- MM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
 i 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE UNBORN 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH 
 
 Consider the End 
 
 SOLON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
 MCMVI 
 
nnr 
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 
 
 Published February, 1905, N 
 
 Second Impression. 
 
To 
 
 3[oim ^enrg 
 
 in 
 
 Admiration and Gratitude 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER ONE . .... . . 3 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 
 
 CHAPTER Two . . . . . . - 29 
 
 IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR? 
 
 CHAPTER THREE 75 
 
 NURTURE? OR NATURE? 
 
 CHAPTER FOUR . . . . . . . Ill 
 
 PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 
 
 CHAPTER FIVE . . 158 
 
 A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 
 
 CHAPTER Six ........ 193 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE following pages attempt a discussion of the 
 most important question that is likely to engage 
 the attention of the American People for many 
 years and even generations to come. Compared 
 with the vital matter of pure Blood, all other 
 matters, as of tariff, of currency, of subsidies, of 
 civil service, of labour and capital, of education, of 
 forestry, of science and art, and even of religion, 
 sink into insignificance. For, to judge by the past, 
 there is scarcely any conceivable educational or 
 scientific or governmental or social or religious 
 polity under which the pure strain of Caucasian 
 blood might not live and thrive and achieve great 
 things for History and Humanity; on the other 
 hand, there is no reason to believe that any kind 
 or degree of institutional excellence could per 
 manently stay the race decadence that would fol 
 low surely in the wake of any considerable con 
 tamination of that blood by the blood of Africa. 
 It is this supreme and all-overshadowing 
 
X FOREWORD 
 
 importance of the interests at stake that must 
 justify the earnestness and the minuteness with 
 which the matter has been treated. The writer does 
 not deny that he feels profoundly and intensely on 
 the subject; otherwise, he would certainly never 
 thus have turned aside from studies far more con 
 genial and fascinating. But he has hot allowed* 
 his feelings or any sentimental considerations 
 whatever to warp his judgment. It has been his 
 effort to make the whole discussion purely scien 
 tific, an ethnological inquiry, undisturbed by any 
 partisan or political influence. He_ has had to 
 guard himself especially against" the emotion of 
 sympathy, of pity for the unfortunate race, " the 
 man of yesterday, " which the unfeeling process 
 of Nature demands in sacrifice on the altar of the 
 evolution of Humanity. 
 
 It may be well to indicate at the outset the gen 
 eral movement of thought through this volume : 
 
 Chapter One in its title strikes the keynote. 
 In the following pages the main issue is stated, 
 the position of the South is defined, and her lines 
 of defence are indicated. But there is no attempt 
 to justify the fundamental assumption in the 
 Southern argument. 
 
 In Chapter Two this shortcoming is made 
 good. The assumed inferiority of both the Negro 
 
FOREWORD XI 
 
 and the Negroid is argued at length, and proved 
 by a great variety of considerations. 
 
 In Chapter Three the notion that this inferi 
 ority, now demonstrated, is after all merely 
 cultural and removable by Education or other 
 extra-organic means, is considered minutely and 
 refuted in every detail and under all disguises. 
 
 In Chapter Four the powerful and authorita 
 tive plea of Dr. Boas, for the "primitives," is 
 subjected to a searching analysis, with the decis 
 ive result that, in spite of himself, this eminent 
 anthropologist, while denying everything as a 
 whole, affirms everything in detail that is main 
 tained in the preceding chapters. Inasmuch as 
 the Address of this savant may be regarded as the 
 ne plus ultra of pro-African pleading, both in 
 earnestness and in learning, it has seemed that no 
 treatment of the subject would be complete that 
 did not refute it thoroughly - "so fight I as one 
 not beating the air. " To do this was not possible 
 without quoting extensively, which is the less to 
 be regretted as the Address has been too little 
 read. 
 
 In Chapter Five the obvious and instant ques 
 tion is met. What then is to become of the Black 
 Man? The answer is rendered in general terms 
 and is supported by the remarkable testimony of 
 
Xll FOREWORD 
 
 the distinguished statistician, Professor Willcox. 
 But only general sociologic moments are re 
 garded, and the statistical argument in detail is 
 held in reserve. 
 
 In Chapter Six this omission is fully supplied. 
 The Growth rate, the Birth rate, the Death rate, 
 the Crime rate, and the Anthropometry of the 
 Negro are discussed minutely from every point 
 of view, and the positions of the preceding chap 
 ters are bulwarked and buttressed unassailably. 
 
 It has been the one aim of the writer, who is 
 perfectly convinced in his own mind, to convince 
 the reader. To this end no pains have been spared 
 and no drudgery avoided. Since it appeared 
 necessary to regard the matter from various 
 nearly related points of view, under only slightly 
 divergent angles, it has happened that the same 
 argumentative materials have come to hand more 
 than once in almost equivalent forms. But in this 
 there is no disadvantage; factors of such sover 
 eign potence do not suffer from repetition. The 
 whole discussion is biological in its bearing and 
 turns about a few pivotal points; and these de 
 serve to be stressed by every device of emphasis. 
 "For twice indeed, yea thrice, they say, it is 
 good to repeat and review the good. " 
 
 There remain yet certain important political 
 
FOREWORD xiii 
 
 and economical and even juridical aspects of the 
 subject, concerning which the writer has not neg 
 lected to gather relevant material of evidence; 
 but any adequate discussion would carry the 
 reader too far afield and would mar the unity of 
 the work as it now stands. Accordingly these as 
 pects are left unregarded. 
 
 The writer fancies one may forecast the only 
 reply likely to be brought forward under even a 
 thin guise of plausibility. It will be said, as it is 
 said, that the much-dreaded contamination of 
 blood is the merest bugaboo. But nay! it is a tre 
 mendous and instant peril, against which eternal 
 vigilance is the only safeguard, in whose pres 
 ence it is vain and fatuous to cry "peace, 
 peace" when there is no peace, a peril whose 
 menace is sharpened by well-meant efforts at hu 
 manity and generosity, by seemingly just de 
 mands for social equality masquerading as* equal 
 opportunity." The one adequate definition of 
 this "equal opportunity" has been bravely given 
 by that most able and eloquent Negroid, Prof. 
 William H. Councill: "Will the White man per 
 mit the Negro to have an equal part in the indus 
 trial, political, social and civil advantages of the 
 United States? This, as I understand it, is the 
 problem. " All this is quite beyond question to the 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 mind that cherishes no illusions and insistently 
 beholds things as they are. Neither is it less sure 
 that even the Southern conscience needs quick 
 ening at this vital point. The writer has been 
 appalled at the cool indifference with which 
 amalgamation is contemplated as necessary and 
 inevitable by certain highly intelligent philanthro 
 pists in the Southland. The matter is delicate and 
 difficult to argue, and in the body of the book it 
 has perhaps been stressed too lightly; but the 
 danger signals are clearly discernible, even as 
 they were to Prof. E. D. Cope, and it is madness 
 not to heed them. If the race barrier be removed, 
 and the individual standard of personal excel 
 lence be established, the twilight of this century 
 will gather upon a nation hopelessly sinking in 
 the mire of Mongrelism. 
 
 It can hardly be hoped that any reader will be 
 satisfied with the glimpse here disclosed of the 
 future. Certainly not the Negro, nor his apolo 
 gists; nor even such as sympathize most fully 
 with the writer. The solemn secular processes, to 
 which the solution of the problem is relegated, 
 are so very leisurely in their working, closing 
 down upon their final result with the delibera 
 tion of a glacier, or like some slowly convergent 
 infinite series. But Nature is once for all thus 
 
FOREWORD XV 
 
 leaden-footed, and it is extremely difficult to 
 quicken her pace. 
 
 We have bestowed merely a glance upon the 
 scheme of Deportation, which is alas ! not now a 
 question of practical statesmanship, though it 
 may indeed become one sooner than we think. 
 
 However, the outlook is not hopeless to him 
 who has a sense of the world to come, who lives 
 in his race, who feels the solidarity of its present 
 with its future as well as with its past. " Of men 
 that are just, the true saviour is Time. " Besides, 
 it seems not at all strange that a disease, chronic 
 through centuries, should require centuries for its 
 cure, that the multiplied echoes of the curse of 
 African slavery should go sounding on, even to 
 the years of many generations. 
 
 w. B. s. 
 
 Tulane University, 
 
 25th October, 1904. 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
CHAPTER ONE 
 
 THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 
 
 Z^2 ttotf man join together 
 What God hath put asunder 
 
 IN the controversy precipitated by the luncheon 
 at the White House, and embittered by more 
 recent procedures, the attitude of the South pre 
 sents an element of the pathetic. The great world 
 is apparently hopelessly against her. Three- 
 fourths of the virtue, culture, and intelligence of 
 the United States seems to view her with pity 
 ing scorn; the old mother, England, has no word 
 of sympathy, but applauds the conduct that her 
 daughter reprehends; the continent of Europe 
 looks on with amused perplexity, as unable even 
 to comprehend her position, so childish and 
 absurd. Worst of all, she herself appears to have 
 no far-reaching voice. However ably or ear 
 nestly her daily journals may plead her cause, 
 their circle of readers rarely extends far beyond 
 
4 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 her own borders : she seems to be talking to her 
 self or raving in a dream. 
 
 Under such conditions, why not appeal to her 
 generous foes, to the Northern Press, to lend 
 the mighty resonance of their own voice to the 
 proclamation of the Southern plea? "Their 
 tone has gone out through all the earth, and their 
 words to the end of the world." But the de 
 mands on their space are overwhelming; they 
 hesitate before an article of more than fifteen 
 pages, and they would not needlessly wound the 
 sensibilities of their readers. No! The Southern 
 plea, if it is to be made effective, must be pre 
 sented in a book. 
 
 The present writer professes neither authority 
 nor special fitness to speak for the South. No one 
 but himself knows that he is framing or intends 
 to frame this defense; but the situation appeals 
 to him powerfully, and it is so transparent and 
 so easily understood of any one here in the midst 
 that he cannot believe he commits any sensible 
 error in his statement of the case. 
 
 To begin, then, it is essential to any proper 
 conduct of the discussion that the point at issue 
 be clearly defined, and that all false issues be ex 
 cluded rigorously and in terms. Unless we widely 
 err, much current argumentation, especially at 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL? OR THE RACE? 5 
 
 the North, is perverted by the fatal fallacy of 
 mistaken aim. On the other hand, we shall not 
 be at any pains to defend or excuse intemperance 
 in the language of Southern writers or speak 
 ers; on this head we have no dispute with any 
 one but are willing to admit, whether true or 
 false, whatever may be charged. 
 
 What, then, is the real point at issue, and what 
 does the South stand for in this contention stand 
 alone, friendless, despised, with the head and 
 heart, the brain and brawn, the wealth and 
 culture of the civilized world arrayed almost 
 solidly against her ? The answer is simple : She 
 stands for blood, for the "continuous germ- 
 plasma" of the Caucasian Race. 
 
 The South cares nothing, in themselves, for 
 the personal friendships or appreciations of high- 
 placed dignitaries and men of light and leading. 
 She must concede to such and to all Northerners 
 and to all Europeans the abstract right to choose 
 their associates and table company as they please. 
 What she does maintain is, that in the South the 
 colour line must be drawn firmly, unflinchingly - 
 without deviation or interruption of any kind 
 whatever. 
 
 It may be too much to affirm that in all extra- 
 social matters in politics, in business, in liter- 
 
6 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ature, in science, in art, everywhere but in 
 society even the best sentiment or practice of 
 the South is eager to give the Negro strict justice, 
 or ample scope, or free opportunity. Southerners 
 are merely human ; and there is, perhaps, no great 
 historical example of an inferior race or class 
 treated with all proper consideration by the supe 
 rior. Certainly our Northern friends will hardly 
 maintain that recent disclosures clearly show 
 that their ruling corporate powers are humane, 
 or generous, or even barely just towards the poor 
 and humble, in their administration of the im 
 portant industrial trusts which God has so wisely 
 placed in their hands. They are giants, and it is 
 the nature of giants to press hard. At this point, 
 then, the South is or should be open to conviction. 
 It is the part of statesmanship, as well as of hu 
 manity, continuously to adjust the relations of 
 classes much more so of races so that the 
 largest interests involved may be sacredly con 
 served and at the least possible sacrifice of any 
 smaller interest that may conflict. More can hard 
 ly be expected in a world whose law is strife. 
 Tried by this standard, it is very doubtful wheth 
 er the South falls even one notch below the aver 
 age set everywhere by the example of the ruling 
 class. If she does, then let her bear the blame, 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 7 
 
 with neither excuse nor extenuation for her short 
 comings. But in the matter of social separation 
 we can and we will make no concessions what 
 ever. Neither dare we tolerate any violations of 
 our fundamental principle among ourselves; nor 
 dare we sit calmly by and behold its violation by 
 others, when that violation imperils our own 
 supreme interests and renders more difficult the 
 maintenance of our own position. Here, then, 
 is laid bare the nerve of the whole matter/ x [#""~ 
 the South justified in this absolute denial of social 
 equality to the Negro, no matter what his virtues 
 or abilities or accomplishments ? / 
 
 We affirm, then, that the South is entirely right 
 in thus keeping open at all times, at all hazards, 
 and at all sacrifices an impassable social chasm 
 between Black and White. This she must do in 
 behalf of her blood, her essence, of the stock of 
 her Caucasian Race. To the writer the correct 
 ness of this thesis seems as clear as the sun so 
 evident as almost to forestall argument; nor can 
 he quite comprehend the frame of mind that can 
 seriously dispute it. But let us look at it closely. 
 Is there any doubt whatever as to the alterna 
 tive? If we sit with Negroes at our tables, if we 
 entertain them as our guests and social equals, 
 if we disregard the colour line in all other relations, 
 
8 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 is it possible to maintain it fixedly in the sexual 
 relation, in the marriage of our sons and daugh 
 ters, in the propagation of our species ? Unques 
 tionably, No! It is certain as the rising of to 
 morrow s sun, that, once the middle wall of social 
 partition broken down, the mingling of the tides 
 of life would begin instantly and proceed steadily. 
 Of course, it would be gradual, but none the less 
 sure, none the less irresistible. It would make 
 itself felt at first most strongly in the lower strata 
 of the white population ; but it would soon invade 
 the middle and menace insidiously the very up 
 permost. Many bright Mulattoes would ambi 
 tiously woo, and not a few would win, well-bred 
 women disappointed in love or goaded by im 
 pulse or weary of the stern struggle for existence. 
 As a race, the Southern Caucasian would be irre 
 versibly doomed. For no possible check could be 
 given to this process once established. Remove 
 the barrier between two streams flowing side by 
 side immediately they begin to mingle their 
 molecules; in vain you attempt to replace it. 
 Not even ten legions of Clerk Maxwell s demons 
 could ever sift them out and restore the streams 
 to their original purity. The moment the bar of 
 absolute separation is thrown down in the South, 
 that moment the bloom of her spirit is blighted 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 9 
 
 forever, the promise of her destiny is annulled, 
 the proud fabric of her future slips into dust and 
 ashes. No other conceivable disaster that might 
 befall the South could, for an instant, compare 
 with such miscegenation within her borders. 
 Flood and fire, fever and famine and the sword - 
 even ignorance, indolence, and carpet-baggery - 
 she may endure and conquer while her blood 
 remains pure; but once taint the well-spring 
 of her life, and all is lost even honour itself. 
 It is this immediate jewel of her soul that the 
 South watches with such a dragon eye, that she 
 guards with more than vestal vigilance, with a 
 circle of perpetual fire. The blood thereof is the 
 life thereof; he who would defile it would stab her 
 in her heart of heart, and she springs to repulse 
 him with the fiercest instinct of self-preservation. 
 It may not be that she is distinctly conscious of 
 the immeasurable interests at stake or of the real 
 grounds of her roused antagonism; but the in 
 stinct itself is none the less just and true and 
 the natural bulwark of her life. 
 
 To set forth great things by small, we may 
 take the instinct of the family, with its imperious 
 and uncompromising demand for absolute fe 
 male chastity. It is not here, in any controlling 
 measure, a question of individual morality. We 
 
10 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 make no such absolute demand upon men. We 
 regret, we condemn, we may infinitely deplore 
 sexual irregularity in son, or brother, or husband, 
 or father, or friend, but we do not ostracize; 
 we may forgive, we may honour, we may even 
 glorify the offender in spite of his offense. But 
 for the female dissolute there is no forgiveness, 
 however we may extra-socially pity or even 
 admire. A double standard an abomination! 
 But while none may approve, yet every one ad 
 mits and applies it for reasons deeper than 
 our conscious logic, and irresistible. For the 
 offense of the man is individual and limited, 
 while that of the woman is general, and strikes 
 mortally at the existence of the family itself. 
 
 Now the idea of the race is far more sacred 
 than that of the family. It is, in fact, the most 
 sacred thing on earth ; and he who offends against 
 it is an apostate from his kind and mounts the 
 apex of sacrilege. 
 
 At this point we hear some one exclaim, "Not 
 so fast ! To sit at table, to mingle freely in society 
 with certain persons, does not imply you would 
 marry them." Certainly not, in every case. We 
 may recognize socially those whom we person 
 ally abhor. This matters not, however; for wher 
 ever social commingling is admitted, there the 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL? OR THE RACE? 11 
 
 possibility of intermarriage must be also admit 
 ted. It becomes a mere question of personal prefer 
 ence, of like and dislike. Now, there is no account 
 ing for tastes. It is ridiculous to suppose that no 
 Negroes would prove attractive to any whites. The 
 possible would become actual as certainly as 
 you will throw double-double sixes, if only you 
 keep on throwing. To be sure, where the number 
 of Negroes is almost vanishingly small, as in the 
 North and in Europe, there the chances of such 
 mesalliances are proportionally divided; some 
 may even count them negligible. But in the 
 South, where in many districts the Black out 
 numbers the White, they would be multiplied 
 immensely, and crosses would follow with in 
 creasing frequency. 
 
 It is only the sense of blood superiority, the 
 pride of race, that has hitherto protected the 
 white labourer. Break this down or abate it, 
 and he sinks swiftly to the level of the mongrel. 
 Laugh as you will at the haughtiness of the igno 
 rant Southerner, at his scorn of the Negro, per 
 haps his superior, it is this very race self-respect 
 that is the rock of his salvation. As Bernhard 
 Moses points out, it was because the Anglo-Saxon 
 so cherished this feeling that he refused to amal 
 gamate with the Indians a proud and in some 
 
12 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ways superior race but drove them relentlessly, 
 and often, it may be, unrighteously before him 
 into the sea. It was just because the Spaniard, 
 though otherwise proud enough, did not cherish 
 this feeling, that he did amalgamate with the 
 victims of his greed and descend into hopeless 
 depths of hybridization. So far, then, from doing 
 aught to weaken this sentiment, we should do 
 our utmost to strengthen it; we should studious 
 ly avoid offending it. But social equality must 
 deadly wound it and hence drag miscegenation 
 and all South America in its train. 
 
 But some may deny that the mongrelization 
 of the Southern people would offend the race 
 notion would corrupt or degrade the Southern 
 stock of humanity. If so, then such a one has yet 
 to learn the largest-writ lessons of history and 
 the most impressive doctrines of biological 
 science.lThat the Negro is markedly inferior 
 to the Caucasian is proved both craniologically 
 and by six thousand years of planet-wide ex 
 perimentation; and that the commingling of 
 inferior with superior must lower the higher is 
 just as certain as that the half-sum of two and 
 six is only four.* T 
 
 If accepted science teaches anything at all, it 
 
 * For detailed proof of these propositions, see the following chapters. 
 
OR THE RACE ? 
 
 teaches that the heights of being in civilized man 
 have been reached along one path and one only 
 -the path of Selection, of the preservation of 
 favoured individuals and of favoured races. The 
 deadly enemy of the whole process of uplifting, 
 of the Drang nach oben, of the course of history 
 itself, is pammixia. Only give it play, and it 
 would inevitably level all life into one undis 
 tinguished heap. Now, amalgamation of Black 
 and White is only a special case of pammixia. 
 The hope of the human lies in the superhuman ; 
 and the possibility of the superhuman is given in 
 selection, in natural and rational selection, among 
 the children that are to be, of the parents of the 
 men to comQ^The notion of social racial equal 
 ity is thus seen to be abhorrent alike to instinct 
 and to reason ; for it flies in the face of the proc 
 ess of the suns, it runs counter to the methods 
 of the mind of God. 
 
 It is idle to talk of education and civilization 
 and the like as corrective or compensative agen 
 cies.* All are weak and beggarly as over against 
 the almightiness of heredity, the omniprepo- 
 tence of the transmitted germ-plasma. Let this 
 be amerced of its ancient rights, let it be shorn in 
 some measure of its exceeding weight of ances- 
 
 * For minuter treatment of this point, see the following chapters. 
 
14 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 tral glory, let it be soiled in its millennial purity 
 and integrity, and nothing shall ever restore it; 
 neither wealth, nor culture, nor science, nor art, 
 nor morality, nor religion not even Christianity 
 itself. Here and there these may redeem some 
 happy spontaneous variation, some lucky freak 
 of nature ; but nothing more they can never re 
 deem the race. If this be not true, then history 
 and biology are alike false; then Darwin and 
 Spencer, Hseckel and Weismann, Mendel and 
 Pearson, have lived and laboured in vain. 
 
 Equally futile is the reply, so often made by 
 our opponents, that miscegenation has already 
 progressed far in the Southland, as witness mil 
 lions of Mulattoes. Certainly; but do not such 
 objectors know in their hearts that their reply 
 is no answer, but is utterly irrelevant ? We admit 
 and deplore the fact that unchastity has poured 
 a broad stream of white blood into black veins; 
 but we deny, and perhaps no one will affirm, 
 that it has poured even the slenderest appreciable 
 rill of Negro blood into the veins of the Whites. 
 We have no excuse whatever to make for these 
 masculine incontinences; we abhor them as dis 
 graceful and almost bestial. But, however degrad 
 ing and even unnatural, they in nowise, not even 
 in the slightest conceivable degree, defile the 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 15 
 
 Southern Caucasian blood. That blood to-day is 
 absolutely pure ; and it is the inflexible resolution 
 of the South to preserve that purity, no matter how 
 dear the cost. We repeat, then, it is not a question 
 of individual morality, nor even of self-respect. He 
 who commerces with a negress debases himself 
 and dishonours his body, the temple of the 
 Spirit; but he does not impair, in anywise, the 
 dignity or integrity of his race; he may sin against 
 himself and others, and even against his God, 
 but not against the germ-plasma of his kind. 
 
 Does some one reply that some Negroes are 
 better than some Whites, physically, mentally, 
 morally ? We do not deny it ; but this fact, again, 
 is without pertinence. It may very well be that 
 some dogs are superior to some men. It is absurd 
 to suppose that only the elect of the Blacks 
 would unite with only the non-elect of the Whites. 
 Once started, the pammixia would spread through 
 all classes of society and contaminate possibly 
 or actually all. Even a little leaven may leaven the 
 whole lump. 
 
 Far more than this, however, even if only very 
 superior Negroes formed unions with non-supe 
 rior Whites, the case would not be altered ; for it 
 is a grievous error to suppose that the child is 
 born of its proximate parents only; it is born 
 
16 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 of all its ancestry; it is the child of its race. The 
 eternal past lays hand upon it and upon all 
 its descendants. However weak the White, be 
 hind him stands Europe; however strong the 
 Black, behind him lies Africa. 
 
 Preposterous, indeed, is this doctrine that per 
 sonal excellence is the true standard, and that only 
 such Negroes as attain a certain grade of merit 
 should or would be admitted to social equality. 
 A favourite evasion! The Independent, The Na 
 tion, The Outlook, the whole North all point 
 Admiringly to Mr. Washington, and exclaim: 
 / But only see what a noble man he is so much 
 better than his would-be superiors!" So, too, a 
 distinguished clergyman, when asked whether he 
 would let his daughter marry a Negro, replied: 
 "We wish our daughters to marry Christian 
 gentlemen." Let, then, the major premise be, "All 
 Christian gentlemen are to be admitted to social 
 equality; " and add, if you will, any desired degree 
 of refinement or education or intellectual prowess 
 as a condition. Does not every one see that any 
 such test would be wholly impracticable and 
 nugatory ? If Mr. Washington be the social equal 
 of Roosevelt and Eliot and Hadley, how many 
 others will be the social equals of the next circle, 
 and the next, and the next, in the long descent 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL? OR THE RACE? 17 
 
 from the White House and Harvard to the miner 
 and the rag-picker ? And shall we trust the hot, 
 unreasoning blood of youth to lay virtues and 
 qualities so evenly in the balance and decide just 
 when some " olive-coloured suitor " is enough a 
 "Christian gentleman" to claim the hand of 
 some simple-hearted milk-maid or some school- 
 ma am "past her bloom/ ? The notion is too 
 ridiculous for refutations^ the best Negro in the 
 land is the social equal of the best Caucasian, 
 then it will be hard to prove that the lowest 
 White is higher than the lowest Black; the prin 
 ciple of division is lost, and complete social 
 equality is established. We seem to have read 
 somewhere that, when the two ends of one 
 straight segment coincide with the two ends of 
 another, the segments coincide throughout their 
 whole extent. 
 
 But even suppose that only the lower strata of 
 Whites mingle with the upper strata of Negroes, 
 the result would be more slowly, but not the 
 less surely, fatal. The interpenetration in our 
 democratic society is too thorough. Here and 
 there the Four Hundred may isolate themselves, 
 but only for a time and imperfectly. Who knows 
 when the scion of a millionaire may turn into a 
 motorman, or the son of a peasant hew his way 
 
18 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 to the Capitol ? Let the mongrel poison assail the 
 humbler walks of life, and it will spread like a 
 bubonic plague through the higher. The stand 
 ing of the South would be lost irretrievably. 
 Though her blood might still flow pure in myriad 
 veins, yet who could prove it ? The world would 
 turn away from her, and point back the finger 
 of suspicion, and whisper "Unclean!" 
 
 Just here we must insist that the South, in this 
 tremendous battle for the race, is fighting not for 
 herself only, but for her sister North as well. It 
 is a great mistake to imagine that one can be 
 smutched and the other remain immaculate. Up 
 from the Gulf regions the foul contagion would 
 let fly its germs beyond the lakes and mountains. 
 The floods of life mingle their waters over all our 
 land. Generations might pass before the darken 
 ing tinge could be seen distinctly above the Ohio, 
 but it would be only a question of time. The 
 South alone would suffer total eclipse, but the 
 dread penumbra would deepen insensibly over 
 all the continent. 
 
 Well, then, the determination and attitude of 
 the South are just and holy and good, and we 
 may now advance to another question. Granted 
 the completest social separation in the South, 
 where the danger is instant and fearful, is it also 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 19 
 
 right or demanded in the North, where the dan 
 ger is distant or wholly unreal? Why not social 
 separation and the race standard in the South, 
 but social equality and the standard of personal 
 merit in the North? We apprehend that such 
 will be the position of many fair-minded men 
 at the North, and perhaps we may hope for no 
 greater concession. Such a compromise, if car 
 ried out to the letter and its purpose and spirit 
 everywhere boldly proclaimed and distinctly un 
 derstood, might indeed be accepted as a modus 
 vivendi. If the Northern Press and Pulpit should 
 speak on this wise: "You Southerners mistake 
 us entirely. We recoil with your own horror from 
 the idea of a hybridized Dixie; God forbid that 
 you should herd with narrow foreheads, vacant 
 of our glorious gains ! We too eschew the notion 
 of race equality. We do not practise, we do not 
 preach it. We applaud your inflexible resolution 
 to keep the Caucasian blood uncorrupt and con 
 secrated to the highest ideals of humanity. Only, 
 we would generously remember high achieve 
 ments and reward exceptional merit with recog 
 nition, but always without will or desire to dis 
 turb your social order or to debase the coin of 
 your White civilization. We hold out no false 
 hopes, we encourage no vain ambitions, we flat- 
 
20 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ter no absurd conceits, we sow no seeds of dis 
 content or discord." If such notes rang out 
 from the moulders and wielders of the Northern 
 mind, the South would rejoice with joy unspeak 
 able. She might then pass by unnoticed what now 
 excites her protest. But alas ! such notes are rare 
 ly, if ever, heard. Instead, it is constantly reiterat 
 ed that the South is the victim of "unreason 
 ing prejudice," that she is old-fogy, antiquated, 
 ignorant, and without liberalizing experience of 
 the larger world. Her plea for race integrity is 
 thrust aside as not worth hearing or is answered 
 at best with fine scorn and lofty contempt. From 
 such Northern utterances it seems impossible to 
 draw any conclusion but that very many would 
 be quite willing to see perfect equality of the 
 races established in the South, even with its 
 inevitable corollary of mongrelization.* It is this 
 painful consciousness, that the central dogma of 
 her civilization finds apparently so little favour 
 beyond the Potomac, that so alarms the South 
 and makes her so supersensitive as to Northern 
 practice. Examples, otherwise trifling, acquire 
 deep interest when set to illustrate some vital 
 principle. 
 
 * For documentary proof that the utmost extreme of miscegenation has 
 been zealously preached, and on quasi-scientific grounds, see infra, 
 pp. 71, 72, 126-9. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 21 
 
 To the North, so superior in all the tokens of 
 development, the world looks for the pattern. 
 Her conduct counts as the model. The Negroes 
 themselves cannot be expected to distinguish be 
 tween the Northerner North and the Northerner 
 South, nor to reflect that the wise man howls with 
 the wolves, and very naturally feel themselves 
 the victims of gross injustice. 
 
 And herein lies the profound and disastrous 
 significance of the Washington incident and its 
 fellows. They are open proclamations from the 
 housetops of society that the South is radically 
 wrong, that no racial distinctions are valid in 
 social life, that only personal qualities are to be 
 regarded. The necessary inference is the perfect 
 social equality of the races, as races, the aboli 
 tion of the colour line in society, in the family, in 
 the home. The unescapable result would be the 
 mongrelization of the South and her reduction 
 below the level of Mexico and Central America.* 
 
 Our opponents, however, are not yet left with 
 out rejoinder. They will and do affirm that all 
 such incidents are only trivial, that the noisy 
 protest of the South is a mere "tempest in a tea 
 pot." In a certain sense this is true. The prece- 
 
 * As to the natural effect of such propaganda on the Negroes themselves, 
 let the present epidemic of crime and lynching bear witness. 
 
22 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 dent at the White House has found and will 
 find no acceptance in the Southland. Not one 
 door of equality will be loosened in its closure, 
 but the bolts will be fastened firmer, the gates 
 will be guarded more narrowly. However, it is 
 equally true that the South could not overlook 
 such an incident in such a quarter. The treasure 
 she has to keep is beyond rubies; the watchmen 
 on her towers must neither slumber nor sleep. 
 She is safe, but only because of, and not in de 
 fault of, unresting vigilance. 
 
 We congratulate our friends in the North that 
 they can play with fire without fear of burns; 
 that they can wine and dine amiable and inter 
 esting Negroes as rare birds of passage, with 
 no thought of ulterior consequences at least, to 
 themselves. Their wealth, their power, their cul 
 ture, their grandeur, but more than all else, their 
 excessive preponderance in numbers, preclude 
 the thought that in many generations their blood 
 could be perceptibly tinged with tides from 
 Africa. With us of the South, alas! the whole 
 situation is quite another. They may safely 
 smile at such an incident as an empty scabbard; 
 but to us it is a drawn dagger. 
 
 But the question still remains: Why does the 
 South, if she be right in this matter, find the 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 23 
 
 virtue and intelligence of the world arrayed 
 against her ? We answer, the overmass of adverse 
 authority is indeed immense, but it is weightless. 
 The testimony of the North and of Europe is 
 hardly more relevant than would be that of the 
 Martians. For in neither has the race question 
 yet presented itself as a serious practical matter; 
 for them the Black Peril has no existence. Hence 
 their treatment of the subject is merely academic 
 and sentimental. They have generous ethical 
 ideas, respectable but well-worn and overworked 
 maxims, high humanitarian principles; and these 
 they ride horseback. For them the Negro is a 
 black swan, a curious and interesting specimen 
 in natural history; and they have no hesitance in 
 extending their sympathy, their hospitality, and 
 their cooperation. They remember that God 
 " hath made of one (blood) all nations of men for 
 to dwell on the face of the earth," but forget 
 that the author of this noble sentiment was not 
 an ethnologist; they pity "the nation s ward" as 
 the victim of centuries of oppression, and to the 
 eyes of their faith the mount of his transfigu 
 ration gleams close at hand. But the practical 
 problem never confronts them in its unrelieved 
 difficulties and dangers. The possibility of blood 
 contamination is not suggested to them, or at 
 
24 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 least it never comes home to them; and they 
 yield freely to their philanthropic impulses, not 
 thinking whither these would lead them, not see 
 ing the end from the beginning. Southern hearts 
 are not less benevolent than Northern, but South 
 ern eyes are of necessity in this matter wide open, 
 while most others are shut. 
 
 But once let Northern and European eyes 
 catch a clear glimpse of the actual peril of the 
 situation; once let the problem step forth before 
 them in a definite concrete form and call for 
 immediate solution; once let the sharp question 
 pierce the national heart, " Shall I or shall I not 
 blend my Caucasian, world-ruling, world-con 
 quering blood with the servile strain of Africa ?" 
 and can there be any doubt of the answer ? The 
 race instinct is now slumbering in the North and 
 Europe, and not strangely, for there is nothing to 
 keep it awake ; but it is not extinct, it exists and 
 is ready to spring up on occasion into fierce and 
 resistless activity. Of this fact our treatment of 
 the Chinese has already furnished a striking 
 illustration. We tolerated and even petted these 
 industrious Orientals certainly greatly the Ne 
 gro s superior so long as they were few in num 
 ber and in no way embarrassing. But at the first 
 suggestion that they might come in droves and 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 25 
 
 derange our labour system or alter the type of 
 our civilization, there burst forth all over the 
 North a vehement protest, "in might as a flame 
 of fire," that swept everything before it and 
 hurled back the Chinaman into the ocean and 
 barred our ports unyieldingly against him. The 
 case against Chinese immigration was not one- 
 hundredth so strong as against the social equality 
 of the Negro ; in fact, there was much to be said 
 against our restrictive legislation, and much was 
 said both ably and eloquently. But the strongest 
 arguments could not make themselves heard; 
 the race instinct, that instinct preservative of all 
 instincts, was infinitely stronger, and easily tri 
 umphed. Let us not forget, either, the recent in 
 cidents at Northwestern University and else 
 where, which show clearly that the "prejudice," 
 if you please so to call it, against the Negro is 
 hardly less strong, when aroused, even now in 
 Chicago than in New Orleans. 
 
 But some one may say, if all this be true, if the 
 race instinct of the Anglo-Saxon is really so 
 mighty and imperious, then there is no danger 
 that it will not assert itself, if need be; and why 
 all this pother about it ? We answer, there is 
 really no danger while the instinct is aroused, 
 and therefore, but only therefore, the South is 
 
26 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 safe. What we deprecate is the systematic war 
 fare that is waged in some quarters against this 
 instinct as a mere unenlightened "prejudice" 
 whereof we should be ashamed the attempt to 
 battle it down or else to drug it to sleep in the 
 name of morality or religion or higher human 
 ity. When our Northern brothers, by precept and 
 by example, throw the whole weight of their im 
 mense authority in favour of a practice that would 
 be ruinous to the South, are they walking accord 
 ing to love ? 
 
 We do not deny that there may be cases that 
 move our sympathy; that appeal strongly to our 
 sense of fair play, of right between man and man. 
 In and of itself, it may sound strange and unjust 
 and even foolish to deny to Booker Washington 
 a seat at the table of a white man, even should 
 he be distinctly Mr. Washington s inferior. But 
 the matter must not be decided in and of itself - 
 no man either lives for himself or dies for himself. 
 It must be judged in its larger bearings, by its 
 universal interests, where it lays hold upon the 
 ages, under the aspect of eternity. We refuse 
 to let the case rest in the low and narrow category 
 of Duty to the Individual; we range it where it 
 belongs, in the higher and broader category of 
 Obligation to the Race. 
 
THE INDIVIDUAL ? OR THE RACE ? 27 
 
 And this conducts us to a final remark. Even at 
 the risk of a sits Minervam we venture to correct 
 a great journal, The Outlook, in one of its state 
 ments. It assures its readers that the recent criti 
 cism does not represent the real South of intelli 
 gence, generosity, and true breeding, but is a 
 survival in a few persons, who have not had 
 opportunities of large contact with the world of 
 an antiquated and incomprehensible prejudice. 
 Such words are doubtless well-meant; but they 
 are ill-meaning, and if we understand them at 
 all, they invert the facts of the case. We have 
 some acquaintance with some of the best ele 
 ments of the Southern society, some of the best 
 representatives in nearly all the walks of South 
 ern life. We believe the virtue and intelligence 
 of "the real South" are eminently conserva 
 tive, earnestly deprecate intemperance in lan 
 guage, and are sworn enemies to sectional ani 
 mosity. Perhaps, in their zeal to cultivate the 
 friendliest relations with their Northern brethren, 
 they may guard their expressions too carefully 
 and repress their true feelings. But he who sup 
 poses that the South will ever waver a hair s 
 breadth from her position of uncompromising 
 hostility to any and every form of social equality 
 between the races, deceives himself only less than 
 
28 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 that other who mistakes her race instinct, the 
 palladium of her future, for an ignorant preju 
 dice and who fails to perceive that her reso 
 lution to maintain White racial supremacy with 
 in her borders is deepest-rooted and most im 
 mutable precisely where her civic virtue, her 
 intelligence, and her refinement are at their 
 highest and best. 
 
CHAPTER TWO 
 
 IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR? 
 
 All flesh is not the same flesh; 
 
 Star differeth from star in glory 
 
 I. Cor. xv. 39, 41 
 
 IN the foregoing discussion, it did not seem 
 well to interrupt the current of thought by any 
 proof of the assumed inferiority of the Negro, or 
 of the degeneracy induced by the intermixture 
 of types too widely diverse. 
 
 Yet these assumptions are, indeed, the two 
 hinges of the whole controversy. Once conceded 
 the racial inferiority of the Black and the half 
 way nature of the half-breed, and the general 
 contention of the South is proved, her general 
 attitude justified. It is not strange, then, that 
 the doughtiest champions of equality, in their 
 very latest deliverances, find no choice left them 
 
30 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 but to deny that the Negro is an inferior or a 
 backward race. 
 
 Such, by way of high example, are two world- 
 renowned metropolitan journals, whose general 
 excellence and powerful influence for good in our 
 civic life cannot be disputed, but whose intense 
 straining for Justice and Equity in the present 
 has utterly blinded them no less to obvious facts 
 and principles of science than to the highest and 
 holiest rights of humanity in the future. The 
 one, in speaking of racial "inferiors," incloses 
 the word in contemptuous guillemets and de 
 clares that when Mr. Darwin says: "Some of 
 them for instance, the negro and the European 
 are so distinct that, if specimens had been 
 brought to a naturalist without any further infor 
 mation, they would undoubtedly have been con 
 sidered by him as good and true species," he 
 "raises no question of superior or inferior;" and 
 it adds, "Nature knows no forw r ard or back 
 ward races, fauna or flora" an oracle whose real 
 meaning can only be guessed at. 
 
 The other is more specific. It maintains: 
 "Physically, the negro is equal to the Caucasian. 
 He is as tall and as strong. He has all the phys 
 ical basis and all the brain capacity necessary 
 for the development of intellectual power. . . 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 31 
 
 No evidence has yet been adduced which proves 
 that the Negro is physically, intellectually, essen 
 tially, necessarily an inferior race." . 
 "The assumption that the Caucasian is an es 
 sentially superior race . . . is provincial, 
 unintelligent and unchristian." 
 
 When we first meet with such denials, we are 
 almost dumbfounded; we rub our eyes and ex 
 claim with Truthful James : 
 
 Do I sleep ? Do I dream ? 
 
