RED MAN'S LAND
Red Man's Land is the Americas between the Rio Grande and the tropic of
Capricorn. Here dwells the "Amerindian" race. At the time of Columbus the
whole western hemisphere was theirs, but the white man has extirpated or
absorbed them to north and south, so that to-day the United States and
Canada in North America and the southern portions of South America are
genuine "white man's country." In the intermediate zone above mentioned,
however, the Amerindian has survived and forms the majority of the
population, albeit considerably mixed with white and to a lesser degree
with negro blood. The total number of "Indians," including both
full-bloods and mixed types, is about 40,000,000--more than two-thirds of
the whole population. In addition, there are several million negroes and
mulattoes, mostly in Brazil. The white population of the intermediate
zone, even if we include "near-whites," does not average more than 10 per
cent, though it varies greatly with different regions. The reader should
remember that neither the West India Islands nor the southern portion of
the South American continent are included in this generalization. In the
West Indies the Amerindian has completely died out and has been replaced
by the negro, while southern South America, especially Argentina and
Uruguay, are genuine white man's country in which there is little Indian
and no negro blood. Despite these exceptions, however, the fact remains
that, taken as a whole, "Latin America," the vast land-block from the Rio
Grande to Cape Horn, is racially not "Latin" but Amerindian or negroid,
with a thin Spanish or Portuguese veneer. In other words, though commonly
considered part of the white world, most of Latin America is ethnically
colored man's land, which has been growing more colored for the past
hundred years.
Latin America's evolution was predetermined by the Spanish Conquest. That
very word "conquest" tells the story. The United States was _settled_ by
colonists planning homes and bringing their women. It was thus a genuine
migration, and resulted in a full transplanting of white stock to new
soil. The Indians encountered were wild nomads, fierce of temper and few
in number. After sharp conflicts they were extirpated, leaving virtually
no ethnic traces behind. The colonization of Latin America was the exact
antithesis. The Spanish _Conquistadores_ were bold warriors descending
upon vast regions inhabited by relatively dense populations, some of
which, as in Mexico and Peru, had attained a certain degree of
civilization. The Spaniards, invincible in their shining armor, paralyzed
with terror these people still dwelling in the age of bronze and polished
stone. With ridiculous ease mere handfuls of whites overthrew empires and
lorded it like gods over servile and adoring multitudes. Cortez marched
on Mexico with less than 600 followers, while Pizarro had but 310
companions when he started his conquest of Peru. Of course the fabulous
treasures amassed in these exploits drew swarms of bold adventurers from
Spain. Nevertheless, their numbers were always infinitesimal compared with
the vastness of the quarry, while the proportion of women immigrants
continued to lag far behind that of the men. The breeding of pure whites
in Latin America was thus both scanty and slow.
On the other hand, the breeding of mixed-bloods began at once and attained
notable proportions. Having slaughtered the Indian males or brigaded them
in slave-gangs, the Conquistadores took the Indian women to themselves.
The humblest man-at-arms had several female attendants, while the leaders
became veritable pashas with great harems of concubines. The result was a
prodigious output of half-breed children, known as "mestizos" or "cholos."
And soon a new ethnic complication was added. The Indians having developed
a melancholy trick of dying off under slavery, the Spaniards imported
African negroes to fill the servile ranks, and since they took negresses
as well as Indian women for concubines, other
half-breeds--mulattoes--appeared. Here and there Indians and negroes mated
on their own account, the offspring being known as "zambos." In time these
various hybrids bred among themselves, producing the most extraordinary
ethnic combinations. As Garcia-Calderon well puts it: "Grotesque
generations with every shade of complexion and every conformation of
skull were born in America--a crucible continually agitated by unheard-of
fusions of races.... But there was little Latin blood to be found in the
homes formed by the sensuality of the first conquerors of a desolated
America."[56]
To be sure, this mongrel population long remained politically negligible.
The Spaniards regarded themselves as a master-caste, and excluded all save
pure whites from civic rights and social privileges. In fact, the
European-born Spaniards refused to recognize even their colonial-born
kinsmen as their equals, and "Creoles"[57] could not aspire to the higher
distinctions or offices. This attitude was largely inspired by the desire
to maintain a lucrative monopoly. Yet the European's sense of superiority
had some valid grounds. There can be no doubt that the Creole whites, as a
class, showed increasing signs of degeneracy. Climate was a prime cause in
the hotter regions, but there were many plateau areas, as in Colombia,
Mexico, and Peru, which though geographically in the tropics had a
temperate climate from their elevation.
Even more than by climate the Creole was injured by contact with the
colored races. Pampered and corrupted from birth by obsequious slaves, the
Creole usually led an idle and vapid existence, disdaining work as
servile and debarred from higher callings by his European-born superiors.
As time passed, the degeneracy due to climate and custom was intensified
by degeneracy of blood. Despite legal enactment and social taboo, colored
strains percolated insidiously into the creole stock. The leading
families, by elaborate precautions, might succeed in keeping their
escutcheons clean, but humbler circles darkened significantly despite
fervid protestations of "pure-white" blood. Still, so long as Spain kept
her hold on Latin America, the process of miscegenation, socially
considered, was a slow one. The whole social system was based on the idea
of white superiority, and the colors were carefully graded. "In America,"
wrote Humboldt toward the close of Spanish rule, "the more or less white
skin determines the position which a man holds in society."[58]
The revolution against Spain had momentous consequences for the racial
future of Latin America. In the beginning, to be sure, it was a white
civil war--a revolt of the Creoles against European oppression and
discrimination. The heroes of the revolution--Bolivar, Miranda, San
Martin, and the rest--were aristocrats of pure-white blood. But the
revolution presently developed new features. To begin with, the struggle
was very long. Commencing in 1809, it lasted almost twenty years. The
whites were decimated by fratricidal fury, and when the Spanish cause was
finally lost, multitudes of loyalists mainly of the superior social
classes left the country. Meanwhile, the half-castes, who had rallied
wholesale to the revolutionary banner, were demanding their reward. The
Creoles wished to close the revolutionary cycle and establish a new
society based, like the old, upon white supremacy, with themselves
substituted for the Spaniards. Bolivar planned a limited monarchy and a
white electoral oligarchy. But this was far from suiting the half-castes.
