that for the most part they have a higher rate of infant mortality.
Variations among the races are striking. Thus while the native white
has an infant mortality rate of 94 per 1000 births, that of the
American Negro is 154, that of the Poles about the same, that of the
French Canadians 171, that of the Portuguese 200, as shown in some
extensive studies made by the Federal Children's Bureau.
In the second generation, the fecundity of the alien groups begins
to decline. It is generally said that the immigrant's daughter bears
one less child than did her mother. Hence if immigrants are let in
slowly, they are not likely to swamp the native stock; and as to those
already here, although some of them, particularly the Italians, have
remarkably high birthrates, they will probably lose this advantage
within the next couple of generations.
The question is often raised, whether the population of the United
States would not be just as large today, if immigration had been
permanently excluded in 1790. In other words, if no alien had arrived
since the founding of the United States, would the descendants of the
Colonial population have produced as many citizens as there are now
here? This hypothesis, often known as Walker's Law, assumes that the
fecundity of a group is cut down by the competition of immigrants, and
that the latter do no more than fill the places which would otherwise
have been filled by natural increase.
No one would claim that such a generalization is exact, but as a
general tendency it seems to be near the truth. The United States would
have grown large and strong, had immigration been shut off a century
ago. It will continue to grow large and strong, with immigration shut
off at the present time. That does not mean that the rate of growth
which has been maintained during the last century will continue for
another century. The Nordic civilization is at present near the end of
a cycle of growth, and its rate of multiplication is slowing in every
civilized country. In most of the Nordic nations, the population does
not now replace itself. When the women now of child-bearing age pass
from the scene, they will not leave enough daughters to take their
places.
The influence of the "newer immigration" and its offspring is great
enough to carry forward the United States population expansion a little
longer, but all signs indicate that, assuming _all_ immigration ceased,
the numerical growth of the United States would come to a standstill at
the end of two or three generations, probably at a figure not higher
than 150,000,000 of population, and no more are needed.
All the greater is the need, then, that this stock should be sound in
quality. A memorable step toward this goal was taken by the Federal
Supreme Court in 1923, when it held that only white persons and persons
of African descent are eligible to citizenship.
* * * * *
In 1790 Congress enacted the first naturalization statute, the terms of
which confined its benefits to "free white citizens." The restriction
remained in force until extended in 1870 by statute giving the right
of citizenship to persons of African descent. At present, then, only
Whites and Negroes are eligible for naturalization. Interpreting the
statute of 1790, the Supreme Court held that the term "free white" must
be understood in its common meaning as used by the framers, and could
not include a Hindu (Sikh) or, in another case, a Japanese.
Meanwhile the immigration act of 1924 provides that "no alien
ineligible to citizenship shall be admitted to the United States."
The Supreme Court decisions in the cases mentioned mean that this law
excludes all colored and Oriental races--all, in short, save "free
Whites" and Negroes. Another safeguard is thus thrown around the
American stock.
The three millions of Whites of 1790 have increased to 109 millions in
1930. Of this number, one-third are either foreign-born or the children
of such. One wonders how many of the 109 millions are the undiluted
descendants of Colonial stock. While mathematical exactitude cannot be
expected in such calculations, the census experts have figured that
about one-third of the population is of such ancestry.
There are many others who have one parent Colonial and the other going
back perhaps to an immigrant of 1850. Such latter, these experts
claim, is the equivalent of half of a Colonial descendant. Two of
them together they count as equivalent to one Colonial descendant. By
this device the experts calculated that the "numerical equivalent"
of the Colonial stock amounts to nearly one-half of the entire white
population.
The investigations necessary to put the National Origins provision
into effect, and to defend it from partisan criticism, brought out
the salient facts concerning the composition of the population
today--again, of course, subject to such margin of error as is
inevitable. The white population of 1920 was apportioned as follows:
England, Scotland, Wales, and
North Ireland 39,242,733
Germany 14,833,588
Irish Free State 10,378,634
Poland[11] 3,626,692
Italy 3,566,396
Russia 2,108,283
Sweden 2,024,434
France 1,970,189
Netherlands 1,835,959
Czechoslovakia 1,623,438
Norway 1,431,292
Austria 976,248
Switzerland 961,406
Belgium 790,928
Denmark 735,083
Hungary 703,409
Yugoslavia 440,518
Finland 338,036
Lithuania 293,100
Portugal 272,104
Greece 185,836
Rumania 185,423
Spain 181,658
Latvia 144,844
Turkey 138,389
Danzig 81,522
All other quota countries 262,216
Non-quota countries[12] 5,488,757
----------
94,820,915
The United States is no longer 99 per cent Protestant, as it was in
1790; but it is still 80 per cent Protestant. Its white inhabitants are
no longer 90 per cent Nordic, as after the Revolution; but they are
still 70 per cent Nordic.[13][14] Its future course must be guided in
the light of a consideration of these facts.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 11: It must be remembered that these figures show national
origins, not _racial_. The numbers credited to such countries as
Poland, Russia, and Austria-Hungary therefore include very large
proportions of Jews.]