 Do I wonder and doubt ? 
 
 Are things what they seem ? 
 
 Or is visions about ? 
 
 Is our civilization a failure ? 
 
 Or is the Caucasian played out? 
 
 But on recovery from the shock, the shining pa 
 geant of all the ages begins to file interminably 
 before the imagination. The triumphs of the 
 Indo-European and Semitic races, the stories of 
 Babylon and Nineveh, of Thebes and Memphis, 
 of Rome and Athens and Jerusalem, of Delhi and 
 of Bagdad, of the Pyramids and of the Parthenon 
 the radiant names of Hammurabi and Zarathu- 
 stra and Moses and the Buddha and Mohammed, 
 of Homer and Plato and Phidias and Socrates 
 and Pindar and Pythagoras, and the mightiest 
 
32 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Julius, and the imperial philosophers, and their 
 peers without number, the endless creations of 
 art and science and religion and law and liter 
 ature and every other form of activity, the full- 
 voiced choir of all the Muses, the majestic moral 
 ity, the hundred-handed philosophy, the mani 
 fold wisdom of civilization all of this infinite 
 cloud of witnesses gather swarming upon us 
 from the whole firmanent of the past and pro 
 claim with pentecostal tongue the glory and su 
 premacy of Caucasian man. It seems impossible 
 to represent in human speech, or by any symbols 
 intelligible to the human mind, the variety and 
 immensity of this consentient testimony of all 
 historic time and place. Not to be overwhelmed 
 and overawed, much more convinced, by such a 
 prodigious spectacle of evidence, is to gaze at 
 midnoon into the heavens and cry out, "Where 
 is the sun ? " For over against all these transcend 
 ent achievements, what has the West African to 
 set? What art? What science? What religion? 
 What morality? What philosophy? What his 
 tory ? What even one single aspect of civilization 
 or culture or higher humanity ? It would seem 
 to be an insult to the reader s intelligence, if we 
 should prolong the comparison. 
 
 Now can all this be accidental? Has it just 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR 33 
 
 happened that, in all quarters of the world and 
 under all climatic and topographic conditions, 
 East and West, North and South, beneath the 
 tropics and within the frozen circles, by the sea 
 and amid the mountains, in snow, in sand, in 
 forest that everywhere and everywhen the 
 Caucasian has manifested the same all-conquer 
 ing, overmastering qualities -- not always good 
 or kind or just, but always strong, always striv 
 ing, always victorious ? And that never, and no 
 where, and under no circumstances, has the Black 
 man displayed any such capacities as could bring 
 him for a moment into consideration as the White 
 man s equal ? We answer, there can be no possi 
 bility of mistake. The achievement of the race, its 
 total history both in time and in space, is the best 
 possible index to its powers and potencies. 
 Against this witness of history, even if other 
 indications did plead, they would plead in vain. 
 Even were the brain of the Negro as large as an 
 elephant s, it would matter not. Says Hegel, 
 "Nations are what their deeds are;" and with 
 greater justice we may affirm that the race is what 
 its life is and has been. 
 
 It is noteworthy that while the one knight- 
 errant boldly declares that, "Nature knows no 
 forward or backward races," the other more 
 
34 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 cautiously avoids the term "backward" and 
 denies only inferiority for the Negro. Perhaps 
 one might admit that he is backward and de 
 mand for him time and opportunity. However, 
 the distinction is not really pertinent to the issue. 
 As well say the monkey is not inferior, but only 
 backward. It is only a difference of degree a 
 very great difference, to be sure, but it is idle 
 to say, "Give the Negro time." He has already 
 had time, as much time as the Europeans thou 
 sands and ten thousands of years. And what 
 opportunity has failed him ? The power that 
 uplifted Aryan and Semite did not come from 
 without, but from within. No mortal civilized 
 him; he civilized himself. It was the wing of his 
 own spirit that bore him aloft. If the African has 
 equal native might of mind, why has he not 
 wrought out his own civilization and peopled his 
 continent with the monuments of his genius ? 
 Or if the material was all there, ready to be 
 ignited, needing only the incensive spark, why 
 has it never, in hundreds of years, caught fire from 
 the blazing torch of Europe ? Why has century- 
 long contact with other civilizations never en 
 kindled the feeblest flame ? For it is well known 
 that intercourse with foreigners has in no degree 
 elevated or improved the West African, but on 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 35 
 
 the contrary has proved his curse and his doom. 
 (See Ratzel, The History of Mankind, III., pp. 
 99-100, 102-103, 120, 134.) Moreover, it seems 
 doubtful whether nearly forty* years of persistent 
 and consecrated efforts at education, with the ex 
 penditure of hundreds of millions, have revealed 
 yet in ten millions of Afro-Americans a single ex 
 ample of originative ability of notably high order. 
 (Bright Mulattoes, like familiar instances, count 
 little in this argument. It is well known (Men 
 del s Law) that offspringf do not exactly divide 
 the qualities of parents, but often veer in this re 
 spect or in that far over to one side or to the other. 
 Besides, the abilities of such men are apt to loom 
 up unduly large in the popular imagination. 
 We all wonder at a dancing bear, not because he 
 dances well, but because he dances at all.) 
 
 Perhaps one of the most unerring indications 
 of the native capacities and tendencies of a race 
 is to be found in its ethnic religion, its mythology, 
 
 *Many more in Massachusetts; yet hear the reluctant admission of 
 the Negro s ardent friend, Dr. Henry M. Field : "The whole race (in 
 Massachusetts) has remained on one dead level of mediocrity. " (" Sunny 
 Skies and Dark Shadows," p. 144) . Statistics, however, tell a story far less 
 favourable still. See infra, pp. 249f. 
 
 fThe following example, in itself not uninteresting, has fallen under 
 our own observation: At Columbia, Mo., in a well-known and highly 
 reputed family, the father exemplifies the brunette and the mother the 
 blonde type, each in its extremes t form; the son repeats the father, and a 
 daughter the mother, exactly; the other daughter is an exquisite chatame, 
 the mean of her parents. Compare Mendel s formula for the transmis 
 sion of parental qualities, which DeVries has now made famous. 
 
36 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 its childlike, untutored attitude towards the rid 
 dles of the universe. For there can be but little 
 or no question of outside influence or unequal 
 opportunity. The sun, the moon, the stars, the 
 firmament, the ocean, the plains, the mountains, 
 the forests, the rivers, the seasons, eclipses and 
 precessions, day and night, morning and even 
 ing, fire and frost, ice and vapour, wind and cloud, 
 thunder and lightning, life and death, health and 
 disease, dreams and shadows all these multi 
 form materials of construction have offered them 
 selves in practically equivalent quantity and 
 quality to the phantasy of every race and every 
 age. The reactions have varied widely, and have 
 boldly characterized the genius of each people. 
 Tell me of their gods, and I will tell you of the 
 worshippers. Tried by this standard, the case 
 seems decided, even before it reaches the thresh 
 old of the court. For, putting aside the sublime 
 and awful monotheism of the Hebrew, can any 
 one for an instant set in line the august and im 
 posing, if overgrown and supeiiuxuriant, myth 
 ology of India, the stern and severe and tre 
 mendous religions of the Nile and the Euphrates, 
 the sad and solemn but high-hearted and deep- 
 thoughted musings of Scandinavia and Teuton- 
 land, the infinitely varied and infinitely beautiful 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 37 
 
 mythopoeia of Hellas, or even the colorless but 
 sharp-lined abstractions of Italy, with the de 
 graded fetichism, the stock- and stone-service of 
 the Niger and the Congo ? 
 
 What we may call the historical argument, 
 just presented, finds strong and decisive confir 
 mation, even though it needs none, in the cra- 
 niology, the physiognomy, and the general anat 
 omy of the Negro.* Take him at his very best - 
 does any one believe that the Olympian Zeus, an 
 Apollo Belvedere, a Melian Venus, a Capito- 
 line Juno, a Hermes of Praxiteles, or a Sistine Ma 
 donna could ever by any possibility have emerged 
 from the most fertile fancy of an "Old Master" 
 of the Congo ? Perfect his type as you will, even 
 as you perfect the type of a flower or a bird, does 
 not the Sudanese remain at immense remove 
 from the European ? Of course, it is always possi 
 ble to contend that beauty is only subjective, any 
 way, that the hair and brow and nose and lips 
 and jaw and ear of the West African would be 
 just as beautiful as those of the Greek or Anglo- 
 American, if we only thought so. But being what 
 we are, we cannot think so now and still less 
 the further we advance in organic development. 
 Moreover, with equal reason we might say that 
 
 * For the details of this argument, see infra, pp. 46f . el passim. 
 
38 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 the tiger-lily was as beautiful as the rose, the 
 hippopotamus as pretty as the squirrel; nay more, 
 we might abolish all distinctions of quality, and 
 identify each pair of contradictories. 
 
 Does some one say that physical beauty is 
 a poor, inferior thing at best that beauty of 
 soul is alone sufficient and only desirable ? We 
 deny it outright. Beauty of form and colour has 
 its own high and inalienable and indefectible 
 rights, its own profound significance for the his 
 tory alike of nature and of man. Even if the inter 
 mingling of bloods wrought no other wrong than 
 the degradation of bodily beauty, the coarsening 
 of feature and blurring of coloration, it would 
 still be an unspeakable outrage, to be deprecated 
 and prevented by all means in our power. More 
 over, we hold that every such degeneration of 
 facial type will drag along with it inevitably a 
 corresponding declension of spirit. Criminology is 
 confident in its claim of some deep-seated, however 
 obscure, relation between aberrations from the 
 physical and from the mental norm. Though there 
 may be many illustrious exceptions, which our 
 defective knowledge cannot explain, yet the broad 
 general principle may still be maintained : 
 
 For of the soule the bodie forme doth take ; 
 
 For soule is forme, and doth the bodie make. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 39 
 
 Any general declination from type in the one, 
 while it may not cause, will yet infallibly argue 
 a corresponding declination from type in the 
 other. 
 
 It is futile to reply that our own ancestors and 
 the ancestors of the Greeks and all other his 
 torical peoples were once savages were once not 
 even men, and hardly manlike. Very true; but 
 why stop here? Why not boldly urge that Plato 
 might have traced back his lineage to an amoeba, 
 yea, to star-dust and curdling ether ? True, per 
 haps ; but what of it ? We may be cousins to the 
 worm, at the billionth remove; but we are not 
 brothers. We grant the abstract possibility that the 
 bee or the ant may harbour in itself higher poten 
 tialities for development than even man himself. 
 We even think it wholesome to bear this thought 
 in mind. Nevertheless, such may-be s lie infinitely 
 beyond the range of the practical vision; they 
 cannot enter into our calculations of futurity. 
 So, too, we grant that, in the centuries of mil- 
 leniums to come, it is possible that the Negro s 
 nature may receive some surpassing uplift : he may 
 sprout eagle pinions, and far outfly the wildest 
 dreams of Caucasian fancy. But such possibilities 
 are altogether too remote for our reckoning now; 
 they are decimals in the hundredth place. We 
 
40 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 may and we must neglect them, as we neglect the 
 likelihood of a concussion of our planet with 
 some extinct vagrant sun. We must act in the 
 living present, and at present there rolls between 
 the historical development of the black and the 
 white species an impassable river of ten thousand 
 years. Possibly the former might catch up in the 
 course of ages, if only the latter stood still. But will 
 they stand still ? Can they afford to wait ? Is 
 there not every reason to hope that they will 
 forge steadily ahead and widen still more and 
 more the interval between ? Is not such the ob 
 vious teaching of history? Does not the tree of 
 life bud and bloom and put forth new boughs 
 at the top ? For our part, we believe in the Over 
 man, Him who is to come not, however, from 
 the lower, but from the higher, humanity. Such, at 
 least, seems of necessity our working hypothesis. 
 
 It would be unfair, however, to close this part 
 of the discussion without noticing what our 
 adversaries have been able to produce contra. 
 
 In The Souls of Black Folk, Prof. W. E. B. 
 Dubois, of Atlanta, Ga., tells the tale, and it could 
 not be better told, of the contributions made 
 by the Negro to the civilization of our Union : 
 
 " Your country ? How came it yours ? Before 
 the Pilgrims landed we were here. Here we have 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 41 
 
 brought our three gifts and mingled them with 
 yours : a gift of story and song soft, stirring 
 melody in an ill-harmonized and unmelodious 
 land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back 
 the wilderness, conquer the soil, and lay the 
 foundations of this vast economic empire two 
 hundred years earlier that your weak hands 
 could have done it; the third, a gift of the 
 Spirit" (p. 262). The second of these "gifts" we 
 dismiss at once; the Negro s labour was not 
 voluntary, and was not a "gift" in any sense.* 
 As well say the mule made "gift of sweat and 
 brawn to beat back the wilderness." As to the 
 "Spirit," Prof. Dubois means that the spectacle 
 of African slavery aroused the "Spirit" in the 
 people of our land, particularly in the Abolition 
 ists- "out of the nation s heart we have called 
 all that was best to throttle and subdue all that 
 was worst" (p. 263). Queer "gift", indeed! By 
 the same token, the poverty, the distress, the 
 injustice, the iniquity, the intemperance, even the 
 crime all that mar our civilization have been 
 making it "the gift of the Spirit;" for have they 
 not aroused our sense of right and duty and 
 devotion to the good of others ? Have they not 
 
 * Even as a contribution, this labour was never necessary, and is notori 
 ously becoming more and more dispensable, even where it is not already 
 turning into an impediment. 
 
42 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 called out of the nation s heart all that was 
 best to throttle and subdue all that was worst ? 
 The gift of song, of the plaintive Negro melody - 
 we freely allow it. How much of the same is 
 really the product of the Negro soul seems to be 
 a question by no means easy to answer. But 
 let us allow the Negroid the benefit of the doubt 
 and accord him the fullest credit. We are not 
 musician enough to appraise this " gift" properly, 
 nor yet to reckon its possible significance for 
 the future of American music. But at the very 
 most, it seems to us that this worth and this 
 significance cannot be very high; especially since 
 a whole generation has come and gone without 
 any sign of larger development, but instead, Du- 
 bois himself being witness, with many signs of 
 corruption and degradation. Even then, accord 
 ing to the rating of the chief of Negroids, their 
 contribution to our civilization has been quite 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 (N.B. It is not, however, the sociologist of 
 Atlanta, but the seer of Concord, who has recog 
 nized most distinctly and celebrated with proud 
 est pomp of mixed metaphor the clairvoyance 
 and spiritual superiority of the tropical. 
 
 Dove beneath the vulture s beak. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 43 
 
 In the oft quoted " Voluntaries " we read: 
 
 He has avenues to God 
 
 Hid from men of Northern brain, 
 
 Far beholding, without cloud, 
 
 What these with slowest steps attain. 
 
 Inasmuch, however, as these " avenues " of 
 the far-sighted African are nothing but the blind 
 alleys of Voodooism and devil worship, it may be 
 just as well that they remain "hid" from the 
 slow-paced European.) 
 
 In the Booklovers 9 Magazine for July, 1903, the 
 same writer returns to this subject in an article 
 on "Possibilities of the Negro The Advance 
 Guard of the Race." The conspicuous position 
 and the full illustrations given this paper show 
 clearly at what a positive advantage the Black 
 man stands in the world of literature simply 
 because he is black. We happen to know that the 
 article has made some impression. Ten names 
 are presented of Negroids that have done re 
 spectable work in various fields of intellectual 
 labour. If Mr. Washington is easily the Herakles 
 in this latter-day crew of Argo, Dr. Dubois, who 
 has mustered them, is himself certainly Jason, 
 the eleventh. But of these eleven we may at once 
 dismiss eight, for their abundant white blood is 
 
44 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 apparent in their pictures and is not denied. 
 Only the other three are claimed as "black"; 
 pure black is not said, perhaps is not meant. 
 These seem to be the electrician, the mathema 
 tician, the poet. For none of these can be claimed 
 any very high order of merit; the light by which 
 they shine conspicuous among their fellows would 
 not illustrate them very especially among the 
 Whites. That such abilities should occasionally 
 show themselves, even in a quite inferior race, 
 ought surely to be expected and to arouse the 
 wonder of no one. The really significant thing is 
 that eight out of eleven of these champions are 
 confessedly of mixed blood ; only 27 per cent are 
 "black." But these "Blacks" form 80 per cent 
 of the total Negroid population. Hence, in pro 
 portion to numbers, it appears that the Mulattoes 
 are represented nearly eleven times as often 
 as the "Blacks." In the face of such a fact,* 
 it seems vain to deny that the mixed blood 
 is notably more intelligent than the pure 
 black; the necessary inference is that the white 
 blood with which it was mixed is far more 
 intelligent still. 
 
 * Established in the most conclusive fashion by the patriotic and 
 scholarly Crogman s "Progress of a Race" (1902). On glancing 
 through the long gallery of notable Negroids therein assembled, one per 
 ceives instantly that the Mulatto is greatly predominant. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 45 
 
 The reader may naturally ask, Why devote 
 space to such trivial arguments as those quoted, 
 since they tell plainly, where they tell at all, 
 against and not for the cause they would sup 
 port? We answer, that our treatment must be 
 thorough, if it be worth anything; that we desire 
 to represent our opponents at their very best, and 
 as far as possible in their own words; and that 
 the weakness of their position is most clearly 
 seen in their own efforts at defence. 
 
 The details of the anatomical argument, which 
 Darwin said would undoubtedly lead the natu 
 ralist to classify Negro and European as distinct 
 species, are matters of readily accessible knowl 
 edge. They have been presented frequently and 
 with telling force. That in particular the cranial, 
 the facial, and the appendicular skeletons of the 
 dolichocephalic West African (the purest, the 
 lowest, and the prevalent type on the plantation) 
 deviate sensibly from the highest human towards 
 the quadrumanal stamp, has been the common 
 observation of naturalists from Blumenbach to 
 Ratzel ; nor can this have escaped the notice of in 
 telligent and unbiased laymen. 
 
 Nevertheless, it may be well to record the 
 authoritative statement made by A. H. Keane, 
 professor of Hindustani, University College, Lon- 
 
46 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 don, in the article " Negro," in the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, Vol. XVII.* 
 
 "But wherever found in a comparatively pure 
 state, as on the coast of Guinea (here apparently 
 is to be met the most pronounced Negro type 
 proper yet discovered), in the Gaboon, along the 
 lower Zambesi, and in the Benua and Shari 
 basins, the African aborigines present almost a 
 greater uniformity of physical and moral type 
 than any of the other great divisions of man 
 kind. By the nearly unanimous consent of anthro 
 pologists this type occupies at the same time the 
 lowest position in the evolutionary scale, thus 
 affording the best material for the comparative 
 study of the highest anthropoids and the human 
 species. The chief points in which the Negro 
 either approaches the Quadrumana or differs 
 most from his congeners are: 
 
 (1) The abnormal length of the arm, which 
 in the erect position sometimes reaches the knee- 
 pan, and which on an average exceeds that of the 
 Caucasian by about 2 inches. 
 
 (2) Prognathism, or projection of the jaws 
 (index number of facial angle about 70, as com 
 pared with the Caucasian 82). 
 
 (3) Weight of brain, as indicating cranial 
 
 * For a fuller statement of some particulars, see Chapter Four. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 47 
 
 capacity, 35 ounces (highest gorilla 20, average 
 European 45). 
 
 (4) Full black eye, with black iris and yellowish 
 sclerotic coat, a very marked feature. 
 
 (5) Short flat snub nose, deeply depressed at 
 the base or frontal suture, broad at extremity, 
 with dilated nostrils and concave ridge. 
 
 (6) Thick protruding lips, plainly showing the 
 inner red surface. 
 
 (7) Very large zygomatic arches high and 
 prominent cheek bones. 
 
 (8) Exceedingly thick cranium, enabling the 
 Negro to butt with the head and resist blows 
 which would inevitably break any ordinary Euro 
 pean s skull. 
 
 (9) Correspondingly weak lower limbs, ter 
 minating in a broad flat foot with low instep, 
 divergent and somewhat prehensile great toe, 
 and heel projecting backwards ("lark heel"). 
 
 (10) Complexion deep brown or blackish, and 
 in some cases even distinctly black, due not to 
 any special pigment, as is often supposed, but 
 merely to the greater abundance of the coloring 
 matter in the Malphigian mucous membrane 
 between the inner or true skin and the epidermis 
 or scarf skin. 
 
 (11) Short, black hair, eccentrically elliptical 
 
48 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 or almost flat in section, and distinctly woolly, 
 not merely frizzly, as Prichard supposed on in 
 sufficient evidence. 
 
 (12) Thick epidermis, cool, soft, and velvety 
 to the touch, mostly hairless, and emitting a 
 peculiar rancid odor, compared by Pruner Bey 
 to that of the buck goat.* 
 
 (13) Frame of medium height, thrown some 
 what out of the perpendicular by the shape of 
 the pelvis, the spine, the backward projection 
 of the head, and the whole anatomical structure. 
 
 61 4) The cranial sutures, which close much 
 earlier in the Negro than in the other races. To 
 /this premature ossification of the skull, prevent 
 ing all further development of the brain, many 
 pathologists have attributed the inherent mental 
 inferiority of the blacks, an inferiority which is 
 even more marked than their physical differences. 
 Nearly all observers admit that the Negro child 
 is on the whole quite as intelligent as those of 
 other human varieties, but that on arriving at pu 
 berty all further progress seems to be arrested. 
 No one has more carefully studied this point than 
 Filippo Manetta, who, during a long residence 
 on the plantations of the Southern States of 
 
 * This misfortune should, of itself, be sufficient to settle the question of 
 social intercourse. The emanation is from certain overabundant sudor 
 ific glands. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 49 
 
 America noted that the Negro children were 
 sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but on 
 approaching the adult period a gradual change 
 set in. The intellect seemed to become clouded, 
 animation giving place to a sort of lethargy, brisk 
 ness yielding to indolence. We necessarily sup 
 pose that the development of the Negro and 
 White proceeds on different lines. While with 
 the latter the volume of the brain grows with the 
 expansion of the brain-pan, in the former the 
 growth of the brain is on the contrary arrested by 
 the premature closing of the cranial sutures and 
 lateral pressure of the frontal bone. " (La Razza 
 Negra nel suo stato selvaggio e nella sua duplice 
 condizione di emancipata e di schiava, Torino, 
 1864, p. 20). 
 
 This last point is one of such supreme impor 
 tance that it seems well to strengthen it by addi 
 tional testimony. Says the renowned Cesare Lom- 
 broso, in his " L Uomo Bianco e L Uomo di 
 Colore" (1892), p. 28: "The development of 
 the African baby is altogether different from 
 ours. In its first days it does not show the dark 
 color of the adult; the sutures of the head, 
 which with us close up only late in life, with it 
 ossify speedily, as in idiots and monkeys, and 
 the anterior sooner than the posterior. Also its 
 
50 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 face becomes projecting and prognathous only 
 after the first dentition; and only after the thir 
 teenth year its head is seen to grow longer and 
 its skin to grow darker. The same may be said of 
 the mental (morale) development; for the Negro, 
 precisely like the monkey, shows himself very in- 
 itelligent up to puberty; but at that epoch, when 
 jour intellect spreads its wings for more daring 
 Iflights, he stops and turns backward. . . . " 
 This profoundly significant arrest of devel 
 opment in the Negro is equally observable in 
 school and out of it. Among many witnesses, hear 
 one of the most unexceptionable, J. M. McGov- 
 ern, in a symposium in the Arena (Vol. 21, p. 439) : 
 " My experience has shown me that, while at the 
 start a negro child often shows ability quite 
 equal to that of a white child at the same age, 
 yet if the two children, one white and one col 
 oured, each of average intelligence, are kept in the 
 same class, in a short period the white child far 
 outstrips the negro at least in all those studies 
 where diligent application and depth of thought 
 are necessary for success." This testimony seems 
 particularly valuable, since it is based solely on 
 "experience" and is plainly independent of any 
 doctrine concerning cranial sutures. 
 
 In the work already cited, Lombroso mentions 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 51 
 
 several other minute yet important particulars 
 in which the Negro anatomy diverges from the 
 Caucasian toward the simian, but sufficient have 
 been adduced. It may be replied that each and 
 every one of these divergences may be found here 
 and there among Caucasians. This is true, but 
 the reply is no answer. All sorts of reversions to 
 lower type are to be met with in higher species, 
 but this by no means negatives the fact that 
 some species are more and some are less devel 
 oped. The well-formed type still exists in spite of 
 the occasional malformations. Besides, it is not 
 the presence of any single indication on which 
 our argument is grounded, but the simultaneous 
 presence of a great number of indications. It 
 is these in their entirety that distinguish the 
 Negro so notably, and remove him toward the 
 anthropoids; and over against this fact the occa 
 sional aberrations among the Whites have no 
 argumentative weight whatever. 
 
 That the Afro-Americans are by no means 
 racially identical, though racially related, is a 
 fact well known, but worth recalling. Some are 
 racially very distinctly superior to others, even 
 as were their ancestors in the African fatherland. 
 On this point we submit the highly intelligent 
 and unprejudiced testimony of Nathaniel South- 
 
52 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 gate Shaler, the well-known professor of geology 
 in Harvard University. In the Popular Science 
 Monthly (Vol. 57), he attempts a classification 
 of the Southern Blacks. First come those of the 
 "Guinea type" -the purest Negro who are 
 "distinctly of a low type," and who number one- 
 half of all. Those of the Zulu type are much 
 higher, and number perhaps five per cent of all. 
 The Arab Negro, found in Virginia, is of a finer 
 and more delicate mould, and numbers (say) one 
 per cent. The Red Negroes, the Bongos and 
 Mittus mentioned by Schweinfurth as "red- 
 brown," like their native soil (Heart of Africa, 
 Vol. I., p. 261), are Albinoidal, and number per 
 haps one per cent. The rest are of mixed types. 
 The Guinea "folk are of essentially limited in 
 telligence;" the Zulus are fit for anything that or 
 dinary men of our own race can do; the Arabs 
 are more educable, but of a sombre disposition; 
 the red are inferior/ The Mulattoes are of feeble 
 vitality, rarely surviving beyond middle age. , 
 Professor Shaler s father, an able physician, had 
 never seen a half-breed more than sixty years 
 old. As the reputation of the Mulatto is generally 
 bad, perhaps unjustly, "we may welcome the 
 fact that this mixed stock is likely to disappear" 
 (pp. 33-38). In a later article in the same vol- 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 53 
 
 ume, Professor Shaler contributes some valuable 
 thoughts and estimates. Thus: "The simple yet 
 valuable lessons of the soil-tiller they have had. 
 For the greater number of their race, particu 
 larly those of the Guinea type, this grade of em 
 ployment is as high as they may be expected to 
 attain" (p. 148). "I feel safe in saying, from the 
 basis of personal experience with the negroes, 
 that somewhere near one -third of them are fit 
 to be trained for mechanical employment of a 
 fairly high grade" (p. 149). We do not see how 
 it is possible to call in question either the com 
 petence or the fair-mindedness of this distin 
 guished observer. It is worthy of special attention 
 that he attests both the hopeless inferiority of the 
 (pure Negro) Guinea type and at the same time 
 its decisive numerical preponderance. The real 
 question before us, then, concerns not so much 
 the Negro in general, of whom there are notably 
 superior varieties, as the very lowest Negro that 
 West Africa has yet produced. 
 
 Here, then, we let the anatomical argument 
 rest for the present. A minuter treatment will be 
 found in a more appropriate connection in a fol 
 lowing chapter. 
 
 It is a favourite subterfuge of the champions of 
 the Black man to ascribe his unamiable charac- 
 
54 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 teristics of mind and temper, if not of body, to the 
 centuries of enslavement, debasement, and even 
 persecution that he has passed on this continent. 
 Now we have no apology whatever to offer for the 
 " institution" of African slavery. We recoiled 
 from it instinctively at the dawn of consciousness, 
 and we regard it now as an unmitigated curse to 
 the people that practise it. But we must not leave 
 unexposed the gross error in the defence just men 
 tioned. These centuries have indeed been centu 
 ries of enslavement, but certainly not of debase 
 ment nor any form of retrogression. For slavery is 
 and has been, from time immemorial, practically 
 universal in the fatherland of the Negro slav 
 ery more cruel and degrading and inhuman than 
 is known elsewhere on the globe. We enter into 
 no details, unwilling to make our pages needlessly 
 repulsive. In fact, the training of servitude in the 
 South has worked mightily for the Negro s ad 
 vancement not unlike the domestication of the 
 lower animals. Any who will read the descrip 
 tions of travellers, or the pages of Lombroso 
 L Uomo Bianco e FUomodi Color e must admit 
 that the humanizing of the African in the South 
 has proceeded surprisingly far. However ele 
 mentary and contradictory may be his notion 
 and his practice of morality now, on his native 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 55 
 
 heath he has practically no morality at all. "It 
 is more correct to say of the Negro that he is non- 
 moral than immoral. All the social institutions 
 are at the same low level, and throughout the 
 historic period seem to have made no perceptible 
 advance, except under the stimulus of foreign (in 
 recent times notably of Mohammedan) influ 
 ences . . . Slavery continues everywhere to 
 prevail . . . cannibalism is practiced . . . 
 human flesh appears to be sold in the open market 
 place" (Keane). All this talk, then, of the Ne 
 gro s degradation, wrought by his American 
 slavery, is the absolute inversion of the truth. 
 But if the Black man has advanced so remark 
 ably in Southern slavery, may we not expect him 
 to advance still more remarkably, especially now 
 that he is a free man ? At first blush, this expecta 
 tion may seem plausible ; but a very little reflec 
 tion and observation must show its vanity. The 
 first sharp breath of winter lends a keen edge to 
 the appetite; the continued cold does not make it 
 keener and keener. The fagged-out man of busi 
 ness or leader of society retires to some cool and 
 quiet health resort and reacts almost instantly. 
 In a week he gains ten pounds, in two weeks fif 
 teen, in a month twenty; but it would be a great 
 mistake to suppose that this rate of gain could be 
 
56 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 maintained for any considerable time. The natu 
 ral effect of the changed and improved conditions 
 is soon exhausted, the limits set in the constitu 
 tion of the subject are soon reached. So, too, in 
 the domestication of plants and animals. A mar 
 vellous superficial alteration may be speedily 
 brought about, but the bound is close at hand 
 and is approached with rapidly decreasing ve 
 locity that soon becomes hardly perceptible. By 
 no such means is any steady progress possible. 
 
 Precisely so in the domestication, education, 
 civilization of the lower races. These latter do 
 undoubtedly possess undeveloped potentialities; 
 they are capable of better things. The immediate 
 result of subjecting them to new conditions that 
 stimulate their powers may often be highly grat 
 ifying. But herein lies no promise whatever of any 
 progressive amelioration. The boundaries are 
 near by; nor can they be overstepped by any 
 such extra-organic agencies. Moreover, it must 
 not be forgotten that, in perhaps every such case, 
 there is some sacrifice it may be a fatal sacri 
 fice of the native vigour of the primitive stock. 
 
 This reflection is completely confirmed by the 
 actual example of the Negro in a state of freedom. 
 Unless all the statistical indications be grossly 
 misleading, the movement of the Afro-American 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 57 
 
 average in the last generation has been down and 
 not up, backward and not forward.* Especially 
 the physical decline has been measurable and 
 ominous. In Haiti the same experiment has been 
 carried much further, and with results propor 
 tionately more disastrous. A hundred years of 
 internecine strife have witnessed nothing but a 
 slow reversion to barbarism. The interest on the 
 public debt remains unpaid, agriculture is most 
 primitive, manufactures languish, the industries 
 for which the island was once famous are dead or 
 dying, the beautiful French language is African 
 ized into a structureless patois. f 
 
 Here, too, is the natural place for one of the 
 most plausible and at the same time most so 
 phistical arguments yet advanced for the essential 
 comparability, if not the perfect equality, of the 
 White and the Black an argument frequent on 
 the lips of the most conspicuous leader of his 
 people, namely: that the Negro, and only the 
 Negro, has been able to maintain himself against 
 or in presence of the aggressive Anglo-Saxon (we 
 do not pretend to reproduce his words, not having 
 them at hand, but we do not misrepresent his 
 idea). However, the Negro has not maintained 
 
 * See infra, Chapter Six. 
 
 t Thus, the proverb : Un sac qui est vide ne peut pas rester debout, be 
 comes: Sac qui vide pas connait ete debout. 
 
58 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 himself against, but only with and /or, the Anglo- 
 Saxon. A century long the Blacks did greatly 
 flourish, because they were greatly cherished, 
 in the South, despite occasional cruelty, which 
 rarely or never hindered development. Fatu 
 ously enough, the Whites fancied it to their own 
 interest to warm up the Blacks into the most vig 
 orous life. The ante-bellum slaves were, perhaps, 
 the best-nurtured labouring population to be 
 found anywhere in the history of mankind. More 
 over, their stock was actually strengthened by arti 
 ficial selection. No wonder, then, that the Black 
 man more than maintained himself under condi 
 tions that were racially so extremely favourable. 
 Of course, little credit or none at all goes to the 
 humanity of the slaveholder. The best that could 
 be said would be that he displayed a semi- 
 enlightened selfishness. He considered his slaves 
 
 Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse. 
 
 It is, indeed, a wide-spread paradox of civiliza 
 tion, that the possessors exhibit far deeper wis 
 dom in the treatment of their possessions than 
 in the treatment of themselves. They choose 
 food for their children less rationally than for 
 their cows. A royal weakling was gazing ad 
 miringly at a lordly bull, and exclaimed: "What 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 59 
 
 a magnificent specimen he is ! " " Yes," replied the 
 bull, " if your ancestors had been selected as care 
 fully as mine, you would be a magnificent speci 
 men, too." 
 
 There are yet other considerations, as the lin 
 guistic, of much weight, but of subtile or else of 
 delicate nature, into which at present we forbear 
 to enter. However, one further reflection of a very 
 general nature must not be omitted. The diver 
 sities of type found even among Europeans, still 
 more among other Caucasians, are remarkable 
 and universally recognized. Norwegian and 
 Italian, Russian and Spaniard, Cretan and Scot, 
 can hardly be confounded, not to contrast Dane 
 and Hindu, Teuton and Arab, Irishman and Jew. 
 These diversities affect not merely or mainly the 
 body, but still more the mind, all its products and 
 institutions. Moreover, they are very persistent, 
 maintaining and asserting themselves in scarcely 
 diminished force from generation to generation, 
 sometimes even under levelling conditions of 
 highly composite intermixture. "We have seen 
 how tenaciously they have clung to the type of 
 their ancestors throughout all the vicissitudes of 
 ages" (Ripley, Pop. Sci. Mon., March, 1898, 
 p. 608). 
 
 The thread of national character, though inter- 
 
60 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 laced and interwoven with bewildering perplex 
 ity, is found to stretch itself unbroken through the 
 ages. In continuous illustration of this truth we 
 may cite the great work of Lapouge, L Aryen, 
 and the researches of the school he so brilliantly 
 represents. Furthermore, these differences are not 
 merely sidewise, right and left, this way and that, 
 in the same plane of quality. They are at least 
 three-dimensional; they are up and down, higher 
 and lower. The one race is distinctly superior, the 
 other inferior, in some given particular. While all 
 branches of this great family are very highly en 
 dowed, yet they are by no means equally endowed. 
 Each has its points of excellence, but these points 
 are not the same in number or importance. Even 
 among these members of the same family, there is 
 by no means equality; there are favourites of na 
 ture. Now even the protagonist of the Black man 
 does not controvert Mr. Darwin, does not deny 
 that the distinction between Negro and Euro 
 pean is apparently great enough to mark off 
 two species ; it merely says the distinction is not of 
 superior and inferior. But how can this be ? Will 
 any one deny that the Greek was measurably 
 superior to the Mede in a host of important par 
 ticulars ? That he has excelled all other sons of 
 men in certain respects? That he has fallen 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 61 
 
 markedly below the Jew and the German in 
 others ? If, then, distinctions of inferior and su 
 perior do undoubtedly obtain between stems so 
 closely knit physiologically and genetically, with 
 what show of reason can it be held that varieties, 
 like Negro and European, distinct enough for 
 "true and good species," are yet not to be dis 
 tinguished as inferior and superior? In what re 
 spect, pray then, are they distinguishable? Pos 
 sibly some one may say that black, as a color for 
 man, is neither better nor worse than white we 
 doubt it, but let it pass; that a broad, flat nose and 
 thick, everted lips are neither inferior nor supe 
 rior to the straight, clean-cut npse and lips curved 
 like the bow of Phcebus. But even if we do not 
 dispute about such tastes, the list of such regards 
 is a very short one, and when we come to the pro- 
 founder mental, moral, and social differences, we 
 can find no other terms than greater and less to 
 describe the relative endowments of the widely 
 sundered races. The one breed of dogs does not 
 differ from the other merely in length of hair or 
 shape of head and face; it is superior or inferior 
 in size, strength, courage, agility, endurance, fe 
 rocity, fidelity, docility, intelligence. Can we say 
 less, must we not say more, of the varieties of 
 men ? We should really like to know, if the Greeks 
 
62 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 were neither superior nor inferior to the Bush 
 men, what was the real distinction between them ? 
 
 Once again, if millennial contact and inter 
 mingling of such near affinities as Teuton and 
 Alpine Kelt have not availed to efface their dis 
 tinguishing features, either of body or of mind - 
 if the wonted ancestral fires still live in the remote 
 descendants how can we hope for aught else 
 from the mixture of European and African ? Will 
 not the slumberous apathy in which the Dark Con 
 tinent broods away its aeons surely fall upon the 
 people that drink its blood into their own veins ? 
 Not to anticipate such a result is to scorn analogy, 
 to despise science, to defy history. 
 
 We now come to the second question : Will in 
 termingling with inferiors really lower the supe 
 rior stock ? It seems very hard to believe that any 
 sober-minded man can long hesitate to answer, 
 Yes. Does any breeder of horses or cattle or dogs 
 or pigeons, or any cultivator of grains or flowers, 
 or any student of heredity in either plants or ani 
 mals, entertain any doubt whatever? We trow 
 not. We need not, however, appeal to general 
 principles, or to common sense, or to universal 
 observation of the lower planes of life. The min 
 gling of races is no new thing on our planet; it has 
 been widely diffused, and the results are matters 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 63 
 
 of record. We shall content ourselves with citing a 
 single authority, than whom there is none higher 
 - whom not even the most suspicious will suspect 
 of Southern ignorance and prejudice. We allude 
 to the distinguished author of "The American 
 Commonwealth," and the "Assimilation of Races 
 in the United States. " 
 
 In his Romanes Lecture of June 7, 1902, on 
 "The Relations of the Advanced and the Back 
 ward Races of Mankind," Mr. Bryce says (p. 24) : 
 :< Where two races are physiologically near to one 
 another, the result of intermixture is good. Where 
 they are remote, it is less satisfactory, by which I 
 mean not only that it is below the level of the 
 higher stock, but that it is not generally and evi 
 dently better than the lower stock ... But the 
 mixture of whites and negroes, or of whites and 
 Hindus, or of the American aborigines and ne 
 groes, seldom shows good results. The hybrid 
 stocks, if not inferior in physical strength to 
 either of those whence they spring, are appar 
 ently less persistent, and might so at least some 
 observers hold die out if they did not marry 
 back into one or other of the parent races. Usu 
 ally, of course, they marry back into the lower." 
 (N. B. Mr. Bryce, it appears, is so "provincial, 
 unintelligent and unchristian" as to assume that 
 
64 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 the Whites are superior a higher stock, and the 
 Negroes inferior a lower stock!) Again, p. 26: 
 ". . . the two general conclusions which the 
 facts so far as known suggest are these: that 
 races of marked physical dissimilarity do not 
 tend to intermarry, and that when and so far as 
 they do, the average offspring is apt to be physi 
 cally inferior to the average of either parent stock, 
 and probably more beneath the average mental 
 level of the superior than above the average mental 
 level of the inferior. " Again, p. 35 : " Should this 
 view be correct, it dissuades any attempt to mix 
 races so diverse as are the white European and 
 the negroes." And on p. 36: "The matter ought 
 to be regarded from the side neither of the white 
 nor of the black, but of the future of mankind at 
 large. Now for the future of mankind nothing is 
 more vital than that some races should be main 
 tained at the highest level of efficiency, because 
 the work they can do for thought and art and 
 letters, for scientific discovery, and for raising the 
 standard of conduct, will determine the general 
 progress of humanity. If therefore we were to 
 suppose the blood of the races which are now 
 most advanced to be diluted, so to speak, by that 
 of the most backward, not only would more be 
 lost to the former than would be gained to the 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? (3-5 
 
 latter, but there would be a loss, possibly an irrep 
 arable loss, to the world at large." Lastly, p. 39: 
 "The moral to be drawn from the case of the 
 Southern States seems to be that you must not, 
 however excellent your intentions and however 
 admirable your sentiments, legislate in the teeth of 
 facts . . . Nevertheless, the general opinion of 
 dispassionate men has come to deem the action 
 taken in A.D. 1870 a mistake. 
 