For them the revolution had just begun. Raising the cry of "democracy,"
then become fashionable through the North American and French revolutions,
they proclaimed the doctrine of "equality" regardless of skin.
Disillusioned and full of foreboding, Bolivar, the master-spirit of the
revolution, disappeared from the scene, and his lieutenants, like the
generals of Alexander, quarrelled among themselves, split Latin America
into jarring fragments, and waged a long series of internecine wars. The
flood-gates of anarchy were opened, the result being a steady weakening of
the whites and a corresponding rise of the half-castes in the political
and social scale. Everywhere ambitious soldiers led the mongrel mob
against the white aristocracy, breaking its power and making themselves
dictators. These "caudillos" were apostles of equality and miscegenation.
Says Garcia-Calderon: "Tyrants found democracies; they lean on the support
of the people, the half-breeds and negroes, against the oligarchies; they
dominate the colonial nobility, favor the crossing of races, and free the
slaves."[59]
The consequences of all this were lamentable in the extreme. Latin
America's level of civilization fell far below that of colonial days.
Spanish rule, though narrow and tyrannical, had maintained peace and
social stability. Now all was a hideous chaos wherein frenzied castes and
colors grappled to the death. Ignorant mestizos and brutal negroes
trampled the fine flowers of culture under foot, while as by a malignant
inverse selection the most intelligent and the most cultivated perished.
These deplorable conditions prevailed in Latin America until well past the
middle of the nineteenth century. Of course, here as elsewhere, anarchy
engendered tyranny, and strong caudillos sometimes perpetuated their
dictatorship for decades, as in Paraguay under Doctor Francia and in
Mexico under Porfirio Diaz. However, these were mere interludes, of no
constructive import. Always the aging lion lost his grip, the lurking
hyenas of anarchy downed him at last, and the land sank once more into
revolutionary chaos. Some parts of Latin America did, indeed, definitely
emerge into the light of stable progress. But those favored regions owed
their deliverance, not to dictatorship, but to race. One of two factors
always operated: either (1) an efficient white oligarchy; or (2)
Aryanization through wholesale European immigration.
Stabilization through oligarchy is best illustrated by Chile. Chilean
history differs widely from that of the rest of Latin America. A land of
cool climate, no gold, and warlike Araucanian Indians, Chile attracted
the pioneering settler rather than the swashbuckling seeker of
treasure-trove. Now the pioneering types in Spain come mainly from those
northern provinces which have retained considerable Nordic blood. The
Chilean colonists were thus largely blond Asturians or austere, reasonable
Basques, seeking homes and bringing their women. Of course there was
crossing with the natives, but the fierce Araucanian aborigines clung to
their wild freedom and kept up an interminable frontier warfare in which
the occasions for race-mixture were relatively few. The country was thus
settled by a resident squirearchy of an almost English type. This ruling
gentry jealously guarded its racial integrity. In fact, it possessed not
merely a white but a Nordic race-consciousness. The Chilean gentry called
themselves sons of the Visigoths, scions of Euric and Pelayo, who had
found in remote Araucania a chance to slake their racial thirst for
fighting and freedom.
In Chile, as elsewhere, the revolution provoked a cycle of disorder. But
the cycle was short, and was more a political struggle between white
factions than a social welter of caste and race. Furthermore, Chile was
receiving fresh accessions of Nordic blood. Many English, Scotch, and
Irish gentleman-adventurers, taking part in the War of Independence,
settled down in a land so reminiscent of their own. Germans also came in
considerable numbers, settling especially in the colder south. Thus the
Chilean upper classes, always pure white, became steadily more Nordic in
ethnic character. The political and social results were unmistakable.
Chile rapidly evolved a stable society, essentially oligarchic and
consciously patterned on aristocratic England. Efficient, practical, and
extremely patriotic, the Chilean oligarchs made their country at once the
most stable and the most dynamic factor in Latin America.
The distinctly "Northern" character of Chile and the Chileans strike
foreign observers. Here, for example, are the impressions of a recent
visitor, the North American sociologist, Professor E. A. Ross. Landing at
the port of Valparaiso, he is "struck by signs of English influence. On
the commercial streets every third man suggests the Briton, while a large
proportion of the business people look as if they have their daily tub.
The cleanliness of the streets, the freshness of the parks and squares,
the dressing of the shop-windows, and the style of the mounted police
remind one of England."[60] As to the Nordic affinities of the upper
classes: "One sees it in stature, eye color, and ruddy complexion....
Among the pupils of Santiago College there are as many blonds as
brunets."[61] Even among the peon or "roto" class, despite considerable
Indian crossing, Professor Ross noted the strong Nordic strain, for he met
Chilean peasants "whose stature, broad shoulders, big faces, and tawny
mustaches proclaimed them as genuine Norsemen as the Icelanders in our
Red River Valley."[62]
Chile is thus the prime example of social stability and progress attained
through white oligarchic rule. Other, though less successful, instances
are to be noted in Peru, Colombia, and Costa Rica. Peru and Colombia,
though geographically within the tropics, have extensive temperate
plateaux. Here numerous whites settled during the colonial period, forming
an upper caste over a large Indian population. Unlike Chile, few Nordics
came to leaven society with those qualities of constructive genius and
racial self-respect which are the special birthright of Nordic man. Unlike
Chile again, not only were there dense Indian masses, but there was also
an appreciable negro element. Lastly, the number of mixed-bloods was very
large. It is thus not surprising that for both Peru and Colombia the
revolution ushered in a period of turmoil from which neither have even yet
emerged. The whites have consistently fought among themselves, invoking
the half-castes as auxiliaries and using Indians and negroes as their
pawns. The whites are still the dominant element, but only the first
families retain their pure blood, and miscegenation creeps upward with
every successive generation. As for Costa Rica, it is a tiny bit of cool
hill-country, settled by whites in colonial times, and to-day rises an
oasis of civilization, above the tropic jungle of degenerate, mongrel
Central America.