[Footnote 12: These are the countries of the Western Hemisphere, of
which Canada and Mexico have been the largest contributors.]
[Footnote 13: This would, of course, include all Germany.]
[Footnote 14: The Hoover Committee on Social Trends, in re National
Origins, says that "about 85 per cent of the Whites in the United
States in 1920 were from strains originating in northwestern Europe
where Nordics predominate."]
XV
THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY
The most essential element in nationality is unity. This unity can be
based on race, on language, on religion, on a long tradition held in
common, or on several or all of these.
In the past century the United States has to some extent lost its
unity of religion, of race, and of language. In the same period it has
acquired a number of unassimilable elements brought in as cheap and
docile labor to develop its industries or else allowed to enter through
the false humanitarianism of the so-called Victorian Era. It had been
forgotten that a cheap man makes a cheap job.
In the South manual labor was performed by the Negroes, but in the
North, where there were no slaves, manual labor was chiefly performed
by Americans, and it still is in the districts where there are no
aliens. The moment that cheap alien labor was introduced to build
railroads or dig canals, such labor became distasteful to the native
American, because it was done by lowly foreigners whom they despised.
Among the various outland elements now in the United States which
threaten in different degrees our national unity, the most important is
the Negro. Unlike the other alien elements the blacks were brought into
the country against their will. They brought with them no persisting
language, religion, or other cultural attribute, but accepted these
elements from their masters.
At the time of the first census (1790) the Negroes numbered 757,208,
being 19.3 per cent of the total population. They were naturally mostly
in the Southern States. In 1860 the Negroes numbered 4,441,830 and
constituted 14.1 per cent of the population. They were still in the
South. In 1930 the Negroes numbered 11,891,143 and constituted 9.69
per cent of the population, but there had been a distinct migration
from the agricultural districts of the South to the large cities of the
North.
When, after the Civil War, the Negroes were granted the franchise the
Negro problem was greatly complicated. This ill-advised measure was
forced on the country by a wave of feeling aroused by the wanton murder
of Lincoln. The North feared to entrust the government of the country
to those who had lately been in armed rebellion, so they conferred the
voting power on the Negroes and thereby greatly increased the electoral
vote of the South. If the franchise had been confined to the Whites
only, the influence of the "Solid South" after the Civil War would have
been much less than it now is. The purpose of the measure was to make
the South Republican, its actual effect was to enhance the power of the
South in Congress and in the Electoral College and make that section
definitely Democratic. In the words of the late Chancellor Von Bismarck
this was worse than a crime--it was a blunder.
[Illustration: NEGRO POPULATION
1930
_11,891,143_]
The Southerners understand how to treat the Negro--with firmness and
with kindness--and the Negroes are liked below the Mason and Dixon line
so so long as they keep to their proper relation to the Whites, but in
the North the blocks of Negroes in the large cities, migrating from the
South, have introduced new complications, which are certain to produce
trouble in the future, especially if Communist propaganda makes headway
among them.
In the Negro section of Harlem a further problem is arising from
crosses between Negroes and Jews and Italians. These and other
Mulattoes are showing a tendency toward Communism. During the World War
a Communistic and racial movement was started there and a situation
developed which was controlled with some difficulty, though without
publicity.
The increase in the relative number of Mulattoes to Blacks is growing
greater in the Northern States, as is obvious to any observer in the
Negro districts of the larger cities. There can be seen many yellow and
light-colored individuals, who are Negro in every other respect. Many
of our dark immigrant Whites are themselves darker in color than the
yellow Negroes and this enables some of these light Negroes to "pass"
as Whites. This problem is one which will increase in gravity.
Evidence does not exist to show whether the number of Mulattoes being
produced by primary union of Whites and Negroes is now larger than it
was fifty or one hundred years ago. But evidence does exist to show
that the intelligence and ability of a colored person are in pretty
direct proportion to the amount of white blood he has, and that most
of the positions of leadership, influence, and prominence in the Negro
race are held not by real Negroes but by Mulattoes, many of whom have
very little Negro blood. This is so true that to find a black Negro
in a conspicuous position is a matter of comment. E.B. Reuter has
calculated that a Mulatto child has a better chance than a black child
to achieve prominence in the ratio of thirty-four to one.
Such a situation naturally puts a premium on white blood in the minds
of Negroes, and therefore puts a prize on bastardy, discouraging any
tendency to cultivate pure racial values on the part of the Blacks
themselves. The black man who acquires wealth, at once wishes to show
visible evidences of his affluence by acquiring a light yellow or
"pink" wife, and the black girl is at a heavy discount matrimonially.