 Now, we are quite willing to concede that pos 
 sibly, even probably, there are exceptions to the 
 general conclusions of this eminently fair-minded 
 investigator. We feel sure there are many cases in 
 which the Mulatto is raised distinctly above his 
 coal-black parent: we believe there are some 
 cases, relatively rare, absolutely frequent, in 
 which he rises measurably above the median line, 
 towards his white parent. The law of Mendel, or 
 any other plausible law of inheritance, would lead 
 us to expect such a result. And yet, the extreme 
 difficulty of organic ascent, whether of the indi 
 vidual or of the race, as compared with the fatal 
 facility of descent, prepares us to expect, in gen 
 eral terms, precisely what Mr. Bryce affirms. It 
 is so easy to fall ill ! It is so hard to get well ! In any 
 case, that the average of cross-breeding between 
 widely separate races, like Black and White, 
 
66 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 rises above the mid-line or approaches the su 
 perior, is a proposition that runs squarely against 
 all evidence and all reason, nor will anything but 
 invincible prepossession maintain it. 
 
 True it is, that a great authority, a stalwart 
 champion of the Black man, whose attention we 
 had called to these extracts, declares in reply that 
 he is "not at all affected by Mr. Bryce s state 
 ments." He thinks we have here, in the United 
 States, a much broader basis of induction than 
 the Englishman has (as if Mr. Bryce, the author 
 of "Assimilation of Races in the United States" 
 [1892], of all men, could neglect or ignore this im 
 portant example !) ; he has in mind a case of triple 
 mixture, reaching back several generations, yet 
 the family are vigorous and of excellent character ; 
 and he refers to thousands of Mulattoes that are 
 perfect physically all of which may be true and 
 yet not enlightening. We sometimes meet with not 
 uncultured persons who are firmly persuaded that 
 the moon controls the weather. Tell them that the 
 most minute and accurate observations, extend 
 ing through half a century and designed to test the 
 matter, have failed to reveal any connection be 
 tween the weather and the moon s phases; point 
 out to them the insuperable obstacles in the way 
 of their opinion and they reply that they are 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 67 
 
 " not at all affected by your statements ", that they 
 and their ancestors have observed for generations 
 that changes in the weather coincide accurately 
 with changes in the moon, that the broadest in 
 duction in their own neighbourhood shows clearly 
 that beans will not flourish if planted in the dark 
 of the moon, and that it would be madness to 
 plant potatoes in the light. If any other facts or 
 observations seem not to conform to this theory 
 why, so much the worse for them ! 
 
 The general inferiority of the mixed stock has 
 passed into a proverb even in Africa, where it is 
 said : " A god created the whites ; I know not who 
 created the blacks ; certainly a devil created the 
 mongrels." So reports Livingstone (quoted by 
 Lombroso), and adds that he had seen but one 
 Portuguese Mestizo of robust health. In Brazil 
 it is held that the mingling of Indian with Latin 
 blood has not produced evil results,* but every 
 where else such remote crossings have been more 
 or less disastrous. Strikingly is this the case with 
 the Zambos the mixture of Indian and Negro ; 
 they are mainly degenerates and degraded. Thus 
 E. G. Squier, writing of Honduras in the Encyclo 
 paedia Britannica, Vol. XII., says : "A small part of 
 the coast, above Cape Gracias, is occupied by the 
 Sambos, a mixed race of Indians and Negroes, 
 
 *But Lapouge (L Aryen): "That immense realm reverting to barbarism." 
 
68 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 which, however, is fast disappearing." In Mexico, 
 Central and South America, the half-breeds are 
 everywhere stationary or declining. In India the 
 Eurasians (20,000 in Calcutta) "touch a level of 
 degradation which is far lower than any reached 
 by the pure heathen about them. They inherit de 
 fects more conspicuously than virtues from both 
 races from which they spring" (Pop. Sci. Mon., 
 Nov., 1892). In Japan the inferior Ainos are pass 
 ing away before the superior Japanese. The hy 
 brids are never healthy or vigorous, and vanish 
 with the third or fourth generation. Here, in the 
 United States, the testimony is all against the Mu 
 latto. In a report of the Provost-Marshal General, 
 the opinions of physicians stand eleven to one 
 against the Mulatto as "scrofulous and consump 
 tive," "degenerated physically," and the one fa 
 vourable judgement reposes on only two instances. 
 The anthropometry of the Mulatto is decided 
 ly against him. His average lung capacity, the 
 most significant of measurements, was found by 
 Gould to be only 158.9 cubic inches against 
 163.5 for the pure Black, and 184.7 for the White. 
 His respiration rate was equally unfavourable, 
 being 19 per minute against 17.7 for the pure 
 Black, and 16.4 for the White. We refer, also, to 
 the testimony of Dr. Shaler (p. 52), that he had 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 69 
 
 never known a Mulatto to pass threescore. The 
 writer remembers the first use he ever heard of 
 the word "cachectic;" his father spoke of it as 
 a term generally applicable to Mulattoes. 
 
 From the convergence of all such testimony, 
 which may be multiplied indefinitely, there seems 
 no escape whatever. We must concede, with Lom- 
 broso : " It is impossible to contemplate these facts 
 without admitting that marriages between some 
 human races are much less fertile and happy than 
 between others;" and especially unfortunate are 
 those between such extremes as Whites and Ne 
 groes. When such anthropologists as Waitz, Ser- 
 res, Deschamps, Bodichon, anticipate a millen 
 nium from universal miscegenation, it is only sen- 
 timentalism or else forgetfulness of the distinc 
 tion drawn so properly by Topinard (Elements 
 d Anthropologie generale, 1885) between the in 
 termingling of nearly related and of distantly 
 related races. In the first case the result is, in 
 general, certainly good; in the latter, it is quite 
 as certainly bad. 
 
 But let us now, merely for the moment and for 
 the sake of argument, admit that both our pre 
 mises are in doubt; that, perhaps, after all the Ne 
 gro is not inferior organically mentally, morally, 
 or physically to the Caucasian, and that inter- 
 
70 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 fertility might, perhaps, work no deterioration; 
 would the case be essentially altered ? Assuredly 
 not. For even then the most extreme negrophilist 
 must still admit that there is, at least, a reasonable 
 doubt ; even if the Negro be not proved inferior, yet 
 he is certainly not proved equal, and there is a 
 large body of at least apparent evidence against 
 him; even if it be not certain that miscegenation 
 would work deterioration, it is at least very possi 
 ble and seemingly probable. Who, then, would 
 have the f oolhardihood to make this experiment of 
 race amalgamation an experiment which, once 
 made, is made forever; whose consequences could 
 never be undone when there is at least and at the 
 very lowest an undeniable possibility, not to say 
 certainty, that those consequences would be 
 disastrous in the extreme ? Can we imagine 
 a more wanton folly? Would such an experi 
 ment beseem any other place so well as the mad 
 house ? 
 
 But some one will say that we are fighting 
 "bogies"; that no one in the North, much less in 
 the South, desires any such amalgamation. Do 
 not believe it ! The intense, the supreme yearning 
 of large bodies of Negroes is for social recogni 
 tion among the Whites more especially for inter 
 marriage with their haughty, old-time despisers. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 71 
 
 Who does not know this, simply does not under 
 stand the dominant facts of Southern life.* True, 
 there may be no longer anyone in the North that 
 openly advocates miscegenation no one that 
 would welcome or even tolerate it in his family, 
 though we remember to have read years ago a 
 distinct declaration, by no mean authority, that it 
 might be a positive advantage to pour the strong, 
 rich blood of the Black man into the languid 
 veins of the Southern Whites ! However, granted 
 that all would Nowf disavow such a sentiment 
 and let us accept the disavowal unreservedly 
 the fact remains that the highest authorities in 
 the North, the factors that form public opinion 
 and guide legislation, have never yet to our knowl- 
 
 * Nor do we see how any one can blame them. Especially the intelli 
 gent Mulatto recognizes, and justly, that social equality, with its necessary 
 corollary, intermarriage, is the key of the whole position. Without it, he 
 sees clearly that his race is doomed. From his point of view, the denial 
 of such equality appears as a colossal injustice, an immeasurable wrong. 
 And unless he be racially inferior, he is incontrovertibly right. 
 
 t We are not willing to deface these pages with passages quoted in proof 
 of the fact that miscegenation has been advocated openly and repeatedly 
 in the highest quarters, and doubtless in all good faith and good will. But 
 he who has any doubt on this point may consult the Edinburgh Review of 
 1827, pp. 390-394; Lyell s "Second Visit to the United States," 1849, Vol. 
 II., p. 216 ; The Fourth of July Speech of Mr. Wendell Phillips (1863) ; the 
 speeches of Mr. Theodore Tilton, sometime editor of The Independent; 
 but especially the collection of pamphlets entitled "Miscegenation," by 
 D. G. Croly and others (1864), wherein "not only the propriety, but the 
 necessity, of the marriage of Black and White" is argued passionately. 
 Abominable as such doctrines may sound, they flow inevitably from the 
 principles even at this date commonly accepted in both Englands, and 
 they can be proved wrong only by proving that our present contentions are 
 
72 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 edge raised their voices against miscegenation in 
 the South. What means this expressive silence ? 
 In this momentous, all-overshadowing contro 
 versy, there is no middle ground. He that is not 
 against amalgamation is for it. Who so does not 
 oppose must ipso facto favour it. Only ciphers are 
 neither plus nor minus. 
 
 Moreover, we affirm that he who denies our 
 two cardinal theses, who denies the racial inferior 
 ity of the Negro, and the racial deterioration of 
 the Mulatto, must consistently hold that mongrel- 
 ization of the South is positively desirable; and 
 we should esteem him not the less, but the more, 
 for boldly defending it.* For if such miscegena 
 tion involves no declination from the Caucasian 
 standard, then there is no reason whatever against 
 it. On the other hand, there are strong reasons 
 that favour it (as Bryce himself admits, p. 27, it 
 
 *Mongrelization of the world has, in fact, been ably and honestly, how 
 ever mistakenly, championed on quasi-scientific grounds by distinguished 
 ethnologists a grave error in science, but no moral reproach. With such 
 must be ranged the mighty journal that " stands alone in its field," expon 
 ent of the highest civic life yet unfolded on this continent. In the edition 
 of Dec. 26th, 1895, in commenting upon a conservative letter from 
 Clinton, Iowa, the Editor remarks: "The laws forbidding honorable 
 intermarriage between the two races are the guarantee of the perpetua 
 tion of this savage atrocity [lynching] ; their abolition, the first step on 
 the part of the whites towards its disappearance." Language could hardly 
 be more explicit. Of course, such " abolition " would be tantamount 
 to official invitation to such "honorable intermarriage"; otherwise it 
 would be nugatory: he who throws wide open his gates, thereby 
 bids come in. 
 
IS THE NEGRO INFERIOR ? 73 
 
 "has two great merits"); in particular, it would 
 bring about speedily and permanently a settle 
 ment of the race question, and a settlement far 
 more amicable than is otherwise possible. There 
 is no escape from this conclusion; and no dis 
 claimer, however honest, can be adequate. The 
 inference of approval, from non-hostility to mis 
 cegenation, is immediate and unavoidable; and 
 we may justly hold our opponents to the logical 
 consequence of their teachings, however earnest 
 ly they may reject it. 
 
 Herewith, then, for the present, we sheathe the 
 sword for lack of argument; for it seems scarcely 
 worth while to point out that when we demon 
 strate the racial inferiority of the Negroids, and 
 insist upon the necessity of an impassable social 
 chasm, we by no means excuse or extenuate any 
 form of cruelty or injustice or oppression or in- 
 consideration, political or other. Replies to our 
 arguments are not pertinent when they fail to note 
 this distinction, even though they may quote pas 
 sages from the "Apostle of Heredity," written 
 nearly a generation before his call to that aposto- 
 late. The humane man resents the maltreatment 
 of inferiors no less quickly because he recognizes 
 their inferiority ; it is they that especially move his 
 compassion. The ancient Hindu knew and felt 
 
74 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 this when he wrote : " He who needlessly tramples 
 upon a worm in his path, that soul is darkly alien 
 ate from God." 
 
 This remark conducts us very near to certain 
 semi-political phases of the matter; which, how 
 ever, we leave to the politician, the pulpit, and the 
 press. These are careful and troubled about 
 many things ; but there is one thing needful that 
 the rights of the generations unborn be guarded, 
 that the Caucasian race integrity be preserved. 
 
CHAPTER THREE 
 
 NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 
 
 The queue still hangs behind him 
 
 CHAMISSO 
 
 IN the foregoing chapter we have propounded and 
 answered the question as to the native inferiority 
 of the Black race ; and now the query arises, What 
 more ? Have we not already said that such is the 
 end of the matter ? But the subject is of transcend 
 ent importance, and we must not disguise from 
 the reader that the considerations thus far ad 
 duced may not yet be admitted as perfectly con 
 clusive by a certain highly intelligent class of 
 thinkers. There is, namely, a very respectable 
 school of anthropologists who will take nothing 
 for granted and are disposed to call in question 
 the most plausible assumptions and leave us no 
 ground to stand on but what has been won by the 
 severest logic. We can the less afford to pass by 
 the contentions of these savants, since we think 
 
76 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 their principles are in the main correct, and we 
 are in active sympathy with their general meth 
 ods. In the present case, to be sure, we hold 
 that they have not proved faithful to the pure 
 reason, and that their skepticism will be found 
 destitute of any sufficient warrant. 
 
 What, then, are the scruples of these critics ? 
 What niceties of demonstration, may they still in 
 sist, have passed unobserved ? We shall use their 
 own words as nearly as may be the words of a 
 "specially competent anthropologist." 
 
 (1) It is denied that any inference lies, in any 
 particular case, from the brain to the mind. "No 
 principle applicable to individuals can be laid 
 down. Inspection of a brain, no matter how min 
 ute, will not permit a legitimate inference as to 
 the intellectual status of the owner." This must 
 be granted without reserve. 
 
 (2) Even in dealing with large groups, as of a 
 thousand men, with brains averaging fifty-three 
 and forty-six ounces, respectively, with corre 
 sponding physical proportions, "it is possible, 
 but by no means certain, that the average mental 
 capacity of the former would surpass that of the 
 latter. But even such an inference would be based 
 upon very scanty evidence." It seems plain that 
 the word "possible" is here put incautiously for 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 77 
 
 "probable." Otherwise the sentence is empty of 
 meaning. As so corrected, it must stand. The only 
 difference of opinion that could arise would con 
 cern the degree of probability. If we have read the 
 evidence nearly aright, that degree would be very 
 high, but it could not rise to certainty. To this ex 
 tremely important matter we shall return at the 
 proper place. 
 
 (3) With respect to "complexity of structure," 
 which is supposed to condition or to indicate 
 mental development, there is declared to be a 
 "lack of any definite and certain knowledge 
 as to the fundamental facts. " This, also, seems 
 true. 
 
 Quantitative information is wanting, but quali 
 tative is at hand. We have no definite and certain 
 knowledge as to the significance of the gyri and 
 sulci in the brain ; but this does not invalidate the 
 general proposition that relates them in some way 
 with mental power. The brain of a Helmholtz 
 would almost certainly be deeply carved; the 
 brain of an imbecile would almost certainly be 
 uncommonly smooth. Between these extremes 
 there lie relations infinite in variety and impossi 
 ble to grade, so crossed and intercrossed are they 
 with other elements. Nevertheless, the two oppo 
 site poles remain fixed, and the general indications 
 
78 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 of convolutions and of smoothness, other things 
 being equal, cannot be mistaken. 
 
 (4) As to skull capacity, there are many diffi 
 culties in the way, and "the value of this evidence 
 has come to be regarded as less than it was once 
 considered to be, but still to a certain extent sig 
 nificant. In a general way it may be said to bear 
 out the observations on the actual brains." We 
 do not see how it could well be expected to do 
 much more. Here, then, are three indicia weight 
 of brain, complexity of its structure, capacity of 
 skull - - each related directly, though indeter 
 minately, to power of mind. If we call them x, y, z, 
 then we may say, with some approach to truth, 
 that mental strength depends upon their product, 
 each taken with an unknown exponent, thus: 
 XP y<! z r . This expression, to be sure, is not ade 
 quate; there are yet other factors, it may be 
 many, as the post-pubertal extension of structural 
 elements, and therewith of physiological connec 
 tions, which we have no means of measuring or 
 observing. But the real significance of these three 
 is not, indeed cannot be, doubted. Thus, Man- 
 ouvrier determined the skull capacity of thirty- 
 two distinguished men to average 1663cc., or 
 103 cc. above the general mean of 1560 cc. an 
 excess of nearly 7 per cent. Again, the mean 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 79 
 
 weight of brain of thirty-four such men reached 
 1533 grammes an excess of 163 over the average 
 (1370), or almost exactly 12 per cent. No amount 
 of reasonable allowance can rob these results of 
 their import. It is no answer to say that the cra 
 nial capacity of forty-one murderers averaged 
 1593 cc., or 33 cc. (about two per cent.) above the 
 mean. We see no reason why a murderer might 
 not have more than ordinary intelligence, though 
 many be degenerates ; it is not at all unlikely that 
 his central nervous system or some part of it 
 should be highly developed. Unless we err widely, 
 not a few of the greatest characters of history 
 have been great criminals. 
 
 (5) What conclusions are recommended by "all 
 these facts and factors" ? "Truly, the results are 
 meager. We are probably justified in saying that, 
 anatomically, the brains of negroid races are 
 somewhat less developed than those of Euro 
 peans." But it is held that "a little reflection 
 shows the comparative insignificance of the dis 
 tinction. . . . The most that can be said is that 
 the European series will show more very large 
 brains than the negroid, and the negroid series 
 more very small brains than the Europeans." 
 Precisely! And it is just this excess of "very large 
 brains," or at least of its general correlate, very 
 
80 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 large minds, that has the profoundest "signifi 
 cance" for civilization, for all that is great and 
 glorious in history and in humanity. Not only 
 must we, in accordance with the law of Deviation 
 from the Average, interpret this excess of "very 
 large brains" as implying a higher general level, 
 but the meaning and value of these exceptions 
 are incalculable.* Who can estimate the import 
 of the one brain in a million, when it is the brain 
 of Moses or Mohammed, of Aristotle or Archi 
 medes, of Vergil or Galilei, of Leibnitz or Voltaire, 
 of Darwin or Washington ? Such brains are the 
 foci of the orbits of history; such men blaze out 
 the pathways for the feet of their kind. Without 
 them we wander round and round, lost in the er 
 roneous wood. The race that can produce such 
 "very large brains" is the race of advancement 
 and culture ; they shine like stars in the firmament 
 of history, and the multitudes steer their courses 
 thereby. It is these exceptions that mark out the 
 line between progress and stagnation, between 
 civilization and barbarism ; a race that is deficient 
 in such exceptions is a race already condemned. 
 It is altogether vain to interpose that this ac 
 knowledged anatomical defect is, after all, only 
 slight. The difference between the brains of a fish- 
 
 *Seew/ra,p.lOO. 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 81 
 
 monger and of a Socrates may be only slight an 
 ounce or so in the scale, a line or so in depth 
 of convolution ; yet it corresponds to the interval 
 between mediety and the vertex of genius. Such 
 differences are vanishingly small, or inexpressibly 
 great, according to the origin of reckoning. And 
 herewith we uncover the fallacy that lies so 
 snugly hidden away in the phrase "comparative 
 insignificance." Undoubtedly! If we reckon from 
 the amoeba, the witling seems scarcely distin 
 guishable from the wit ; but if we reckon from the 
 average of humanity, they start asunder like the 
 poles. The summits of the Himalayas are only 
 some four or five miles above the valley of the 
 Ganges; estimated from the centre of the earth, 
 this difference is little more than one-thousandth 
 of the whole a difference hardly appreciable to 
 the eye, even when armed with a microscope ; and 
 yet it means the difference between the impene 
 trable jungle and the inaccessible minarets of the 
 roof of the world. The difference between some 
 "Rafael" and some imitation may be very slight 
 and escape the uncritical eye, and yet make out 
 the distinction between a masterpiece and a daub. 
 Illustrations abound. It is a multitude of trifles 
 that constitutes perfection; but perfection is 
 not a trifle. That the recognized and constated 
 
82 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 superiority of the European brain is slight, 
 by no means implies that the "mental ex 
 pression" of this superiority may not be illimit- 
 ably grand. 
 
 Since the question of brain-weights is extreme 
 ly important, it does not seem fair to the reader to 
 furnish him only vague, general statements. Ac 
 cordingly, we here submit something more defi 
 nite, even though it appear like a long parenthesis 
 inserted in the body of our discourse. 
 
 From the autopsies of 405 Whites, Blacks, and 
 intermediates, made by Surgeon Ira Russell, the 
 following conclusions have been drawn by Dr. 
 Sanford B. Hunt, surgeon of United States Vol 
 unteers in the Civil War: "(1) The standard 
 weight of the negro brain is over five ounces less 
 than that of the white. (2) Slight intermixture of 
 white blood diminishes the negro brain from its 
 normal standard, but when the infusion of white 
 blood amounts to one-half (mulatto), it deter 
 mines a positive increase in the negro brain, 
 which, in the quadroon, is only three ounces be 
 low the white standard. (3) The percentage of 
 exceptionally small brains is largest among ne 
 groes having but a small proportion of white 
 blood. " Of these 405, there were 141 Blacks, and 
 only twenty-four Whites; the others were mixed. 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 83 
 
 We may omit these latter, and may substitute the 
 results of 278 other autopsies of Whites, and form 
 this table: 
 
 Average Max. Min. 60 oz. 55-60 50-55 45-50 40-45 35-40 35 
 
 141 B. 46.96 56 35| 5 42 51 38 3 
 
 24 W. 52.06 64 44J 1 4 11 7 
 
 278 W. 49.05 65 34 7 28 99 97 39 7 1 
 
 Here we observe: Dr. Hunt s (1) does not seem 
 warranted; the number (24) of White brains 
 weighed seems too small. But the weights of the 
 278 Whites show that the smaller weight of the 
 Negro brain is a fact. More extensive observation 
 shows that the Black average is about four ounces 
 below the White. The absence of very large brains 
 among the Blacks comes out most distinctly. 
 There were no Black brains weighing over fifty- 
 six ounces, only five weighing so much as fifty- 
 five; whereas, eight White brains weighed over 
 sixty ounces, and forty weighed over fifty-five. 
 Likewise of the twenty-four Whites, only one fell 
 under forty-five ounces, but forty-one of the 141 
 Blacks; also, only forty-seven of the 278 Whites; 
 it is plain, then, that large brains predominate 
 among the Whites and small ones among the 
 Blacks. 
 
 This, however, is not nearly all the evidence on 
 this question. In the course of an elaborate article 
 
84 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 in the Philosophical Transactions for 1868, pp. 
 505 sqq.,Dr. J. Barnard Davis makes this remark : 
 "As a general conclusion, without analyzing the 
 results of Tiedemann s gaugings of negro skulls, 
 it may be unhesitatingly asserted that the brain- 
 weight of negroes is positively below that of 
 Europeans" (p. 522). "The general mean of our 
 African races, as deduced from 113 skulls, 53 
 of men and 60 of women, a tolerably equal pro 
 portion, is 43.89 ounces, or 1244 grams. This is 
 3.23 ounces, or ninety-one grams, less than our 
 European general mean" (p. 523). He also finds 
 the mean internal capacity of 393 European 
 skulls to be 92.3 cubic inches, and 113 African 
 skulls to be 86.9 cubic inches a defect of nearly 
 7 per cent. Morton found the average capacity of 
 62 native African skulls to be 83 cubic inches, and 
 of 12 Afro- American skulls to be 82 cubic inches. 
 More recently (1880), Dr. Bischoff has pub 
 lished at Bonn a very thorough work on "Das 
 Hirngewicht des Menschen," in which the pres 
 ent subject is handled minutely and very temper 
 ately. We translate some of his remarkably sane 
 and judicial conclusions: "From all of this it fol 
 lows that we are by no means justified in affirming 
 outright the proposition that brain-weight and 
 spiritual capacity and achievement keep equal 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 85 
 
 pace and that a large and heavy brain of itself be 
 tokens a man highly endowed in both respects, a 
 small and light brain a man niggardly equipped. 
 But just as little justified would be the conclusions 
 that size and weight of brain stand in no connec 
 tion with spiritual gifts and accomplishments. 
 Rather must we be convinced that both factors, 
 brain-weight and spiritual capacity and achieve 
 ment, are magnitudes too complex for their par 
 allelism to appear to be proved so simply, al 
 though the same (parallelism) is none the less 
 present" (p. 142). 
 
 The following seems to have been written with 
 some foreboding of the more recent anthropology 
 that "minimizes this difference" between Eu 
 ropean and Negroid, and regards "the mental 
 .gap as more apparent than real, and due rather to 
 experience and training than to innate factors. " 
 
 "The capacity for spiritual achievement is, I 
 believe, as regards both magnitude and variety, 
 always innate, a gift of Nature, and expressed in 
 the magnitude and weight of the brain and the 
 development of the convolutions, either in the 
 whole or in the single parts. In it, aside from mor 
 bid alterations, the individual can bring about no 
 change, neither by addition nor by subtraction. 
 But the degree and the kind of the development 
 
86 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 of this endowment (Ausbildung dieser Anlage) 
 depends on a thousand other conditions, partly 
 quite beyond the insight and will of the individ 
 ual partly, however, subject thereto. All that we 
 call education, culture, social position, example, 
 and, on the part of the individual, good-will, in 
 dustry, zeal, etc., work for the development of the 
 endowment, and the achievement depends there 
 on. Endowment, as already said, is unalterable; 
 but the degree of the development and achieve 
 ment may vary a thousandfold" (p. 165). 
 
 On p. 169, Bischoff starts the interesting query, 
 whether any enhancement of the endowment 
 (Steigerung der Anlage) in general or in particu 
 lar directions, through increase of the brain, in 
 general or in particular parts, be actual or possi 
 ble in the course of time, along the path of culture 
 (auf dem Wcge der Zuchtung). Broca thought 
 that he had observed a change in the skull capac 
 ity of Parisians, in the lapse of centuries; but his 
 results (thinks Bischoff) are very far from being 
 sure. Thus far there is no proof of any such pos 
 sibility. But even if this latter were conceded, 
 Bischoff adds, the actuality of such a change 
 would by no means follow. So great is the present 
 endowment that all progress that can thus far 
 be proved, may be explained through the de- 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 87 
 
 velopment of this endowment, and such will, 
 doubtless, for a long time yet, be the case as re 
 gards both the individual and the generations (p. 
 170). We may add that Bischoff has no doubt 
 whatever either of the lesser brain-weight or of 
 the lower mental capacity of the African Negro. 
 
 When, now, we ask what is the real significance 
 of these weights, we are fortunately able to refer 
 to the tables of Dr. H. Matiegka, given in Part I. 
 of his researches " Ueber das Hirngewicht, die 
 Schadelkapacitdt und die Kopfform, sowie deren 
 Beziehungen zur psychischen Thdtigkeit des Men- 
 schen" (Sitzb. d. kdn. bohm. Ges. d. Wiss. 1902). 
 He has arranged 235 brain- weights in six groups, 
 according to occupation, proceeding from the 
 lowest labourers at odd jobs, who could not 
 learn a trade or find steady employment, up to 
 men of notable intellectual power. Here is the 
 table, showing the number in each group and 
 the average weight of brain : 
 
 14 Day-labourers 1410.0 grams 
 
 34 Labourers 1433.5 
 
 14 Porters, watchmen, etc 1435.7 
 
 123 Mechanics, workers at trades, etc 1449.6 
 
 28 Business men, teachers, clerks, professional musi 
 cians, photographers, etc 1468.5 
 
 22 College-bred scholars, physicians, etc 1500.0 
 
 235 Average of all 1451.5 grams 
 
 or 51.20 oz. 
 
88 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Here we observe that the excess of this average 
 over that of the 141 Blacks is 4.24 ounces. Also 
 we remark that the average of the lowest of 
 Matiegka s groups, the shiftless and incompe 
 tent, is nearly 48.61 ounces, which is much above 
 the average (46.96) yielded by Dr. Russell s 141 
 measurements of pure Blacks. Look at it another 
 way. The defect of the day-labourer s brain, as 
 compared with the scholar s, in Matiegka s 
 groups, is precisely six per cent. Even if the aver 
 age white brain weighed only fifty ounces, a 
 defect of six per cent, would reduce it only to 
 forty-seven ounces, which is still above the aver 
 age of the Blacks. This latter, then, falls appre 
 ciably below the lowest white standard. 
 
 Once more, we now come to see clearly the 
 immense significance of the admittedly "some 
 what less developed Negroid brain." The famous 
 lines of Browning seem to have been written 
 especially for this occasion: 
 
 Oh, the little more, and how much it is 1 
 And the little less, and what worlds away ! 
 
 The difference between the averages of the 
 highest and the lowest of the Matiegka groups 
 is only six per cent ; and yet how infinite its 
 moment for humanity and civilization! The dif- 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 89 
 
 ference meanwhile between the general averages 
 of the White and the Black is little if any less 
 than eight per cent. (52-48 = 4, that is, 1-13 or 7.7 
 per cent.). Who, then, can compute its import 
 for the history of the race ? 
 
 To be sure, it is easy to pooh-pooh the Bohe 
 mian s measurements and to scout his averages 
 as reckoned from too scanty material. Nor would 
 we attach to them any undue importance. We 
 have never denied that there are many disturb 
 ing factors. Nevertheless, the general indication 
 seems altogether unmistakable. Nothing can dis 
 guise or deeply obscure the broad patent fact 
 that all the meridians of evidence converge 
 towards one and the same pole, namely : The aver 
 age Negroid brain is sensibly inferior to the aver 
 age Caucasian; and even a slight defect or excess 
 in average is correlated with the profoundest mean 
 ing for culture and for civilization. 
 
 What must be said, then, of such as proclaim : 
 "This fable [of Negroid inferiority] has been 
 repeated and gladly believed. . . . But 
 there is absolutely no physiological basis for it 
 so far as the best studies of brain structure 
 go. . . . The arrogance of Anglo-Saxon and 
 Caucasian supremacy must find its justification, 
 if anywhere, in the bare will and brute power to 
 
90 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 have it so, rather than in any conclusions of 
 science" ? The Apostle has already shaped the 
 answer: "I bear them witness that they have a 
 zeal for man, but not according to knowledge." 
 
 (6) As "minimizing this difference still fur 
 ther," it is observed that "the Eskimo even shows 
 a brain weight and development well above the 
 average of whites. Here again, however, the ma 
 terial is too scanty to permit of generalization." 
 Altogether "too scanty," it would seem. Hardly 
 half a dozen such brains (we speak under cor 
 rection) have been weighed or examined. Be 
 sides, no one would maintain that weight alone 
 is sufficient. That large brains generally go with 
 great minds by no means implies the converse, 
 that great minds generally go with large brains. 
 If the Eskimo brain be really heavier than the 
 European, which is by no means proved, and yet 
 the Eskimo mind inferior, the meaning is that 
 in some other unknown respect of organization 
 the Eskimo brain falls so far behind the Euro 
 pean as more than to overbalance its excess of 
 weight. Such a state of case is no way improbable. 
 
 (7) "If we admit a real difference between the 
 brains of Europeans and negroes," it is still im 
 possible to grade the intermediate races satis 
 factorily. But this means nothing more than that 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 91 
 
 numerous factors, known and unknown, enter 
 into the final product in some complex fashion not 
 yet understood. It is very far from meaning that 
 the obvious factors, constated and admitted, have 
 not the general significance commonly claimed. 
 Such are the anatomical concessions that this 
 school of anthropologists feel themselves called 
 upon to make. The reader must observe that, how 
 ever much one may "minimize," it remains at 
 the last impossible to evaporate the solid central 
 fact that the "Negroid brain is somewhat less 
 developed than the European." In this funda 
 mental indication all the facts, so far as known, 
 concur. But this is the very core of the whole con 
 troversy. What more do we ask ? What more do 
 we need ? We have never been unduly prodigal 
 of intensive adverbs ; we have never asserted that 
 "other races are so naturally and essentially in 
 ferior in their brain structure that they can never 
 be expected to equal the white race nor to be 
 competent for self-government." For "who can 
 so forecast the years ?" Not we, certainly, who are 
 neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, nor 
 a dealer in any such indefinitely remote futures. 
 Our contention was and is and will be that now 
 and here, nay more, that everywhere on the face 
 of the earth and everywhen within recorded 
 
92 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 time, the Negro has shown himself in every de 
 finable respect incomparably inferior culturally 
 to the Caucasian; hence it is concluded prima 
 facie, since culture is "mental expression," that 
 the Negro is mentally inferior to the Caucasian, 
 and always has been so within historic, and even 
 far back prehistoric, time. It is this historico- 
 cultural argument that has been advanced to 
 the forefront ; and against it, where is there found, 
 in the preceding hostile summary of anatomical 
 facts, even the feeblest countervail ? Indeed, the 
 harmony of history and anatomy seems perfect; 
 if neither proves or necessitates the other, yet 
 indubitably each is about what might be ex 
 pected from the other. Not one scientific fact has 
 ever yet been adduced to weaken their mutual 
 support. 
 
 It is precisely here, however, that another most 
 important phase of the matter comes to light. 
 The ingenious humanitarian fancies that he can 
 turn the edge of the foregoing arguments com 
 pletely. It was Theodor Waitz who, in his "An 
 thropology" (London, 1863), suggested that the 
 relation between human culture and human 
 faculty might be the inverse of what was com 
 monly conceived. Instead of the culture resulting 
 from the faculty, it might be the faculty that re- 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 93 
 
 suited from the culture. Accordingly, we should 
 not say that the Greek civilization with its lan 
 guage, its art, its science, its philosophy, its elo 
 quence, its literature, its civil and military life, 
 was the outgrowth of the Greek genius, the 
 native faculty of the Hellenic race, but rather 
 that this genius, this spiritual faculty, this un 
 rivalled intellectual-artistic endowment of the 
 Greeks, was the continuous resultant at each 
 moment in the history of the race of the collec 
 tive culture-experiences through which, up to 
 that moment, it had passed. We have tried con 
 scientiously to state this doctrine, that race en 
 dowment is the reaction from race culture-ex 
 perience, as forcibly and as plausibly as possible ; 
 but we cannot hope to have redeemed it from 
 patent absurdity. Surely there was never a plainer 
 case of the cart before the horse. No one denies 
 or forgets that training and discipline do quicken 
 and sharpen the intellectual faculties; they en 
 able a man to make the most of himself, to realize 
 his possibilities, to develop himself to the utmost. 
 The power to solve a problem in algebra or 
 geometry is the result, in part, of the previous 
 training in those subjects. Here is the very par 
 tial and most familiar truth that lies hid away in 
 Waitz s stupendous error. But was the ability to 
 
94 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 understand algebra and geometry given by the 
 actual study of the same, given step by step ? By 
 no means. The knowledge necessary to under 
 stand the successive propositions does indeed 
 grow thus step by step, but not the power. Open 
 the book at the middle; there you may find a 
 theorem whose proof you readily understand, 
 because it implies very little previous knowledge. 
 Newton at first thought Euclid s Elements a 
 "light book," because it offered him no diffi 
 culty. But if you meet with some unfamiliar 
 affirmation, then comes the question, why ? The 
 answer is found in some theorem already proved. 
 Turn back to it ; perhaps the proof involves some 
 still more fundamental property, and again you 
 ask, why ? Again you must recur to some earlier 
 theorem; and so on, until all your "whys" are 
 answered with all possible clearness in irreduci 
 ble axioms or postulates. He who has the mental 
 ability will find this method of learning a theorem 
 entirely practicable, and it may sometimes be 
 found highly instructive. But it excludes all ques 
 tion of gradual growth of mental power through 
 the successive "stages of culture" itself. 
 
 Consider, again, this most frequent observation. 
 A boy will distinguish himself greatly in the 
 high school, and perhaps in the first half of his 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 95 
 
 college course. He seizes with avidity upon the 
 elementary notions of mathematics , for instance; 
 he revels in problems and "originals." But on 
 approaching the steeper ascents, he finds his steps 
 falter and his senses reel. The subtler theories 
 and processes more and more elude his grasp ; the 
 more highly developed concepts become more and 
 more unmanageable. Let him be never so thor 
 oughly familiar with the mid-regions, the heights 
 remain forever inaccessible. In such a case the 
 honest teacher and the honest student will both 
 admit that further pursuit would be well-nigh 
 profitless; while something may still be learned 
 in a way, yet real mastery is out of the question, 
 and original work as impossible as flight to the 
 moon. The limits of native power have been 
 reached, and all attempts to transcend them are 
 idle. 
 
 In music, in plastic art, in literature, in all 
 higher forms of mental activity, even in the pro 
 fessions and in business, the same state of case 
 is present. The mere technique may indeed be 
 learned step by step, and it is by no means, profit 
 less or unimportant. But not all the "stages of 
 culture" conceivable could ever arm the most 
 persistent student with "faculty" to produce the 
 Appassionata, or the Last Judgement, or Ham- 
 
96 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 let, or even a Wall Street corner in stocks. On the 
 other hand, the inborn "faculty " speeds swiftly 
 and easily through all such preparatory "stages 
 of culture," or even flanks them altogether, 
 boldly breaking new paths through unexplored 
 regions. Nor needs it that these preliminaries 
 should have been traversed by the ancestors of 
 the richly endowed, who may have had no artistic 
 or scientific experience whatever. At every point, 
 then, this Waitzian notion of "faculty," as the 
 efflux of culture, is seen to be an extreme distor 
 tion of the truth. 
 
 The later disciples have slightly modified the 
 earlier view, but retain the essence. Thus it is 
 said that "the mind of man manifests itself in 
 different ways in different groups. Psychologic 
 ally and sociologically the racial problem rests 
 upon the explanation of these differences of men 
 tal manifestation. Two lines of reasoning are 
 open. The differences depend either upon in 
 herent differences of mental capacity or are due 
 to influences of environment, using the word in 
 its broadest sense. Either the savage represents 
 a lower stage of mental development than his 
 civilized relative or he does not. The answer to 
 the question presented is not easy. . . . it is in 
 teresting to note that the trend of authoritative 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 97 
 
 opinion is distinctly in the direction of minimizing 
 the degree of difference of mental capacity be 
 tween savage and civilized man and regarding 
 the mental gap as more apparent than real and 
 due rather to experience and training than to 
 innate factors. To paraphrase a recent writer, it 
 is rather a question of mental contents than of 
 mental capacities/ Such is the latest statement 
 of this school. 
 
