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 observe that it is not exactly a question of "higher
civilization," but of the highest, as high as the 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 suggests, and almost compels, the answer, No! Again, it is not
precisely a question of "impossibility" but of "improbability." All
things are possible with God and even to the thought of man; but for
the practical reason, the improbability here admitted is controlling.
Once more, it is not by any means a matter of one "unquestionable
fact;" such a single decisive indicium is nowhere easy to find and can
seldom be demanded; it is the consensus of all the indications that is
practically conclusive, and it is this consensus that has been so
unfortunately disregarded.
The remaining ten pages of this address are devoted to "the
psychological characteristics of primitive people." "This investigation
is extremely 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 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 characterize 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 representing 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 anything but how much and what he is
able to achieve in the immediate future and depends 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." Remembering 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,
Sophomore, 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 integral. 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 parlance, the
mathematical faculty of Gauss, his power to do in the immediate future,
was amazing in his childhood, before he reached any notable "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.[24]
[24] See _supra_ pp. 92-96.
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 "impulsiveness,"
"inability of concentration," "lack of originality." In our judgement,
the most important of all instincts of civilization is the speculative,
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 carefully refrained from
trying to make out any--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 organism," "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 considerable psychic changes consequent on
domestication and civilization; but these are due to environment. Any
changes progressive or transmissible 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 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 concession of Negro inferiority here
made is absolutely sufficient.
"We did not find proof of cumulative increase of faculty caused by
civilization."
Accordingly, the Negro being concededly inferior to the White, there is
no hope of raising him to the White level by education or
civilization--precisely our fundamental contention.
Finally, "the average faculty of the white race is found to the same
degree in a large proportion of individuals of all other races, and
although 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
suppose that they are unable to reach the level of civilization
represented by the bulk of our own people" (p. 327).
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." Hereby, 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 approved
quotation from Donaldson, as to post-adolescent development (p. 147).
The inference, then, is illegitimate that "they," _i.e._, "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
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 intensified. 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, probing 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 earlier 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 solution 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 objection 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 disposition to shirk
another task, to avoid another question, however delicate,
disagreeable, or depressing. 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
freedom? 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 excellent spirits expect wonders from this
potent agency. As an educator ourself, we can have no interest or
motive in unduly distrusting or minimizing 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.
But it is a colossal error to suppose that race improvement, in the
strictest sense of the term, can be wrought by education.[25] The reason
is simple and easily understood: Race-improvement is organic; education
is extraorganic. Any change or amelioration that affects the race, the
stock, the blood, must be inherited; but education 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 arduous 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 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.[26]
[25] To this truth, see various testimonies, pp. 149, 154, _et
passim_.
[26] "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.
These propositions lie beyond possible contradiction. 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 insistence would seem superfluous. We may
refer however, to the broad, patent, universally recognized 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 animals. Wherever any of these have been
organically modified, it has been by other agencies, more especially by
some form of natural or artificial selection. While the extra-organic
development 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 illustrations. 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 absolutely wide, are relatively narrow and are speedily 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 insanity 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
themselves in competition with wide-awake neighbours.
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 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 maintain 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 deprive his corn of a single "ploughing," or leave
his herd one night unprotected from the wolf and the cold.
But it is the sheerest folly to expect of education 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 themselves. Why, if education could lift
the Negro to the Caucasian level, to what, pray, in the meantime would
it lift the Caucasian himself? We repeat, and the repetition cannot be
made too emphatic, there is no hope whatever 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 halcyon 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 beheld 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 distinguished 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 lecturer followed and proceeded to conduct us through the
building to his own residence. We passed through but one room where
class exercises 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 unable to awaken any answering
intelligence. To us, it seemed that the force of folly could no further
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 painfully intense.
We hear less nowadays of the saving efficacy of Greek, Latin, and the
Calculus,[27] 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
conscientiousness, 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.
[27] 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. Washington's idea, Dubois, in his _The Souls of
Black Folk_, and the sympathetic 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.
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 prophecy, 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 serfdom. 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
individual 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 into
formidable aggregations, or that labour will cease to array itself in
firmer and firmer unions and associations for self-protection and for
maintenance or elevation of the standard of life, the minimum of
subsistence.