Even in adoption the same tendency is found. Child-placing societies
may seek in vain to find a home for the pickaninny with black
skin and curly hair, but the light-colored baby, despite other
disqualifications, is eagerly adopted by darker Negro parents.
The religious world, the political world, and the educational world
alike seem to have conspired to give all the rewards to the Negro with
white blood and to make the bulk of the race feel that white blood is
the greatest possible good for a Negro. Such a condonation of race
mixture is an insidious and far-reaching menace to the racial and
ethical standards of both races.
How much white blood now circulates in the veins of our Negroes cannot
be told. It is generally considered, however, that at least one-third
of all those classed as Negroes in the United States have, in fact,
some white blood and the proportion is probably larger.
The "pass-for-white" does so purely by virtue of his physical
characters which approximate those of his white ancestors. His
intellectual and emotional traits may insidiously go back to his black
ancestry, and may be brought into the White race in this way.
Mentally and emotionally the Negro is the product of thousands of
years of evolution under the most stringent natural selection in the
hot lands of Africa. He is notably lacking in just those qualities
necessary for success in a modern Nordic industrial civilization,
as for instance in self-control and in capacity for co-operation.
Physically he is the product of the same circumstances. His tough skin
gives him an advantage over the White in resisting some diseases. His
lower vital capacity puts him at a disadvantage in others. Thus the
Negro is liable to succumb to tuberculosis or pneumonia, and is less
prone to cancer and skin affections. With the aid of white sanitation
and hygiene, the Negro is holding his own, even gaining ground in the
Northern cities where it was formerly supposed he would die out.
Natural selection, therefore, in view of the present vital statistics
of the two races, can no longer be relied upon to solve the problem by
a gradual elimination of the Negro in America. Comfort has been found
in the fall of the ratio of the Negroes to the total population; but
their absolute increase goes on just the same.
No satisfactory solution of the problem has been suggested. At present,
from a study of past history, there appear to be but three possible
solutions.
First, slow amalgamation with the Whites and an ever-increasing
number of Mulattoes, who little by little will "pass" for Whites.
This amalgamation might easily assume serious proportions in the near
future, with an increase of mixed breeds all over the United States.
But if the sentimental views about Negroes engendered by the Civil
War can be lived down, it may be that the oncoming generation will
resolutely face this Mulatto menace. Otherwise the absorption of 10 per
cent Negroes and Mulattoes, to say nothing of East and South Europeans,
in addition to Mexicans, Filipinos, and Japanese will produce a racial
chaos such as ruined the Roman Empire.
A second solution would be deportation, which was seriously suggested
a hundred years ago. At that time it might have been possible to
re-transport the then slaves to Africa, and such action would have
involved only a fraction of the cost of the Civil War. This was
considered as a possible remedy by some of the wisest statesmen in the
years immediately preceding the Civil War. Today it is not possible,
because Africa, with the exception of Liberia, is under the control
of white states, which certainly would not welcome such an enormous
addition to their own color problem, aside from all other practical
considerations.
[Illustration: NEGRO POPULATION
INCREASE & DECREASE
1920-1930
Figures in each State show the percentage of increase and decrease.]
Present-day advocates of repatriation argue that lack of native
population is the principal factor likely to hold back the development
of some of the healthiest and most fertile parts of interior Africa.
The American Negro, they say, might well carry there the education
he has received in the United States, and do better for himself than
he could expect to do here, especially if, through a rising race
consciousness among the Whites, they show themselves less hospitable to
his claims for equality.
The substantial following, gained by the Negro Garvey, who started a
"Back to Africa" movement a few years ago, is cited as evidence that
the Negroes in this country are not necessarily adverse to leaving it.
But much more evidence will be needed before the repatriation of the
Negro can be considered seriously.
As a third possibility, segregation has been suggested. This would mean
the abandonment by the Whites of whole sections of the country along
the Gulf of Mexico. This has actually happened in some places along the
lower Mississippi River, where the numbers of the Negroes have become
so overwhelming that the few remaining Whites have simply moved out and
abandoned the district to them. It has happened and is happening in the
West Indies. Haiti and Santo Domingo have been entirely turned over to
Negroes and other examples of West Indian Islands almost abandoned to
Negroes can be found.
Whatever be the final outcome, the Negro problem must be taken
vigorously in hand by the Whites, without delay. States which have
no laws preventing the intermarriage of white and black should adopt
them. During the last quarter-century, many such bills, introduced in
Northern legislatures, have been defeated by an organized pro-Negro
lobby. The Christian churches in some parts of the North have also
taken an unwise stand, in trying to break down the social barriers
between Negro and White. This attitude goes back to the days of the
abolitionists, who persuaded themselves that the Negro slave had all
possible virtues and the Southern White man all possible vices. It was
a primary factor in creating the tragedy of "reconstruction" after the
Civil War.