 The most dangerous errors are those that con 
 tain a certain element of truth. The present is a 
 case in point. Let it be noted, then, that the alter 
 natives mentioned above are not alternatives at 
 all; they are not mutually exclusive, but quite 
 consistent and perhaps always co-existent. The 
 "two lines of reasoning" do not intersect, but 
 are parallel. The "differences depend," not 
 "either . . . or," but both "upon inher 
 ent differences of mental capacity" and "are due 
 to influences of environment." The twain have 
 undoubtedly acted and reacted upon each other. 
 The divine law, to him that hath shall be given, 
 from him that hath not shall be taken away, has 
 found here the widest application. The process 
 of evolving a civilization or a human type is a 
 most complex one, and we by no means exclude 
 or "minimize" the objective factors when we 
 
98 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 frankly recognize the subjective ones. Here lies 
 the primal error of the prevalent humanitarian- 
 ism. It perceives that education is much; it 
 rashly concludes that education is all. But the 
 homeliest wisdom knows far better. 
 
 It is not all in training up 
 
 A child against its will : 
 
 To silver scour a pewter cup, 
 
 It will be pewter still. 
 
 No, a thousand times no! Environment is not 
 all nor nearly all nay, not nearly half. Says Lom- 
 broso: "The action of climate and circumstance 
 is very slight by the side of heredity" (op. cit., 
 p. 88). Saith Heraclitus, "Much learning does 
 not teach to have mind"; saith Pindar," His art 
 is true who by nature hath knowledge," and he 
 scorns the crows that have but learned. Let the 
 outer impact be what it will, it is the "inherent" 
 , qualities that determine the response. Sing out 
 the natural C ; among a score of tuning-forks only 
 one will reply. Nay more; different constitutions 
 may make exactly opposite replies: "the roar 
 of the lion scatters the sheep, but gathers the 
 jackals"; the prayer of Clarence but hardens the 
 heart of the first murderer, though it softens the 
 soul of the second. All this, one would think, a 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 99 
 
 child might understand. Nature blazons it on 
 every leaf and every star, and proclaims it with 
 a million tongues; but overhumane doctrinaires 
 will neither see nor hear anything that impugns 
 their sacrosanct dogma, that " all men are created 
 equal". "The trend of authoritative opinion" 
 insists on "minimizing the degree of difference 
 of mental capacity" and "regarding the mental 
 gap as more apparent than real and due rather 
 to experience and training than to innate fac 
 tors" -whereat the current philanthropy claps 
 its hands and cries, " Eureka! Come, now! Let us 
 train and experience the Negro and close up the 
 mental gap in a jiffy"! But will some manu 
 facturer or wholesale importer of "authoritative 
 opinions" kindly inform us what "mental gap" 
 has ever been closed up by "experience and 
 training"? 
 
 Great, indeed, is the potence of "environ 
 ment"; greater, by far, the potence of heredity. 
 Fortunately we are not left quite in the dark as 
 to their relative importance. In discussing " race 
 suicide" an eminent scholar, who is always sage 
 and sagacious, save only when celeri saucius 
 Africa, declares: "That those who are intellect 
 ually the best in each generation should leave 
 the fewest descendants is a serious thing; for -all 
 
100 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 the recent work in anthropology teaches the im 
 portance of heredity, and tends to prove Galton s 
 theory that genius is inherited." From a study of 
 the one thousand most eminent men of history, 
 but for whom "the world would have made little 
 progress in learning, invention or wealth," Pro 
 fessor Cattell concludes that " heredity, including 
 in that term both stability and variability of stock, 
 is more potent than social tradition or physical en 
 vironment." From a study of European royal 
 genealogies, it is deduced by Dr. F. A. Woods, of 
 Harvard, that " heredity has exercised in mental 
 life a factor not far from nine-tenths, while from 
 the moral side something over one-half." 
 
 Without placing implicit faith in such numer 
 ical estimates, and without pausing to inquire 
 how one might best "exercise a factor", the 
 reader will note the admitted dominance of hered 
 ity over all other forces. It will be observed that 
 the deductions of Dr. Woods refer to the " mental 
 life" and the "moral side" in general, and not 
 merely to extraordinary manifestations or "gen 
 ius," as in "Galton s theory". Surely there is 
 little enough of the latter to be found in " all the 
 royal families of Europe", and quite sufficient of 
 something else. Besides, it seems clear that if 
 genius be inherited, if marked deviations from 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 101 
 
 the average in this direction or in that be trans 
 mitted, then a fortiori must also the general aver 
 age character be itself in detail determined by 
 inheritance. For every example of "inherited 
 genius" there lie close at hand, under common 
 and immediate observation, a thousand exam 
 ples of inheritance of qualities physical, mental, 
 and moral that fall within the bounds of the nor 
 mal. Such qualities have beneath them a far 
 solider substructure of age, a far more settled and 
 less mutable organic habit of centuries, than do 
 the new growths, the spontaneous mutations, that 
 we call genius, or any marked eccentricity. If, 
 then, the latter be inherited, far more so the for 
 mer. And such is precisely the foundation on 
 which the whole fabric of the foregoing argu 
 ment has been reared. 
 
 Let the reader observe that the question, the 
 only real question, regards the "mental gap" 
 between the Negro and the Caucasian, for which 
 we dare not substitute "between savage and 
 civilized man". This matter is entirely another 
 and entirely irrelevant. The " difference of men 
 tal capacity" between the savage Greek and 
 the civilized Egyptian was indeed great, but 
 was in favour of the savage youth and against 
 the civilized ancient. So, too, the savage Teuton 
 
102 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 fully equalled or excelled in mental capacity his 
 civilized Italian foeman. The defects of these 
 savages were cultural, not mental proper, and 
 s culture was enough speedily to supply them. But 
 where, we ask again, have real "mental gaps" 
 been filled up by culture? Where have racial 
 characteristics been transformed or abolished ? 
 Have equal opportunities raised the 150,000 
 Negroes in Pennsylvania to the white level? 
 Or the 100,000 in New York ? Or those in New 
 England ? Or in Chatham, Ontario ? Or in Paris ? 
 When Greek culture led captive the Roman cap 
 tor, did it arm him with Greek genius ? Did it 
 close up the "mental gap"? When the bow of 
 Hellenic science fell into the hands of the Arab, 
 was he quite able to bend it ? 
 
 We recall our anthropologic and ethnologic 
 disputants to the ridge of war, and ask, Do they 
 really believe that the difference between the 
 Niger and the Euphrates was one of " experience 
 and training " ? If so, pray tell us how many 
 more years had the Sumerians lived seventy cen 
 turies ago than the citizens of Dahomey up to 
 now ? Did the former enjoy, like the latter, a con 
 tact for centuries with American missionaries 
 and European civilization ? And whence came 
 the " experience and training" of Hammurabi and 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 103 
 
 Sin-mubalit and their ancestors ? Who trained 
 their trainers ? If indeed "it is a question of 
 mental contents rather than of mental capa 
 cities," whence, we insist, came those "mental 
 contents" ? Did they fall out of the sky into the 
 empty skulls of Nineveh? Why, then, did this 
 meteoric shower powder Mesopotamia so densely 
 and sprinkle a dust so impalpable over the Su 
 dan ? "Mental contents rather than mental capa 
 cities" ? True, the word "capacities" is unluckily 
 chosen; "faculties" would have been better, but, 
 even as it stands, there was never a more manifest 
 inversion of the truth. We have taught for a 
 score of years and every year we see more clear 
 ly that the teacher is helpful mainly to the fa 
 voured few that do not need him. We appeal to 
 ^he whole tribe of teachers, from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba what one has ever supplied "mental 
 contents " in the absence of " mental capacities " ? 
 This is preeminently the age of education. Its 
 agencies are all-embracing and bewildering in 
 their complexity and universality. Everything is 
 taught and everything is studied in the most 
 thoroughgoing fashion, from the cedar of Leba 
 non to the hyssop on the wall. If it be merely 
 or mainly a question of "experience and train 
 ing" and "mental contents," surely we have dis- 
 
104 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 tanced our ancestors immensely ; we are al 
 together " out of sight ".Genius should run riot on 
 our streets. Homers, Platos and Euclids, Caesars, 
 Shakesperes and Newtons, Goethes and Kants, 
 Pascals, Dantes and Titians, should be as plenty 
 as blackberries. And yet such is not very notably 
 the case. There is still some room at the top. The 
 supply of abilities of the very highest order is 
 nowhere markedly in excess of the demand. 
 
 Will anyone contend that "experience and 
 training" and subcranial injection of "mental 
 contents" have ever been able to close up the 
 "mental gap" between individuals of the same 
 race, or even of the same family ? Why, then, 
 imagine that they may close up the far wider gap 
 between individuals of different races between 
 the races themselves ? This doctrine of the all- 
 sufficiency of "experience and training" and 
 "mental contents" assumes, in fact, the propor 
 tions of an overgrown ironical joke and would 
 grace the vacuous columns of Judge far better 
 than the sober-minded pages of Anthropology. 
 As a child we have sometimes wondered why 
 the eagle should so far outfly the turkey-gobbler; 
 it seems the mystery is now clearly resolved the 
 eagle has doubtless had more "experience and 
 training". 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 105 
 
 We sometimes see it attempted to strengthen 
 the plea for the essential equality of the Negro by 
 reference to the Japanese, who are declared not 
 inferior, though "they would have been called 
 an inferior, a hopelessly submerged race, half 
 a century ago. But they have made a sudden 
 change. This has been no slow Darwinian de 
 velopment, but a per saltum ev.olution of a 
 new intellectual type if we may not rather call 
 it a spring blossoming out of ages of winter. 
 There is now every appearance that a similar 
 efflorescence is coming with the negro race - 
 only they have begun with utter ignorance and 
 slavery, and have more to learn, and find less 
 encouragement". Now, in this notion of "efflo 
 rescence " there is an element of truth. There are 
 bloom-periods in the life of the race, as of trees 
 and of men. We speak of the Periclean, the 
 Augustan, the Elizabethan age. "For greater 
 dooms do greater doles obtain,"* was said in the 
 ancient mystery. "Spirits are not finely touch d 
 but to fine issues ". Extraordinary junctures and 
 crises in the life of the individual and of the race 
 may rouse slumbering powers into vehement 
 activity. But that such admitted facts will bear 
 the weight of inference thrown upon them, we 
 
 * Hippolytus, PhUosophoumena,\ . 8. 
 
106 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 must stoutly deny. The thorn and the thistle may 
 indeed bloom and fructify, but they will not bear 
 grapes or figs. They will bring forth fruit after 
 their kind. Greeks were Greeks before Marathon 
 or Salamis, before even Homer or Agamemnon. 
 Witness the outburst of Arabic genius after 
 Mohammed! Yet Bagdad and Granada could 
 never become like unto Athens or Alexandria. 
 But why multiply illustrations ? Efflorescence is 
 one thing, transmutation is another. "We seem 
 to see such a paroxysmal impulse now taking 
 possession of the negro race in this country"! 
 We gravely doubt this "sudden start upward"; 
 we strongly suspect things are not what they 
 seem. We label all such statements "impor 
 tant, if true ".* 
 
 The illustration from the Orient will not serve 
 its purpose. We by no means admit that Japan 
 does yet "take a front rank among the strong 
 and intellectual nations of the world". One swal 
 low does not make it spring. We are used to 
 parallels between Sophocles and Ibsen. A Har 
 vard junior declared Demosthenes to be the 
 Edward Everett of Greece. But in any case it is 
 not true that "they have made a sudden change ". 
 
 * That they are a total inversion of the truth is proved elaborately in 
 Chapter Five. 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 107 
 
 It was only gross ignorance that would have 
 called them "hopelessly submerged half a cen 
 tury ago". They were then, even as they are now 
 and as they were hundreds of years before, an 
 artistic, ingenious, enterprising people, with a 
 well-developed culture language, literature, re 
 ligion, social and civic and military life.* Con 
 tact with Western civilization has indeed aroused 
 them and spurred their ambition, and turned 
 their ancient powers into modern channels; but 
 we can by no means say it has really augmented 
 those powers or begotten any new ones. It is far 
 from clear that this contact will prove ultimately 
 beneficial. The Oriental grain is not improved 
 
 * Day teaches day. Until very recently our meagre information touch 
 ing Japanese brain weight did not extend beyond the 130 examples 
 reported by Doenitz (1874), Taguchi (1881), Suzuki (1892), of which 
 the average was about 1,350 grams. Now, however, in the Medical 
 Journal, Tokio, XXII, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 1903, and in Neurologia, I, No. 5, 
 1903, Prof. K. Taguchi publishes measurements of 597 subjects; 421 
 males, 176 females. Of these, 374 adult males yielded an average of 
 1,367 grams, between the extremes 1,063 and 1,790; 150 adult females, an 
 average of 1,214 grams, ranging from 961 to 1,432. Per centimetre of 
 stature the brain weight of the Japanese is almost exactly the same as 
 that of the Germans ( Bischoff, Marchand),Russians(Giltschenko), Czechs 
 (Matiegka) , of the same height. " To recapitulate, the brain of the Japan 
 ese grows more slowly during infancy and early youth than it does in the 
 European. In the adult the brain- weight compares favorably with that 
 of Europeans of similar stature, and it may be shown to be superior in 
 this respect to other races of the same general stature. " (E. A. Spitzka 
 in Science, Sept. 18, 1903, p. 371-373). 
 
 Even then if the Japanese should outstrip all rivals, it would in no 
 degree shake the arguments or conclusions of this volume, nor ground 
 the least hope for the African; for neither historically nor (still less) 
 anatomically is there any parallelism between the two races. 
 
108 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 to every eye by a cheap veneering of Occidental 
 science and commercialism. We have read of a 
 boy who was gilded from head to foot, to repre 
 sent an angel at a church festival. The experi 
 ment was eminently successful: it turned him 
 not only into an apparent angel, but also into a 
 real one. A similar result may be anticipated as 
 the ultimate issue of all attempts, however well- 
 meant, to engraft alien civilization upon the 
 really backward races of mankind. They will 
 finally be civilized off the face of the earth, or at 
 least from all regions habitable and healthful 
 for the civilizing race. 
 
 It seems to be of interest, however, and the 
 dictate of fairness, to recall that, according to a 
 very high and recent, though perhaps not in 
 fallible, authority (Professor Ripley), the roots 
 of the great European race-tree are two:* the 
 
 * To be sure, Prof. Ripley speaks repeatedly of three races (see Pop. 
 Sc. Mon. LI, p. 202): Teutonic, Alpine, Mediterranean; but both the 
 first and the last are long-faced and long-headed, and he regards the two 
 as having a common origin.! "a dolichocephalic Africanoid type in the 
 stone age " (LII, p. 314). "^ It is highly probable that the Teutonic race 
 of northern Europe is merely a variety of this primitive, long-headed 
 type of the stone age, both its distinctive blondness and its remarkable 
 stature having been acquired in the relative isolation of Scandinavia 
 through the modifying influences of environment, and of natural selec 
 tion " (LII, p. 312), "The European races" are thought, "as intermedi 
 ate between the extreme primary types of the Asiatic and the negro 
 races respectively" (LII, p. 306). But the Chinese are long-heads. 
 Sharply opposed to Ripley s, and commanding wider scientific assent, is 
 the view of Lapouge, set forth in L Aryen. 
 
NURTURE ? OR NATURE ? 109 
 
 broad-headed Kelt from Asia and the long 
 headed Teuton from Africa. If so, then this latter 
 stock, though now the fairest among the sons of 
 men, 
 
 Then, sad relief, from the bleak shore that hears 
 The German Ocean roar, deep blooming, strong, 
 And yellow-haired the blue-eyed Saxon came 
 
 was once the very darkest ! What combined agen 
 cies, as of climate and selection, have wrought 
 out this marvellous depigmentation, we need not 
 here inquire. Suffice it that, on the one hand, this 
 fact, if it be a fact, non nobis est componere 
 tantas lites would seem to ground the bare 
 possibility that even now such combined agencies 
 might in the same lapse of time bring about a 
 similar transfiguration of the West African. And 
 this we readily grant --if the physiologic nature 
 of the Negro be as plastic now as it was a hun 
 dred thousand years ago which we cannot dis 
 prove, but which we have no right to assume. 
 Be this as it may, we have never denied this or 
 any other abstract possibility of negritic evolu 
 tion. We merely maintain that probability is 
 the guide of life, and that there is no appreciable 
 probability of any such evolution. 
 
 On the other hand, if the bright-haired chil- 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
110 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 dren of the snow and foam be really sprung 
 from such sable prognathous ancestors, then 
 their divergence from the ancestral type most cer 
 tainly began untold millenniums ago, and the 
 present organic departure from that type is 
 measured, as it were, by the measureless chasm 
 of years that divides them from their African 
 forebears. Now, if nature and the tide of time 
 have spent such centuries of centuries in chisel 
 ing out this chasm, how infinitely preposterous 
 to suppose that man can close it up in a gener 
 ation with the filmy webs of common culture 
 and social equality and civil rights and partisan 
 legislation and caricatured religion and the po 
 litical spoils of the country post-office ! As well 
 expect to rise from the floor to the roof without 
 ever traversing the intervening space. 
 
CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 
 
 Who aught adjudges ere both sides are heard, 
 Just though his judgement, is himself unjust 
 
 SENECA 
 
 BY far the ablest plea yet made for the "back 
 ward races" is to be found in the address of Dr. 
 Franz Boas on Human Faculty as Determined 
 by Race, published (at least, printed) in the 
 Proceedings of the American Association for 
 the Advancement of Science, 1894. This dis 
 tinguished anthropologist, now of Columbia Uni 
 versity, New York City, speaks from the pin 
 nacles of science, and his words must not go 
 unregarded. We shall notice every salient point 
 in his twenty-six pages, and shall quote him 
 verbatim as far as possible. Such a formal 
 defence seems to call for an equally formal re 
 joinder. 
 
 He objects to the argument from the superior- 
 
112 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ity of the White civilization to the superior 
 ity of the White race as involving two errors: 
 (a) "the achievement and the aptitude for an 
 achievement have been confounded", (6) "every 
 deviation from the white type is considered a 
 characteristic feature of a lower type" (p. 302). 
 It is declared that "these two errors underlie our 
 judgments of races;" but why and whether they 
 are really errors, or in what measure, here at 
 least no attempt is made to show. This will not 
 do. Such plausible assumptions are neither dis 
 proved nor discredited by merely labeling them 
 "errors." However, there follows: "It might be 
 objected that although achievement is not neces 
 sarily a measure of aptitude, it seems admissible 
 to judge the one by the other" (pp. 302-3). But 
 why "objected" ? Has any reason been opposed 
 against which one could "object"? None what 
 ever. We do object very seriously to the impli 
 cation that already there has been advanced 
 some argument. The word "objected" should 
 be changed to "argued." 
 
 Hear now the answer to this " objection." " It 
 seems desirable to enter into these questions 
 somewhat fully. Let our mind go back a few 
 thousand years until it reaches the time when the 
 civilizations of eastern and of western Asia were in 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 113 
 
 their infancy. As time passed on, these civiliza 
 tions were transferred from one people to an 
 other, some of those who had represented the 
 highest type of culture sinking back into obscur 
 ity, while others took their places. During the 
 dawn of history, we see civilization clinging to 
 certain districts, in which it is taken up now by 
 one people, now by the other. In the numerous 
 conflicts of these times the more civilized people 
 were often vanquished. The conqueror, how 
 ever, learned the arts of life from the conquered 
 and carried on the work of civilization. Thus the 
 centres of civilization were shifting to and fro 
 over a limited area and progress was slow and 
 often interrupted. At the same period the ances 
 tors of the races, who are now among the most 
 highly civilized, were in no [?] way superior to 
 primitive man as we find him now in regions that 
 have not come into contact with modern civili 
 zation. 
 
 Was the culture attained by the ancient civil 
 ized people of such character as to allow us to 
 claim for them a genius superior to that of any 
 other race ? " 
 
 Such is not the question; it is not about "any 
 other race," but about the present backward 
 races African especially and Australian. It 
 
114 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 should have been said, "Was Greek civilization 
 such as to indicate that the Athenian was supe 
 rior to the Senegambian or the Hottentot?" 
 Will any one hesitate for an answer? 
 
 "First of all, we must bear in mind that none 
 of these civilizations was the product of the 
 genius of a single people." 
 
 Here the cards are conveniently shuffled and 
 the terms changed from "race" to "people/ 
 The question, however, is not about "peoples 
 proper, but about "races." While notable differ 
 ences hold among "peoples" of the same "race," 
 yet the one race it is, the Caucasian, that is held 
 to be superior. This one race has produced all the 
 civilizations in question; the Mongol comes next, 
 at a far remove. And of Caucasians, the Aryan 
 shines like the moon amid the stars. 
 
 "Ideas and inventions were carried from one 
 to the other; and, although intercommunication 
 was slow, each people which participated in the 
 ancient civilization added to the culture of the 
 others. Proofs without number have been forth 
 coming which show that ideas have been dis 
 seminated as long as people have come into con 
 tact with each other and that neither race nor 
 language nor distance limits their diffusion. As 
 all have worked together in the development 
 
PLEA AND COTJNTERPLEA 115 
 
 of the ancient civilizations, we must bow to the 
 genius of all, whatever race they may -represent : 
 Hamitic, Semitic, Aryan or Mongol." 
 
 But to all in equal measure ? Or to some in far 
 higher measure ? That is the question. We must 
 not think of the Senate, where all states vote 
 alike; but of the House of Representatives, 
 where "Little Rhody" vanishes by the side of 
 New York or Texas. Even if all races did con 
 tribute to the sum total, which is far from true, 
 there is an immense difference between contribu 
 tions that may vary from a penny to a pound. 
 The English language "bows to the genius" of 
 all, from the Teuton to the Mongol; but the for 
 mer element is vital, the latter is inappreciable. 
 
 We have quoted these paragraphs in full and 
 for several reasons : We would represent our oppo 
 nent as correctly as possible ; they are a fair sam 
 ple of his argumentation; and, especially, as 
 argument they are to us incomprehensible - 
 hence we would not attempt to condense them. 
 Possibly our readers may understand them bet 
 ter. So far as we can make out, the savant has 
 deceived himself by conjuring with the words 
 " people" and " race." The question was, whether 
 the Caucasian, "the white race," the great civ 
 ilization-building race, in any or in all of its 
 
116 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 "peoples," is superior to the "races" African, 
 Australian, and the like, that have produced no 
 civilizations? If not, "why, then, did the white 
 race alone develop a civilization which is sweep 
 ing the whole world, etc. ?" To this, his own ques 
 tion, these paragraphs contain no element of 
 answer, much less answer itself. They seem to 
 forget all about "races," and turn aside to slight 
 ly varying "peoples" of the same "white race." 
 They ask (in effect) : Does the civilization of the 
 Greek indicate that he was superior to the West 
 African ? And they reply (in effect) that the 
 Hellenic culture was very composite part Doric, 
 part ^Eolic, part Ionian, with a sprinkling from 
 the Nile and the Euphrates. Surely this is not 
 argument; it is hardly the simulacrum of argu 
 ment. Such a mingling of bloods of varying vir 
 tues and tendencies is now actually going on in 
 our midst; but they are all of the same " white 
 race," neither physiologically nor psychologically 
 very far apart; and such a mingling may very 
 well make for higher evolution. When it is 
 affirmed that our "ancestors" "were in no way 
 superior to Hottentots and Guinea Negroes" 
 (the long phrase is a mere euphemism) "at the 
 same period," "during the dawn of history," we 
 protest earnestly. The affirmation assumes every- 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 117 
 
 thing in dispute. The evidence is all against it. 
 Their language, their mythology, the fact that 
 they were of the White race which "did alone 
 develop a civilization," the fact that they took 
 fire immediately when touched by the torch of 
 culture, their bodies and particularly their skulls 
 - all cry aloud against this complacent assump 
 tion. More than a "few thousand years" ago the 
 Sumerians had observed the precession of the 
 equinoxes; at "the dawn of history" in Germany, 
 Augustus cried vainly to Varus, " Give me back 
 my legions." Arminius in no way superior to a 
 Sudanese! The Babylonian legislators and as 
 tronomers "in no way superior" to the cannibals 
 of the Niger! 
 
 " Did no other races develop a culture of equal 
 value?" (p. 304). He shrinks from a positive yea 
 or nay, but holds " that the civilizations of ancient 
 Peru and of Central America may well be com 
 pared with the ancient civilization of the Old 
 World," "that the general status of their culture 
 was nearly equally high." Herewith this great 
 savant seems to place himself beyond the pale of 
 argument. Does any one believe that Greek or 
 Roman civilization would have gone down with 
 out a blow at the mere breath of Pizarro or 
 Cortes ? And where are the Peruvian or Aztec 
 
118 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Homer and Thales, Apelles and Euclid, Cicero, 
 Vergil, and Trajan ? On this there is no need to 
 dwell longer. 
 
 "What then is the difference between the civ 
 ilization of the Old World and that of the New 
 World ? It is only a difference in time. The one 
 reached a certain stage three thousand or four 
 thousand years sooner than the other" (p. 304). 
 
 This is mere assertion. There is not the shadow 
 of evidence that the Peruvian or Mexican would 
 ever have approached the Greco-Roman civil 
 ization, either in four thousand or in forty thou 
 sand years. What has been done in the last four 
 hundred years, under the stimulus of Spanish 
 contact ? We cannot have the slightest interest, 
 logical, sentimental, or other, in depreciating or 
 in anywise underrating the New World civiliza 
 tions. For how could it possibly affect the question 
 of .Caucasian and Negro, even if it were found 
 that the bud of Cuzco and Anahuac was fairer 
 than the flower of Rome or Athens ? And why 
 might it not have been ? We are very far from 
 regarding either Aristides or Marcus Aurelius 
 as perfect. It is only as a mere matter of fact 
 that we call the American superiority or equal 
 ity so seriously in question. Admire as you will, 
 appraise as high as you will, the art and the 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 119 
 
 astronomy of Tezouco, the social organization, 
 the agriculture, and the engineering of the 
 amautas, it seems impossible even for the en 
 thusiasm of a Carli, combined with the race 
 pride of an Ixtlilxochitl and a Garcilaso, to dis 
 cover in the culture of the Yncas or of the Aztecs 
 or even of the Toltecs any principle or augury 
 of progress. To us it is difficult in the extreme to 
 detect any hope of higher development where 
 despotism was absolute, where free agency was 
 outlawed, and where the object of war was to pro 
 cure human sacrifices. We hold that by every 
 token these civilizations had culminated, that 
 they were already as elaborated and petrified as 
 the Chinese, and that the centuries to come 
 would have witnessed no marked advance, but 
 rather a retrogression. It should be added that 
 the physical inferiority of these peoples was no 
 table. The Peruvian and Aztec stature ranged 
 from five feet to five and one-half feet. Now this 
 is very close to the border line of the Dwarfs - 
 who, according to Sir William Flower, include 
 such races as do not exceed five feet three inches. 
 The Ynca skull is better than others of South 
 America, yet it has but a low facial angle. 
 
 Dr. Boas thinks four thousand years but a trifle 
 in the history of a race but a watch in the night. 
 
120 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Perhaps it is. He thinks the mere fact that a race 
 is forty centuries behind does not argue that it 
 is less gifted. May be not. We have often won 
 dered whether the bee might not yet overtake 
 the man. Theoretically all forms of life are still in 
 the race, which cannot end while the planet is 
 habitable. Practically, however, four thousand 
 years is eternity. A race that is more than a hun 
 dred generations behind is not worth consider 
 ing. The reflections in the paragraph under con 
 sideration all strike wide of the mark. 
 
 It is next urged (p. 304) "that civilization 
 originated among few of its [the White race s] 
 members," and "that the cognate tribes" might 
 not have developed so swiftly but for help from 
 the others. True, the Germans (e. g.) profited 
 greatly from contact with Greco-Romans, but 
 for whom they might now be savages. But they 
 profited because they were of the same stock ; 
 they were of nature to profit. The Greek applied 
 the torch, but the German material was inflam 
 mable; else it would never have burned. When 
 the same torch has been applied to other ma 
 terials, they have not caught fire. 
 
 The next paragraph (p. 305) itself raises these 
 questions: "But why did these tribes so easily 
 assimilate the culture that was offered them, 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 
 
 while at present we see primitive people dwindle 
 away and become degraded before the approach 
 of civilization, instead of being elevated by it? 
 Is not this a proof of a higher organization of the 
 inhabitants of Europe?" We have just rendered 
 answer simple, natural, satisfactory. But none 
 such can be accepted ! "I believe the reasons for 
 this fact are not far to seek and do not necessarily 
 lie in a greater ability of the races of Europe and 
 Asia. First of all, these people were alike in 
 appearance to civilized man of their times." 
 
 What perverse ingenuity! Likeness in appear 
 ance was a reason, but likeness in reality in 
 blood, in brain, in nature, in origin --this was 
 no reason! Penny wise, pound foolish. Now the 
 fact is that the likeness in reality was far stronger 
 than in appearance. 
 
 "Therefore the fundamental difficulty for the 
 rise of primitive people, namely, that an individ 
 ual which has risen to the level of the higher 
 civilization is still looked upon as belonging to 
 an inferior race, did not prevail." 
 
 Here again there is quietly assumed every 
 thing in dispute. We deny outright that such is 
 "the fundamental difficulty." In a measure it 
 has no existence at all, annulled by the prevalent 
 doctrine of the equality of all men. In wide circles 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
 these superior "primitives" (i. e., Negroes) are 
 petted and flattered and extraordinarily favoured. 
 No proof of the assertion in question is so much 
 as hinted. 
 
 "Thus it was possible that, in the colonies of 
 ancient times, society could grow by accretion 
 from among the more primitive people. Further 
 more, the devastating influences of diseases which 
 nowadays begin to ravage the inhabitants of terri 
 tories newly opened to the whites were not so 
 strong on account of the permanent contiguity 
 of the people of the Old World who were always 
 in contact with each other and therefore subject 
 to the same influences. The invasion of America 
 and Polynesia, on the other hand, was accom 
 panied by the introduction of new diseases among 
 the natives of these countries. The suffering and 
 devastation wrought by epidemics which fol 
 lowed the discovery are too well known to be 
 described in full." 
 
 True, but most inadequate; for why did not 
 the contact with the new peoples affect the in 
 vaders as well as the invaded with new diseases ? 
 Especially, why did these invaders not yield to the 
 new local or climatic distempers to which the 
 invaded had long since become measurably im 
 mune? The near-lying fact that the invaders 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 123 
 
 were stronger, more viable, more resistant to 
 disease, in every way more vigorous the very 
 fact that made them invaders this all-impor 
 tant fact has been entirely overlooked. 
 
 " In addition to this it may be said that the 
 contrast between the culture represented by the 
 modern white and that of primitive man is far 
 more fundamental than that between the ancients 
 and the people with whom they come in contact. 
 Particularly, the methods of manufacture have 
 developed so enormously that the industries of 
 the primitive peoples of our times are extermi 
 nated by the cheapness and large quantity of the 
 products imported by the white trader; because 
 primitive man is unable to compete with the 
 power of production of the machines of the 
 whites, while in olden times the superior hand 
 product rivalled with a hand product of a lower 
 type." 
 
 To what uses may not the doctrine of Protec 
 tion be turned ! For a generation we were taught 
 that it was necessary to protect by a high tariff 
 the machine products of the United States against 
 the competition of the hand products of the Old 
 World; now we are told that not only has the 
 competition of the machine products "exter 
 minated" the hand industries, but it has even 
 
124 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 prevented the "primitive" from learning the 
 new "methods of manufacture" and so becom 
 ing civilized and saving himself from extermi 
 nation ! The reader may be safely left to perceive 
 the irrelevance and the emptiness of such "may- 
 be-saids." Let him further reflect that the great 
 bulk of this extermination, begun in America 
 nearly four hundred years ago, was accomplished 
 in three hundred years, before the modern era of 
 machine products. To attribute the disappear 
 ance of the Indian to the overthrow of his indus 
 tries by the competition of cheap calicoes and 
 wooden nutmegs sounds more like jest than 
 earnest. Why, the curiosity of the "invaders" 
 actually supplied and still supplies a new market 
 for the aboriginal wares. 
 
 The next remark, "that in several regions, 
 particularly in America and in parts of Siberia, 
 the primitive tribes are swamped by the numbers 
 of the immigrating race," seems hardly worth 
 quoting in full. But from all of this it is concluded 
 (p. 306) "that the conditions for assimilation in 
 ancient Europe were much more favorable" 
 than where modern civilization has overtaken 
 the "primitives," and that therefore there is no 
 "need to assume that the ancient Europeans 
 were more gifted than other races " that disappear 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 125 
 
 before modern civilization. The reader must 
 see that, even if there were granted everything 
 claimed for these reasons, the question as to the 
 fact of European superiority would not be 
 touched. 
 
 For corroboration, appeal is made (p. 306) to 
 the Arabs and the Sudanese. In the second half 
 of the eighth century, the Sudan was invaded 
 by"Hamitic tribes" and "Mohammedanism." 
 "Large empires" came and went "in struggles 
 with neighboring states, " and " a relatively high 
 degree of culture has been attained. " The invad 
 ers intermarried with the natives, and the mixed 
 races, some of which are almost purely negro, 
 have risen high above the level of other African 
 negroes." We submit that such "corroboration" 
 is little stronger than weakness itself. "Relatively 
 high culture" is too vague a term to argue with, 
 and a thousand years of such history "of north 
 Africa" is not worth a brief generation of Euro 
 pean history. If the infusion of "Hamitic" blood 
 and civilization has appreciably helped the Su 
 danese, we are not surprised ; but who will infer 
 from that fact that these inf users are not superior ? 
 
 "Why, then, have the Mohammedans been 
 able to civilize these tribes and to raise them to 
 nearly the same standard which they had at- 
 
126 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 tained, while the whites have not been capable of 
 influencing the negro in Africa to any consider 
 able extent ?" Mark you, the word "nearly" - a 
 bridge broad enough to span the straits of Gib 
 raltar, the chasm between Bagdad or Granada 
 and Dahomey, between Averroes and the Mad 
 Mullah. Some would, perhaps, hold that in the 
 United States the Negro has attained "nearly" 
 to the Caucasian level. But since it was at best 
 only "nearly" and not quite, it follows that the 
 mixture of Hamite and Negro did, after all, work 
 a debasement of the former. And how was this 
 possible, if the latter was not inferior ? 
 
 "Evidently, on account of the different method 
 of introduction of culture. While the Moham 
 medans influence the people in the same manner 
 in which the ancients civilized the tribes of Eu 
 rope, the whites send only the products of their 
 manufactures and a few of their representatives 
 into the negro country. A real amalgamation 
 between the higher types of the whites and the 
 negroes has never taken place. The amalgama 
 tion of the negroes by the Mohammedans is fa 
 cilitated particularly by the institution of polyg 
 amy, the conquerors taking native wives and 
 raising their children as members of their own 
 family." 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 127 
 
 Such is the programme for "influencing" the 
 Negro! Such is the way to introduce "culture," 
 whereby, in a thousand years, the "mixed race" 
 may "nearly" attain the present Caucasian stan 
 dard! That is, the only successful "method of 
 introduction of culture" is to introduce blood, to 
 introduce a new stock, a new germinal principle. 
 Then comes a race of mongrels, of average 
 mental powers higher than the lower breed, with 
 exceptions little lower than the higher. Since the 
 forms of civilization are easily imposed on infe 
 rior breeds, the resulting mongrels do what one 
 may be pleased to call "nearly attaining" to the 
 standard of the higher. Bear witness the West In 
 dies, and Mexico, and Central and South Amer 
 ica. What interest has any one in contesting such 
 statements ? To our mind they give away the 
 case entirely; out of their own mouths such 
 speakers are unappealably condemned. Bornu* 
 and Haiti may have attractions for some ; but for 
 us, none whatever. 
 
 "When, finally, we consider the inferior posi 
 tion held by the negro race of the United States, 
 
 *The semi-civilization of this "empire," which never gave any promise 
 of history, culminated centuries ago; in more recent years its descent has 
 been rapid. Concerning Haiti, see supra, p. 57. In a recent number 
 of The Ethical Record, Dr. B. returns with ardour to this subject, repeat 
 ing his earlier statements, without, however, any significant additions. 
 
128 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 who are in the closest contact with modern 
 civilization, we must not forget that the old 
 race-feeling of the inferiority of the colored 
 race is as potent as ever and is a formidable 
 obstacle to its advance and progress, notwith 
 standing that schools and universities are open 
 to them. We might rather wonder how much 
 has been accomplished in a short period 
 against heavy odds. It is hardly possible to say 
 what would become of the negro if he were 
 able to live with the whites on absolutely equal 
 terms" (p. 307). 
 
 Such is the pathetic plea for the ABSOLUTE 
 EQUALITY in our American life of Black and 
 White. We do not deny that there is a certain 
 force in such words. To us the Negro seems han 
 dicapped with an undeniable inferiority, which, 
 particularly in the commercial world, accumu 
 lates rapidly against him, as it were, at compound 
 interest. And this is the seventh seal of his doom. 
 But in science, in literature, in art, he receives all 
 encouragement; his work is at an absurd pre 
 mium. Take one illustration, instar omnium. In 
 the advertisement of "Volumes by Paul Law 
 rence Dunbar," in "The Uncalled," his own 
 publishers speak thus: "A poet who starts out by 
 being handicapped by excessive praise suffers 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 129 
 
 from it for a long time. . . . Just because 
 he [Dunbar] happened to be a Negro, a vast 
 amount of adulation was heaped upon him. " Pre 
 cisely the opposite of the picture drawn above! 
 Compare, also, the history of the Negroes of 
 Chatham, Ontario, and of other such early colo 
 nies. That they no longer meet with such extra 
 ordinary favour in the North is largely due to the 
 fact that they have uniformly, when in numbers, 
 sadly disappointed the hopes of their benefac 
 tors and well-wishers. It seems plain, moreover, 
 that a really strong and highly endowed blood 
 would triumph with equal ease over excessive 
 favour and over unjust disfavour. Would any 
 such discrimination keep down the Anglo-Saxon ? 
 Would he not make by force his merit known " ? 
 And have twenty centuries of race prejudice and 
 outrageous persecution availed to repress or de 
 press the all-victorious sons of Israel ? The gen 
 erous explanation just offered must be rejected 
 as utterly inadequate. 
 
 Hence it is concluded (p. 307) that "no great 
 weight can be attributed to the earlier rise of civ 
 ilization in the Old World which is satisfactorily 
 explained as a chance. In short, historical events 
 appear to have been much more potent in leading 
 races to civilization than their faculty, and it fol- 
 
130 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 lows that achievements of races do not warrant 
 us to assume that one race is more highly gifted 
 than the other." 
 
 We submit that there has not been offered, for 
 these conclusions, any semblance of proof what 
 ever. Let our readers judge; we have quoted 
 very fully. Notice, moreover, the phrase " earlier 
 rise of civilization in the Old World." But who 
 knows that it rose earlier in the Old World ? Or 
 who cares ? Who argues therefrom ? The point is, 
 that it rose higher, immeasurably higher, in the 
 Old World; but this, the kernel, is not mentioned. 
 All this was mere " chance " ! Yes, perhaps ; in the 
 same sense that the higher rise of the Himalayas 
 than of the Andes was mere "chance"; that the 
 richer fauna and flora of the Old World were 
 mere " chance" ; that the greater energy and stat 
 ure and cranial capacity of the Aryan were mere 
 "chance"; in the same sense that everything in 
 Euclidean space is a mere "chance". In order to 
 justify any assertion, it will suffice to enlarge 
 sufficiently the meaning of your terms. But we do 
 not think that the cause of truth is prospered by 
 such methods. 
 