The second method of social stabilization in Latin America--Aryanization
through wholesale European immigration--is exemplified by Argentina and
Uruguay. Neither of these lands had very promising beginnings. Their
populations, at the revolution, contained strong Indian infusions and
traces of negro blood, while after the revolution both fell under the sway
of tyrannical dictators who persecuted the white aristocrats and favored
miscegenation. However, Argentina and Uruguay possessed two notable
advantages: they were climatically white man's country, and they at first
contained a very small population. Since they produced neither gold nor
tropical luxuries, Spain had neglected them, so that at the revolution
they consisted of little more than the port-towns of Buenos Aires and
Montevideo with a few dependent river-settlements. Their vast hinterlands
of fertile prairie then harbored only wandering tribes of nomad savages.
During the last half of the nineteenth century, however, the development
of ocean transport gave these antipodean prairies value as stock-raising
and grain-growing sources for congested Europe, and Europe promptly sent
immigrants to supply her needs. This immigrant stream gradually swelled to
a veritable deluge. The human tide was, on the whole, of sound stock,
mostly Spaniards and north Italians, with some Nordic elements from
northern Europe in the upper strata. Thus Europe locked antipodean America
securely to the white world. As for the colonial stock, it merged easily
into the newer, kindred flood. Here and there signs of former
miscegenation still show, the Argentino being sometimes, as Madison Grant
well puts it, "suspiciously swarthy."[63] Nevertheless, these are but
vestigial traces which the ceaseless European inflow will ultimately
eradicate. The large impending German immigration to Argentina and Uruguay
should bring valuable Nordic elements.
This same tide of European immigration has likewise pretty well Aryanized
the southern provinces of Brazil, adjacent to the Uruguayan border. Those
provinces were neglected by Portugal as Argentina and Uruguay were by
Spain, and half a century ago they had a very sparse population. To-day
they support millions of European immigrants, mostly Italians and European
Portuguese, but with the further addition of nearly half a million
Germans. Brazil is, in fact, evolving into two racially distinct
communities. The southern provinces are white man's country, with little
Indian or negro blood, and with a distinct "color line." The tropical
north is saturated with Indian and negro strains, and the whites are
rapidly disappearing in a universal mongrelization. Ultimately this must
produce momentous political consequences.
Bearing in mind the exceptions above noted, let us now observe the vast
tropical and semi-tropical bulk of Latin America. Here we find notable
changes since colonial days. White predominance is substantially a thing
of the past. Persons of unmixed Spanish or Portuguese descent are
relatively few, most of the so-called "whites" being really _near_-whites,
more or less deeply tinged with colored bloods. It is a striking token of
white race-prestige that these near-whites, despite their degeneracy and
inefficiency, are yet the dominant element; occupying, in fact, much the
same status as the aristocratic Creoles immediately after the War of
Independence. Nevertheless, the near-whites' supremacy is now threatened.
Every decade of chronic anarchy favors the darker half-breeds, while below
these, in turn, the Indian and negro full-bloods are beginning to stir, as
in Mexico to-day.
Most informed observers agree that the mixed-bloods of Latin America are
distinctly inferior to the whites. This applies to both mestizos and
mulattoes, albeit the mestizo (the cross between white and Indian) seems
less inferior than the mulatto--the cross between white and black. As for
the zambo, the Indian-negro cross, everybody is agreed that it is a very
bad one. Analyses of these hybrid stocks show remarkable similarities to
the mongrel chaos of the declining Roman Empire. Here is the judgment of
Garcia-Calderon, a Peruvian scholar and generally considered the most
authoritative writer on Latin America. "The racial question," he writes,
"is a very serious problem in American history. It explains the progress
of certain peoples and the decadence of others, and it is the key to the
incurable disorder which divides America. Upon it depend a great number
of secondary phenomena; the public wealth, the industrial system, the
stability of governments, the solidity of patriotism.... This complication
of castes, this admixture of diverse bloods, has created many problems.
For example, is the formation of a national consciousness possible with
such disparate elements? Would such heterogeneous democracies be able to
resist the invasion of superior races? Finally, is the South American
half-caste absolutely incapable of organization and culture?"[64] While
qualifying his answers to these queries, Garcia-Calderon yet deplores the
half-caste's "decadence."[65] "In the Iberian democracies," he says, "an
inferior Latinity, a Latinity of the decadence, prevails; verbal
abundance, inflated rhetoric, oratorical exaggeration, just as in Roman
Spain.... The half-caste loves grace, verbal elegance, quibbles even, and
artistic form; great passions and desires do not move him. In religion he
is sceptical, indifferent, and in politics he disputes in the Byzantine
manner. No one could discover in him a trace of his Spanish forefather,
stoical and adventurous."[66] Garcia-Calderon therefore concludes: "The
mixture of rival castes, Iberians, Indians, and negroes, has generally had
disastrous consequences.... None of the conditions established by the
French psychologists are realized by the Latin American democracies, and
their populations are therefore degenerate. The lower castes struggle
successfully against the traditional rules: the order which formerly
existed is followed by moral anarchy; solid conviction by a superficial
scepticism; and the Castilian tenacity by indecision. The black race is
doing its work, and the continent is returning to its primitive
barbarism."[67] This melancholy fate can, according to Garcia-Calderon, be
averted only by wholesale white immigration: "In South America
civilization is dependent upon the numerical predominance of the
victorious Spaniard, on the triumph of the white man over the mulatto, the
negro, and the Indian. Only a plentiful European immigration can
re-establish the shattered equilibrium of the American races."[68]
Garcia-Calderon's pronouncements are echoed by foreign observers. During
his South American travels Professor Ross noted the same melancholy
symptoms and pointed out the same unique remedy. Speaking of Ecuador, he
says: "I found no foreigners who have faith in the future of this people.
