twelve. f: 'ry $ yi 5f I I ' V whir j&V; " v r I liirtiiiiti T;!P' Harry S. New in Army Uniform; His Age is 32 Years. He Is a Full-Grown Afcle-Bodied Man and Betrays No Outward Signs of Feehle-Mindedness. How the 32-Year-Old Murderer Would Look Dressed As a Boy of 12 Years ' of Age Which the Experts Say Is His Mental Age. "Q. Would you say that a person of the age of twelve could hold the jobs that this man has, roam the country alone and take care of himself? A. Thousands of them are doing it. "Q. How can you explain his. work on the border when he was in the army? A. It takes but little ability to be a private in the army. "Q. Do you take the ground that an in sane man could run an elevator? A. Oh, yes. I knew a lawyer who practised in Chicago who was insane. I also knew three men running elevators, one in Seattle, all of whom were insane ana later committed murders. "Q. Do you think a man of this type, such ar you have described, could gain and hold the affections of a young woman twenty years of age, holding a good posi tion as an assistant stenographer? "A. I do not know her grade of Intelli gence. If it was very nigh, I think it would be strange if such a condition ex isted." E. W. McCumber, a fellow prisoner of New, was questioned to show the latter's childishness. He told of a poker game. In which New "put up an ante" three times in the same jackpot, when he should have done so only once. . New also claimed to hold "five kings." He nearly always lost. One of a series of tests of twelve-year-old intelligence set by Professor Terman, of the University of California, such as New failed to answer, is to require the subject to interpret the following fable in telligently: "A crow, having stolen a bit of meat, perched on a tree and held it In her beak. A fox, seeing her, wished to secure the meat and spoke to the crow thus: 'How handsome you are! And I have heard that the beauty of your voke is equal to that of your form and feathers?' The crow was so pleased that she opened her mouth to sing and dropped the meat, which the fox immediately ate." A correct interpretation is: "Teaches us not to listen to flattery. An eighteen-year-old defective answered : "Guess that's whefe the fox got bis name old foxy, which betrayed the mental age of ten. In the ColumMa University entrance tests the young men were asked to mark the best answer to the following problem to show reasoning power and judgment : "If your clothes are stolen while you are bathing in a river, what should you do? ... :? ;Ai f V, 1 I : 1 I l . .vv:-. I I I AviM? I y?v , -"zxnz-," yy l c W? y '''ju' i '"TftASATtOSfAL. (Q 1920, Interna tlonsl Feature Berries, Ira. Miss Freda Lesser, Who Was Killed by-Her Sweetheart, Harry S. New. "Get some money to buy a suit; "Swim down the river to a big city; "Wait till night and go to a farmhouse to get clothing; . "Get some fish to eat while you have to stay there." What would you think of the, intelli gence of the students who gave "swim ming to a big city" as the best answer? Another problem for Columbia entrants was to underline the correct answer to the following questions and answers; "Gas engines are lubricated by gasoline, air, water, oil. "The Pittsburgh team are called Giants, Cabs, Pirates, Tigers." Here are some more Columbia posers: ''Check the test answers to the follow ing questions: - "Why should food be chewed before swallowing? Because it is better for the health. Because it is bad manners to swallow without chewing. Because you may choke if you don't chew. Because liquids are not so nourishing. Great Britain Bights Bessrrsd n The Cruel Murder of Miss Lesser, Who Wa Shot to Death xra an Automobile by Harry S. New in Topango Canyon, Near Los Angeles, California. ehow average adult intelligence is to ask the subject to draw a line showing the course of a cannon ball from the cannon's mouth to the ground when fired horizon tally. 6nly 75 per cent of average adults answer correctly. In the army the personnel officer in the midst of asking a recruit a simple ques tion about age and residence would say sharply: "Have you any ancestors?" If the recruit were of low intelligence and thought "ancestors" were something to be ashamed of, like cooties, he would betray his grade by hastily answering "no." - A test for intelligence of ordinary re cruits required them to arrange mlxedmp sentences quickly in the rational order, and write whether they were "true" or "false" after them. Here Is an example: "Arctic monkeys in live regions." As some experts said New was near the mental age of ten, it is interesting to know'tbat a scientific test of enjoying this mental age is to detect what is wrong in four out of five statements like the fol lowing:, "A mant said, 'I know a road from my house to the city which 1b downhill all the way to the city and downhill all the way back home."' A tet for fourteen-year mental age is, ."There are three main differences between a President and a King. What are they?" The answer must show a knowledge that the President is elected, while the King inherits his throne; that the Presi dent's tenure is for a term, while that of the King is for life, and that Kings aro supposed to have more power than Pres idents. Unsatisfactory answers, showing less than a fourteen-year mind, are: "A King aits on a threTie." "The President lets the lawyers make the laws," etc. You must answer the following In a minute to show fourteen-year-old mental age: "If a man's salary is 120 a week and he spends $14 a week, how long will it take him to save $300 V . Here Is another test for the same age: j "Imagine you see the hands of the clock at 6:20. Now suppose the two hands were to change places, what time would it be?" The answer should be given intwo min futes. The subject does not bave to an swer every test in a series to be normal. To define the difference between "char acter and reputation" is a test set to show maturity. A good answer is, "Character Is what you are; reputation is what peo ple say of you." To be a "superior adult" you should be able to repeat eight digits reversed,, as 72 534 89 6, after hearing them once. Here is an interesting test ot fourteen-year-old intelligence: - - "An Indian who had come to town for the first time in his life saw a white man riding along the street As the white man rode by the Indian said, 'The white man is lazy; he walks sitting down.' What was the white man riding on that caused the- Indian to say, 'He walks sitting down? The answer, of course, is, "A bicycle." . In devising tests , for candidates for army officers even African proverbs were drawn vpoa to show the applicant's re sourcefulness. For instance, a piece of African wisdom runs, "If the stomach is not strong do not eat cockroaches." The candidate had to pick the English prov erb that most nearly means the sama thing- "If you are lost in a forest, what is the thing to do? Go straight ahead to a big tree. Hurry to the nearest house you know of. Sit down and cry. Use the sun or a compass for a guide. "Why is New York larger than Boeton? Because it is on an island. Because it has more millionaires. Because it was founded by tbe Dutch. Because it is better located." . ' 1 1 If a -youth said New York was larger , than Boston because It was better located and that he would use a compass to get out of a forest he qualified as Intelligent. If he advocated chewing food on account of the danger of choking it was decided that he had better be watched. If he said that New York was larger than Boston because it was founded by the Dutch he was not up to adult mental age. Many were sent home. A problem put by Professor Termaai ta