 Some one may ask, however, is there not some 
 grain of correctness in this contention that ca 
 pacity cannot always be measured by achieve- 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 131 
 
 ment? We grant it cheerfully, and we applaud 
 our opponent and his school for calling this con 
 nection in question, and bidding the current as 
 sumption answer for itself. We, too, would "test 
 all things," but we would also "hold fast the 
 good." The savant has been unscientific in his 
 procedure; he has gone too far; he has thrown 
 out the baby with the bath. He has neglected the 
 central principles of the doctrine of probability. 
 If there be two members of two families, and one 
 succeeds greatly in life, along this path and that, 
 while the other fails here, there, everywhere, we 
 are strongly tempted to ascribe higher faculty to 
 the one than to the other. Yet we may very well 
 be wrong. The latter might put up a plausible 
 defence. He might reason as this school has done. 
 He might say that the game was called too soon, 
 that various circumstances continually favoured 
 his rival, that in a perfectly fair field he would 
 have shown himself at least equal. All, then, that 
 we could say would be, that the Inverse Proba 
 bility was somewhat against him. His failure is a 
 fact : it may have been due to lower faculty, it may 
 have been due to something else; but it stands 
 against him, and it raises a certain probability of 
 inferiority. No such failure stands against the 
 other. No such probability of inferior faculty is 
 
132 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 suggested, though it remains barely possible that 
 he was really inferior. 
 
 But now, suppose there are a million or a 
 trillion in each of the two families; and of these 
 the one trillion attain varying but splendid suc 
 cess along every line of endeavour, while the other 
 trillion fail, more or less completely, along the 
 same lines. What, then, shall we say ? What, then, 
 must we say? Unhesitatingly, that there must 
 have been a very decided difference of average fac 
 ulty. While we might admit the measurable pos 
 sibility that chance and time and circumstance 
 played a conspicuous and even a determining 
 part in the fortunes of the one pair, yet we could 
 by no means admit the like for any great number 
 of pairs ; and when the number of pairs becomes 
 enormously great, the possibility in question be 
 comes vanishingly small too small to be dealt 
 with in any system of our thought. Here is the 
 given effect: success of the one class, failure 
 of the other. What the cause ? Is it mainly, at 
 least, an (average) uniform difference of faculty ? 
 This cause is simple and intelligible and self- 
 repeating; if it worked in one case, it would work 
 in all cases and explain everything as easily as 
 any one thing. But the other cause, the conspir 
 acy of chance and time and circumstance, is not 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 133 
 
 self-repeating, and however great the likelihood 
 of a single such chance combination, the likeli 
 hood of innumerable such repetitions is inex 
 pressibly small on the same principle that the 
 chance of throwing heads once is one-half, but the 
 chance of throwing them consecutively twice is 
 only one-fourth, and thrice is only one-eighth, 
 and so on. We need not parade here the mathe 
 matical formulae for the reckoning of the so- 
 called inverse probability of each of these two 
 hypotheses. Common sense tells us at once that 
 the difference of faculty is practically certain, the 
 chance-effect or coincidence-effect is practically 
 impossible. 
 
 Now, such is the case really presented. On the 
 one side, the generations of generations of Cau 
 casians ; all have distinguished themselves by high 
 and varied achievements along every line of ac 
 tivity yet opened up to man. On the other hand, 
 the primitives the backward races of Australia, 
 particularly of Africa ; they seem scarcely yet quite 
 conscious. Not one has done anything historical. 
 The failure is complete and universal. That this 
 uniform and immense diversity is a mere acci 
 dent, the age-long result of a fortuitous concourse 
 of circumstances, or ascriptible to any such triv 
 ialities as those enumerated, is almost incalcu- 
 
134 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 lably improbable, except we expand the term ac 
 cident to include the laws of gravitation and the 
 conservation of energy. We might as well say that 
 the different behaviours of two bodies of oxy 
 gen and hydrogen were to be "explained as a 
 chance," and did not argue any greater mass in 
 the average molecule of the former. 
 
 This conclusion would hold, even if the higher 
 faculty of the Caucasian were antecedently ex 
 tremely improbable; the a priori unlikelihood 
 would become a posteriori, in view of the facts of 
 history, a practical certainty. However, the case 
 is immeasurably stronger. For a difference in 
 faculty, not merely in kind, but also in degree of 
 faculty, is not only not improbable a priori it 
 is probable almost to certainty. All nature around 
 us is one endless spectacle of such diversities. 
 Equality is absolutely unknown. This observa 
 tion is altogether too trite to dwell on. Will any 
 one deny that the degrees of faculty are often in 
 expressibly apart in members of the same family ? 
 Did any amount of opportunity serve to raise any 
 other member of the Bonaparte family quite to the 
 level of the first Napoleon ? If, then, such inher 
 ent disparities in individuals be undeniable, is 
 parity among tribes or races to be expected ? Is it 
 not, in fact, antecedently incredible ? To us it 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 135 
 
 seems no more unlikely that one race should be 
 superior to another than that one man should 
 be taller, or one mountain range higher, or one 
 ocean deeper, than another. The question of 
 equality or inequality between two races of men 
 is a mere question of present facts, to be settled 
 without any bias, now and here, precisely as you 
 would settle the like question between the Nu- 
 midian lion and the Colorado cougar. And when 
 some one pleads for the backward "primitives" 
 that they need only a little more time, a few mil 
 lenniums, we answer once more: Very pos 
 sibly; but time may be all that the jaguar needs 
 to surpass the tiger, or the ant to rival the eagle. 
 
 So much, then, for the historical argument. As 
 already brought forward in our Chapter Two, it is 
 shaken by the scruples presented even as an oak 
 is shaken by a zephyr. 
 
 Let us now pass to the anatomical argument 
 (p. 308). " There is no doubt that great differences 
 exist in the physical characteristics of the races of 
 man. " But these cannot, of themselves, decide the 
 question of superiority. While skin, hair, lips, and 
 nose "distinguish the African negro clearly," yet 
 Americans (aboriginal) have occasionally skin, 
 lips, nose, but not hair, mistakable " for those of a 
 negro." In general, variations in any race over- 
 
136 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 lap variations in another, showing that " existing 
 differences, are not fundamental" (whatever that 
 may mean). It is held that the varying propor 
 tions of the body may be rather cultural than ra 
 cial, like the differences between wild and do 
 mesticated animals (Fritsch). "The differences 
 which cannot be explained by functional causes 
 are few in number and they are not of such a 
 character as to stamp one race as lower than the 
 other." Conceded. But notice here the logical 
 process. Whatever can be explained functionally 
 "must" be explained functionally; a functional 
 cause that is possible is held to be ipso facto cer 
 tain ; racial causes are antecedently so extremely 
 improbable as to be admissible only under ex 
 treme compulsion. Now this is altogether vicious. 
 The case is just the reverse. It is the functional 
 causes that are pressed into service, that remain 
 mere possibilities. Even at the utmost they re 
 fuse to explain all the differences. Some "few" 
 are admitted to be racial. But, as some are cer 
 tainly racial, then all or at least most may be ra 
 cial, the invocation of supposed functional causes 
 becomes unnecessary, and the cultural expla 
 nation improbable. We may apply the razor of 
 Occam: Entia non multiplicanda sunt prceter 
 necessitatem. 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 137 
 
 We pass now to theromorphisms among the 
 lower races (p. 310). For example, in man the 
 temporal and frontal bones are separated by the 
 sphenoid and parietal, but in the ape the tem 
 poral encroaches on the second pair and meets 
 the frontal. This simian formation is found occa 
 sionally among all races, but " more frequently 
 among primitive people." However, it is thought 
 "probably" due to "malnutrition in early in 
 fancy," and to be no indication of closer kinship 
 to the ape. 
 
 There follow (p. 310) some half dozen other 
 variations, long thought to be characteristic, that 
 " occur all over the world, " - " but the degree of 
 variability is not everywhere the same." " Presum 
 ably such variations" "have not yet" "become 
 stable," but are "still in process of evolution. " 
 "It might seem," then, that the races in which 
 they "are more stable" are " more highly organ 
 ized." It is said that "this would refer, however, 
 only to such features as are not caused by the influ 
 ence of environment." Moreover, " it may be that 
 the greater variability of certain races, in regard 
 to these phenomena, is not an expression of a lower 
 degree of development of the whole group, but 
 of the presence of a great number of members of 
 a family which possessed the peculiar character". 
 
138 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 It is needless to contest or criticise such ingeni 
 ous maybes. It is enough to note, once again, the 
 logic. It is not denied that prima facie all these 
 phenomena suggest and indicate lower develop 
 ment ; it is merely sought to avert the indication by 
 devising an hypothesis to account for each fact 
 some other way. In place of the one supposition of 
 lower development, there is put a whole series of 
 independent suppositions. In order to avail for 
 the purpose, all of these must hit true at the same 
 time ; if each were as likely as not, having a prob 
 ability of one-half, the chance that five such shall 
 hit true simultaneously is only the fifth power of 
 one-half that is, one thirty-second. This rapid 
 diminution of the chance of all being correct is 
 wholly overlooked in such argumentation. 
 
 Regard is now turned (p. 311) upon the cranial 
 features: "While the consideration of the char 
 acters treated heretofore has not given any con 
 clusive evidence of the superiority of certain 
 races, the study of the form and size of the head 
 seems to promise better results. " 
 
 Note here the word "conclusive"; clearly, it is 
 admitted that these characters furnish some 
 evidence of the "superiority" claimed, but de 
 nied that it is "conclusive." But who ever held 
 that such evidence was "conclusive"? There is 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 139 
 
 no single variety of evidence in the case that is or 
 can be "conclusive." The evidence is cumulative 
 its conclusiveness is found in its mass, in the con- 
 currence of all its disconnected indications. This 
 is the decisive aspect of the whole matter, and of 
 this there is betrayed no consciousness. 
 
 Relatively "to the skull, the face of the negro 
 is larger than that of the American, whose face is, 
 in turn, larger than that of the white. The lower 
 portion of the face assumes larger dimensions. 
 The alveolar arch is pushed forward and thus 
 gains an appearance which reminds us of the 
 higher apes. There is no denying that this feature 
 is a most constant character of the black races 
 and that it represents a type slightly nearer the 
 animal than the European type. The same may 
 be said of the broadness and flatness of the nose 
 of the negro and of the Mongol ; but here again 
 we must call to mind that prognathism and low, 
 broad noses are not entirely absent among the 
 white races [neither are idiots and all sorts of 
 reversions to older types], although the more 
 strongly developed forms which are found among 
 the negroes do not occur. The variations belong 
 ing to both races overlap. We find here at least a 
 few indications which tend to show that the white 
 race differs more from the higher apes than [does] 
 
140 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 the negro. But does this anatomical difference 
 prove that their mental capacity is lower than that 
 of the white ? The probability that this may be 
 the case is suggested by the anatomical facts, but 
 they by themselves are no proof that this is the 
 
 case. 
 
 True; but they are not "by themselves." They 
 are in goodly company with a long series of facts 
 already mentioned, with a still longer series im 
 mediately to come, and with a wholly overwhelm 
 ing confirmative history of ten thousand years. It 
 is idle, then, to say "they by themselves are no 
 proof. " The question is, Are they, in their own 
 anatomical and historical connection, any proof ? 
 It is impossible not to answer, Yes. They are the 
 very strongest proof. 
 
 Promising "to revert to this subject later on," 
 the savant passes over (p. 312) to the important 
 matter of arrested development. Among such 
 phenomena may be noted that the noses of 
 children are more alike than those of adults. The 
 Mongol nose changes less during adolescence 
 than the White. According to Quatrefages, the 
 Negro basin differs less from foetal forms and re 
 sembles more the ape form than that of other 
 races. All of which points to relative lowness of 
 developmental type. " On the other hand, the face 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 141 
 
 of the negro child is less prognathous than that 
 of the adult. In this case we find that the more 
 energetic development tends to produce a type 
 which is apparently lower than that of the white. 
 We may even go a step farther and say that the 
 ontogenetic development of the higher apes and 
 of man is such that the young forms are more 
 alike than the old ones. While in man the face de 
 velops moderately only, it grows considerably 
 among the apes. The earlier arrest in this case is, 
 therefore, an indication of higher type. Thus it 
 will be seen that it is not the earlier arrest alone 
 which determines the place of a race, but the di 
 rection of this development. " Hence he refuses to 
 draw a conclusion against the Mongol, but says 
 nothing more ,of the Negro. The argument of Dr. 
 Boas, at this point, seems strangely vague and ir 
 resolute. It seems hardly possible to join direct 
 issue. But this fact appears noteworthy : The ape 
 face grows more than the human ; also the Negro 
 face grows decidedly more than the White at 
 least relatively to the head, since the adult is 
 more prognathous than the child; this "more 
 energetic development" relates, then, the Negro 
 to the ape more nearly than the White man. 
 
 The general reply that is made (p. 313) to the 
 argument from arrested development is that the 
 
142 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 female sex is in all proportions more like the 
 child than the male, "but who would explain this 
 earlier arrest of development of women as mark 
 of a lower type?" We let this go for what it is 
 worth, merely remarking that it is thoroughly in 
 validated by the remark on page 315 (quoted 
 at p. 144) c 
 
 With page 313 we pass to the question of the 
 length of time during which certain organs grow, 
 especially the brain. "If we could prove that the 
 brain of certain races ceases to develop at an 
 earlier period than that of others, the inference 
 of the inferiority of race would seem highly prob 
 able. " Now, this is precisely what many natural 
 ists of the first rank affirm is the case with the 
 Negro. But it is here declared, "At the present 
 time no satisfactory basis for such comparisons 
 exists." Possibly; we recognize the difficulties 
 of the case : still, the returns thus far received, so 
 far as they indicate anything at all, do indicate 
 a much shorter period of development for the 
 Negro (see p. 147). 
 
 The next question (p. 314) is the crucial one 
 of br ain- weights "the one anatomical feature 
 which bears directly upon the question at issue. 
 It would seem that the greater the central ner 
 vous system, the higher the faculty of the race and 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 143 
 
 the greater its aptitude to mental achievements. 
 . . . There are sufficient data available to es 
 tablish beyond a doubt the fact that the brain- 
 weight of the whites is larger than of most other 
 races, particularly larger than that of the negroes. 
 That of the white male is about 1370 grammes. 
 The investigations of cranial capacities are quite 
 in accord with these results. According to Topin- 
 ard, the capacity of the skull of males of the neo 
 lithic period of Europe is about 1560 cc. ; that of 
 modern Europeans is the same; of the Mongo 
 loid race 1510 cc.; of African negroes 1405 cc., 
 and of negroes of the Pacific ocean 1460 cc. 
 Here we have, therefore, a decided difference 
 in favor of the white race. These differences 
 cannot be explained as the effect of difference in 
 stature, the negroes being at least as tall as the 
 Europeans." 
 
 In interpreting these facts, we must ask, Does 
 the increase in the size of the brain prove an in 
 crease in faculty ? This would seem highly prob 
 able and facts may be adduced which speak in 
 favor of this assumption. " A number of these, fa 
 miliar enough, are mentioned, and there follows : 
 "While the force of these arguments must be ad 
 mitted, a number of restricting facts must be enu 
 merated. The most important among these is the 
 
144 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 difference in the brain-weight between men and 
 women. When men and women of the same 
 stature are compared it is found that the brain of 
 the woman is much lighter than that of the man. 
 Nevertheless, the faculty of woman is undoubt 
 edly just as high as that of man. This is there 
 fore a case in which smaller brain-weight is ac 
 companied throughout by equal faculty. We con 
 clude from this fact that it is not impossible that 
 the smaller brains of males of other races should 
 not (sic) do the same work that is done by the 
 larger brain of the white race. But this compari 
 son is not quite on equal terms, as we may assume 
 that there is a certain structural difference be 
 tween male and female which causes the differ 
 ence in size between the sexes, so that compari 
 son between male and female is not the same as 
 a comparison between male and male. We will 
 also remember that, although the brains of emi 
 nent men are, on the average, larger than those of 
 the average individual, there are some small 
 brains included in their number." We observe 
 that, the sentence " But this comparison. . . ." 
 (p. 315) so restricts the foregoing "most important 
 restriction" as to deprive it of all the force it might 
 otherwise have with some. As to eminent men 
 having small brains, to be sure; but eminent men 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 145 
 
 may have small minds also; very extraordinary 
 special endowment does not by any means imply 
 general endowment; not every genius is a good 
 "all-around" man; even as physically some are 
 strong in arm but weak in legs, strong in the chest 
 but weak in the back, and so on. Besides, no one 
 has ever held that mind-power is merely a matter 
 of brain- weight. We hold only that, other things 
 being equal, brain-weight is a fair index of mind- 
 power. Perhaps in no two cases are the other 
 things equal ; but in the average of a large number 
 of cases these inequalities are smoothed out ; hence 
 it is that we may rely upon the average with no 
 little confidence. 
 
 "Notwithstanding these restrictions, the in 
 crease of the size of the brain in the higher ani 
 mals, and the lack of development in microce- 
 phalic individuals are fundamental facts which 
 make it more than probable that increased size of 
 the brain causes increased faculty, although the 
 relation is not quite as immediate as is often 
 assumed." 
 
 We ask no greater concession. 
 
 It is next contended (p. 316) "that the average 
 sizes of the brain of the White are numerously 
 represented among other races". Middle-sized 
 capacities (1450 to 1650 cc.) are found in 55 per 
 
146 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 cent, of Europeans, and in 58 per cent, of Afri 
 cans and Melanesians ; also 50 per cent, of 
 Whites rise above 1550 (the mid-line), 27 per 
 cent, of Africans, 32 per cent, of Melanesians. 
 "We might, therefore, anticipate a lack of men 
 of high genius, but should not anticipate any 
 great lack of faculty among the great mass of 
 negroes living among whites and enjoying the 
 advantages of the leadership of the best men of 
 that race." 
 
 These words seem to surrender everything. 
 They admit a sensible inferiority of the Negro. 
 This defect may be slight as expressed in ounces, 
 and yet, as measured by achievement, it may be 
 inexpressibly great. Nay, more! The admission 
 goes much further still. The " anticipation" of no 
 "great lack of faculty" is wholly unwarranted. 
 We have no right to assume that medium skull- 
 capacities among Africans imply the same medi 
 um faculties as would the same capacities among 
 Europeans. By no means! Not unless the average 
 brain-texture of the former be as fine-grained and 
 highly organized as of the latter. But this is very 
 improbable. With the difference in quantity will 
 most likely be linked a far more significant differ 
 ence in quality. So much is, in fact, admitted in 
 the next paragraph, which merits special atten- 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 147 
 
 tion. This, however, is hardly the correct stand 
 point, as mental ability certainly does not depend 
 upon the size of the brain alone. The proper 
 point of view of the question is brought out most 
 clearly by Dr. H. H. Donaldson whose opinion I 
 will quote. He says, "I consider the significance 
 of the encephalon to depend upon the number 
 and size of the cells composing it. In the negroes 
 and lower races generally, the number of cells is 
 probably less than in the white. This is mainly 
 an inference from the total weight of the en 
 cephalon. Equally important are the final stages 
 in the enlargement of the structural elements, 
 stages which apparently have the result of bring 
 ing a larger number of elements into physiologi 
 cal connections by means of a very slight quan 
 titative extension of their branches. Changes, 
 which moreover can be followed, say in the cor 
 tex of the brain of the white in individuals thirty 
 or more years of age (sic). When we compare the 
 capacity for education between the lower and 
 higher races, we find that the great point of 
 divergence is at adolescence and the infer 
 ence is fairly good that we shall not find in 
 the brains of the lower races the post-pubertal 
 growth in the cortex to which I have just 
 alluded. As to the sculpturing of the brain 
 
148 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 surface by gyri and sulci we still lack any good 
 racial characters." 
 
 We have no occasion to take the slightest ex 
 ception to this statement of Professor Donald 
 son s. But we are at a loss to perceive any support 
 it gives to the general contention of this address, 
 which, indeed, it seems to overturn completely. 
 Observe especially that Donaldson recog 
 nizes unequivocally "the great point of diver 
 gence at adolescence " "in the capacity for 
 education, between the lower and higher races. " 
 We may be allowed to add some later remarks 
 of the Chicago authority, culled from his "The 
 Growth of the Brain" (1895), which also fully 
 sustain, incidentally, the theses of our earlier 
 chapters. 
 
 "Statistically the results are satisfactory" 
 (p. 114), being said of a table showing the inferior 
 brain- weights of inferior races, indicates that Pro 
 fessor Donaldson recognizes that inferiority un 
 reservedly. 
 
 "On neurological grounds, therefore, nurture 
 is to be considered of much less importance than 
 nature, and in that sense the capacities we most 
 admire in persons worthy of remark are certainly 
 inborn rather than made" (p. 344). 
 
 "Size, therefore, has a meaning; but it is by 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 149 
 
 no means entitled to dominate the whole inter 
 pretation of the central system" (p. 352). 
 
 "No amount of education will cause enlarge 
 ment or organization where the rough materials, 
 the cells, are wanting; and, on the other hand, 
 where these materials are present, they will in 
 some degree become evident, whether purposely 
 educated or not" (p. 355). 
 
 " Races which have progressed farthest in civil 
 ization are also those which possess a large brain- 
 weight; but the converse of this proposition is 
 by no means true, for the tables also show that 
 there are races possessed of a large brain-weight 
 and yet uncivilized" (p. 359). 
 
 Having now reviewed all pertinent anatomical 
 differences, Dr. Boas declares (p. 317): "Our 
 conclusion is, that there are differences between 
 the physical characters of races which make it 
 probable that there may be differences in faculty. 
 No unquestionable fact, however, has been found 
 yet which would prove beyond a doubt that it 
 will be impossible for certain races to attain a 
 higher civilization." 
 
 This conclusion is drawn so mildly that it 
 seems hard to quarrel with it. But we must ob 
 serve that it is not exactly a question of "higher 
 civilization," but of the highest, as high as the 
 
150 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Caucasian has attained or can attain: no one 
 doubts that the Guinea Negro may be improved 
 - he has been improved right here in the United 
 States; the question is, can he keep pace with 
 the White man ? and everything thus far sug 
 gests, and almost compels, the answer, No! 
 Again, it is not precisely a question of "impossi 
 bility" but of "improbability." All things are 
 possible with God and even to the thought of 
 man; but for the practical reason, the improb 
 ability here admitted is controlling. Once more, 
 it is not by any means a matter of one "unques 
 tionable fact;" such a single decisive indicium 
 is nowhere easy to find and can seldom be de 
 manded ; it is the consensus of all the indications 
 that is practically conclusive, and it is this con 
 sensus that has been so unfortunately disre 
 garded. 
 
 The remaining ten pages of this address are 
 devoted to "the psychological characteristics of 
 primitive people." "This investigation is ex 
 tremely difficult and unpromising"; nor do we 
 think there can be much profit in following it up 
 closely, since hardly anywhere is the ground 
 traversed solid beneath the feet. The method 
 employed is a continuation of that with which 
 we are already familiar. One by one are taken 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 151 
 
 up the counts of the indictment brought against 
 the primitive mind by ethnologists, such as 
 Wuttke, Klemm, Eichthal, De Gobineau, Nott 
 and Gliddon. Thus, Wuttke and Klemm char 
 acterize the civilized races as active, all others as 
 passive, and refer even American civilization to 
 contact with some earlier form. Eichthal thinks 
 of society as an organism, the White race repre 
 senting the male, the Black the female* principle. 
 De Gobineau designates the Yellow as the male, 
 the Black as the female element, and admits 
 only the White as noble and gifted. Nott and 
 Gliddon ascribe only animal instincts to the lower 
 races, but the civilizing instinct to the White 
 only. All such schematism seems to us highly 
 : unscientific and is justly rejected. Tylor and 
 Spencer analyze the primitive mind ingeniously, 
 but do not assume that it is racially determined, 
 though something of the kind seems implied in 
 evolution. Waitz alone meets with sanction in 
 declaring: "According to the current opinion the 
 stage of culture of a people or of an individual is 
 largely or exclusively a product of his faculty. 
 We maintain that the reverse is at least just as 
 true. The faculty of man does not designate any 
 thing but how much and what he is able to 
 achieve in the immediate future and depends 
 
152 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 upon the stages of culture through which he has 
 passed and the one he has reached." This is 
 declared to be "the true point of view" and to 
 be "expressed most happily." To us it seems far 
 out of focus and expressed about as emptily and 
 unhappily as possible. Certainly it is not the 
 clearest thinking that regards a proposition and 
 its "reverse" as "at least just as true." Remem 
 bering that faculty is related to facio, we accept 
 the statement as to what it "designates;" but to 
 say that it "depends upon the stages of culture 
 through which he has passed and the one he 
 has reached," is like saying that a youth s 
 mathematical faculty depends upon the fact that 
 he "has passed through" the Freshman, Sopho 
 more, and Junior "stages of culture" and "has 
 reached" the Senior. He may do this with the 
 genius of Gauss, or he may do it in a perfunctory 
 manner, without the ability to grasp and master 
 such elementary notions as derivative and inte 
 gral. If Waitz should now reply that such a 
 youth has not really "passed through these 
 stages," then we answer that he thereby assigns 
 a new meaning to the phrase and evacuates his 
 words of all definite import. In common par 
 lance, the mathematical faculty of Gauss, his 
 power to do in the immediate future, was amaz- 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 153 
 
 ing in his childhood, before he reached any no 
 table "stages of culture" in mathematics. Still 
 more striking is the case of Pascal. We do not 
 deny that there may be some occult sense in 
 which Waitz s words are true ; but it is scarcely 
 worth guessing at and, when divined, it will 
 hardly add much to the clear deliverances of 
 Bischoff, Donaldson, and others.* 
 
 The address before us now examines (p. 319) 
 some of the "mental qualities" held to be "racial 
 characteristics" of the "primitives," and rejects 
 them one by one as "not proven." Such are "im 
 pulsiveness," "inability of concentration," "lack 
 of originality." In our judgement, the most im 
 portant of all instincts of civilization is the specu 
 lative, the pure-scientific, the impulse to know 
 simply for the sake of knowing most splendidly 
 present in the Greek and the Teuton. It seems 
 hard to believe, and certainly there is not a 
 scintilla of evidence, that any such is a native 
 quality of the Negro or Australian mind. But in 
 these pages we find no firm basis for contention; 
 the facts are not yet definitely ascertained. 
 Enough that, if along these lines no case is made 
 out against the primitive and we have care 
 fully refrained from trying to make out any 
 
 *See supra pp. 92-96. 
 
154 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 yet avowedly no case is made out for him; and 
 the evidence, as far as it goes, is certainly not in 
 his favour. 
 
 In conclusion, page 324 raises the important 
 question whether "the faculty of man has been 
 improved by civilization, and particularly, if that 
 of primitive races may be improved by this 
 agency." Civilization and domestication cause 
 analogous anatomical changes, and it is likely 
 that "mental changes" "go hand in hand with 
 them." But no more. 
 
 No "progressive changes of the human organ 
 ism," "particularly no advance in the size or 
 complexity of the structure of the central nervous 
 system caused by the cumulative influences of 
 civilization can be proved." There are consider 
 able psychic changes consequent on domestica 
 tion and civilization; but these are due to en 
 vironment. Any changes progressive or trans 
 missible by heredity seem doubtful. None of 
 this do we contest. On "relapses," we need not 
 pause. 
 
 Hear, then, the conclusion of the whole matter 
 (p. 326) : "The anatomical evidence is such, that 
 we may expect to find the races not equally 
 gifted. While we have no right to consider one 
 more ape-like than the other, the differences are 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 155 
 
 such that some have probably greater mental 
 vigour than others. The variations are, however, 
 such that we may expect many individuals of all 
 races to be equally gifted, while the number of 
 men and women of higher ability will differ." 
 
 This states the case as favourably as possible 
 for the "primitives," and, as we think for reasons 
 already assigned (p. 146), far too favourably. 
 Nevertheless, we accept it precisely as presented ; 
 for the logical purposes of this book, the con 
 cession of Negro inferiority here made is abso 
 lutely sufficient. 
 
 "We did not find proof of cumulative increase 
 of faculty caused by civilization." 
 
 Accordingly, the Negro being concededly in 
 ferior to the White, there is no hope of raising 
 him to the White level by education or civiliza 
 tion precisely our fundamental contention. 
 
 Finally, "the average faculty of the white 
 race is found to the same degree in a large pro 
 portion of individuals of all other races, and al 
 though it is probable that some of these races 
 may not produce as large a proportion of great 
 men as our own race, there is no reason to sup 
 pose that they are unable to reach the level of 
 civilization represented by the bulk of our own 
 people" (p. 327). 
 
156 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 To us, these closing words read very much like 
 a plea of confession and avoidance. It is admitted 
 that the Negro is inferior to the Caucasian, that 
 the summits of genius he will rarely, if ever, reach; 
 but from the fact that many Negro brains equal 
 many Caucasian brains in weight (p. 146), the 
 same is inferred of "the average faculty." Here 
 by, as already pointed out, there is overlooked 
 the all-important qualification that it is not a 
 mere matter of weight, as well as the highly ap 
 proved quotation from Donaldson, as to post- 
 adolescent development (p. 147). The inference, 
 then, is illegitimate that "they," i. e. 9 "the large 
 proportion" with "the average faculty" (or 
 rather, average brain-weight) of the Caucasian, 
 may "reach the level of civilization represented 
 by the bulk of our own people." Moreover, it 
 takes no account of those not included in this 
 "large proportion," who are not a few. But the 
 language is too vague to combat. We do not know 
 what significance, relative or absolute, is attached 
 to the group of great men, nor what is thought 
 of the civilization of the bulk of our own people. 
 Perhaps it is held, with D Annunzio, that the 
 hands of the peasant are "fit to clean out a 
 stable, but not to raise in a legislative assembly." 
 In any case, it is enough to remember that even 
 
PLEA AND COUNTERPLEA 157 
 
 the admittedly higher Caucasian average is none 
 too high, that it needs heightening, that it cannot 
 stand the least lowering, and to recall the lines 
 of Browning already quoted (p. 88). Moreover, 
 this is an age of intense competition daily inten 
 sified. The margin is so small that the least 
 difference becomes important and even decisive. 
 A very slight discrimination in freight rates may 
 turn the tides of commerce this way or that and 
 make or unmake a metropolis. Is it not clear, 
 then, that in the keen competition of races the 
 conceded inferiority of the Black must turn the 
 scale against him more and more and doom him 
 finally to defeat and disappearance beyond the 
 reach of even the longest-armed philanthropy? 
 While then we greatly admire the testing, prob 
 ing spirit of Dr. Boas, and thank him heartily for 
 his broad-minded plea for the "primitives," we 
 are unable to find in any of his pages anything 
 but strong confirmations of the theses of our ear 
 lier chapters. 
 
CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 
 
 And the individual withers, 
 And the world is more and more 
 
 TENNYSON 
 
 THE reader may find the foregoing discussion 
 convincing; we think the unprejudiced reader 
 will almost surely find it so, and yet he may not 
 find it satisfactory. For he may urge that no solu 
 tion has been propounded or foreshadowed for 
 the problem, and that it is by no means enough 
 merely to know what the problem is its dangers, 
 its difficulties, and its terrible threat. This objec 
 tion is perfectly just. Up to this moment our sole 
 concern has been to establish unshakably firm 
 the central position, of the supreme and all- 
 overshadowing importance of preserving the 
 American-Caucasian blood pure and untainted 
 and dedicated to the development of the highest 
 humanity. But this accomplished, we have no 
 
A DllP INTO THE FUTURE 159 
 
 disposition to shirk another task, to avoid another 
 question, however delicate, disagreeable, or de 
 pressing. This question is: What has the future 
 in store for the Negro ? If social equality must be 
 resolutely denied him forever, if he is to be 
 treated as an outcast and a pariah because of 
 his race and the weight of inheritance which he 
 can never shake off from his shoulders, what 
 hope remains ? Where are the blessings of free 
 dom ? Is, then, emancipation but an apple of 
 Sodom, turning to ashes on his lips ? These are 
 fearful questions, but we must not quail before 
 them; we must confront them firmly, calmly, 
 with eyes wide open to all the facts in the case, 
 and with ears unclosed to all the teachings of 
 history. 
 
 In the light of the foregoing, it is vain to appeal 
 to Education. We know that many noble and ex 
 cellent spirits expect wonders from this potent 
 agency. As an educator ourself, we can have no 
 interest or motive in unduly distrusting or mini 
 mizing its capabilities. The work that education 
 may accomplish is undoubtedly great; and in 
 spite of many discouraging disappointments, the 
 task of educating the Negro will assuredly be 
 bravely performed, in larger and larger measure, 
 for all generations to come. 
 
160 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 But it is a colossal error to suppose that race 
 improvement, in the strictest sense of the term, 
 can be wrought by education.* The reason is 
 simple and easily understood: Race-improve 
 ment is organic; education is extraorganic. Any 
 change or amelioration that affects the race, the 
 stock, the blood, must be inherited; but educa 
 tion is not inherited, it is not inheritable. It must 
 be renewed generation after generation in each 
 individual. The Sisyphus-stone of culture is rolled 
 with infinite toil up the steep ascent by the 
 fathers; it thunders instantly back, and must be 
 rolled up again with equal agony and bloody 
 sweat by their children. All must start at the same 
 centre of ignorance, and beat out a long and ardu 
 ous path to the ever-widening circumference of 
 the farthest knowledge. The son of the learned 
 and the son of the unlearned have equal chance 
 side by side in the race for learning. If the children 
 of the cultured acquire more readily than their 
 fellows, it is not because they have inherited 
 parental culture, but only the inherited parental 
 capacity for culture; not because their parents 
 knew more, but because they had more inborn 
 power to know. Had circumstances doomed the 
 savant to ignorance, his children would not have 
 
 * To this truth, see various testimonies, pp. 149, 154, ct passim. 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 161 
 
 suffered in their ability to learn. Nay more, if 
 devotion to intellectual pursuits has any influence 
 at all on the native quality of offspring, as it may 
 possibly have in extreme cases, it would seem to 
 be more probably hurtful than helpful; for, by 
 impairing nutrition of the germinal cells, excessive 
 intellectual activity may induce impotence and 
 sterility; and the fecundity of the very highly 
 cultured seems to have suffered measurably in 
 Europe, if not in the United States.* 
 
 These propositions lie beyond possible con 
 tradiction. We need not raise the question of the 
 general Weismannian theory of heredity; but 
 we must recognize, as wholly undeniable, that the 
 characters and qualities acquired by education 
 are not in any degree inherited. The testimony 
 of every-day observation is, on this point, so 
 unanimous and so overwhelming that further in 
 sistence would seem superfluous. We may refer 
 however, to the broad, patent, universally rec 
 ognized fact that centuries of culture and 
 most careful training have never been known 
 to improve the breed, the stock, the inherent 
 quality of any race of men or plants or domestic 
 
 * "The tendency of human multiplication is such that the most highly 
 cultured families tend to disappear . . . Educational influences . . . 
 are superficial as compared to hereditary causes. " 
 
 Franz Boas, Pro. Am. Ass. for the Adv. of Science, 1894, p. 325. 
 
162 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 animals. Wherever any of these have been organ 
 ically modified, it has been by other agencies, 
 more especially by some form of natural or artifi 
 cial selection. While the extra-organic develop 
 ment of civilization has gone on and still goes 
 on, and apparently will go on apace indefinitely, 
 under the guidance of science and invention, 
 there is no evidence of any organic improvement 
 in man in thousands of years, since the working 
 of natural selection ceased to be progressive. 
 The Mesopotamian of to-day is surely not the 
 superior of his sculptured ancestors who observed 
 and measured the precession of the equinoxes 
 nearly 6,000 years ago. The Jew of to-day can 
 boast nothing above the authors of the Psalms, 
 and of Job, and of the prophecies of Isaiah. The 
 modern Greek may or may not have descended 
 from Homer or Pericles; but, surely, he has not 
 ascended very far. It is needless to multiply illus 
 trations. We believe firmly in the mutability of 
 species ; but the phenomenon of the permanence, 
 even of sub-species and varieties, is far more 
 universal and impressive. 
 
 Education, then, can do much; but its mission 
 is to the present it cannot stamp itself upon the 
 future. The limits of its efficiency, though abso 
 lutely wide, are relatively narrow and are speedily 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 163 
 
 reached. It plays with man the function of care 
 and training, of cultivation and domestication, 
 with the lower animals and with the products of 
 the soil. By diligent tillage, by the spade, the hoe, 
 the plough, by irrigation and fertilization, the 
 planter may greatly increase the yield of his field 
 or his orchard and even refine, in a measure, 
 the quality of his fruit or his grain. By feeding, 
 grooming, and the like, the horse-dealer may 
 much improve the appearance and serviceability 
 of his horses and may even add no little to 
 their health, vigour, and value. It would be in 
 sanity in these men to neglect or despise such 
 artificial helps and to trust their crops and their 
 stock to grow and to take care of themselves. 
 The farmer and the stockman know very well 
 that only by the highest cultivation and the 
 most watchful attention can they secure the 
 best results in field or fold and maintain them 
 selves in competition with wide-awake neigh 
 bours. 
 
 But they also know, not less certainly, that the 
 maximal results of such instrumentalities are not 
 far away but are hemmed within a very finite 
 circle. Care and culture soon do their best and 
 attain at least practically their ne plus ultra. For 
 any progressive improvement, whether in animal 
 
164 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 or in plant, the agriculturist knows that he must 
 look to the seed. This he must select with the 
 utmost skill and caution if he would even main 
 tain the level of excellence already reached, if 
 he would not have the "stock" lapse back to an 
 ancient inferior average. 
 
 All this doctrine, which every one admits so 
 instantly and unhesitatingly in its application to 
 wheat, corn, and cotton; potatoes, apples, and 
 oranges ; grapes and melons ; sheep, cattle, swine, 
 and horses; bees, birds, and fishes all holds 
 with full force and with inconceivable significance 
 when applied to men. Education is of exceeding 
 importance. People that neglect it thereby 
 doom themselves to hopeless subordination ; they 
 drop out of the race for the prizes of life; they 
 surrender unconditionally to their rivals and 
 commercial foes. Training and culture of the 
 highest type are necessary to secure the realization 
 of potentialities, to make the very best of the 
 material offered at hand ; necessary, not only now 
 and here, but everywhere and all the time. Any 
 neglect or indifference at this point must 
 prove fatal. The husbandman dares not de 
 prive his corn of a single "ploughing," or leave 
 his herd one night unprotected from the wolf 
 and the cold. 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 165 
 
 But it is the sheerest folly to expect of educa 
 tion the impossible to dream that it can affect 
 the blood, or transmute racial qualities, or smooth 
 down the inequalities between individuals of the 
 same breed, much less between the breeds them 
 selves. Why, if education could lift the Negro to 
 the Caucasian level, to what, pray, in the mean 
 time would it lift the Caucasian himself? 
 We repeat, and the repetition cannot be 
 made too emphatic, there is no hope what 
 ever of any organic improvement, of any 
 race betterment of the Negro, from any or 
 from all extra-organic agencies of education 
 or religion or civilization. Let us, then, educate 
 the negro, to make him a more useful and 
 productive, a law-abiding and happier member 
 of the community; but let us not hope too much 
 from this education, if we would not be bitterly 
 disappointed. 
 
 Immediately after the Civil War, in the hal 
 cyon days of reconstruction, the higher education 
 was administered copiously to the Negro, in the 
 honest belief that it was the catholicon for 
 his ills; and universities for the Coloured man 
 sprang up thick about us. Here, in New Orleans, 
 there are at least three. A sadder and at the same 
 time a more ludicrous sight we have never be- 
 
166 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 held than on the occasion of a call upon the 
 President of one of these soi-disant universities. 
 We waited in the ante-room for the dismissal of 
 his class in psychology. At last the bell tapped, 
 and half a dozen Mulatto women, the whole class, 
 emerged from the lecture-room of this distin 
 guished scholar, whose name was not unknown 
 in Europe. With a look of infinite despair, which 
 not even his mistaken enthusiasm for humanity 
 could quite chase away, the heavy-hearted lec 
 turer followed and proceeded to conduct us 
 through the building to his own residence. We 
 passed through but one room where class exer 
 cises were in progress. An olive-coloured young 
 man was at the board, trying to explain to a 
 Mulatto woman, the only member of the class, 
 the mysterious nature of a perpendicular. He 
 appeared very earnest in his exposition, but un 
 able to awaken any answering intelligence. To 
 us, it seemed that the force of folly could no fur 
 ther go; and our commiseration for the highly 
 cultured theologian, since released from his 
 labours, who had so utterly forgotten the famous 
 prohibition near the close of the Sermon on the 
 Mount, was and remains even to this day pain 
 fully intense. 
 