They point out that while this was a Spanish colony there was a continual
flow of immigrants from Spain, many of whom, no doubt, were men of force.
Political separation interrupted this current, and since then the country
has really gone back. Spain had provided a ruling, organizing element,
and, with the cessation of the flow of Spaniards, the mixed-bloods took
charge of things, for the pure-white element is so small as to be
negligible. No one suggests that the mestizos equal the white stock either
in intellect or in character.... Among the rougher foreigners and
Peruvians the pet name for these people is 'monkeys.' The thoughtful often
liken them to Eurasians, clever enough, but lacking in solidity of
character. Natives and foreigners alike declare that a large white
immigration is the only hope for Ecuador."[69]
Concerning Bolivia, Professor Ross writes: "The wisest sociologist in
Bolivia told me that the zambo, resulting from the union of Indian with
negro, is inferior to both the parent races, and that likewise the mestizo
is inferior to both white and Indian in physical strength, resistance to
disease, longevity, and brains. The failure of the South American
republics has been due, he declares, to mestizo domination. Through the
colonial period there was a flow of Spaniards to the colonies, and all the
offices down to _corregidor_ and _cura_ were filled by white men. With
independence, the whites ceased coming, and the lower offices of state and
church were filled with mestizos. Then, too, the first crossing of white
with Indian gave a better result than the union between mestizos, so that
the stock has undergone progressive degeneration. The only thing, then,
that can make these countries progress is a large white immigration,
something much talked about by statesmen in all these countries, but which
has never materialized."[70]
These judgments refer particularly to Spanish America. Regarding
Portuguese Brazil, however, the verdict seems to be the same. Many years
ago Professor Agassiz wrote: "Let any one who doubts the evil of this
mixture of races, and is inclined from mistaken philanthropy to break down
all barriers between them, come to Brazil. He cannot deny the
deterioration consequent upon the amalgamation of races, more wide-spread
here than in any country in the world, and which is rapidly effacing the
best qualities of the white man, the negro, and the Indian, leaving a
mongrel, nondescript type, deficient in physical and mental energy."[71]
The mongrel's political ascendancy produces precisely the results which
might have been expected. These unhappy beings, every cell of whose bodies
is a battle-ground of jarring heredities, express their souls in acts of
hectic violence and aimless instability. The normal state of tropical
America is anarchy, restrained only by domestic tyrants or foreign
masters. Garcia-Calderon exactly describes its psychology when he writes:
"Precocious, sensual, impressionable, the Americans of these vast
territories devote their energies to local politics. Industry, commerce,
and agriculture are in a state of decay, and the unruly imagination of the
Creole expends itself in constitutions, programmes, and lyrical
discourses; in these regions anarchy is sovereign mistress."[72] The
tropical republics display, indeed, a tendency toward "atomic
disintegration.... Given to dreaming, they are led by presidents suffering
from neurosis."[73]
The stock feature of the mongrel tropics is, of course, the "revolution."
These senseless and perennial outbursts are often ridiculed in the United
States as comic opera, but the grim truth of the matter is that few Latin
American revolutions are laughing matters. The numbers of men engaged may
not be very large according to our standards, but measured by the scanty
populations of the countries concerned, they lay a heavy blood-tax on the
suffering peoples. The tatterdemalion "armies" may excite our mirth, but
the battles are real enough, often fought out to the death with
razor-edged machetes and rusty bayonets, and there is no more ghastly
sight than a Latin American battle-field. The commandeerings, burnings,
rapings, and assassinations inflicted upon the hapless civilian population
cry to heaven. There is always wholesale destruction of property,
frequently appalling loss of life, and a general paralysis of economic and
social activity. These wretched lands have now been scourged by the
revolutionary plague for a hundred years, and W. B. Hale does not
overstate the consequences when he says: "Most of the countries clustering
about the Caribbean have sunk into deeper and deeper mires of misrule,
unmatched for profligacy and violence anywhere on earth. Revolution
follows revolution; one band of brigands succeeds another; atrocities
revenge atrocities; the plundered people grow more and more abject in
poverty and slavishness; vast natural resources lie neglected, while
populations decrease, civilization recedes, and the jungle advances."[74]
Of course, under these frightful circumstances, the national character,
weak enough at best, degenerates at an ever-quickening pace. Peaceful
effort of any sort appears vain and ridiculous, and men are taught that
wealth is procurable only by violence and extortion.
Another important point should be noted. I have said that Latin American
anarchy was restrained by dictatorship. But the reader must not infer that
dictatorships are halcyon times--for the dictated. On the contrary, they
are usually only a trifle less wretched and demoralizing than times of
revolution. The "caudillos" are nearly always very sinister figures. Often
they are ignorant brutes; oftener they are blood-thirsty, lecherous
monsters; oftenest they are human spiders who suck the land dry of all
fluid wealth, banking it abroad against the day when they shall fly before
the revolutionary blast to the safe haven of Paris and the congenial
debaucheries of Montmartre. The millions amassed by tyrants like Castro of
Venezuela and Zelaya of Nicaragua are almost beyond belief, considering
the backward, bankrupt lands they have "administered."
Yet how can it be otherwise? Consider Critchfield's incisive account of a
caudillo's accession to power: "When an ignorant and brutal man, whose
entire knowledge of the world is confined to a few Indian villages, and
whose total experience has been gained in the raising of cattle, doffs his
_alpagartes_, and, machete in hand, cuts his way to power in a few weeks,
with a savage horde at his back who know nothing of the amenities of
civilization and care less than they know--when such a man comes to
power, evil and evil only can result. Even if the new dictator were
well-intentioned, his entire ignorance of law and constitutional forms, of
commercial processes and manufacturing arts, and of the fundamental and
necessary principles underlying all stable and free governments, would
render a successful administration by him extremely difficult, if not
impossible. But he is surrounded by all the elements of vice and flattery,
and he is imbued with that vain and absurd egotism which makes men of
small caliber imagine themselves to be Napoleons or Caesars. Thus do petty
despotisms, unrestrained by constitutional provisions or by anything like
a virile public opinion, lead from absurdity to outrage and crime."[75]
Such is the situation in mongrel-ruled America: revolution breeding
revolution, tyranny breeding tyranny, and the twain combining to ruin
their victims and force them ever deeper into the slough of degenerate
barbarism. The whites have lost their grip and are rapidly disappearing.
