The racial color, it will be understood, is merely a matter of skin
coloring. Nature provides pigments of color to guard the skin against
the inclemencies of sun and weather. Every modern man knows and has
experienced the result of strong sun and wind in his own skin. “Tan” it
is called, and sometimes, within a few weeks the color of a white man’s
skin is transformed into a yellow or a dark brown. If the exposure
continues, the color remains.
In the opinion of noted scientists, it is certain that the difference
between the races as to color is merely skin deep. Their psychological
conditions are equal, as we shall see when we reach that point.
Professor Felix Adler, the eminent scientist, speaking with authority,
upholds the idea that the relations between the races can be only
psychological and not physical. He said at the great Congress of Races:
“It is urgently necessary for us to have a clearer conception of the
ideal to be realized in international relations. What principle shall we
put in the place of war, brute force, etc?
“The appeal to sentiment and the progress of democracy, are not in
themselves a safeguard against war. It is not peace itself that we must
keep in view, but the object to be secured by peace. The ideal principle
of international relations consists in the progressive organization of
these relations between peoples and races. This organization involves
two postulates:
“First. To attain the most extreme differentiation of types of culture,
the maximum of variety and richness in the expression of human
faculties. The peace and progress of the world will depend on the
formation of a cultivated class of all civilized peoples.
“Second. This exchange between different types of culture will serve to
bring to light the weak points in each, and lead to their improvement
and healing.”
Sir Charles Bruce, the noted administrator of government attempts, in
various localities where the different races confront one another, to
give as his deliberate opinion, based upon experience and close study,
this succinct truism:
“The blacks have long been the instruments of the cupidity, cruelty and
luxury of the whites; but their intelligence, deliberately neglected for
ages, needs only to be awakened.”
Sir Harry Johnston, of England, said:
“The Negro race has produced men of great ability in all departments.”
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, learned editor of the Crisis, appeared before the
Congress as a Colored American scientist, versed in ethnology, and the
needs and qualifications of the Colored race. After giving the number of
Colored Americans as about ten millions, and mentioning the fact that
“They live at the present time under a system of theoretical liberty,
which is restricted in practice by certain legal dispositions, and by
custom,” he adds: “Intellectual emancipation should proceed hand in hand
with economic independence.”