 We hear less nowadays of the saving efficacy 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 167 
 
 of Greek, Latin, and the Calculus,* but all the 
 more of the imperative necessity for industrial 
 training the idea which Mr. Washington has 
 championed so vigorously and to which Mr. 
 Carnegie has lent the sanction of his munificence. 
 Undoubtedly this notion, if not far wiser, is at 
 least far more practicable. While the higher 
 culture at "coloured universities," in the vast 
 majority of cases, merely spoils a plough-hand or 
 house-maid, industrial training, like that given 
 at Tuskegee, may very reasonably be expected 
 to raise sensibly the productive efficiency of the 
 Negro, and to elevate the general standard of his 
 life through the formation of valuable habits of 
 manual dexterity, of accuracy, of conscientious 
 ness, and of thrift not to mention occasional 
 great gain in scientific equipment, or even some 
 artistic awakening. One cannot deny, then, that 
 Mr. Washington has undertaken a great and 
 beneficent work for his race one in which some 
 measurable success may reasonably be hoped 
 for. 
 
 * But the Boston Negroid still swears by the classics and logarithms, 
 and regards the recent change of front as little less than a betrayal and 
 surrender. Similarly, but with recognition of the merits of Mr. Wash 
 ington s idea, Dubois, in his The Souls of Black Folk, and the sympa 
 thetic reviewer in The Nation. In this controversy we think that Dubois 
 and Washington are both right and both wrong; but the higher and 
 deeper right, as well as wrong, belongs to the former. 
 
168 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 But our sympathy with such rational and well- 
 directed efforts must not blind us to near-lying 
 limitations, which no might of man can possibly 
 remove. Let it be said, then, boldly that the Negro 
 will not enter generally or in great numbers into 
 the field of skilled labour neither in the North 
 nor in the South. It is, of course, not unattended 
 with danger to venture into the realm of proph 
 ecy, but in this case the bases of prediction 
 seem particularly broad and solid. We all know 
 that skilled labour is daily growing more and 
 more thoroughly organized. Rightly or wrongly, 
 for weal or for woe, it regards capital, especially 
 combined and organized capital, if not as its 
 enemy, at least as its exploiter, prepared at every 
 instant to make the very most of it to assail it 
 at any and every exposed point, to throttle it by 
 any and every means, and to reduce it to serf 
 dom. As over against the might of accumulated 
 millions, the labourer cannot fail to perceive his 
 utter impotence - - he is not even a drop of a 
 bucket. It is only in great numbers, in compact 
 and readily wielded organizations, that the indi 
 vidual workman can count for anything whatever 
 can find any hope of escape from the veriest 
 servitude. It is idle to suppose that, in many years 
 to come, capital will not continue to mass itself 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 169 
 
 into formidable aggregations, or that labour will 
 cease to array itself in firmer and firmer unions 
 and associations for self-protection and for main 
 tenance or elevation of the standard of life, the 
 minimum of subsistence. 
 
 Now, to such federations of labour, to such I 
 combinations for the commonweal, involving, 
 as they so often do, the most determined self- 
 renunciation, the most heroic self-sacrifice, even 
 the Caucasian nature is by no means full-grown, 
 and the Negroid is altogether unequal. There is 
 not the slightest probability that the great labour 
 organizations would, in general, think of admit 
 ting to their membership an element of such 
 notable weakness as the Negro would certainly 
 be. Such would be the case, even if other consid-~" 
 erations were absent. But they are present. As 
 inferiors, accustomed to a lower standard of life 
 and more pliant to the demands of employers, 
 the Negroes would present the same problem 
 and the same menace as the Chinese only in a 
 more aggravated form. In their admission in 
 large numbers to the ranks of skilled labour, 
 this latter could not fail to see a terrible and in 
 stant threat of reduced wages, of lowered life, 
 of baser thraldom. Race prejudice, if you call 
 it so, would blaze out immediately, and with 
 
170 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 irresistible violence. It makes not the slightest 
 difference whether labour would be right or 
 wrong, justified or unjustified; it would be the 
 instinct of self-preservation fanned suddenly into 
 vehement flame, and nothing could withstand 
 it. As an example in point, take the violent oppo 
 sition offered a few years ago by the miners of 
 Illinois to the importation of Negro labourers; 
 take the recent practically total expulsion of 
 Negroes, many of them peaceable and unoffend 
 ing, from various towns, districts, and counties 
 in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Illi 
 nois, and elsewhere. Consider all this as unrea 
 sonable, as outrageous it matters not; it shows 
 the temper of the American-Caucasian labourer, 
 which will hardly tolerate the competition of his 
 equals, and certainly not of any form of labour 
 lower than his own. And in defence of what he 
 regards as the most important and most sacred 
 of all his rights, he will not hesitate for an in 
 stant at the adoption of means.* 
 
 *Hear the testimony of the ablest of Negroids, Professor W. E. B. Du- 
 bois, in his admirable sociologic study, "The Philadelphia Negro ": 
 
 " How now has this exclusion been maintained ? In some cases by the 
 actual inclusion of the word white among qualifications for entrance 
 into certain trade unions. More often, however, by leaving the matter of 
 color entirely to local bodies, who make no general rule, but invariably 
 fail to admit a colored applicant except under pressing circumstances. 
 This is the most workable system and is adopted by nearly all trade 
 unions" (p. 128). "To repeat, then, the real motives back of this exclu- 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 171 
 
 Accordingly, we may confidently affirm that 
 the experiment of Mr. Washington and his 
 Northern multi-millionaire admirers, to solve the 
 race problem by making of the Negro a skilled 
 labourer, may indeed be magnificent, but, in 
 any large measure, it cannot succeed. If at any 
 time it seemed to promise any very wide success, 
 it would rouse a race animosity, North and 
 South, the like of which we have not yet beheld. J 
 
 What fields of employment, then, remain open 
 to the Negroid ? We answer : Those he has 
 thus far occupied, where there is no great organ 
 ized competition of the Whites. The plantation 
 and the countless forms of personal and occa 
 sional service are undoubtedly the regions where 
 his abilities may be most naturally and most 
 profitably employed. There, too, his better qual 
 ities, his endowments both of mind and of body, 
 find fullest and most useful play. Small farming 
 
 sion are plain: A large part is simple race prejudice, always strong in 
 working classes and intensified by me peculiar history of the Negro in this 
 country. Another part, and possibly a more potent part, is the natural 
 spirit of monopoly and the desire to keep up wages. . . . Moreover, in 
 this there is one thoroughly justifiable consideration that plays a great 
 part: namely, the Negroes are used to low wages can live on them, 
 and consequently would fight less fiercely than most whites against 
 reduction" (p. 129). . . . " The Negroes of the city who have trades 
 either give them up and hire out as waiters and laborers, or they become 
 job workmen and floating hands, catching a bit of carpentering here or 
 a little brickwork or plastering there at reduced wages" (p. 130). It is 
 needless to accumulate such depositions. 
 
172 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 and retail dealing he may also do successfully; 
 he may teach his kind, he may preach and plead 
 and prescribe and publish for them. Superior 
 artisans will show themselves here and there, 
 and occasionally abilities of still higher order 
 will crop out, especially among Mulattoes. If they 
 will, these can find ample scope for their powers 
 within the ranks of their own people. Spartam 
 tuam exorna will, in all such cases, be the counsel 
 of friendly wisdom. Vain and foolish for even 
 the superior Negroid to try to take the kingdom 
 of heaven by force, to conquer a position among 
 the Whites commensurate with his abilities as a 
 Black. Better a big frog in a small puddle than 
 a small frog in a big puddle. In general, what 
 ever tends towards the sharp demarcation of the 
 two races, towards the accurate delimitation of 
 their spheres of activity and influence, will un 
 questionably make for peace, for prosperity, for 
 mutual understanding, and for general content 
 ment. On the other hand, every attempt to blur 
 these boundaries, to wipe out natural distinctions, 
 to mix immiscibles, must always issue in confusion, 
 discord, failure, reciprocal injury, and final ruin. 
 We think that universal history attests the 
 correctness of this observation. Wherever border 
 lines have been closely drawn and distinctly 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 173 
 
 recognized, whether between species or races, 
 nations or tribes, castes, classes, or individ 
 uals, there have been found at least compara 
 tive quiet, harmony, mutual regard, and even 
 happiness. But ill-defined borders have been 
 everywhere and everywhen the fruitful source 
 of strife, destruction, and misery. It was with a 
 just feeling for this great truth that the profound 
 Gnostic, Basilides, declared that in "the resto 
 ration of all things," at "the consummation of the 
 aeons," every element would seek its own place 
 and there abide forever, and not as if fishes were 
 trying to pasture with sheep upon the mountains. 
 A kindred sense of the fitness of things is re 
 vealed here in the South (and also in the North), 
 where one will often hear it said that "I like a 
 Negro in his place." This does not mean, at 
 least it need not mean, any harshness or over- 
 haughtiness on the part of the speaker. We have 
 often heard it on the lips of the kindest-hearted, 
 the most humane in their treatment of the Negro. 
 It is a just recognition of a patent, unmistakable, 
 and incontrovertible fact, which no humanity 
 can amend and no sophistry can disguise. The 
 same feeling is frequently met with among sober- 
 minded Blacks, who, much to one s surprise 
 sometimes, are found to resent the ambitious 
 
174 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 attempts of their fellows, generally Mulattoes, 
 to rise above their own race and align them 
 selves with the Whites. We affirm then that 
 drawing the colour line, firm and fast, between 
 the races, first of all in social relations, and 
 then by degrees in occupations also, is a natural 
 process and a rational procedure, which makes 
 equally for the welfare of both. 
 
 That this process will actually go on, though 
 with many interruptions and much opposition, 
 we cannot doubt. The latter will be due in the 
 main to aspiring Mulattoes, to purblind philan 
 thropists, and to designing politicians all three 
 the real enemies of the Negro and the disturbers 
 of his peace. 
 
 In spite of them, however, the process will go 
 on, and we shall see whether the Negro be able 
 to maintain himself in the presence of the Cau 
 casian, though in an inferior place, playing a 
 subordinate role, within a protected but contract 
 ed sphere of activity. Certainly not a brilliant 
 future that opens before him, at the very best. 
 Even the highest success might seem humble 
 enough, but is it sure that even such a lowly 
 victory awaits him ? 
 
 Here, again, prophecy would seem to be haz 
 ardous, but we cannot fail to notice and to record 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 175 
 
 some significant tokens. Of these, one of the most 
 notable is the marked tendency of the Negroes 
 to herd together in the cities. It is well known 
 that the problem of securing labour in the country 
 is becoming increasingly difficult. Many plan 
 tations have, in fact, been abandoned for no other 
 reason than that labourers could not be found 
 to cultivate them. Italians and other Europeans 
 are immigrating thither, and the question is ea 
 gerly debated whether they will fill acceptably 
 the gap left by the departing Negroes. Whether 
 this tide cityward, which is actually decimating 
 some sections of the Black Belt, will turn and roll 
 back, we may not guess; but it seems unlikely. 
 To all appearances the Negroes will stream stead 
 ily towards the towns, and gather more and more 
 densely in certain localities.* 
 
 But this tendency deals them death. The mor 
 tality among the coloured population of our 
 cities is frightful. The gravest maladies establish 
 themselves among these unsanitated throngs and 
 
 * " Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half 
 of them sit in hopeless serfdom. For these there is one other avenue of 
 escape towards which they have turned in increasing numbers, namely, 
 migration to town . . . this is a part of the rush to town." Dubois, 
 The Souls of Black Folk, p. 162. " The crop-lien system which is depopu 
 lating the fields of the South is not simply the result of shil tlessness on 
 the part of Negroes " (p. 170). Here, again, evidence may he supplied 
 in any measure desired. From the census reports it appears that in the 
 North the same tendency is quite as strong, if not even stronger. 
 
176 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 rage with ruinous virulence. In ante-bellum days 
 pulmonary tuberculosis was infrequent among 
 the plantation Blacks of the South ; now it lashes 
 them with a scourge of desolation, and pneu 
 monia even more ruthlessly. Typhoid fever also 
 ravages their ranks with fury. Still worse, con 
 tagious diseases are fearfully prevalent. Among 
 a populace to which chastity and continence are 
 terms almost unknown and meaningless, these 
 must diffuse and propagate themselves like an epi 
 demic, they must lower the general vitality, and 
 still more directly the virility and fecundity. 
 Hitherto, the rate of multiplication has been in 
 a measure maintained by a high birth rate in the 
 face of a fearful mortality. But this cannot last. 
 The plain indications now are that the birth 
 rate is falling and must fall, while the death 
 rate rises with the steady influx into the towns, 
 the abandonment of the simple and healthful 
 modes of country life for the vice and diseases 
 of the village.* Even at best, the city is an ulcer 
 on the face of the earth, a maelstrom, a minotaur 
 devouring the yearly tribute of the strength and 
 beauty of the land.f But for the Negro, it stands 
 ready with two-handed engine of death. 
 
 * For a minute study of birth and death rates, see infra, pp. 225-49. 
 f To be sure, this charge holds in only very modified degree of the 
 modern sanitated city. 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 177 
 
 Moreover, the gloomy hopelessness of the situ 
 ation must become apparent as the decades glide 
 by. The Negro must feel that competition is 
 becoming sharper, that his territory is becom 
 ing narrower and narrower, that twentieth-cen 
 tury citizenship is, like the Gospel commandment, 
 made for those who can receive it, that he is un 
 equal to the load cast upon him, that he is sinking 
 beneath the burden of an honour unto which he 
 was not born. Herewith the joyousness of life 
 must depart, the old-time buoyancy of the race 
 give place to a deepening despond.* As the gen 
 erations pass on, the Negro will be hemmed every 
 way within straiter and straiter limits, his numbers 
 will decrease, his digit will move further to the 
 right in the great sum of humanity slowly, 
 silently, steadily he will be driven to the wall. 
 Possibly he may emigrate in large numbers to 
 some tropical clime which nature has forbidden 
 to the Caucasian. This would indeed be the hap 
 piest possible solution for the South, and he 
 would be a courageous seer who would declare 
 
 * What a note of infinite melancholy sounds through " The Souls of 
 Black Folk/ the finest product of the Mulatto mind. In his "The Col 
 lege-bred Negro, " the same author, Dubois, has put the question as to the 
 future of his race to hundreds of these representative Negroes and record 
 ed their answers. It is easy to perceive that the hopefulness of the majority 
 is quite artificial, based on some religious faith or moral trust, ana that 
 the really weighty answers are given by the hopeless minority. 
 
178 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 that this century will not see a large exodus of 
 Negroes from the Gulf region. But we do not 
 believe that such emigration will go northward. 
 Our Northern friends have no more affection 
 or use for the Negro than have we. They love to 
 pet him and let their benevolence play about 
 him this so long as they can patronize him, 
 can "offer him financial assistance," and "stick 
 a diamond pin in his coat," and lay at his feet 
 "the Presidency of Haiti as soon as it is con 
 quered by an expedition now under preparation." 
 Besides, his vote is a very important weight to 
 throw into the scale in cases of doubtful elections. 
 But once let the Blacks turn their faces north 
 ward in great numbers, let them begin to swarm 
 by myriads, and derange the labour conditions, 
 and drag down the scale of wages, and oust the 
 Whites from their places then philanthropy 
 will be thrown to the winds, and the arm of the 
 government at Washington will not be strong 
 enough or long enough to guard these wards of 
 the nation from violence and persecution and 
 outrage.* 
 
 * Events in the North, still fresh in the mind of the reader, illustrate 
 these statements profusely. That the Negro is steadily losing ground in 
 dustrially as well as otherwise, is witnessed unequivocally in the most 
 diverse quarters. Thus Dubois, "The Philadelphia Negro," p. 43: "It 
 cannot be denied that the main results of the development of the Phila 
 delphia Negro since the war have on the whole disappointed his well- 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 179 
 
 If the Blacks should occupy and settle, should 
 colonize, some outlying tropical region,* and 
 should there start out on their own path of devel 
 opment, it is interesting, though not so impor 
 tant, to ask, What would be their probable future ? 
 We answer, though we build no argument what 
 ever on this answer, that the experiment would 
 most likely be a repetition of Haiti; removed 
 from the sustaining atmosphere of European 
 civilization, the Negro would most probably sink 
 back into barbarism. If there be anything in the 
 history either of man or of nature that would 
 lead us to anticipate some other result, we know 
 not what it is. 
 
 At this point our forecast has become so som 
 bre that the optimistic reader may grow im 
 patient with such pessimism, and may at least 
 demand some confirmation of our vaticinations. 
 
 wishers. . . . Not only do they feel that there is a lack of positive re 
 sults, but the relative advance compared with the period just before the 
 
 lal 
 
 war is slow, if not an actual retrogression; an abnormal and growing 
 amount of crime and poverty can justly be charged to the Negro; he is not 
 a large taxpayer, holds no conspicuous place in the business world or the 
 world of letters, and even as a workingman seems to be losing ground" So, 
 too, in Chicago: "There are a few in the trades, as carpenters, painters, 
 etc., but these are decreasing. . . . There is a large class of unemployed 
 Negroes in the city, numbering several hundreds. Could a careful census 
 of this class be taken, it would no doubt be found to reach into thou 
 sands." Monro N. Work, in American Journal of Social., Vol. 6, p. 206. 
 Everywhere throughout the South this expulsive process has already pro 
 ceeded far and still proceeds apace. In the foregoing, the italics are ours. 
 * The late Professor E. D. Cope recommended the deportation of the 
 Negro. 
 
180 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 The fact is that we have long hesitated to make 
 public our convictions, since the role of Cas 
 sandra has few attractions, and it is only an after 
 thought to print them in this volume, though 
 they were indicated, many months ago, in The 
 Nation of March 5, 1903. However, to en- 
 hearten us, within the last week we have lighted 
 upon the corroborative testimony of perhaps the 
 highest authority in the United States a scholar 
 whose opportunities for forming a judgement are 
 certainly unsurpassed, if indeed equaled whose 
 abilities are not questioned, and whose freedom 
 from prejudice is absolute. In a notable address 
 delivered May 10, 1900, at the First Annual 
 Conference held at Montgomery, Ala., under the 
 auspices of the Southern Society for the promo 
 tion of the study of race conditions and problems 
 in the South, Professor W. F. Willcox, of Cornell 
 University, Chief Statistician of the United States 
 Census Office at Washington, a "New Eng- 
 lander by birth and ancestry," declared that he 
 could "not read the evidence as Dr. Curry appar 
 ently does," "Races, like nations, exist to serve 
 humanity, and come and go in the long run 
 according as they meet or fail to meet this test." 
 "These diverse races of men may be roughly 
 graded according to their value to humanity and 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 181 
 
 their ability to improve. In any effort so to 
 arrange them, the least serviceable and least pro 
 gressive people are found to be those whose 
 habitat secured the greatest isolation, freedom 
 from competition and lack of incentive to im 
 provement. Such peoples were found especially 
 in the islands of the ocean, in the continent of 
 Australia, in America, and in Africa." Never 
 theless, Africa seems to have been the scene of 
 most extraordinary mingling of bloods a battle 
 ground of widely diverse tribes ;* in spite of this 
 the African still belongs to "the least serviceable 
 and least progressive people." "Those two back 
 ward races, viz., the Negro and the Malay." 
 "When higher and lower races meet and inter 
 penetrate, only two permanent solutions have thus 
 far been recorded in history. Either the lower 
 race has disappeared, or the two have fused, and 
 in the case of especial moment to us all, and to the 
 future of this country, I cannot believe that look- 
 
 * Witness Schweinf urth, one of the carefulest observers and highest au 
 thorities : " If we could at once grasp and set before our minds facts that 
 are known (whether as regards language, race, culture, history, or devel 
 opment) of that vast region of the world which is comprehended in the 
 name of Africa, we should have before us the witness of an intermingling 
 of races which is beyond all precedent, And yet, bewildering as the pros 
 pect would appear, it remains a fact not to be gainsaid, that it is impos 
 sible for any one to survey the country as a whole without perceiving that, 
 high above the multiplication of individual differences, there is throned 
 a principle of unity (he refers to the autochthonous black stock), which- 
 embraces well-nigh all the population" (Heart of Africa, Vol. I., p. 313). 
 
182 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ing down through the centuries any other per 
 manent solution than one of these two can be 
 found. During the period of slavery the Negro 
 race in the United States was protected from 
 competition with the Whites, somewhat as it 
 would have been by local isolation, or somewhat 
 as domesticated animals are protected from the 
 dangers nature throws about them. Only since 
 emancipation has genuine competition between 
 the races in this country existed, and during the 
 early years after the Civil War the conditions 
 were such as to favor the Negro race and to 
 handicap the whites." "Notwithstanding the 
 fact that the Negroes were aided and the whites 
 downcast during these dark years, the white 
 population has grown with great and increasing 
 rapidity." "The conditions to which the white 
 race is subject will probably never again be so 
 unfortunate, the conditions to which the Negro 
 race is subject will not soon, if ever, be so fa 
 vorable as during the years after the Civil War. 
 Yet notice some of the changes that have occurred 
 during the thirty years from 1860 to 1890, brief 
 span as this is in the life of a race. 
 
 "The black belt may be defined as those coun 
 ties in which the Negro population outnumbered 
 the white. In Maryland in 1860 there were five 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 183 
 
 such counties, and in 1890 only two. In Virginia 
 there were forty-three and in 1890 only thirty- 
 three. In North Carolina there were nineteen and 
 in 1890 only sixteen. The group of adjoining 
 counties in southeastern Maryland, eastern Vir 
 ginia and northeast North Carolina, which 
 formed the most northerly outpost of the black 
 belt in 1860, has decreased in thirty years from 
 sixty-two counties to forty-six, or almost exactly 
 one-fourth. In 1860 Kentucky had one county be 
 longing to the black belt, while in 1890 it had 
 none. In 1860 northern Alabama had two coun 
 ties belonging to the black belt, but in 1890 both 
 of these had disappeared from the map. In the 
 cotton-growing regions of the more southerly 
 States there has been an increase of the counties 
 belonging to the black belt, but not enough entirely 
 to offset these changes. It seems that locally the 
 Negroes have begun to yield ground to the whites 
 in the regions most favorable to the latter, and 
 that such a change is likely to continue. 
 
 " I have no time to go into the complex statis 
 tical evidence bearing upon the vitality of the 
 Negro race, and its power to meet successfully 
 the increasing industrial competition, to which 
 it must be exposed, as these States fill with people, 
 as cities spring up and prosper, and as industry, 
 
184 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 trade and agriculture become diversified and 
 more complex. The balance of the evidence, how 
 ever, seems to me to indicate for the future a 
 continuance of changes already begun, viz., a 
 decrease in the Negro birth-rate decidedly more 
 rapid than the actual present or probable future 
 decrease in the death-rate. This would result 
 obviously in a slackening rate of increase, and 
 then in a stationary condition, followed by slow 
 numerical retrogression. If this anticipation 
 should be realized, the Negroes will continue 
 to become, as they are now becoming, a steadily 
 smaller proportion of the population. 
 
 " The final outcome, though its realization may 
 be postponed for centuries, will be, I believe, 
 that the race will follow the fate of the Indians, 
 that the great majority will disappear before the 
 whites, and that the remnant found capable of 
 elevation to the level of the white man s civil 
 ization will ultimately be merged and lost in the 
 lower classes of the whites, leaving almost no 
 trace to mark their former existence. 
 
 " Where such a lower people has disappeared, 
 the causes of their death have been mainly dis 
 ease, vice and profound discouragement. It seems 
 to me clear that each one of these causes is affect 
 ing the Negro race far more deeply and unfa- 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 185 
 
 vorably at the present time than it was at the 
 date of their emancipation. The medical evi 
 dence available points to the conclusion that they 
 are more than ever afflicted with the scourges 
 of disease, such as typhoid fever and consump 
 tion, and with the physical ills entailed by sexual 
 vice. I have argued elsewhere to show that both 
 in the North and in the South crime among the 
 Negroes is rapidly increasing. Whether the race 
 as a whole is as happy, as joyous, as confident 
 of the future, or thoughtless of it, as it was be 
 fore the war, you, my hearers, know far better 
 than I. I can only say that in my studies I have 
 found not one expression of dissent from the 
 opinion that the joyous buoyancy of the race is 
 passing away; that they feel upon them a burden 
 of responsibility to which they are unequal; that 
 the lower classes of Negroes are resentful, and 
 that the better classes [are] not certain or san 
 guine of the outcome. If this judgment be true, 
 I can only say that it is perhaps the most fatal 
 source of race as of national decay and death." 
 The foregoing excerpts seem to us to be the 
 weightiest words of authority on this subject that 
 have fallen under our notice. They deserve to be 
 stamped in letters of gold on the walls of the 
 Public Library in Boston and over the pulpit of 
 
186 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, on the lintels 
 of the White House, and on the title-page of all 
 future editions of The Independent and The Na 
 tion. Of course, the superior culture and intelli 
 gence of our opponents may easily snuff out all 
 our arguments with a sneer at our straitened 
 and archaic provincialism ; so be it : we deserve 
 no better fate, having been born South of Mason 
 and Dixon s line, most imprudently. But what, 
 pray, if they deign to flutter through this volume, 
 what will they do with this utterance of the Puri 
 tan pur sang, the Chief Statistician ? Can they 
 afford to dismiss it as that of " another good man 
 gone wrong." 
 
 If then the Afro-American race stands even 
 now at the entrance of the Valley of the Shadow 
 of Death, what shall we say, what shall we do ? 
 Shall we weep and wail and gnash our teeth ? 
 Shall we lift up the trump of indignation against 
 such red-handed iniquity? Shall we cry out to 
 Heaven and to Congress against the crime of the 
 centuries ? We think that a much calmer and 
 milder mood may well become us before such a 
 thanatopsis. Why should the spectacle of a racial 
 diminuendo so arouse or revolt us ? Surely 
 it is something neither unique nor uncommon. 
 All that breathe will share their destiny. It is 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 187 
 
 appointed unto men once to die. If it were the 
 highest form of human life, we might be con 
 cerned or even confounded. But such it is not; on 
 the contrary, it is one of the very lowest, that has 
 hitherto enacted and promises hereafter to enact 
 only unhistorical history. " The old order chang- 
 eth, yielding place to new." The recession, 
 the evanescence, of the Negro before the Cau 
 casian is only one example among millions of 
 the process of nature. The ministry of death is 
 not maleficent; says the Cabbala, "The Lord 
 said unto the Angel of Death, Behold I have 
 made thee cosmocrator." In the upward mount 
 ing of the forms of life, there are no other step 
 ping-stones than their own dead selves. The 
 :vision, then, of a race vanishing before its supe 
 rior is not at all dispiriting, but inspiring rather. 
 It is but a part of the increasing purpose of the 
 ages, a forward creeping of the eternal dawn. 
 
 The doom that awaits the Negro has been 
 prepared in like measure for all inferior races. 
 Except where they are bulwarked by the climate, 
 they must be drowned by the mounting wave 
 of their superior rivals. To the clear, cold eye of 
 science, the plight of these backward peoples 
 appears practically hopeless. They have neither 
 part nor parcel in the future history of man; 
 
188 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 they are rejected as dross from its thrice-heated 
 furnace. 
 
 This may sound harsh and unfeeling, but in 
 reality it is not so. We do not mean that the in 
 ferior should be treated unjustly, unkindly, in 
 humanly. Far from it. Let equity be dealt with 
 an even hand. We have never given either voice 
 or vote for any form of injustice, however spe 
 cious, or plausible, or grandfatherly. The pro 
 cesses we have in view lie deeper than any legis 
 lation; they are inwoven in the living garment 
 of the Godhead. 
 
 But may we not check or arrest them ? May 
 not the strong Caucasian lend a helping hand to 
 his weaker African brother and lift him up, and 
 the two walk along hand in hand through the 
 centuries? This is a very idyllic picture. "Be 
 hold, how good and how pleasant for brethren to 
 dwell together in unity." But a moment s re 
 flection must show how inadequate and unreal 
 this dew of Hermon. It is not hard for altruism 
 to run suicidally mad, if one lets go the check- 
 rein of egoism. The first and highest and un- 
 escapable duty of a race is to its self to realize 
 its own personality, to put forth all its powers 
 and potencies, to unfold the full flower of its own 
 being. It must neither be unjust nor ungenerous 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 189 
 
 in its treatment of others, but neither must it at 
 tempt self-immolation especially, as that sacri 
 fice would be idle and unanswered. The most, 
 the best that one race can effect for another is 
 merely some extra-organic amelioration of con 
 dition. The organic destiny of that other, written 
 in blood and bone and cell and plasma, lies be 
 yond the reach of the helping hand. We must 
 dismiss, then, this vision of a higher race stoop 
 ing down with arms of love and lifting up the 
 lower to its altitude, as merely a pious imagi 
 nation. The higher race may indeed stoop down; 
 it has often done so; but never to rise again; in 
 stantly there falls upon it the Davidic curse: 
 "Bow down their back alway." 
 : The fate that awaits the backward race in the 
 presence of the advanced should appear more 
 vividly, one would think, to no other eyes than 
 to those of New England. "Across the ocean 
 came a pilgrim bark, bearing the seeds of life 
 and of death. The former were sown for you; 
 the latter sprang up in the path of the simple 
 native." Nor in this process of extermination, 
 in these "centuries of dishonour," has it really 
 been a question of fairness or unfairness, of 
 righteousness or unrighteousness. No kind or 
 degree of gentleness or justice could have long 
 
190 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 delayed the departure of the Indian. When 
 North-Europeans landed on his shores, for him 
 the clock of destiny had struck. While we may 
 properly applaud or condemn individual and 
 communal acts by standards of individual or 
 communal ethics, it is not possible to judge the 
 race by any such feeble sense. Nature is neither 
 moral nor immoral, but supermoral. Her seonian 
 processes are not to be measured by our rules 
 nor defined by our categories; they tower above 
 good and bad; they reach beyond right and 
 wrong. Should Roman legions have conquered 
 Greece and girdled the Mediterranean with her 
 civilization ? Ought Babylonian empire to have 
 lifted up its lion wings over Western Asia? We 
 perceive at once the emptiness of such questions. 
 But even if it were possible for us to turn back 
 the tide of time, to stay or slacken the rolling of 
 the wheel of birth, would it be well or wise to 
 do so ? We venture to question it most seriously. 
 There is a personal and even a social morality 
 that may easily become racially immoral. There 
 are diseases whose evolutionary function is to 
 weed out the weak, and so preserve the future 
 for the strong. The sufferers cannot be treated 
 with too careful attention, too loving gentleness, 
 too tender sympathy. It is the glory of our hu- 
 
A DIP INTO THE FUTURE 191 
 
 manity to cherish these frail flowers, to water 
 them with dew, to shield them from the sun, and 
 not to suffer even the winds of summer to visit 
 them too roughly. But not to gather from them 
 the seed for generations to come! Let theirs be 
 the present, but not the future. He who should 
 discover some serum and apply it greatly to 
 prolong their lives and give them equal chance 
 with the vigorous in the matter of offspring, 
 whatever thanks he might win from individuals 
 or the community, would deserve and receive 
 the execration of his race as its deadliest and 
 most insidious foe. So, too, we hold it to be certain 
 that all forms of humanitarianism that tend 
 give the organically inferior an equal chance 
 with the superior in the propagation of the 
 species, are radically mistaken; to the individual 
 and to society they would sacrifice the race. 
 Their error may be very amiable, but it is none 
 the less mortal. The hope of humanity lies not 
 in strengthening the weak, but in perfecting the 
 strong. 
 
 Herewith, then, we close this discussion. The 
 mistake of our opponents is here exposed in 
 its deepest root, its inmost core. It is seen to be 
 a mistake in philosophy, in cosmology, in the 
 scientific interpretation of the process of nature. 
 
192 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 But what a weird light is now cast upon the War 
 between the States, its cause, and its ultimate 
 result! Aside from questions of political theory, 
 the North sought to free the Negro, the South 
 to hold him in bondage. As a slave he had led a 
 protected, indeed a hothouse, existence and had 
 flourished marvellously. His high-hearted cham 
 pions shed torrents of blood and treasure to shat 
 ter the walls of his prison-house, to dispel the 
 pent-up, stifling gloom of his dungeon, and to 
 pour in upon him the free air and light of 
 heaven. But the sun of liberty is no sooner arisen 
 with burning breath than, lo! smitten by the 
 breeze and the beam, he withers and dies ! 
 
CHAPTER SIX 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 
 
 Of all these things the judge is Time 
 
 ARISTOTLE 
 
 IN the foregoing chapters it is only by way of 
 exception that there has been made any formal 
 use of statistical data, or any reference to scientific 
 authorities; in fact, there has been a studied 
 avoidance of the sympathetic literature of the 
 subject. But it seems wise and, above all, just to 
 the reader, to guard well every salient position, 
 to throw round every argumentative assertion a 
 bulwark of mathematical evidence a task that 
 presents little difficulty, since in general the facts 
 in the case are well ascertained and the testimony 
 unanimous. At only a few points, and those of 
 rather minor importance, do the depositions go 
 wide apart. In casting up these circumvallations, 
 we shall be at pains to cite only witnesses against 
 whom no exceptions can lie; many very valuable 
 
194 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ones shall be excluded, merely for geographical 
 reasons; we do not ask the reader to heed even 
 a scientific word that might be tinged with preju 
 dice. 
 
 Next to the United States Census Reports, 
 which must of course be our main source, we 
 shall use, in discussing anthropometry, the great 
 work of Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S., statisti 
 cian to the Prudential Insurance Company of 
 America, entitled "Race Traits and Ten 
 dencies of the American Negro," published 
 as Vol. XI., Nos. 1, 2, and 3, of the publica 
 tions of the American Economic Association, 
 by the Macmillan Company, August, 1896,- 
 the result of ten years careful investiga 
 tion a book almost beyond praise. Among 
 his more recent supplementary studies may be 
 mentioned his "Race and Mortality," October, 
 1902. 
 
 The author is a German and without race pre 
 judice. For him the problem of race pathology 
 exists as a purely practical one: At what rates 
 can the Negro be insured ? No emotion can enter 
 here; it is a mere question of dollars and cents, 
 and for insurance companies a vital one. To 
 our opponents, his judgements may sometimes 
 sound harsh; but they are scarcely harsher than 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 195 
 
 the facts, which he seldom forces, but interprets 
 fairly. His conclusions have, of course, been 
 passionately assailed, as by Professor Kelly 
 Miller; but in no important particulars have 
 they been seriously shaken. 
 
 In the following statistical tables, we shall fre 
 quently use the myriad as the unit. Thereby the 
 data are made easier to understand and to re 
 member; there is a great economy of space and 
 of attention, and no appreciable sacrifice of 
 accuracy. For in case of such immense numbers 
 it is idle to hope for correctness in the fourth 
 figure; errors will almost surely reach up into the 
 thousands, if not above. Besides, we shall use 
 these data for purely argumentative purposes, 
 and no argument is in the least affected by a 
 change in the thousands. Thus, the population 
 of New Orleans is given at 287,104. No one can 
 deny that it may have been nearer 286,000 or 
 288,000. We shall indicate it by twenty-nine 
 (myriads), by which we mean merely that it is 
 between 285,000 and 295,000. So, when we 
 speak of a mortality of 234, we mean 234 yearly 
 per myriad. So we shall put a recent death-rate 
 of Chicago at 145 (per 10,000) rather than at 
 14.49 (per 1,000). The last digit can lay no 
 claim to correctness. 
 
196 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 INCREASE OF THE NEGRO POPULATION 
 
 The grand totals of the population in the 
 Continental United States, as given by the census 
 reports, are: 
 
 
 W. 
 
 N. 
 
 W. 
 
 N. 
 
 W. 
 
 N. 
 
 1900 
 
 6,681 
 
 883 
 
 (Gains, 
 
 per 
 
 1000) 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,171 
 
 135 
 
 212 
 
 180 
 
 1890 
 
 5,510 
 
 749 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,170 
 
 91 
 
 267 
 
 138 
 
 1880 
 
 4,340 
 
 658 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 981 
 
 170 
 
 292 
 
 349 
 
 1870 
 
 3,359 
 
 488 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 667 
 
 44 
 
 248 
 
 99 
 
 1860 
 
 2,692 
 
 444 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 737 
 
 80 
 
 377 
 
 221 
 
 1850 
 
 1,955 
 
 364 
 
 
 
 
 
 It needs no ghost from the tomb to tell us that 
 some of these census returns are wrong, and 
 widely wrong. An increase of 221 per thousand 
 during a decade (1850-60) of universal and ex 
 traordinary prosperity, under singularly favour 
 able conditions, seems every way likely and calls 
 for no remark. But the following decade (1860-70), 
 while it wrought ruin upon the Whites, brought 
 freedom to the Blacks and in no way worked 
 them any hardship. That their rate of increase 
 should have fallen off from 221 to ninety-nine 
 seems, then, quite incredible. Again, the next dec 
 ade (1870-80) marked the end of the riot of Af- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 197 
 
 ricanism in the South, and its second half saw 
 white supremacy restored and the Blacks for 
 cibly repressed. On the whole, then, it could 
 hardly have been so favourable to the Negroes 
 as the preceding, and yet their numbers leap up 
 nearly two millions, at the astounding rate of 349 
 per thousand. Their conditions were certainly no 
 worse during the next decade (1880-90), yet they 
 grow only half as much, and at a rate little over 
 one-third as fast only 138 per thousand. There 
 is no visible sign of improvement in conditions 
 during the next decade, yet they multiply meas 
 urably faster at the rate of 180 per thousand. 
 When the results for 1880 were announced, it was 
 felt that the game was lost for the white man. 
 Accordingly, in 1883, Professor C. A. Gardiner, of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., could forecast that in thirty 
 years the Southern Negro would outstrip the 
 Southern White in wealth, intelligence, and 
 numbers, and within a century would absorb 
 that White completely! a prediction only less 
 buoyant and highly coloured than Gen. Pope s 
 of July 14, 1867, that " five years will have trans 
 ferred intelligence and education, so far as the 
 masses are concerned, to the colored people of 
 this district" (Alabama, Georgia, Florida). At 
 such a rate the Negroes in 1900 would have num- 
 
198 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 bered about fourteen millions, and in 1910 about 
 twenty millions, in 1920 nearly thirty millions; in 
 1950 they would have surpassed eighty millions, 
 the present population of our Union, and in 1990 
 they would have reached 320 millions. So that the 
 practically complete Africanization of the United 
 States would be only a question of this century. 
 The census of 1890 showed an immense falling 
 off in this rate (from 349 to 138) and so allayed 
 such fears. The last census shows, apparently, a 
 slight rise in the Negro increase (from^!38 to 180) 
 which, however, remains notably behind that 
 of the Whites (212), by about 15 per cent. 
 