The mixed-breeds have had their chance and have grotesquely failed. The
oft-quoted panacea--white immigration--is under present conditions a vain
dream, for white immigrants will not expose themselves (and still less
their women) to the horrors of mongrel rule. So far, their, as internal
factors are concerned, anarchy seems destined to continue unchecked.
In fact, new conflicts loom on the horizon. The Indian masses, so docile
to the genuine white man, begin to stir. The aureole of white prestige has
been besmirched by the near-whites and half-castes who have traded so
recklessly upon its sanctions. Strong in the poise of normal heredity, the
Indian full-blood commences to despise these chaotic masters who turn his
homelands into bear-gardens and witches' sabbaths. An "Indianista"
movement is to-day on foot throughout mongrel-ruled America. It is most
pronounced in Mexico, whose interminable agony becomes more and more a war
of Indian resurgence, but it is also starting along the west coast of
South America. Long ago, wise old Professor Pearson saw how the wind was
blowing. Noting how whites and near-whites were "everywhere fighting and
intriguing for the spoils of office," he also noted that the Indian
masses, though relatively passive and "seemingly unobservant," were yet
"conquering a place for themselves in other ways than by increasing and
multiplying," and he concluded: "the general level of the autochthonous
race is being raised; it is acquiring riches and self-respect, and must
sooner or later get the country back into its hands."[76] Recent visitors
to the South American west coast note the signs of Indian unrest. Some
years ago Lord Bryce remarked of Bolivia: "There have been Indian risings,
and firearms are more largely in their hands than formerly. They so
preponderate in numbers that any movement which united them against the
upper class might, could they find a leader, have serious
consequences."[77] Still more recently Professor Ross wrote concerning
Peru: "In Cuzco I met a gentleman of education and travel who is said to
be the only living lineal descendant of the Incas. He has great influence
with the native element and voices their bitterness and their aspirations.
He declares that the politics of Peru is a struggle between the Spanish
mestizos of Lima and the coast and the natives of Cuzco and the interior,
and predicts an uprising unless Cuzco is made the capital of the nation.
He even dreams of a Kechua republic, with Cuzco as its capital and the
United States its guarantor, as she is guarantor of the Cuban
republic."[78] And of Bolivia, Professor Ross writes: "Lately there has
been a general movement of the Bolivian Indians for the recovery of the
lands of which they have been robbed piecemeal. Conflicts have broken out
and, although the government has punished the ringleaders, there is a
feeling that, so long as the exploiting of the Indian goes on, Bolivians
are living 'in the crater of a slumbering volcano.'"[79]
Since the white man has gone and the Indian is preparing to wrest the
sceptre of authority from the mongrel's worthless hands, let us examine
this Indian race, to see what potentiality it possesses of restoring order
and initiating progress.
To begin with, there can be no doubt that the Indian is superior to the
negro. The negro, even when quickened by foreign influences, never built
up anything approaching a real civilization; whereas the Indian, though
entirely sundered from the rest of mankind, evolved genuine polities and
cultures like the Aztec of Mexico, the Inca of Peru, and the Maya of
Yucatan. The Indian thus possesses creative capacity to an appreciable
degree. However, that degree seems strictly limited. The researches of
archaeologists have sadly discounted the glowing tales of the
Conquistadores, and the "Empires" of Mexico and Peru, though far from
contemptible, certainly rank well below the achievements of European and
Asiatic races in mediaeval and even in classic times.
The Indian possesses notable stability and poise, but the very intensity
of these qualities fetters his progress and renders questionable his
ability to rise to the modern plane. His conservatism is immense. With
incredible tenacity he clings to his ancestral ways and exhibits a dull
indifference to alien innovation. Of course the Indian sub-races differ
considerably among themselves, but the same fundamental tendencies are
visible in all of them. Says Professor Ellsworth Huntington: "The Indians
are very backward. They are dull of mind and slow to adopt new ideas.
Perhaps in the future they will change, but the fact that they have been
influenced so little by four hundred years of contact with the white man
does not afford much ground for hope. Judging from the past, there is no
reason to think that their character is likely to change for many
generations.... Those who dwell permanently in the white man's cities are
influenced somewhat, but here as in other cases the general tendency seems
to be to revert to the original condition as soon as the special impetus
of immediate contact with the white man is removed."[80] And Lord Bryce
writes in similar vein: "With plenty of stability, they lack initiative.
They make steady soldiers, and fight well under white or mestizo leaders,
but one seldom hears of a pure Indian accomplishing anything or rising
either through war or politics, or in any profession, above the level of
his class...."[81]
The truth about the Indian seems to be substantially this: Left alone, he
would probably have continued to progress, albeit much more slowly than
either white or Asiatic peoples. But the Indian was not left alone. On the
contrary, he was suddenly felled by brutal and fanatical conquerors, who
uprooted his native culture and plunged him into abject servitude. The
Indian's spiritual past was shorn away and his evolution was perverted.
Prevented from developing along his own lines, and constitutionally
incapable of adapting himself to the ways of his Spanish conquerors, the
Indian vegetated, learning nothing and forgetting much that he knew. This
has continued for four hundred years. Is it not likely that his ancestral
aptitudes have atrophied or decayed? Slavery and mental sloth have indeed
scarred him with their fell stigmata. Says Garcia-Calderon: "Without
sufficient food, without hygiene, a distracted and laborious beast, he
decays and perishes; to forget the misery of his daily lot he drinks,
becomes an alcoholic, and his numerous progeny present the characteristics
of degeneracy."[82]
Furthermore, the Indian degenerates from another cause--mongrelization.
