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Edward Ross

A portrait of Edward Ross. He is a middle aged white man with a mustache.

Edward Ross (1866 - 1951) was a professor of economics at Stanford University. Fascinated by the intersection of race and immigration, Ross's contribution to the Eugenics Movement was the theory of race suicide: the belief that low birth rates and increased immigration would lead to the extinction of the white race. 

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Ross was particularly concerned with Asian immigration, fearing the destruction of the “Anglo-Saxon character of American society.” Though he denied it, he is reported to have suggested that "should the worst come to the worst it would be better for us to train our guns on every vessel bringing Japanese to our shores than permit them to land.”

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Because of his anti-Asian rhetoric and his criticism of the railroad industry, Jane Stanford successfully called for Ross' resignation from the University. 

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Ross' race suicide remained a key feature of eugenic theory, and fearmongering about white birthrates remains even today. 

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