 However, since these returns involve manifest 
 absurdities, it is hard to ground any argument 
 upon them. Presumably, the last census is more 
 nearly correct. It is generally admitted that the 
 census of 1870 was grossly defective. In our 
 judgement, both those of 1880 and especially of 
 1890 were far below the mark; but it would be 
 hard to prove this rigorously. It seems that the 
 rate from 1850 to 1860 is, on its face, the most rea 
 sonable. As the Negroes were then slaves, their 
 numbers were very probably returned correctly 
 by the owners. As there was no motive against 
 and every motive for their rapid multiplication, 
 and as their death rate was certainly much lower 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 199 
 
 than after emancipation, it seems certain that 
 221 per thousand (say 22 per cent.) represents 
 their maximum natural increase per decade. This 
 would have given about 542 myriads for 1870, 
 about 661 for 1880, about 806 for 1890, about 
 980 for 1900. This would indicate, then, that 
 the census of 1880 is also nearly correct, while 
 that of 1870 is most sadly defective, and that 
 of 1890 seriously so. Still, this latter can hardly 
 have erred by fifty myriads perhaps by twenty 
 or thirty; so that the number in 1890 should 
 possibly be 770 myriads. In that case, the num 
 bers since 1850 would be given, nearly enough 
 for memory, by the hundred thousand, thus : 
 
 I860 1870 1880 1890 1900 
 
 ,44 55 66 77 88, instead of 
 
 44 49 66 75 88 
 
 Of course, these numbers are not exact; but 
 they are, on the average, more nearly so than those 
 of the census reports given in the line below, 
 which disprove themselves. 
 
 At any rate, the Negro numbers have been 
 nearly doubled in forty years. This is an average 
 rate of almost exactly 20 per cent, per decade. 
 Since the earlier rate was certainly more than 
 twenty, the latter must have been certainly less; 
 in fact, even according to the census, there is a 
 
200 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 falling off from 221 to 180, and this latter figure 
 should probably be reduced to 160. It must be 
 reduced, unless the census of 1890 was as perfect 
 as that of 1900, which is most unlikely. While we 
 consider positively necessary some such amend 
 ment of the census returns as we have suggested, 
 yet we ground no argument thereon; we rest on 
 the certainty that the rate of increase of the Negro 
 has fallen off at least 16 per cent, since the days 
 of his slavery. His absolute increase has been 
 about maintained, so that the next census 
 (1910) will give him, perhaps, slightly under ten 
 millions. 
 
 Meantime the total white population has ad 
 vanced from 1,955 to 6,681 myriads; or, since 
 1860, from 2,692 to 6,681 not quite two and one- 
 half times. But we must remember the desolat 
 ing war that ravaged the North, and particularly 
 the South, of its Caucasian bloom for four years, 
 and left the latter utterly prostrate. This is shown 
 in the fearful descent in gain from 377 to 248. 
 The gain in that decade should have been about 
 900 instead of 667, which would have given the 
 Whites about 8,100 myriads in 1900 almost ex 
 actly tripling the return of 1860. By natural 
 increase, then, the white population about 
 triples itself in forty years, while the black 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 201 
 
 about doubles. Hence, the latter must form an 
 ever-diminishing fraction of the whole popu 
 lation. In fact, the number of Negroes per 
 thousand of the whole population, since 1790, 
 is as follows: 
 
 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 
 
 193 189 190 184 182 168 157 141 127 131 119 116 
 
 We have seen that the estimate for 1870 is cer 
 tainly much too low, as also extremely probably 
 that for 1890. In any case, it is hereby proved that 
 the black is rapidly falling in ratio to the white 
 population. Such a descent, pursued for a few 
 centuries, would bring it to comparative insignifi 
 cance. 
 
 To be sure, it must not be forgotten that the 
 White increase is due largely to immigration. But 
 there seems to be no reason why this immigration 
 should not be continued indefinitely; at present 
 it is particularly heavy and will weigh very per 
 ceptibly in the census of 1910. 
 
 Again, it must not be disguised that the birth 
 rate among the older New England stock of na 
 tive white Americans has fallen lamentably low 
 even beneath the point of bare race maintenance. 
 A thousand such couples rear only about 950 
 couples. This race decay seems, surely, the most 
 alarming symptom in our national life a tend- 
 
202 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ency which it seems exceedingly hard to combat. 
 However, there are yet vigorous and prolific Cau 
 casian tribes in great abundance on the face of the 
 earth; and if the native white American prefers 
 to die out, why, let him die no one can help it. 
 The white foreigner will certainly step in and fill 
 his place more virilely, if not more worthily. 
 There is nothing, then, in this phenomenon, hu 
 miliating though it is, to shake the conclusions 
 already stated. 
 
 But an even more interesting matter than the 
 relation of the Negro to the Union at large is his 
 relation to special sections. The grand divisions 
 in the census reports are North Atlantic, South 
 Atlantic, North Central, South Central, and 
 Western. In only two of these, the South Atlantic 
 and the South Central, is the Negro really a prob 
 lem. In the others, he is a vanishing quantity. 
 Thus, in the North Atlantic and the North 
 Central, his myriads are only : 
 
 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 
 
 North Atlantic 15 16 18 23 27 39 
 
 North Central 14 18 27 39 43 50 
 
 This increase has been rapid much more 
 rapid than elsewhere; but he remains, and must 
 always remain, insignificant. The increase has 
 been due to immigration, for it is conceded that 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 203 
 
 his natural rate of increase in the North will not 
 even maintain his numbers. Left to himself there, 
 he would certainly die out. This immigration will 
 certainly continue and will actually contribute 
 to the destruction of the race, as it were by 
 steadily lopping off the extreme boughs of the tree. 
 Of the West, nothing need be said. For the 
 South Atlantic and South Central, the record is as 
 follows : 
 
 
 1850 
 
 I860 
 
 1870 
 
 1880 
 
 1890 
 
 1900 
 
 S. A., W. 
 
 282 
 
 331 
 
 364 
 
 466 
 
 560 
 
 671 
 
 N. 
 
 186 
 
 206 
 
 222 
 
 294 
 
 326 
 
 373 
 
 S. C., W. 
 
 281 
 
 373 
 
 423 
 
 590 
 
 749 
 
 982 
 
 N. 
 
 149 
 
 204 
 
 220* 
 
 301 
 
 350f 
 
 419 
 
 * More probably 260. 
 t More probably 865. 
 
 Here we perceive, at once, that the situation on 
 the Atlantic is unequivocal. The Black tinge is 
 fading away; that population has exactly doubled 
 itself only in fifty years, while in the South Cen 
 tral it has doubled in forty years. Compare now 
 the White record in the same (South Atlantic) re 
 gions. Owing to the Civil War, the growth during 
 the decade 1860-70 was under thirty-five myriads 
 less than half of the normal growth ; neverthe 
 less, the White population has more than doubled 
 itself in thirty-five years, from 1865 to 1900. In 
 1850 there were 397 Blacks to every thousand, in 
 
204 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 1900 only 356. The next half century will see a 
 still further reduction. The White increase, in the 
 last decade, was 20 per cent ; the Black was only 14. 
 
 Coming to the South Central, we find the case 
 equally clear. Here again, the civil strife amerced 
 the Whites of at least half a decade; the increase 
 from 1860 to 1870 was only fifty myriads, whereas 
 it should have been over 100, since is was ninety- 
 two from 1850 to 1860. Nevertheless, we find that 
 the White number has doubled in twenty-five 
 years (from 1875 to 1900), but the black in forty 
 (from 1860 to 1900). From 1850 to 1860 the Black 
 gain was over 40 per cent, the White was under 
 34 per cent; but, for the last decade (1890 
 to 1900), the Black gain was 20 per cent, the 
 White about 30 per cent. In the whole half cen 
 tury, the Blacks have gained 181 per cent; but 
 the Whites, in spite of their numerous losses in 
 four years war, have gained over 249 per cent. 
 In 1850, of every thousand, 347 were Black; but, 
 in 1900, only 299. 
 
 It is demonstrated, then, that in these two focal 
 regions of African strength not only is that 
 strength relatively decreasing, but it is decreasing 
 faster and faster. The hour cometh when neither 
 by the ocean nor by the gulf will it signify more 
 than it does now in Philadelphia or New York. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 205 
 
 If now we turn to the statistics of the states, we 
 shall, of course, find this general average result 
 unevenly distributed. Only the states included 
 in the following table can have any interest for us : 
 
 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 
 
 A1 , / W. 43 53 52 66 83 100 
 
 Alabama \N. 35 44 48 60 69 83 
 
 A^nsas { 16 32 36 59 82 94 
 
 Dist.of Columbia! % JJ ft ** * 
 
 , f W. 4.7 7.8 9.6 14 22 30 
 
 la \N. 4.0 6.3 9.2 13 17 23 
 
 ^ / W. 52 59 64 82 98 118 
 
 ljeor S ia \N. 38 47 55 73 86 103 
 
 v t i / W - 76 92 no 138 159 186 
 
 Kentuck y \N. 22 24 22 27 27 28 
 
 T . c / W.- 26 36 36 45 56 73 
 
 Louisiana . . . . j N> 26 35 36 4g 5Q 65 
 
 TV, , , / W. 42 52 61 -72 83 95 
 
 Mai 7 land \N. 17 17 18 21 22 24 
 
 M. . . . f W. 30 35 38 48 54 64 
 
 Mississippi |N. 31 44 44 65 74 91 
 
 ;,. f W. 59 106 160 202 253 
 
 Mlssouri |N. 9 12 12 15 15 16 
 
 55 63 68 87 106 126 
 
 W. 59 106 160 202 253 294 
 
 N. 
 
 North Carolina.. | N m 36 39 53 56 62 
 
 c^ +u r r / w - 27 29 29 39 46 56 
 
 bouth Carolina.. | N 39 41 ^ 6Q 69 ?8 
 
 76 83 94 114 134 154 
 
 25 28 32 40 43 48 
 
 Tennessee | -^ 
 
 f W. 15 42 56 120 175 243 
 
 18 \ N. 6 18 25 39 49 62 
 
 v . . . / W. 89 105 114 147 175 211 
 
 Vir g ima |N. 53 55 53 66 67 70 
 
 In spite of the fact that the gross defects of the 
 ninth enumeration (1870), and in less degree of 
 the eleventh (1890), greatly obscure these figures, 
 their import and their implications are entirely 
 
206 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 unmistakable. Three movements deserve espe 
 cial notice : the movement in the first decade, in 
 the last decade, and during the whole half cen 
 tury. Looking then at Kentucky, Maryland, 
 Missouri, and Virginia, we see that the Negro 
 has increased in numbers in fifty years by only 
 29 per cent, 42 per cent, 79 per cent, 34 per 
 cent. The general conditions have been certainly 
 not unfavourable, and there has been no immigra 
 tion that could appreciably affect these percent 
 ages. Meantime the Whites have risen in numbers 
 by 145 per cent, 128 per cent, 397 per cent, 136 
 per cent .aided, except in Missouri, not very 
 greatly by immigration. That they are crowding 
 out the Blacks very rapidly, is too plain for ar 
 gument. 
 
 But not only is the Negro yielding he is yield 
 ing faster and faster. In the first decade (1850-60) 
 his gains were 7 per cent (not quite), 4 per 
 cent, 32 per cent, 4 per cent; whereas in 
 twenty years (1880-1900), the gains have been 
 only 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 11 per cent, 7 
 per cent. The total percentage of gain has been 
 actually less in the two decades than in the one. 
 In these states, then, the doom of the Black is 
 sealed. 
 
 In Louisiana, the course of fate is not less sure. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 207 
 
 In 1850 the Blacks were slightly preponderant 
 262,271 against 255,491; in 1870, "by reason of 
 slaughterous war," they had increased their lead 
 decidedly, and very greatly in 1880 (483,655 
 against 454,954) ; but in 1900 they have fallen far 
 behind only 650,804 against 729,612. Of this 
 state, then, the redemption is sure and in rapid 
 progress. 
 
 Not less manifest is the bleaching of North 
 Carolina. There the coloured population has not 
 doubled itself in fifty years, whereas the White 
 has far more than doubled and, but for the 
 plague of war, would certainly have trebled itself. 
 In the first decade (1850-1860), the Whites and 
 Blacks increased each by not quite 15 per 
 cent; but in the double decade (1880-1900) the 
 Whites increased by 46 per cent, the Blacks by 
 not quite 18 per cent. 
 
 There is quite a similar tale to be told of Ten 
 nessee. The great empire of Texas shows a much 
 better record; there the Negro has, indeed, ten- 
 folded himself largely, of course, by immigra 
 tion; but the Whites have been multiplied by 
 nearly sixteen. In the first decade the Whites in 
 creased by 173 per cent, the Blacks by 312 per 
 cent ; in the last decade the former increased by 
 39 per cent, the latter by little over 27 per 
 
208 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 cent. Surely, ambiguity here is quite out of the 
 question. 
 
 South Carolina has long had the unenviable 
 distinction of being by far the darkest state in the 
 Union. In 1850 the ratio was twenty-seven to 
 thirty-nine. She suffered ruinously for her seces 
 sion folly, and for nearly twenty years her White 
 population was practically stationary; in 1870 she 
 had only twenty-nine myriads, and even in 1880 
 only thirty-nine against sixty of Blacks. But, at 
 last, the tide has begun to turn. The introduction 
 of manufactures promises redemption to the Pal 
 metto State. From 1880 to 1900 the Negroes in 
 creased by nearly 30 per cent, but the Whites 
 by 43 per cent. The hue of the state is now 
 almost precisely the same as at the firing on Fort 
 Sumter; she has at last made good the losses of 
 the war. 
 
 Georgia is the watermelon paradise of the 
 Black folk. In the first decade they gained greatly 
 on the Whites, advancing their ratio from thirty- 
 eight to fifty-two up to forty-seven to fifty-nine; 
 they still further increased their gain in the next 
 twenty years, till in 1880 the ratio stood seventy- 
 three to eighty-two. But this was the high-water 
 mark; since then it has sunk back slightly to 103 
 to 118; the Whites are now gaining slowly. This 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 209 
 
 example is very instructive and very encouraging; 
 for it shows that even a steady gain of the Black 
 over the White continued through a whole gen 
 eration may yet be turned into a loss in the next 
 generation. 
 
 A similar case is presented by Alabama. Here 
 the Negro s increase in the first decade was 
 27 per cent, the Caucasian s only 23 per cent. 
 The state suffered frightfully during the war, 
 and in 1870 the White population had actually 
 fallen from 526,271 (in 1860) back to 521,384. 
 The Black population was then returned at 
 475,510, but it was almost certainly over 500,- 
 000; for in the preceding decade it rose from 
 345,109 to 437,770; it must (in 1870) have ex 
 ceeded or at least equalled the White. But now the 
 Caucasian begins once more to demonstrate his 
 superior life-powers ; in the next three decades he 
 nearly doubles his numbers (521,384 to 1,001- 
 152), while the Negro rises only to 827,307. With 
 the establishment of industries in iron, the tri 
 umph of the White in Alabama has been assured. 
 
 There remain only Arkansas, Florida, and 
 Mississippi. In the hot and moist alluvial lands of 
 these states, the Negro seems likely to make his 
 most stubborn stand against the encroachment of 
 the Caucasian. In these three, he is still multiply- 
 
210 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ing faster than his competitors ; in one he is already 
 far ahead in numbers. Must he not, then, ulti 
 mately make them completely his own ? At first 
 sight it would seem we should answer yes, but 
 closer inspection reveals tendencies that must 
 finally reverse the present conditions. In Arkan 
 sas, the White rate has gained rapidly on the 
 Black. In 1850-60 these rates were: White 100 
 per cent, Black 133 per cent one-third more; 
 but in 1890-1900, White 15.4, Negro 18.7, and for 
 the double decade, 1880-1900, they were: White 
 59, Negro 74. From having been one-third 
 greater, the Negro rate has become about one- 
 fifth greater. 
 
 In Florida and Mississippi, the complexion, 
 though still very dusky, is lighter than half a cen 
 tury ago. In the former, the white excess in 1880 
 was hardly thirteen per hundred Negroes; in 1900 
 it had risen to twenty-nine. In the great cotton 
 state, the darkest spot on the continent, the 
 Blacks have long been in a seemingly hopeless 
 majority. This amounted to 15,000 in 1850; in 
 1860 it had risen to 84,000; in 1900 to 266,000. 
 During the last decade the Black increase per 
 thousand was 222, the White only 177. So the 
 situation would seem to be growing steadily 
 worse. However, there is still a ray of hope. The 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 211 
 
 Blacks are still gaining, but at a decreasing rate. 
 From 1850 to 1860 their gain per thousand was 
 408, but from 1880 to 1900 it was hardly 396; 
 they gained not nearly half so fast. Meantime, the 
 White gain from 1850 to 1860 was only 196 per 
 thousand, whereas from 1880 to 1900 it was 337; 
 while the Black gain fell from 408 to 396, the 
 White rose from 196 to 337. At this rate the 
 White must surely overtake and pass the 
 Black, and another half century will almost 
 certainly see the white numbers greatly pre 
 ponderant. 
 
 The case of Mississippi is especially interesting 
 as showing the prospect of the Blacks at its 
 brightest and of the Whites at its darkest. This 
 state has no large city, but few towns of moder 
 ate size, and no manufactures. It is almost exclu 
 sively agricultural. Here, then, the conditions 
 that make for the Whites are at their worst ; those 
 that make for the Blacks are at their best. Here, 
 if anywhere on our continent, the odds are all for 
 the Negro ; and yet, even here, he makes a losing 
 fight he still has the advantage, but it is slip 
 ping from his hands. 
 
 We can think of only one objection likely to be 
 raised against the foregoing statistical argument. 
 Some one may say that we have made too little use 
 
212 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 of the decade 1890-1900, but have preferred the 
 score of years 1880-1900. It is true that the last 
 decade (1890-1900) shows better for the Negro 
 than the preceding (1880-90) which, indeed, 
 indicated his over-rapid decadence throughout 
 the South. But it seems hardly possible that this 
 showing should not be deceptive. For there is not 
 a single known circumstance that favoured him 
 in his last decade rather than in the preceding. 
 The explanation seems very simple ; the coloured 
 returns of the eleventh census were incomplete - 
 not nearly so incomplete as those of the ninth, yet 
 enough so in comparison with the tenth and the 
 twelfth to make the showing for 1880 to 1890 too 
 bad, and for 1890 to 1900 too good. The census 
 reports of the Black population for 1850 and 1860 
 seem to have been substantially correct; for 1870, 
 extremely incomplete; for 1880, greatly better; for 
 1890, not nearly so good; for 1900, much better 
 again. For 1870 this is now conceded. Thus, in 
 Mississippi the coloured population increased 
 from 1850 to 1860 by 126,000; from 1870 to 1880 
 by 206,090; but from 1860 to 1870 by only 6,797 
 (impossible!). In Kentucky it actually lost (1860- 
 70) 13,957, but gained (1870-80) 49,241; and 
 once more lost (1880-90) 3,380. So, in South 
 Carolina, the Negro gain was (1870-80) nearly 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 
 
 190,000, but (1860-70) only 3,500. So, in Mis 
 souri, a gain of 28,463 (1850-60) and of 27,279 
 (1870-80), but (1860-70) a loss of 432. 
 
 The indications of imperfection in the census 
 of 1890 seem clear, though not so glaring as in 
 that of 1870. Such, for instance, are the actual de 
 creases in the Negro population of Kentucky and 
 Missouri, and the extremely small gains (1880- 
 90) of 5,500 (Maryland), 5,000 (Missouri), 4,000 
 (Virginia), against gains (1890-1900) of 19,500 
 (Maryland), 11,000 (Missouri), 25,000 (Virginia). 
 Other imperfections, not so glaring, but quite as 
 unmistakable, a careful eye may detect only too 
 frequently. Thus, consider the following returns 
 per 1,000,000 for the census years 
 
 Insane 
 
 I860 
 
 765 
 
 1870 
 
 971 
 
 1880 
 1 833 
 
 1890 
 
 1 697 
 
 Feeble-minded 
 
 602 
 
 636 
 
 1,533 
 
 1,526 
 
 Deaf and Dumb 
 
 408 
 
 420 
 
 675 
 
 659 
 
 Blind.. 
 
 403 
 
 527 
 
 976 
 
 805 
 
 In all these classes a steady increase up to 1880, 
 then a sudden falling off in 1890. 
 
 Once more, the death rate in the non-registra 
 tion area in 1880 was 13.42 per thousand; in 1880 
 it was only 10.79. Such an improvement in health, 
 especially in districts mainly rural, is quite in 
 credible. The fact is that for many purposes of 
 comparison the eleventh census is unavailable - 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
 a fact that greatly strengthens many of our con 
 tentions. 
 
 On its face, it is quite too improbable that the 
 Blacks should gain only 138 per thousand in the 
 decennium 1880-90 and then, without any assign 
 able cause, leap to 180 per thousand for the next 
 decennium (1890-1900). Only two things could 
 bring this about increase of birth rate, decrease 
 of death rate. The former is quite inexplicable 
 and incredible; the latter is contradicted by the 
 facts of the case. It would mean a fall of four in 
 the annual mortality per thousand, and there has 
 been nothing of the kind. 
 
 The defect in enumeration, certainly so great 
 in 1870 and almost certainly present in less degree 
 in 1890, is very easy to understand and antece 
 dently probable. For the prejudice against " num 
 bering the people" has been strong since the days 
 of David and of Judas of Galilee, and the Negro 
 flees from the census-taker as from a tax-gath 
 erer, or vaccinator, or even a kodak fiend. 
 
 Be this as it may, it is generally admitted that, 
 in all arguments from statistics, the larger the 
 numbers and the longer the space of time, the 
 more trustworthy the indications; in any case 
 then we are more than justified in taking the 
 double decennium (1880-1900) in comparison 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 215 
 
 with the first decade (1850-60) ; since the census of 
 1870 is admittedly grossly in error, no other basis 
 of comparison nearly so trustworthy is present. 
 
 Herewith then we close the argument. It 
 seems hardly necessary to add that the higher 
 percentage of Negro gain in the North Atlantic 
 and North Central States signifies nothing except 
 that small numbers have been greatly swollen by 
 immigration. It is well known that in these re 
 gions the Negro, unfed by immigration, tends 
 swiftly to extinction. Viewed thus from what 
 point of the compass you will, the general move 
 ment of the life of the continent is towards the 
 elimination of the African element. We admit 
 that figures may be made to lie, but we have sub 
 jected them to no captious cross-examination ; 
 we have let them speak for themselves; we have 
 neither forcibly repressed nor forcibly extorted 
 any testimony; their voluntary witness is singu 
 larly consistent and unequivocal and wholly irre 
 sistible. 
 
 ANTHROPOMETRY 
 
 It has been proved by the foregoing statistical 
 study, varied in every way and taking every sig 
 nificant fact into consideration, that the Negro is 
 
216 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 everywhere in the United States yielding and 
 making place for the Caucasian. We might, in 
 deed, have anticipated that such a result would 
 follow infallibly upon exposing the two races to 
 open competition. For the Negro has never volun 
 tarily extended himself beyond his African home ; 
 he has never eagerly sought out new habitats, 
 nor readily adapted himself to new environments 
 whereas the Caucasian has traversed and colo 
 nized the earth from the equator to either pole; 
 he has plumbed every abyss; he has scaled every 
 height; he has spied out every secret place: for 
 him no sea has been too wide, no plains too 
 broad, no mountains too high, no sands too hot, 
 no snow too cold, no jungles too dark and deadly. 
 He pits himself against Nature, he forges for him 
 self Achillean armour, he grasps the shield, he 
 shakes the spear, and rushes joyfully to the en 
 counter. Nothing of all this, nothing in any way 
 like aught of this, has the Negro ever done; 
 naught, in our judgement, will he ever do. The 
 massive facts, then, of the geographical distribu 
 tion of the races give token unmistakable that, in 
 any collision within any but the tropical regions, 
 the Negro must go down before the Caucasian. 
 
 This superior vigour, this aggressive vitality 
 need not reveal itself to any mass-measurements ; 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 217 
 
 it might hide away in the cells and the finest tis 
 sue; it might be not anatomic, but histotomic 
 only. The distinguished surgeon, Dr. Rudolph 
 Matas, as the result of wide observation and care 
 ful inquiry, declares that pathological-anatomical 
 peculiarities of the Negro are not recognizable 
 chirurgically; Black and White are sensibly the 
 same. 
 
 Nevertheless, broad distinctions are actually 
 present and come to light wherever extensive 
 observations have been made. It is jauntily de 
 clared by a great protagonist of the Black man 
 that "physically, he is the equal of the white 
 man; he is as tall and as strong," and such is 
 perhaps the general opinion. There is a fine 
 irony, however, in the fact that precisely these 
 moments in which his equality is so incautiously 
 affirmed are the ones in which he is distinctly 
 inferior. He is in truth neither so tall nor so 
 strong, though vertical inch for inch he is some 
 what heavier. It seems needless to copy down 
 table after table to prove these statements. We 
 quote the words of Hoffman, summing up ex 
 tensive comparisons: "The average stature of 
 the negro is less than that of the white, and the 
 difference, though slight, prevails at all ages." 
 From Gould s "Military Statistics," pp. 461-465, 
 
218 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 we learn as distinctly as we can learn any such 
 facts, that the Negro is not so strong as the 
 Caucasian ; that the mean lifting strength of the 
 Black is very markedly below that of the White 
 at all ages above seventeen, with the exceptions of 
 thirty-one to thirty-four, where the Black excess 
 is nearly five pounds, and of forty-five to forty- 
 nine, where the Black average is 328.7, the White 
 only 325.7 a Black excess of three pounds. 
 Under seventeen the White average is only 250.4, 
 the Black 258.9 another Black excess of 8.5, 
 very considerable and noteworthy, and for seven 
 teen the Black excess is 295-292.8 = 3.2. For 
 all other ages, the White excesses are as follows : 
 
 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 
 
 26.8 23.6 15 10 13.7 23.6 8.6 15.6 24.1 
 
 27 28 29 30 35-39 40-44 50- 
 
 6.9 13.5 9 1.4 26.8 10.4 24.2 
 
 Hence, it appears that up to seventeen the 
 Negro is on the average stronger than the White ; 
 he is also stronger in the cases measured from 
 thirty-one to thirty-four and from forty-five to 
 forty-nine, though his advantage is not great ; but 
 everywhere else he is markedly not so strong. Of 
 course, it is easy to except to such statistics to 
 say that the averages are untrusworthy; but it 
 would be very strange if so many distinct and 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 219 
 
 independent indications were all wrong. As the 
 lowest age for soldiers is hardly below sixteen, 
 we see that the Black excels, and only slightly, in 
 only twelve years, the White in twenty-three years 
 up to fifty and in all above, and on the whole very 
 considerably, his excess rising twice to 26.8. The 
 indication, then, is of a more tropical nature in 
 the Black; he attains his maximum sooner, but 
 he maintains it not so long nor so high; and this 
 might certainly have been expected. 
 
 Similar is the indication of the respiration. 
 In full vigour the average respiration per minute 
 of Whites, Blacks, Mulattoes are 16.44, 17.75, 
 19.01; while with impaired vigour the average 
 rates are for Whites 16.84, for Blacks and Mulat 
 toes 20.71. Here this excessive frequency is found 
 at every age, both in health and still more in 
 disease, both for Blacks and still more for Mulat 
 toes. It seems impossible, then, that the indica 
 tions should be erroneous. On the other hand, 
 the pulse of the White, in vigour and in ailment, 
 is faster than the full Black s, but slower than 
 the Mulatto s; Whites 74.84, 77.21; Blacks 
 74.02, 76.91; Mulattoes 76.97, 83.12. Here the 
 differences are too slight for emphasis, and we 
 do not know that there is any advantage in a 
 somewhat slower pulse. But what is the meaning 
 
220 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 of the quicker respiration ? It means the decidedly 
 lower lung capacity of the Black. Since the Black 
 weighs more per inch of height than the White, 
 we are prepared to find his chest measurements 
 greater after respiration. These measurements 
 confirm each other. Of 315,620 White soldiers 
 the average girth of chest was 33.42 inches, but 
 of 25,828 coloured soldiers it was 33.69; and this 
 difference in favour of the Blacks maintained 
 itself for all statures. However, the lung capacity 
 or mobility of chest (i. e. the difference between 
 the girth at forced inspiration and forced expi 
 ration) is greater in the Whites ; in 6,359 Whites 
 the average was 3.24; in 377 Negroes it was 3.23. 
 This difference is too small to be worth noting, 
 but mark you! in the under- weights (100 to 120 
 pounds) the mobility was far greater in the 
 Blacks (3.33 against 3.15), also in the over 
 weights (180 and more) (3.38 against 3.27); 
 but in the normal weights (120 to 180) it every 
 where favoured the Whites. Moreover, these 
 Whites were about an inch taller than the Blacks 
 (67.30 against 66.39) at all ages; their chest 
 girth was nearly half an inch less (32.49 against 
 32.84), and yet their lung capacity was greater. 
 The indication of stronger lungs seems unmis 
 takable. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 221 
 
 At this point it seems necessary to point out 
 that in this extremely important matter of chest 
 mobility, the Negro is not maintaining himself 
 but is perceptibly declining. In 1861-65 the excess 
 favoured the Whites for the ages thirty to thirty- 
 nine, and under twenty; for all other ages it fa 
 voured the Blacks, who fell behind only .01 on the 
 general average (3.24 and 3.23). But in 1892-94 
 it favours the Whites at all ages ; and the White 
 excess has increased to .35 (2.93 and 2.58). (Re 
 ports of Provost-Marshal General, Vol. I., and 
 of Surgeon General of U. S. A., 1893-95.) The 
 indication is not in itself infallible, but it has 
 great significance in connection with other cor 
 roborative evidence. 
 
 Lung capacity is not chest mobility, but the 
 two are closely related. Gould s measurements 
 indicate a very decidedly smaller number of 
 cubic inches of air in case of the Negro, and this 
 for all heights and weights. The White excess 
 increases steadily from eight cubic inches (for 
 under-heights, sixty inches) up to fifteen and one- 
 half cubic inches for over-heights (seventy-one 
 inches), but falls back to fourteen and one-half 
 for six-footers. On the other hand, this White 
 excess falls from twenty-five and one-half cubic 
 inches for narrow chests (30 inches) down to two 
 
222 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 cubic inches for large girths (40 inches) ; but its 
 uniform presence shows that the excess is a fact, 
 whatever may be the varying size of the fact. 
 Here again the indication is unambiguous that 
 the Negro is short-winded, weak-lunged as com 
 pared with his White rival. 
 
 This indication is immensely strengthened by 
 combination with another exceedingly impor 
 tant fact. It has been said that the Negro is 
 stouter than the White, at all ages and all statures, 
 weighing more per inch of height. Now this extra 
 weight per vertical inch is considered of all out 
 ward signs the best for lung strength and lung 
 soundness. "Are you gaining in weight?" is the 
 all-important question that the physician asks 
 of his tuberculotic patient. The Negro has (or 
 had) here very much outwardly in his favour; 
 the lower height, the heavier build, the greater 
 girth of chest; so important is the single item of 
 weight that it is held on the basis of the broadest 
 induction that even a very slight overplus in 
 heaviness may suffice to counteract effectively a 
 hereditary disposition towards tubercle, while ac 
 tuaries are agreed that slightness in proportion 
 to age and height greatly determines suscepti 
 bility to consumption. 
 
 And yet, in spite of all, he is the peculiar victim 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 223 
 
 of tuberculosis, which attacks him not only with 
 great and increasing frequency, but with especial 
 malignance. Of his enormous death rate from 
 lung affections, we have yet to speak. Here we 
 would merely point out the obvious conclusion, 
 that histologically the Negro thus appears infe 
 rior to the White man; not only do his tissues 
 offer ready lodgement to the invading bacillus, 
 but they offer far less stubborn and protracted 
 resistance to such inroads when once in progress. 
 
 At this point, it seems well to quote the con 
 clusions of Hoffman (pp. 170-171): 
 
 "First. The average weight of the colored 
 male of military age, and of colored male and 
 female children, is greater than that of whites of 
 the same classes. This excess in weight prevails 
 irrespective of age, stature, or circumference of 
 the chest. 
 
 "Second. Already quoted, (p 217). 
 
 " Third. The greater weight and smaller stat 
 ure of the negro as compared with the white are 
 found to prevail practically the same to-day as 
 thirty years ago. The race has therefore under 
 gone no decided change in respect to these con 
 ditions of bodily structure. 
 
 "Fourth. The average girth of chest of the 
 negro male of thirty years ago was slightly 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
 greater than that of the white, but at the pres 
 ent time the chest expansion of the colored 
 male is less than that of the white. This decrease 
 in the size of the living thorax in part explains 
 the increase in the mortality from consumption 
 and respiratory diseases. 
 
 "Fifth. The capacity of the lungs of the negro 
 is considerably below that of the white. This 
 fact coupled with the smaller weight of the lungs 
 (4 oz.) is without question another powerful 
 factor in the great mortality from diseases of the 
 lungs. 
 
 "Sixth. The mean frequency of respiration is 
 greater in the negro than in the white. As accel 
 erated respiration indicates a tendency towards 
 disease, the fact just stated fully supports those 
 regarding inferior vital capacity and lesser degree 
 of mobility of the chest. 
 
 "Seventh. The mean lifting strength of the 
 white is in excess of that of the negro. The pre 
 vailing opinion that the negro is on the whole 
 more capable of enduring physical exercise is 
 therefore disproved." [H. s "therefore" is quite 
 unwarranted. There is no such necessary con 
 nection between strength to lift and strength to 
 endure However, his conclusion, although illog 
 ical, is nevertheless correct, as appears plainly 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 225 
 
 from a large body of other evidence.] "This fully 
 agrees with the facts regarding excessive mor 
 tality, which in itself is proof" [or at least indi 
 cation] " of a lesser degree of physical strength. 
 
 "Eighth. The power of vision of the negro is 
 inferior to that of the white, but he is less liable to 
 diseases of the eye, especially color blindness." 
 
 In the light of these "conclusions," which 
 accord so perfectly with the great facts of geo 
 graphical distribution, how is it possible to speak 
 of the Negro as physically equal to the Caucasian ? 
 
 But not only is this comparative structural 
 weakness clearly indicated, but it is becoming 
 more and more apparent. The marked apparent 
 decline in the chest expansion between 1863 
 and 1894 (from 3.23 to 2.58), the increasing 
 mortality, the decreasing immunity, the vague 
 but unvarying testimony of general observation 
 all tell one and the same unambiguous story. 
 
 VIABILITY. 
 
 It has been well said by Professor Willcox that 
 the three great causes of race extinction are 
 disease, vice, and profound discouragement. Are 
 these formidable three at work against the Amer- 
 
THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ican Negroid ? It is mainly a matter of statistical 
 evidence. We have indeed few statistics of dis 
 couragement, but of vice and disease they greatly 
 abound. Of all statistics those of mortality and 
 vitality are perhaps the most important, the most 
 trustworthy, the most significant, the most sug 
 gestive, and the most weirdly fascinating. They 
 fill two gigantic volumes of the twelfth census 
 report, and to them we appeal in the prosecution 
 of our inquiry. 
 
 Unfortunately these reports, as wholly trust 
 worthy, do not cover the whole of the United 
 States, but only a very wide registration area, 
 including about 38 per cent of the total popu 
 lation and about 86.7 per cent of the urban 
 population. For the rest only an inference, 
 checked on this side and on that, is allowed. 
 However, the general result is affected very little 
 by this undetermined element; and our argu 
 ments and conclusions, since they deal with only 
 the large features in the case, are not affected 
 at all. 
 
 The first great fact that meets us, is this : The 
 
 average death-rate of the Negro is not far from 
 
 double that of the White. For the year 1890 the 
 
 rates per myriad were: White 196, Coloured 299 
 
 -a coloured excess of 55 per cent; for the year 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 227 
 
 1900 they were: Whites 178, Coloured 296*- 
 a coloured excess of 66 per cent. The rates 
 were almost exactly as five to three! Not only 
 then is the Black dying faster than the White, 
 but his rate exceeds the White rate more 
 and more, having gained 14 per cent in 
 ten years. The White rate has fallen very mark 
 edly eighteen per myriad in these ten years ; the 
 Negro, only three per myriad. Were the whole 
 population considered, it is doubtful whether his 
 rate has fallen at all. Indeed, in cities not in the 
 registration states his rate has actually risen per 
 ceptibly, from 309 to 313, whereas the White 
 rate has meanwhile fallen from 189 to 175. 
 
 * These are the "unconnected rates" in the registration area. The 
 rates corrected on the basis of age distribution are still far more 
 ominous for the Negro. They are, in the entire registration area: for 
 native Whites having one or both parents foreign, 187; for native 
 Whites having both parents native, 166; for Negroids, 347. 
 
 "One is warranted, then, in saying that according to the best evidence 
 obtainable the death rate of the negroes in the registration area is nearly 
 double that of the whites in the same area." 
 
 "On these assumptions the computed death rate of the non-Caucas 
 ians in 1890 was 34.4 and in 1900, 34.2; of the whites in 1890, 19.5, 
 and in 1900, 17.4. It seems not improbable that these figures may be 
 trusted so far as they indicate that there has been a decline in the death 
 rate of each race during the last ten years, that the decline among the 
 negroes has been less rapid than that among the whites, and that the 
 death rate of the negroes at the present time is about, but not quite, 
 twice that of the white race." Census Bulletin 8, Negroes in the United 
 Stales, p. 66a. 
 
 But as the death rate of the Negroes in 1890 was reckoned on a return 
 of population almost certainly considerably too low, that rate was itself 
 too high; the proper correction would probably bring the rate in 1890 
 even below that of 1900. 
 
228 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 When now we consider the causes of this aston 
 ishing mortality, its significance seems greatly 
 enhanced. It was long believed, with more or 
 less reason, that the Negro enjoyed a certain at 
 least partial immunity from some of the most 
 formidable diseases that assail the Caucasian. 
 He was thought less exposed to consumption and 
 malaria, far less to cancer and nervous disorders. 
 But now listen to the tale of the census ! In scar 
 let fever and diphtheria and cancer, the Cauca 
 sian still asserts his sad preeminence ; his rates 
 per myriad are 120, 459, 667, against the Negro s 
 26, 320, 480. But in all the others, he is far out 
 stripped. Thus, the rates per million, for Whites 
 and Blacks, are: consumption, 1735 and 4854; 
 pneumonia, 1848 and 3553; diseases of the ner 
 vous system, 2137 and 3080; of the urinary sys 
 tem, 998 and 1573; heart diseases and dropsy, 
 1374 and 2211; typhoid fever, 324 and 675; 
 malarial fever, 65 and 632! We note here es 
 pecially the fearful prevalence of consumption, an 
 almost infallible index of failing vitality. Still 
 more astonishing is the mortality from nerve- 
 diseases, where we should least expect them - 
 a most interesting side-light on the question of 
 "discouragement." Equally instructive are the 
 numbers 998 and 1573; the sad tale they tell is 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 229 
 
 confirmed by such facts as these: the deaths (in 
 1900) from diseases affecting female organs of 
 generation were: Whites 2661, Coloured 592. 
 From affections concerned with pregnancy they 
 were: Whites 7816, Coloured 1883. Remember 
 that the former outnumber the latter nearly eight 
 to one; and you perceive that the Coloured 
 death-rate is nearly double the White. Add to the 
 foregoing that the deaths from venereal diseases 
 were: Whites 1030, Coloured 561. At the White 
 rate, this latter should have been 135 only an 
 excess of 316 per cent; the Black death rate is 
 over four times as great as the White. All this 
 indicates the destructive prevalence, among the 
 Blacks, of these race-ruining maladies from 
 which they were so long supposed to be com 
 paratively exempt. We observe also that cancer is 
 rapidly marching to the front among the plagues 
 of the Negro indeed, it already attacks the 
 womb of the Black more frequently than that of 
 the White. Any one of these indications, or any 
 two, or perhaps three, might be misleading; but 
 not the general consensus of all. If evidence has 
 any value at all, there can be no doubt whatever 
 that these figures indicate both a low viability in 
 the Black man and the appalling prevalence of 
 the most race-destructive disorders. 
 