Miscegenation is a dual process. It works upward and downward at one and
the same time. In Latin America hybridization has been prodigious, the
hybrids to-day numbering millions. In some regions, as in Venezuela and
parts of Central America, there are very few full-blooded Indians left,
hybrids forming practically the entire population. Now, on the whole, the
white or "mestizo" crossing seems hurtful to the Indian, for what he gains
in intelligence he more than loses in character. But the mestizo crossing
is not the worst. There is another, much graver, racial danger. The hot
coastlands swarm with negroes, and the zambo or negro-Indian is
universally adjudged the worst of matings. Thus, for the Indian, white
blood appears harmful, while black blood is absolutely fatal. Yet the
mongrelizing tide sweeps steadily on. The Indian draws no "color line,"
and continually impairs the purity of his blood and the poise of his
heredity.
Bearing all the above facts in mind, can we believe the Indian capable of
drawing mongrel-ruled America from its slough of despond? Can he set it on
the path of orderly progress? It does not seem possible. Assuming for the
sake of argument complete freedom from foreign intervention, the Indian
might in time displace his mongrel rulers--provided he himself were not
also mongrelized. But the present "Indianista" movement is not a sign of
Indian political efficiency; not the harbinger of an Indian "renaissance."
It is the instinctive turning of the harried beast on his tormentor.
Maddened by the cruel vagaries of mongrel rule and increasingly conscious
of the mongrel's innate worthlessness, the Indian at last bares his teeth.
Under civilized white tutelage the "Indianista" movement would have been
practically inconceivable.
However, guesses as to the final outcome of an Indian-mongrel conflict are
academic speculation, because mongrel America will not be left to itself.
Mongrel America cannot stand alone. Indeed, it never has stood alone, for
it has always been bolstered up by the Monroe Doctrine. But for our
protection, outside forces would have long since rushed into this
political and economic vacuum, and every omen to-day denotes that this
vacuum, like all others, will presently be filled. A world close packed as
never before will not tolerate countries that are a torment to themselves
and a dangerous nuisance to their neighbors. A world half bankrupt will
not allow vast sources of potential wealth to lie in hands which idle or
misuse. Thus it is practically certain that mongrel America will presently
pass under foreign tutelage. Exactly how, is not yet clear. It may be done
by the United States alone, or, what is more probable, in "Pan-American"
co-operation with the lusty young white nations of the antipodean south.
It may be done by an even larger combination, including some European
states. After all, the details of such action do not lie within the scope
of this book, since they fall exclusively within the white man's sphere of
activity.
There is, however, another dynamic which might transform mongrel America.
This dynamic is yellow Asia. The Far East teems with virile and laborious
life. It thrills to novel ambitions and desires. Avid with the urge of
swarming myriads, it hungrily seeks outlets for its superabundant
vitality. We have already seen how the Mongolian has earmarked the whole
Far East for his own, and in subsequent pages we shall see how he also
beats restlessly against the white world's race-frontiers. But mongrel
America! What other field offers such tempting possibilities for Mongolian
race-expansion? Vast regions of incalculable, unexploited wealth, sparsely
inhabited by stagnant populations cursed with anarchy and feeble from
miscegenation--how could such lands resist the onslaught of tenacious and
indomitable millions? The answer is self-evident. They could not resist;
and such an invasion, once begun, would be consummated with a celerity and
thoroughness perhaps unexampled in human history.
Now the yellow world is alive to this momentous possibility. Japan, in
particular, has glimpsed in Latin America precious avenues to that racial
expansion which is the key-note of Japanese foreign policy. For years
Japanese statesmen and publicists have busied themselves with the problem.
The Chinese had, in fact, already pointed the way, for during the later
decades of the nineteenth century Chinamen frequented Latin America's
Pacific coast, economically vanquishing the natives with ease, and
settling in Peru in such numbers that the alarmed Peruvians hastily
stopped the inflow by drastic exclusion acts. The successes of these
Chinese pioneers, humble coolies entirely without official backing, have
fired the Japanese imagination. The Japanese press has long discussed
Latin America in optimistic vein. Count Okuma is a good exemplar of these
Japanese aspirations. Some years ago he told the American sociologist
Professor Ross: "South America, especially the northern part, will furnish
ample room for our surplus."[83] To his fellow countrymen Count Okuma was
still more specific. In 1907 he stated in the Tokio _Economist_ that the
Japanese were to overspread the earth like a cloud of locusts, alighting
on the North American coasts, and swarming into Central and South America.
Count Okuma expressed a strong preference for Latin American countries as
fields for Japanese immigration, because most of them were "much easier to
include within the sphere of influence of Japan in the future."[84]
And the Japanese have supplemented words with deeds. Especially since
1914, Japanese activity in Latin America has been ubiquitous and
striking. The west coast of South America, in particular, is to-day
flooded with Japanese goods, merchants, commercial missions, and financial
agents seeking concessions of every kind. Our State Department has had to
exercise special vigilance concerning Japanese concession-hunting in
Mexico.
Japan's present activity is of course mere reconnoitring--testings and
mappings of terrain for possible later action on a more extensive scale.
One thing alone gives Japan pause--our veto. Japan knows that real
aggression against our southern neighbors would spell war with the United
States. Japan does not contemplate war with us at present. She has many
fish to fry in the Far East. So in Latin America she plays safe. But she
bides her time. In Latin America itself she has friends--even partisans.
Japan seeks to mobilize to her profit that distrust of the "Yanqui" which
permeates Latin America. The half-castes, in particular, rage at our
"color line" and see in the United States the Nemesis of their anarchic
misrule. They flout the Monroe Doctrine, caress dreams of Japanese aid,
and welcome Nippon's pose as the champion of color throughout the world.