Senator Roscoe Conkling hit this attitude off neatly when some one
asked him what had happened in the Senate that day. He replied: "We
have been discussing Senator Sumner's annual bill entitled 'An act to
amend the act of God whereby there is a difference between white and
black.'"
More necessary than legislation is a more vigorous and alert public
opinion among the Whites, which will put a stop to social mixing of
the two races. Social separation is the key to minimizing the evils
of race mixture at the present time. Public opinion might well stop
exalting the Mulatto and thereby putting its stamp of approval on
miscegenation. Negroes should be encouraged to respect their own
racial integrity. Finally, knowledge of methods of Birth Control now
widespread among the Whites, should be made universally available to
the Blacks.
Compared with the Negro, the American Indian offers no serious problem
to American unity. On the entire continent north of Mexico there are
only about 432,000. The 1930 census gives the Indian population of the
United States as 332,397.
The distribution of these Indians is remarkably irregular. The West has
the largest number; then comes the South, because of Oklahoma's 92,000,
for the Gulf States have few. North Carolina, on the other hand, stands
seventh in the list of States arranged according to Indian population.
As against 137,000 in the West and 116,000 in the South, the North has
but 78,000. These are widely scattered and often little known to the
general public. New York State still has 7000 Indians, Michigan about
the same number and North Dakota somewhat more; Wisconsin and Minnesota
have 11,000 each, while South Dakota stands fourth on the list of
all the States with its 22,000. In the West the Indian population is
concentrated mainly in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Montana, and
Washington, in the order named.
These Indians now represent 371 tribes, or remnants of tribes. How
large their numbers were at the time of the first white settlement
in North America has been a matter of interesting conjecture. Most
estimates are not much above a million, but the population may
have been considerably greater a few hundred years earlier. Since
white occupation a few tribes have increased in numbers. Most have
diminished, and some have become extinct, more frequently from the
white man's diseases and from whiskey than from the results of fighting.
The densest Indian population at the time of the conquest was on the
Pacific Coast, which did not come into close contact with the Whites
until the last century. This Pacific Coast Indian population was also
of a low scale of intelligence and culture, and remarkably broken up
into distinct groups which could not understand each other. As many
separate languages were spoken by the Indians of this region as by all
the other Indians of the United States together. When the first mission
on the West Coast was founded by the Spaniards, in 1769, the number of
California Indians was computed at 220,000. This has decreased more
than 90 per cent at this date.
The policy of the Catholic missionaries was to corral the Indians
around the missions. The church considered itself the owner of all the
land, and the Indians worked it as tenants. When the Mexican Government
confiscated the property of the church, it took title to all the
land. Hence the Indians, who had always lived on it, found themselves
illegal trespassers, and until about 1913 they were landless, starving
fugitives. At that time the government began to provide land for the
Indians. While their treatment has decimated them nine times, their
isolation prevented intermarriage with the Whites, so the California
Indians are of relatively pure blood.
The revolt of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico against the
Spanish in 1680-92 was the beginning of their decline. The Navajos and
Apaches, on the contrary, have increased in numbers, at the same time
avoiding white mixture.
The Indians of the Atlantic Coast were destroyed partly by disease,
partly by war; and their remnants were pushed westward year after
year by the Whites until they are mostly now west of the Mississippi,
many of them being in Oklahoma. The Iroquois are an exception, and
have perhaps increased in numbers. They got hold of firearms before
their tribal neighbors and were able to destroy many of the latter,
incorporating the remnants in their own tribe. The Sioux of the great
plains are also said to have increased.
In the Gulf States, on the other hand, the Indians were largely
exterminated before their remnants were moved to the Indian Territory.
The Chickasaws told the French explorer, Iberville, in 1702, that
in the preceding twelve years they had killed or captured for slave
traders 2300 Choctaws, at a cost to themselves of 800 men.
In the Northwest and Alaska, whiskey and disease have been leading
factors in the reduction of the number of the natives. With this, in
many regions, went a low fertility, due partly to starvation.
Nearly all of the American Indians lived as hunters. When the Whites
invaded the forests and drove off or killed the game, the Indian
economic system was broken up, and they had little opportunity to meet
the rapidly changing conditions.
There has been, since early times, some intermarriage between Indians
and Whites, but it has not been on a sufficiently large scale to be
serious. The estimate however is sometimes made that one-half of the
census population of Indians has white blood. Naturally, there is no
way of proving or disproving such a conjecture. Only in Oklahoma has
such mixing been looked on with favor, and even there some tribes
held themselves largely aloof from white miscegenation and punished
with death any interbreeding of their members with Negroes. The
discovery of oil on Indian tribal lands made the claim to Indian blood
a lucrative one and oil revenues unfortunately covered a multitude of
sins. Throughout the West in general the term "squaw man" is a bitter
reproach.