230 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 We would not disguise the fact that the last 
 census, while in general so exceedingly gloomy 
 in its omens for the Negro, is yet traversed here 
 and there by some brighter ray. Thus, the city 
 death rate from consumption fell from 6,001 in 
 1890 to 4,710 in 1900, and the rural from 3,652 
 to 3,227; especially the first comparison seems 
 very encouraging. But we must remember that 
 in that decade science and art vied in desperate 
 struggle against that disease, which could hardly 
 fail to produce at least temporary notable results, 
 especially in the earlier years of life, where the 
 principal gain was made. During the same period 
 the White urban rate fell from 2,851 to 1,978, 
 or 31 per cent, against the Negro 21.5 per 
 cent; and the White rural rate from 1,777 to 
 1,316 or 26 per cent against the Negro loss 
 of 12 per cent Meanwhile, also, the White 
 rate for pneumonia has perceptibly fallen every 
 where, while the Negro rate has scarcely changed 
 in town (3,469 against 3,480) and has actually risen 
 decidedly in the country (1,767 against 1,583), 
 and in the registration area from 279 to 349 ! 
 
 There is no escape, then, from our conclusion. 
 It is vain to allege excessive infant mortality, un 
 hygienic conditions, and the like as explanations. 
 The huge death rate faces the observer along 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 231 
 
 the whole line and under all circumstances. Thus 
 in the registration area, for 1900, the Negro rate 
 for the various ages showed the following ex 
 cesses over the White rate: 
 
 Ages 0-4 5-14 15-24 25-34 35-44 45-64 65- 
 
 Excess (per cent.) 137 139 164 96 89 71 26 
 
 While these excesses are greatest up to man 
 hood, they remain very great even up to old age. 
 The relative importance of infant mortality 
 among the Negroes is commonly much exagger 
 ated. In 1900 the number of deaths under five 
 years, per 10,000 deaths at all ages, was: Whites, 
 3,022; Negroes, 3,422 a comparative excess of 
 only about 13 per cent. It is from 10 to 25 
 that the Negro offers relatively the richest field 
 to disease and death. The lowered death-rate 
 observed in the cities is referable almost wholly 
 to the earliest years. Thus, in New Orleans, the 
 rates for White and Black for the triennium 
 1899-1901, as compared with 1889-1891, showed 
 the following gains (unmarked) and losses 
 (marked ) per myriad : 
 
 Ages 0-4 5-9 10-19 20-29 30-49 50-69 70- 
 
 White -172 -9 -1 -9 -26 -48 -69 
 
 Coloured -109 2 26 62 22 57 -635 
 
 Here the mortality (per 10,000 Whites) has 
 decreased slightly along the whole line; among 
 
232 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 the Blacks it has decreased at the ends, but has 
 increased everywhere else a result extremely 
 significant. Similarly for Washington and Charles 
 ton. Once more, the statistics of hospitals, as the 
 Johns Hopkins (Baltimore) and the Charity 
 (New Orleans), show an average death rate of 
 the Blacks nearly double that of the Whites, 
 except in surgical cases. Here the general con 
 ditions are practically the same for both races, 
 the duration of treatment averages the same, 
 and the far greater mortality is virtually decisive 
 for the far less vitality of the Negro race. 
 
 The very strongest corroboration of our con 
 tention is furnished by Surgeon- General O Reilly 
 in his recent report for the fiscal year, ending 
 June 30, 1903. The death rates of White and 
 Coloured soldiers were 144 and 241 per myriad, 
 respectively, almost exactly in the ratio of three 
 to five a coloured excess of over 67 per 
 cent. Here the life conditions were sensibly the 
 same; the far higher vitality of the Caucasian 
 appears in the boldest relief. 
 
 The question of increase, already discussed, 
 is very intimately connected with the death rate, 
 but equally so with the far less accurately known 
 birth rate; in fact, the rate of growth in numbers 
 is the difference of these two. Evidently, a very 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 233 
 
 high death rate may consist with a rapid increase 
 in numbers, if only the birth rate be high enough; 
 on the other hand, even a high birth rate would 
 bring about little increase, if the death rate 
 should be inordinately high. No one seriously 
 questions the great mortality among the Negroes ; 
 but their, champions think and hope that this 
 may be made good by extreme fertility. Let us 
 see what this latter would have to be. Since the 
 former is nearly 300 per myriad, in order to 
 maintain the very low rate of growth of 100 per 
 myriad, the latter would have to reach 400. Is 
 this rate a fact ? And, if so, is it likely to continue 
 to be a fact ? We shall summon all the evidence 
 accessible, both direct and indirect. While noth 
 ing like minute exactness is at present attain 
 able, the general purport of the testimony can 
 not, it seems, be mistaken. 
 
 The birth and death rates for certain Euro 
 pean countries, for the last decade, are as follows 
 (per myriad) : 
 
 England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden 
 andW. 
 
 Births 301 307 230 303 304 272 
 
 Deaths 184 188 181 177 165 164 
 
 Increase 117 119 49 126 139 108 
 
 Austria Hungary Ger. Emp. Prussia Netherl d Belgium 
 
 Births 372 405 362 368 327 289 
 
 Deaths 271 303 225 221 186 192 
 
 Increase 101 102 137 147 141 97 
 
234 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 France Italy Switzerland 
 
 Births 222 355 277 
 
 Deaths 216 246 190 
 
 Increase 6 109 87 
 
 In Eastern Europe, says Rubin, the birth rate 
 varied from 450 to 470 for a century (1800 to 
 1900); but in Western Europe, since 1870, it fell 
 from 342 to 313 (1900). 
 
 The determination of this rate in the United 
 States cannot be made with certainty or 
 confidence, owing to the imperfection of the 
 data. Our census reports yield such results 
 as these for the last decade, for the whole 
 United States, according to the analyses of the 
 census : 
 
 Average annual excess of births per myriad, 
 177; average annual number of deaths per 
 myriad, 174; hence, average annual number of 
 births per myriad, 351. 
 
 On this result we may perhaps rely so far as 
 to say that the rate lies somewhere between 330 
 and 370. 
 
 Similar analysis yields the following average 
 annual excess of births for native Whites, foreign 
 Whites, and the Coloured (i. e. practically Ne 
 groes) in the United States, and in the four grand 
 divisions: Northeastern, Central and Northern, 
 Southern, and Western. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 235 
 
 N. W. F. W. C. 
 
 UnitedStates 195 365 178 
 
 Northeastern 38 396 101 
 
 Central and Northern 200 360 102 
 
 Southern 241 274 191 
 
 Western 259 403 2 
 
 Here the more rapid multiplication of the Cau 
 casian is indicated under all conditions, with the 
 single startling exception of New England. In 
 the West, the Coloured are mostly Indians. 
 
 Not less impressive are these same excesses 
 arranged by States : 
 
 Ala. Ark. Del. D. C. Fla. Ga. Ky. La. Md. Miss. N. C. S. C. 
 
 N. W. 276 297 103 132 288 234 209 358 168 258 193 178 
 
 F.W. 306 317 310 194 497 240 152 112 175 225 104 110 
 
 C. 249 233 73 107 245 225 83 215 92 264 138 167 
 
 Tenn. Tex. Va. W.Va. 111. Ind. la. Kan. Mich. Minn. Mo. Neb. 
 
 N.W 173 387 75 339 228 163 298 216 193 400 263 222 
 
 F.W. 230 532 106 252 439 194 310 300 401 534 171 437 
 
 C. 136 310 74 196 168 142 62 202 150 26 90 -43 
 
 N. J. N. D. O. Pa. S. D. Wis. Conn. Me. Mass. N. H. N.Y. R. I. Vt. 
 
 N. W. 139 353 129 140 299 412 -18 -42 38 -104 89 ... -88 
 
 F. W. 398 921 219 368 528 345 425 474 456 585 366 462 232 
 
 C. 136-230 120 138-241-146 89 125174-150 88 60184 
 
 To be sure, these results are greatly compli 
 cated and deeply obscured by immigration and 
 emigration. None of them state the case correct 
 ly; but they can not all err the same way, and 
 collectively they exhibit clearly that the Negro 
 is losing ground everywhere in the race for num 
 bers. But these rates furnish us no independent 
 evidence concerning the birth rate. Such, how- 
 
236 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 ever, we find in the number of births in the census 
 years 1890 and 1900. The returns are certainly 
 incorrect, certainly incomplete ; they yield a mean 
 birth rate of only 272 surely too small, leaving 
 a deficiency of 79 or of 28^ per cent. That the 
 enumeration of births should be defective is not 
 at all surprising; but there is no reason to sup 
 pose the returns for 1890 less imperfect, and a 
 comparison of the two cannot fail to be in 
 structive : 
 
 U. S. N. E. C.& N. S.W. Conn. Me. Mass. N. H. N.Y. R. I. Vt. Ind. 
 1900 272 238 259 315 240 211 240 213 242 243 213 249 
 1890 269 221 268 301 213 176 215 180 233 223 183 254 
 
 111. la. Kan. Mich. Minn. Mo. Neb. N. J. N. D. O. Pa. S. D. Wis. Al. 
 1900 255 258 258 243 287 260 272 258 336 231 269 308 274 321 
 1890 278 263 285 249 302 290 299 253 365 242 258 318 271 306 
 
 Ark. Del. D. C. Fla. Ga. Ky. La. Md. Miss. N. C. Okl. S. C. Tenn. Tex. 
 1900 324 247 203 309 321 306 305 263 312 337 337 343 307 329 
 1890 343 250 233 287 306 296 298 260 303 301 221 313 308 316 
 
 Va. W.Va. Ariz. Cal. Col. Ida. Mt. Nev. N. M. Or. Ut. Wash. Wy. 
 1900 303 332 269 183 239 304 244 189 336 204 352 220 242 
 1890 272 307 172 196 256 266 218 155 330 226 312 238 217 
 
 These data are inexact; they are bound up 
 with the errors of enumeration, particularly in 
 1890, but they confirm in general the high fe 
 cundity of the American Caucasian everywhere, 
 save in the Northeast. The high rate indicated 
 in the South cannot be due to the Negro. In 
 West Virginia the coloured element is insignifi- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 237 
 
 cant, yet the return is very large 332 ; in Ken 
 tucky the Negro hardly holds his own in numbers, 
 yet the whole birth rate is 306. In the Carolinas 
 the native Whites have far outrun the Blacks 
 in increase, and the birth numbers are 337, 343; 
 whence it seems clear that nothing points to a 
 Negro rate higher than 351 higher than the 
 general average for the Union. But is the Black 
 rate really so high ? Despite the prevailing crude 
 opinion, we feel sure that it is sensibly lower and is 
 steadily falling. There is nothing in the history of 
 the Negro to suggest great fecundity. He has never 
 populated his fatherland densely and poured 
 over into the territory of his neighbours. In the 
 West Indies, where birth tables have been kept 
 with some care, there is no token of great fer 
 tility. In Alabama, the records since 1888 point 
 to a birth rate among Whites thrice as high, 
 among Blacks only twice as high, as the death 
 rate. In 1890 the births recorded were: Whites 
 13,631; Blacks 9,955 the highest in six years 
 but one (9,961 in 1893). In this year the popula 
 tions were as 100 to 83, but the births as 100 to 
 73. You say that the Black births were not all 
 recorded. Very true, but neither were the White. 
 The excess of deficiency in the Blacks must 
 have been 14 per cent, of the whole, in order 
 
238 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 to make their rate equal to the Whites . Maybe 
 these records are not worth the paper they were 
 written on ; but can the same be said of the New 
 England records ? In Rhode Island, from 1861 
 to 1893, the excess of deaths over births, among 
 the Negroes, was 18; in Connecticut from 
 1881 to 1893 the same excess was 272; in Massa 
 chusetts in 1888 it was 68. ". . . we must 
 conclude, however reluctantly (sic!), that the 
 race is not self-sustaining in this latitude" 
 (Dr. Fisher, Registrar of Vital Statistics, 
 Rhode Island, quoted by Hoffman). Similarly 
 Dr. Snow, Registrar of Providence; similarly 
 Appolino, Registrar of Boston (both quoted by 
 Hoffman). We could go on massing such evidence, 
 but it may all be scouted as irrelevant, since the 
 question is not about the Negro in the North, 
 but in the South. However, it is precisely in the 
 North, especially the Northeast, that his num 
 bers are increasing, of course by immigration, 
 faster and faster; if, then, he "is doomed to ex 
 tinction" there, his numbers elsewhere must suf 
 fer corresponding depletion. 
 
 There is yet another and more satisfactory way 
 of attacking this problem of the birth rate not a 
 direct, but an indirect one. Says the great statis 
 tician, Marcus Rubin, in his paper on "Popu- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 239 
 
 lation and Birth Rate," read before the Brit 
 ish Association at Bradford, September, 1900: 
 "Quite generally it may be remarked that a 
 large birth rate will crowd the age-groups cor 
 responding to childhood comparatively to what 
 would result from a small birth rate. It is also 
 clear that, when the adults produce a numerous 
 offspring, the latter will, other things being 
 equal, constitute a larger proportion of the whole 
 population than if it were less numerous." 
 
 Rubin has Denmark in mind, and western 
 Europe; he is not dreaming of the Gulf States. 
 Let us apply this common-sense principle to the 
 case in hand. Here is a table of the per thousands 
 of the population at various ages, native White 
 and Black. We take the native White, since im 
 migrants are generally of full age, and we are 
 now concerned with the general fertility of Cau 
 casian natives and not of foreigners; of the latter, 
 it is confessedly very high. 
 
 Under 1 year 
 
 N.W. 
 N. 
 
 1880 
 
 33 
 34 
 
 1890 
 
 30 
 
 28 
 
 1900 
 
 30 
 
 28 
 
 From 1 to 4 years 
 
 N.W. 
 N. 
 
 123 
 131 
 
 112 
 111 
 
 110 
 
 109 
 
 From 5 to 9 years 
 
 N.W. 
 N. 
 
 144 
 154 
 
 136 
 145 
 
 133 
 136 
 
 Total under 10 years 
 
 N.W. 
 
 N. 
 
 300 
 319 
 
 278 
 
 284 
 
 273 
 273 
 
240 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 Here the situation is revealed with great clear 
 ness. We see that both in White and in Black the 
 race is aging; extreme youth is becoming less and 
 less conspicuous. But the diversities are broadly 
 marked. In babes, the Blacks fall behind by two 
 per thousand of their total ; in children from one 
 to four years, they again fall behind, but only one 
 per thousand; in children from five to nine they 
 excel by three per thousand ; in the grand total of 
 children under ten, they exactly equal the native 
 Whites. This record of itself clearly indicates a 
 failing fecundity in the Blacks ; the younger, the 
 fewer, comparatively. 
 
 Still more clearly is this seen, on comparing the 
 earlier record of 1880. Then the Black youth sur 
 passed the White relatively at all ages by one, by 
 eight, by ten, and in the grand total by nineteen. 
 All this superiority has been lost in twenty years. 
 It seems hard to imagine a more impressive 
 record. High mortality among infants will not 
 explain this, especially it will not explain the loss 
 in the score of years, nor the relative scarcity of 
 the very young.* 
 
 * "The number of negro, Indian, and Mongolian children under 5 
 years of age to each 1,000 women 15 to 44 years of age was 759 in 1880 
 and 585 in 1900, showing a decrease of 174 [ 23 per cent. !] in twenty 
 years. The number in 1880 was 173 greater, and in 1900, 77 greater 
 than the corresponding number for the whites." Census Bulletin 8, 
 Negroes in the United states, p. 14a. 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 241 
 
 But another fact is illuminative. The chief sta 
 tistician, William C. Hunt, remarks (Population, 
 Part II., p. Iviii.): "The decrease in the relative 
 proportion of children among the negro element 
 is due for the most part to the greater infant mor 
 tality of the negro race as compared with the 
 native white population, although it may be due 
 in part to the decrease in the proportion of negro 
 women who are or have been married, for each 
 age-group except that from 15 to 19 years, 
 as shown by the statistics of conjugal con 
 dition for 1890 and 1900." We have just ob 
 served that the first explanation does not explain. 
 " Greater infant mortality" might cause a smaller 
 " relative proportion of children among the Negro 
 element," both in 1880 and in 1900; but it could 
 not cause a "decrease in the relative proportion" 
 from 1890 to 1900, unless that mortality was not 
 only great, but actually becoming greater. But 
 such is not the fact ; if it were, it would mean ruin 
 to the Negro race. On the contrary, it is precisely 
 in these years of infancy that the mortality has 
 been reduced. Nor could even a huge mortality, 
 extending up to the tenth year, of itself bring 
 about the relatively small number of babes under 
 one year. It is the second fact, which we have 
 italicized, that throws light on the situation. Ex- 
 
242 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 cept very young girls, whose marriages are largely 
 transient or nominal, the Negro women are be 
 ginning to shun marriage. This is a part of the 
 general moral and social declension, which no un 
 biased observer of the race can fail to notice. Here 
 are the numbers per thousand, male and female, 
 of the single and married and widowed, of those 
 over fifteen years of age, in 1890 and 1900: 
 
 1900 1890 1900 1890 
 
 Single (M). 392 398 Single .. (F) 299 300 
 
 Married . . (M) 540 555 Married (F) 537 546 
 
 Widowed . (M) 58 43 Widowed (F) 154 147 
 
 And for native Whites: 
 
 Single (M) 397 401 Single . . . (F) 310 306 
 
 Married ..(M) 549 554 Married . (F) 577 582 
 
 Widowed... (M) 45 40 Widowed. (F) 106 107 
 
 The fall from 546 to 537 is not large only 9; 
 but it must be increased by the increase 7 
 of those returning themselves as "widows," of 
 which the number, 154, is excessive, and by the 
 excess (3) of divorcees, making altogether an 
 increase of about 2 per cent of the female 
 population, who decline to produce their kind 
 legitimately. It is impossible to interpret this 
 otherwise than as a sign of moral and social 
 deterioration, which Nature cannot fail to punish 
 promptly by a diminishing birth rate. 
 
 It is also seen that the White ratio of the mar- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 243 
 
 ried women has fallen slightly, from 582 to 577 - 
 about half as fast as the Black, the number of the 
 single increasing from 306 to 310. Undoubtedly, 
 the growing determination of the White woman 
 to be a man to compete with a man in all forms 
 of activity has sensibly reduced the marriage 
 rate, and therewith the birth rate of the Cau 
 casian, and will yet further reduce it a result 
 we must deplore; but there is here no sign of dete 
 rioration, as in case of the Black woman. In her 
 case it is attested freely by the more respectable 
 Negroes themselves. Ask such a one to recom 
 mend some "nice coloured girl" as a domestic, 
 and she will probably reply frankly that she 
 knows of none, that they are altogether become 
 unprofitable, that they are scandalously and out 
 rageously unchaste, that there is none that doeth 
 good no, not one. At this point we speak from 
 personal knowledge. In such statements, there is 
 no doubt considerable exaggeration ; but they are 
 largely and increasingly correct. Even Professor 
 Dubois, the ablest of Afro-Americans, confesses 
 that about one-fifth of the Negro families belong 
 to the lowest class " below the line of respect 
 ability, living in loose sexual relationship," and 
 so on. "Laziness and promiscuous sexual inter 
 course are their besetting sins." He is reporting 
 
244 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 on the Negroes of Farmville, Va. (Department 
 of Labour Bulletin, January, 1898, p. 37.) 
 
 Much somberer colours must be used in de 
 picting the conditions in larger towns. He found 
 about 1 5 per cent belonging to the higher class - 
 a percentage that wider investigation would 
 hardly maintain. In another connection the same 
 stern prophet declares: "Unless we conquer our 
 present vices, they will conquer us. We are dis 
 eased; we are developing criminal tendencies, 
 and an alarmingly large percentage of our men 
 and women are sexually impure. " 
 
 Entirely confirmatory of our contentions are 
 the results of the intensive studies of Professor 
 Dubois. Thus he finds that the average Negro 
 family in Philadelphia numbers 3.18, but little 
 more than one child to the couple. The Mongrel 
 record is even worse. Of thirty-three families 
 (four White husbands, twenty-nine White wives), 
 the average size was 2.9; there seem to have been 
 thirty-five children in all. This painstaking sociol 
 ogist admits: (1) "That a tendency to much later 
 marriage than under the slave system is revolu 
 tionizing the Negro family and incidentally lead 
 ing to much irregularity." (2) "There is, never 
 theless, still the temptation for young men and 
 women under forty to enter into matrimony be- 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 245 
 
 fore their economical condition warrants it. " (3) 
 "Among persons over forty, there is a marked 
 tendency towards single life. " (4) " The very large 
 number of widowed and separated points to 
 grave physical, economical, and moral disorder" 
 (op. cit. 9 p. 70). 
 
 Among college-bred Negroes, presumably by 
 far the best class, Dubois finds 491 couples rep 
 resented by 1,081 children, of whom 877 survive, 
 982 by 887. This number may yet be increased 
 somewhat by more births ; but it will also be de 
 creased by deaths of the young, so that the total 
 of the next propagative generation will very 
 improbably reach the number of the parents, 
 982. 
 
 Once more, consider this table of the percent 
 ages in families of one, two to six, seven to ten, 
 eleven and more in the United States in general, 
 and in the Negro population of a number of cities, 
 as Atlanta, Nashville, Cambridge: 
 
 1 2 to 6 7 to 10 11 and more 
 
 U.S. 3.63 73.33 20.97 2.07 
 
 N. 4.75 79.85 15.22 .18 
 
 It is seen that the small families (Negro) 
 greatly preponderate. Of the 79.85 per cent., 
 nearly one-fourth (19.17 per cent.) were families 
 of only two (op. cit., p. 167). 
 
246 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 " For several decades to come, the average size of 
 the Negro family will decrease until economic well- 
 being can keep pace with the demands of a rising 
 standard of living" (op. cit., p. 166). We have 
 italicized this sentence, for it pronounces the 
 doom of the Negro. 
 
 As the standard of living rises, as competition 
 sharpens, his economic "well-being " will find it 
 harder and harder to "keep pace," his family 
 will shrink more and more, his race will dwindle 
 faster and faster into insignificance. 
 
 A striking corroboration of our results surprises 
 the reader of Professor C. H. Crogman s work, 
 The Remarkable Advancement of the Afro- 
 American," at Chapter XIII, on "Mortality." 
 Therein Professor Harris, of Fisk University, re 
 ports an intensive study of the Nashville Negro, 
 whose circumstances are at least comparatively 
 favourable. In 145 families he found 649 persons, 
 an average of not quite 4^; hence, he yields the 
 contention that the Negro is "prolific." :< The 
 excessive mortality" he found "due largely and 
 perhaps altogether, to constitutional diseases." 
 "Pulmonary consumption is the destroying 
 angel/" "Thirteen suffer from scrofula." "More 
 white people die from contagious diseases and 
 local diseases than colored; while more colored 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 247 
 
 people die from constitutional diseases than 
 white." The "crimes of mothers," he found 
 " also a fruitful reason of the slow rate of increase 
 in the colored population. This state of affairs is 
 not confined to Nashville. It is true of nearly all 
 our large Southern cities ; and whether we like it 
 or not, the hard fact remains that the enormous 
 death rate among us, together with our small 
 birth rate, is one of the signs of the times that, 
 unless our home life be radically changed, the 
 Negro problem in America may be ultimately 
 solved by the extinction of the Negro. " And more 
 to the same effect. 
 
 Such is the state of case, as attested by a pro 
 fessor in the best-known coloured university, 
 among a populace that have dwelt for a whole 
 generation in the shadow of this noted seminary. 
 House-to-house investigation tells everywhere 
 the same story. Thus, in 1901, as appears from 
 the "concrete study" embodied in the Master s 
 Dissertation of William Wilson Elwang, there 
 were 34 births in a Negro population of 1,916 
 (Columbia, Mo.) - - 17 per thousand against a 
 death rate of 24 per thousand. The small family 
 average was almost precisely the same as in Nash 
 ville. There were only 161 children under 6 years 
 of age, and 60 married couples were childless! 
 
248 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 The interpretation has already been suggested in 
 the foregoing quotations. 
 
 From all of this it is clear, not only that the 
 coloured birth rate is low and is falling, but why 
 it is low, and why it is falling. It is almost im 
 possible that it should long remain so much as 
 thirty-five per thousand per annum, or even thirty- 
 four or thirty-three. It seems certainly descending 
 towards thirty that is, 300 births per myriad 
 yearly. But the present death rate is 296 per 
 myriad; it fell only three, from 299 to 296, in the 
 decade from 1890 to 1900; it actually rose from 
 308 to 313 in the cities of the non-registration 
 area. Thus it appears certain that the birth and 
 death rates of the Negro cannot continue very far 
 apart, that they are steadily approaching, and 
 that without some strange reversal of present ten 
 dencies, the birth rate must ere long fall below 
 the death rate in all but a very few districts, and at 
 no distant period even in them. In all likelihood 
 these tendencies will be rather strengthened than 
 weakened with advancing years, and there are 
 those now living who will actually see the Afro- 
 American moving rapidly towards extinction. 
 But even at the present rate, he must shrink 
 swiftly in importance; for the census analyst ad 
 mits that even in the registration area the death 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 249 
 
 rate of the Negro is about ten per thousand 
 greater than that of the foreign White, and about 
 thirteen per thousand greater than that of the na 
 tive White. Since his birth rate can hardly, in the 
 extremest cases, exceed the native White s, much 
 less the foreigner s, it follows that both must gain 
 and are gaining on him, at least ten per thousand 
 yearly. Regard it, then, as you will, there is no 
 escape from our general conclusion, which faces 
 us from the whole circle of statistical fact. 
 
 RECORD OF CRIME 
 
 We pass now, formally, to the second grand cause 
 of the Negro s race declension namely, his vice. 
 The general fact is a matter of the most common 
 observation, but it is also witnessed unimpeach- 
 ably by the records of the courts. Here is how 
 the case stands in the census of 1890. The White 
 population was then almost exactly seven and one- 
 half times the Black. The prisoners in the United 
 States, June 1, 1890 were: Whites 57,310, Blacks 
 24,277. In proportion to numbers, the Black pris 
 oners should have been 7,642, but they were more 
 than thrice as many; the Black appears more than 
 thrice as criminal as the White. This, however, is 
 
250 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 not nearly the whole truth. The list of Caucasian 
 crimes swells chiefly in the Northeast, where 
 foreigners most and Negroes least abound. In the 
 various grand divisions of the country, the record 
 comes out far more clearly. Thus, in the North 
 Atlantic, there were in prison: Whites 26,182, 
 Blacks 2,037. Out of every myriad of population 
 there were 155 Blacks; out of every myriad of 
 prisoners there were 722 Blacks; his prison rate 
 was nearly five times as high as the Caucasian - 
 this, too, in a region of urban population, largely 
 immigrant. In the North Central there were 2,738 
 Black prisoners and 17,027 White; the Negro 
 furnished not 2 per cent of the population, but 
 nearly 14 per cent of the crime; he was more 
 than seven times as criminal as the White. 
 
 In the South Atlantic States, he furnished 8,863 
 prisoners against 2,544 Whites ; not 37 per cent 
 of the population, but over 77 per cent of the 
 trespass; proportionally, he offended almost 
 six times as often as the Whites. In the South 
 Central the prison record stood: Whites 5,604, 
 Blacks 10,381; the populations are as 6,828 to 
 3,171; the Black appears nearly four times as 
 criminal as the White. 
 
 It is often urged that the comparative criminal 
 ity of the Negro in the South is exaggerated. The 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 251 
 
 White transgressor has friends, money, and 
 social position and manages to evade the law; the 
 Negro is poor, friendless, and outcast and 
 falls an easy victim. In a measure, this may be 
 true we are ashamed to confess ; but it cannot 
 alter the general fact, only its degree. On the 
 other hand, very many offences of Black against 
 Black must go unchallenged by the law, both 
 from apathy and from fear. These two consider 
 ations, very likely, about balance each other. It is 
 thoroughly decisive, however, that the Negro ap 
 pears a greater criminal in the North and East, 
 where there is no prejudice against him than in 
 the South, where the prejudice is supposed to be 
 so strong. If we compare the states, we may see 
 this" even more clearly. In Massachusetts, the 
 prisoners were: Whites 5,157, Blacks 161. Since 
 the latter formed not 1 per cent of the popu 
 lation, their criminality appears over three times 
 as great as the White ; yet they are, presumably, 
 the very elect of the race the best Negroes in the 
 world. In New York, there were 10,745 White 
 prisoners and 723 Black ; but the latter numbered 
 only 117 per myriad; hence, their criminality was 
 six times as great as the White. In Pennsylvania 
 there were 5,749 White prisoners and 738 Black; 
 but the latter formed little over 2 per cent of the 
 
252 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 population; hence, again, their criminality was 
 six times that of the White. In West Virginia there 
 were 320 Whites in prisons and 130 Blacks; these 
 latter formed not 5 per cent of the population ; 
 they were seven times as criminal as the White. 
 Washington City is the Mecca of the Negro; 
 there, if anywhere on earth, he should show him 
 self at his best. What is the prison record ? Whites 
 138, Blacks 358; yet he numbers only 328 per 
 thousand he is more than five times as criminal 
 as the Whites. In Ohio there were 481 Black 
 prisoners, representing only 247 per myriad of the 
 population, and 2,415 Whites; again, an eightfold 
 criminality. In Michigan there is no prejudice 
 against the Negro, but rather for him, and how 
 stands the court record ? He numbers only 73 per 
 myriad of the population, yet he furnishes 141 
 prisoners against 1,998 Whites this time a 
 criminality tenfold ! In the South his record is 
 seemingly better. In Louisiana the Blacks num 
 bered one-half, but the population of the prisons 
 was 367 Whites, 1,238 Blacks; the latter were 
 not quite fourfold criminal. In Alabama the pop 
 ulation-ratio was 5,516 to 4,484, but the prison- 
 ratio was 422 to 2,096. On dividing the former by 
 the latter, we find the crime-ratio of six to one. 
 In Mississippi, the population-ratio was 4,342 to 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 253 
 
 5,658; the prison-ratio was 119 to 1,058; their 
 quotient, the crime-ratio, was over six to one. 
 
 In Virginia the ratio is over six, in South Caro 
 lina under six, in Indiana nearly five, in Georgia 
 over eight, in Illinois nearly nine. 
 
 Thus it appears that the Negro everywhere, 
 many times oftener than the White man, falls into 
 prison; but in the North still oftener than in the 
 South, and not only is he relatively more fre 
 quently criminal in the North he is absolutely 
 so. For, to judge from the court records, the South 
 is in general more law-abiding than the North. 
 
 It may be useful here to give a table of the 
 criminality of the five grand divisions in the cen 
 sus years 1880 and 1890, giving the number of 
 prisoners per million of population, with the in 
 crease of each division in ten years ; 
 
 1890 1880 Increase 
 
 United States 1,315 1,169 146 
 
 North Atlantic 1,624 1,425 199 
 
 South Atlantic 1,288 1,043 245 
 
 North Central 888 862 26 
 
 South Central .... 1,466 1,250 216 
 
 Western 2,221 2,199 22 
 
 Here the great North Central appears by far 
 most law-abiding. The reason is, the criminality 
 is raised by foreigners in the East, by the Negro 
 in the South, by the adventurer in the West. On 
 comparing the total number of prisoners North 
 
254 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 and South with the total populations, we find 
 that there were in the South about six prisoners 
 per myriad of Whites, and twenty-nine prisoners 
 per myriad of Blacks ; whereas in the North were 
 twelve prisoners per myriad Whites, and sixty- 
 nine prisoners per myriad Blacks. On going from 
 South to North, we find the prison numbers ex 
 actly doubled among the Whites, but much 
 more than doubled among the Blacks. 
 
 But our tables can teach us still more. The in 
 crease from 1880 to 1890 is worth attention. In 
 the West and the North Central region, it was only 
 slight twenty-two and twenty-six per million; 
 but both in the South Central and the South Atlan 
 tic, it was very great 216 and 245 per million. 
 To whom was it due ? To the Black, or to the 
 White ? In part to both, but far more to the former. 
 The White increase was only seven per cent, the 
 Black was twenty-seven per cent. Worse than this, 
 however, in the North the White increase was 
 hardly five per cent, but the Black increase was 
 thirty-five per cent whence it appears that in 
 criminality the Negro, especially the educated 
 Northern Negro, is striding forward in seven- 
 league boots. 
 
 Closely akin to this latter fact is still another - 
 the still higher criminality of the Mulatto. In the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 255 
 
 whole United States, the pure Blacks outnumber 
 the mixed breeds about six to one; in the North 
 Atlantic division, about twenty to six, or three 
 to one; in the South Atlantic, nearly seven to one; 
 in the North Central, over two to one; in the 
 South Central, about six to one; in the West, 
 under two to one. Now we have already seen that 
 precisely where the Mulattoes most abound, the 
 Negro is most criminal. Still more definitely, we 
 have these facts of the eleventh census (1890). 
 Of Blacks there were in city prisons 898 pure, 170 
 mixed five to one; in workhouses, 1,004 pure, 
 333 mixed three to one; in juvenile reforma 
 tories, 1,418 pure, 512 mixed three to one ; leased 
 out (not in penitentiaries), 1,700 pure, 295 mixed 
 -five to one; altogether, in penitentiaries 
 10,884 pure, 3,383 mixed only three to one; 
 whence, it appears, that the pure Black exceeds 
 the Mulatto more in numbers than in criminals - 
 that is, the Mulatto is the greater offender. 
 This result accords with the African proverb 
 quoted by Livingstone: "A god made the white; 
 who made the black I know not; but surely the 
 devil made the mongrel." 
 
 The champions of the oppressed will have 
 much to say in avoidance of the foregoing noth 
 ing, however, that is both forceful and relevant. 
 
256 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 They may urge that the offences of the Negro are 
 mainly trivial, that he is not to be judged too 
 harshly for his penchant towards henroosts ; that 
 such a little thing as a chicken must not be allowed 
 to separate him from civilization and Chris 
 tianity. But the facts look the other way. The 
 great crimes are the ones that swell his list; his 
 slight offences are mainly against his own kith 
 and kin, and very frequently go unpunished. The 
 court records, as in Alabama,* show that he as 
 pires to the heights of felony. He is murderous, he 
 excels in arson, he forges with a will. Of the crime 
 of all crimes he enjoys almost the proud monop 
 oly, and he plies it in spite of the swiftest, surest, 
 savagest of all possible penalties. His defenders 
 have here excogitated a most ingenious plea. This 
 crime against woman is not a reversion to barbar 
 ism ; it is not a yielding to ungovernable and brutal 
 lust oh, no! It is, they say, a deep-studied 
 
 * Here is the penitentiary record for 1900: 
 
 Whites. Negroes. 
 
 Convicts 253 2,147 
 
 For Homicide 59 366 
 
 " Rape 3 41 
 
 " Arson 3 38 
 
 " Forgery 7 42 
 
 " Burglary 34 432 
 
 " Major offences 106 919 
 
 Population per felon 3,270 317 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 257 
 
 revenge; it is an attack by the oppressed on the 
 race of the oppressor. In the person of his victim, 
 the Black avenger would hurl defiance and dese 
 cration at the whole tribe of his persecutors. We 
 are not concerned to refute such nonsense. He 
 that can find satisfaction in thus swapping off 
 bestiality for diabolism, let him find it. We 
 merely note, in passing, that the North has re 
 cently shown itself as little tolerant as the South 
 of such assaults on the integrity of the race. To be 
 sure, there are many crimes, and many of appall 
 ing proportions, from which the Negro does 
 greatly abstain. He does not corrupt legislatures, 
 he does not thwart justice, he does not evade the 
 Constitution, he does not defy the acts of Con 
 gress, he does not frame tariff schedules, he does 
 not assume divine vice-gerency, he does not water 
 stock and crush competition and servilize millions, 
 he does not even buy and sell franchises, nor divide 
 rake-offs, nor stuff ballot boxes, nor muzzle the 
 press, nor indulge in other such venialities. But 
 is there any one that does not know the reason ? 
 The Negro is not equal to these iniquities. There 
 fail him both ability and opportunity. But if any 
 one doubts for an instant that, according to the 
 measure of his might, he has improved and will 
 improve whatever stray chance may fall in his 
 
258 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 way, in fashion that would even make St. Louis 
 blush, we would respectfully recommend to such 
 a Nathanael a study of Presidential nominating 
 conventions or any faithful history of Recon 
 struction. 
 
 But has not the last decade abated the " crimi 
 nal tendencies" which Professor Dubois so de 
 plores ? On the contrary. Complete reports have 
 not yet been issued, but the general facts lie open 
 to view. The annual summaries of the Chicago 
 Tribune show that the Negro maintains his lead 
 easily. In 1902, there were judicial hangings 144: 
 Negroes 85, Whites 56, Indians 2, Chinaman 1 ; 
 for murder 133, for rape 9; South 101, North 
 43. There were lynchings, 96 : Negroes 86, Whites 
 9, Indian 1; for murder 41, rape 30; South 87, 
 North 9. The number of lynchings has, indeed, 
 steadily decreased from 235 in 1892 to 96 in 
 1902 and not strangely. Atrocious as such 
 forms of rudimentary justice undoubtedly are, 
 and severely reprehensible, to be condemned 
 always and without any reserve, it cannot be 
 denied that they have a certain rough and 
 horrible virtue. Great is the insult they wreak 
 on the majesty of the law and brutalizing 
 must be their effect upon human nature, yet they 
 do strike a salutary terror into hearts which the 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 259 
 
 slow and uncertain steps of the courts could 
 hardly daunt. In witness stands the fact that 
 lynch-lightning seldom strikes twice in the same 
 district or community. Such frightful incidents 
 tend to repeat themselves at wide intervals, both 
 of time and of place. 
 
 Finally, the whole family of facts here assem 
 bled, especially those that establish the greater 
 and faster growing criminality of the Northern 
 Negro, show clearly that education is not the 
 cure for his ills. Generation after generation of 
 coddling and sympathy in the North has not 
 effaced a single racial trait nor raised by a single 
 notch the average character, moral or mental or 
 physical, of hundreds of thousands of the pick of 
 their race. Nearly forty years of devoted and 
 enthusiastic effort to elevate and educate the 
 Southern Negro lie stretched out behind us in a 
 dead level of failure. We grant freely and gladly 
 that there are exceptions, rare and remarkable 
 enough. But that the average of the Negro, both 
 moral and physical, has fallen and is falling 
 measurably under all endeavours to lift him up, 
 is a fact that shines out clear in the light of 
 the foregoing statistics. 
 
 But not only is it a fact it is precisely what 
 might have been expected. A culture, a civiliza- 
 
260 THE COLOR LINE 
 
 tion, to be helpful and healthful, must proceed 
 from within and not from without. It must be an 
 internal evolution, not an external imposition. 
 The impulse may, indeed, be given by contact ; it 
 may proceed from another; but it must strike 
 upon a nature prepared, responsive, and kindred. 
 It must release energies and potencies already 
 present and in high tension it cannot create 
 them ; it may be an occasion, it cannot be a cause. 
 You may ignite a match by friction, but not a 
 piece of chalk. 
 
 The civilization of any people is the slow and 
 toilsome growth of centuries, an unfolding of the 
 people s spirit itself. Its virtue, its essence lies in 
 this very fact. How then shall such a product be 
 imposed upon an alien and inferior race? They 
 cannot receive it; they can put it on only as an 
 outer garment; it can never become truly theirs, 
 the efflorescence of their own souls. Moreover, in 
 such foreign vesture they are clumsy and con 
 strained; they cut but a sorry and even ridicu 
 lous figure, like David in the armour of Saul. 
 Well for them if it prove not to be a shirt of 
 Nessus. 
 
 These propositions we make no attempt to 
 argue formally, for that would be remote from 
 our present purpose. We rest our case on the facts 
 
THE ARGUMENT FROM NUMBERS 261 
 
 and figures already submitted. But we must 
 observe, in conclusion, that the doctrine just 
 enounced is by no means a novelty. Nearly two 
 thousand years ago, "The Apostle" addressing 
 the Corinthians declared: "Even so the things 
 of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God 
 Now a man of soul receives not 
 the things of the Spirit of God: for they are 
 foolishness unto him ; and he can not know them, 
 because they are spiritually discerned. " 
 
 THE END 
 
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