Japanese activities in Mexico are of especial interest. Here Japan has
three strong strings to her bow: (1) patriotic dislike of the United
States; (2) mestizo hatred of the white "gringo"; (3) the Indianista
movement. In Mexico the past decade of revolutionary turmoil has developed
into a complicated race-war of the mestizos against the white or
near-white upper class and of the Indian full-bloods against both whites
and mestizos. The one bond of union is dislike of the gringo, which often
rises to fanatical hatred. Our war against Mexico in 1847 has never been
forgotten, and many Mexicans cherish hopes of revenge and even aspire to
recover the territories then ceded to us. During the early stages of the
European War our military unpreparedness and apparent pacifism actually
emboldened some Mexican hotheads to concoct the notorious "Plan of San
Diego." The conspirators plotted to rouse the Mexican population of our
southern border, sow disaffection among our Southern negroes, and explode
the mine at the psychological moment by means of a "Reconquering Equitable
Army" invading Texas. Our whole Southwest was to be rejoined to Mexico,
while our Southern States were to form a black republic. The projected war
was conceived strictly in terms of race, the reconquering equitable army
to be composed solely of "Latins," negroes, and Japanese. The racial
results were to be decisive, for the entire white population of both our
South and Southwest was to be pitilessly massacred. Of course the plot
completely miscarried, and sporadic attempts to invade Texas during 1915
were easily repulsed.
Nevertheless, this incident reveals the trend of many Mexican minds. The
framers of the "Plan of San Diego" were not ignorant peons, but persons of
some standing. The outrages and tortures inflicted upon numerous Americans
in Mexico during recent years are further indications of that wide-spread
hatred which expresses itself in vitriolic outbursts like the following
editorial of a Mexican provincial paper, written during our chase after
the bandit Villa in 1916: "Above all, do not forget that at a time of
national need, humanity is a crime and frightfulness is a virtue. Pull out
eyes, snatch out hearts, tear open breasts, drink--if you can--the blood
in the skulls of the invaders from the cities of Yankeeland. In defense of
liberty be a Nero, be a Caligula--that is to be a good patriot. Peace
between Mexico and the United States will be closed in throes of terror
and barbarism."[85]
All this is naturally grist for the Japanese mill. Especially interesting
are Japanese attempts to play upon Mexican Indianista sentiment. Japanese
writers point out physical and cultural similarities between the Mexican
native races and themselves, deducing therefrom innate racial affinities
springing from the remote and forgotten past. All possible sympathetic
changes were rung during the diplomatic mission of Senor de la Barra to
Japan at the beginning of 1914. His reception in Tokio was a memorable
event. Senor de la Barra was greeted by cheering multitudes, and on every
occasion the manifold bonds between the two peoples were emphasized. This
of course occurred before the European War. During the war
Japanese-Mexican relations remained amicable. So far as official evidence
goes, the Japanese Government has never entered into any understandings
with the Mexican Government, though some Mexicans have hinted at a secret
agreement, and one Mexican writer, Gutierrez de Lara, asserts that in 1912
Francisco Madero, then President, "threw himself into the arms of Japan,"
and goes on: "We are well aware of the importance of this statement and of
its tremendous international significance, but we make it deliberately
with full confidence in our authority. Not only did Madero enlist the
ardent support of the South American republics in the cause of Mexico's
inviolability, but he entered into negotiations with the Japanese minister
in Mexico City for a close offensive and defensive alliance with Japan to
checkmate United States aggression. When during the fateful twelve days'
battle in Mexico City a rumor of American intervention, more alarming than
usual, was communicated to Madero, he remarked coldly that he was
thoroughly anxious for that intervention, for he was confident of the
surprise the American Government would receive in discovering that they
had to deal with Japan."[86]
But, after all, an official Japanese-Mexican understanding is not the
fundamental issue. The really significant thing is Mexican popular
antagonism to the United States, which is so wide-spread that Japan could
in a crisis probably count on Mexican benevolent neutrality if not on
Mexican support. The present Carranza government of Mexico is of course
notoriously anti-American. Its consistent policy, notably revealed in its
complaisance toward Germany and its intrigues with other anti-American
regimes like those of Colombia and Venezuela, makes Mexico the centre of
anti-Americanism in Latin America. As for the numerous Japanese residents
in Mexico, they have lost no opportunity to abet this attitude. Here, for
instance, is the text of a manifesto signed by prominent members of the
Japanese colony during the American-Mexican crisis of 1916: "Japanese:
Mexico is a friendly nation. Our commercial bonds with her are great. She
is, like us, a nation of heroes who will never consent to the
world-domination of a hard and brutal race, as are the Yankees. We cannot
abandon Mexico in her struggle against a nation supposedly stronger. The
Mexicans know how to defend themselves, but there is lacking aid which we
can furnish. If the Yankees invade Mexico, if they seize the California
coasts, Japanese commerce and the Japanese navy will face a grave peril.
The Yankees believe us impotent because of the European War, and we will
be expelled from American soil and our children from American schools. We
will aid the Mexicans. We will aid Mexico against Yankee rapacity. This
great and beautiful country is a victim of Yankee hatred toward Japan. Our
indifference would be a lack of patriotism, since the Yankees already are
against us and our divine Emperor. They have seized Hawaii, they have
seized the Philippine Islands, near our coasts, and are now about to
crush under foot our friend and possible ally, and injure our commerce and
imperil our naval power."[87]
The fact is that Latin America's attitude toward the yellow world tends
everywhere to crystallize along race lines. The half-castes, naturally
hostile to the United States, see in Japan a welcome offset to the
"Colossus of the North." The self-conscious Indianista elements likewise
heed Japanese suggestions of ethnic affinity. On the other hand, the
whites and near-whites instinctively react against Japanese advances. Even
those who have no love for the Yankee see in the Mongolian the greatest of
perils. Garcia-Calderon typifies this point of view. He dreads our
imperialistic tendencies, yet he reproves those Latin Americans who, in a
Japanese-American clash, would favor Japan. "Victorious," he writes, "the
Japanese would invade Western America and convert the Pacific into a vast
closed sea, closed to foreign ambitions, _mare nostrum_, peopled with
Japanese colonies. The Japanese hegemony would not be a mere change of
tutelage for the nations of America. In spite of essential differences,
the Latins oversea have certain common ties with the people of the
(United) States: a long-established religion, Christianity, and a
coherent, European, Occidental civilization. Perhaps there is some obscure
fraternity between the Japanese and the American Indians, between the
yellow men of Nippon and the copper-colored Quechuas, a disciplined and
sober people. But the ruling race, the dominant type of Spanish origin,
which imposes the civilization of the white man upon America, is hostile
to the entire invading East."[88]
White men throughout Latin America generally echo these sentiments. Chile
and Argentina repulse Oriental immigration, and the white oligarchs of
Peru dread keenly Japanese designs directed so specifically against their
country. Very recently a Peruvian, Doctor Jorge M. Corbacho,[89] wrote
most bitterly about the Japanese infiltration into Peru and adjacent
Bolivia, while some years ago Senor Augustin Edwards, owner of the leading
Chilean periodical, _El Mercurio_, denounced Count Okuma's menaces and
called for a Pan-American rampart against Asia from Behring Strait to Cape
Horn. "Japanese immigration," asserted Senor Edwards, "must be firmly
opposed, not only in South America, but in the whole American continent.
The same remark applies to Chinese immigration.... In short, these threats
of Okuma should induce the nations of South America to adopt the Monroe
Doctrine--an invincible weapon against the plans and intentions of that
'Empire of the Orient,' which has so lately risen up to new life, and
already manifests so dire a greed of conquest."[90] From Central America
similar voices arise. A Salvadorean writer urges political federation
with the United States as the sole refuge against the "Yellow Peril," to
avoid becoming "slaves and utterly insignificant";[91] and a well-known
Nicaraguan politician, Senor Moncada,[92] writes in similar vein.
The momentous implications of Mongolian pressure upon Latin America are
admirably described by Professor Ross. "Provided that no barrier be
interposed to the inflow from man-stifled Asia," he says, "it is well
within the bounds of probability that by the close of this century South
America will be the home of twenty or thirty millions of Orientals and
descendants of Orientals.... But Asiatic immigration of such volume would
change profoundly the destiny of South America. For one thing, it would
forestall and frustrate that great immigration of Europeans which South
American statesmen are counting on to relieve their countries from mestizo
unprogressiveness and misgovernment. The white race would withhold its
increase or look elsewhere for outlets; for those with the higher standard
of comfort always shun competition with those of a lower standard. Again,
large areas of South America might cease to be parts of Christendom. Some
of the republics there might come to be as dependent upon Asiatic Powers
as the Cuban republic is dependent upon the United States."[93]
Very pertinent is Professor Ross's warning as to the fate of the Indian
population--a warning which Indianista believers in Japanese "affinity"
should seriously take to heart. Whatever might be the lot of the Latin
American whites, Professor Ross points out that "an Asiatic influx would
seal the doom of the Indian element in these countries.... The Indians
could make no effective economic stand against the wide-awake,
resourceful, and aggressive Japanese or Chinese. The Oriental immigrants
could beat the Indians at every point, block every path upward, and even
turn them out of most of their present employments. In great part the
Indians would become a cringing _sudra_ caste, tilling the poorer lands
and confined to the menial or repulsive occupations. Filled with despair,
and abandoning themselves even more than they do now to pisco and coca,
they would shrivel into a numerically negligible element in the
population."[94]
Such are the underlying factors in the Latin American situation. Once more
we see the essential instability of mere political phenomena. Once more we
see the supreme importance of race. No conquest could have been completer
than that of the Spaniards four centuries ago. The Indians were helpless
as sheep before the mail-clad Conquistadores. And military conquest was
succeeded by complete political domination. The Indian even lost his
cultural heritage, and became a passive tool in the hands of his white
masters. But the Spaniard did not seal his title-deed with the indelible
signet of race. Indian blood remained numerically predominant, and the
conqueror further weakened his tenure by bringing in black blood--the most
irreducible of ethnic factors. The inflow of white blood was small, and
much of what did come lost itself in the dismal swamp of miscegenation.
Lastly, the whites quarrelled among themselves.
The result was inevitable. The colonial whites triumphed only by aid of
the half-castes, who promptly claimed their reward. A fresh struggle
ensued, ending (save in the antipodean regions) in the triumph of the
half-castes. But these, in turn, had called in the Indians and negroes.
Furthermore, the half-castes recklessly squandered the white political
heritage. So the colored full-bloods stirred in their turn, and a new
movement began which, if allowed to run its natural course, might result
in complete de-Aryanization. In other words, the white race has been going
back, and Latin America has been getting more Indian and negro for the
past hundred years.
This cycle, however, now nears its end. Latin America will be neither red
nor black. It will ultimately be either white or yellow. The Indian is
patently unable to construct a progressive civilization. As for the negro,
he has proved as incapable in the New World as in the Old. Everywhere his
presence has spelled regression, and his one New World field of
triumph--Haiti--has resulted in an abysmal plunge to the jungle-level of
Guinea and the Congo. Thus is created a political vacuum. And this vacuum
unerring nature makes ready to fill.
The Latin American situation is, indeed, akin to that of Africa. Latin
America, like Africa, cannot stand alone. An inexorable dilemma impends:
white or yellow. The white man has been first in the field and holds the
central colored zone between two strong bases, north and south, where his
tenure is the unimpeachable title of race. The yellow man has to conquer
every step, though he has already acquired footholds and has behind him
the welling reservoirs of Asia. Nevertheless, white victory in Latin
America is sure--if internecine discord does not rob the white world of
its strength. In Latin America, as in Africa, therefore, the whites must
stand fast--and stand together.
_PART II_
THE EBBING TIDE OF WHITE