Part 26 (2/2)

Again, compare the record of the Greek slaves in the Roman republic and empire or that of the Jews under Islam. Without pus.h.i.+ng these a.n.a.logies too far, is not one forced to conclude that the Negro lacks in his germ-plasm excellence of some qualities which the white races possess, and which are essential for success in compet.i.tion with the civilizations of the white races at the present day?

If so, it must be admitted not only that the Negro is _different_ from the white, but that he is in the large eugenically _inferior_ to the white.

This conclusion is based on the relative achievements of the race; it must be tested by the more precise methods of the anthropological laboratory. Satisfactory studies of the Negro should be much more numerous, but there are a few informative ones. Physical characters are first to be considered.

As a result of the careful measurement of many skulls, Karl Pearson[134]

has come to the following conclusions:

”There is for the best ascertainable characters a continuous relations.h.i.+p from the European skull, through prehistoric European, prehistoric Egyptian, Congo-Gaboon Negroes to Zulus and Kafirs.

”The indication is that of a long differentiated evolution, in which the Negro lies nearer to the common stem than the European; he is nearer to the childhood of man.”

This does not prove any mental inferiority: there is little or no relation between conformation of skull and mental qualities, and it is a great mistake to make hasty inferences from physical to mental traits.

Bean and Mall have made studies directly on the brain, but it is not possible to draw any sure conclusions from their work. A. Hrdlicka found physical differences between the two races, but did not study traits of any particular eugenic significance.

On the whole, the studies of physical anthropologists offer little of interest for the present purpose. Studies of mental traits are more to the point, but are unfortunately vitiated in many cases by the fact that no distinction was made between full-blood Negroes and mulattoes, although the presence of white blood must necessarily have a marked influence on the traits under consideration. If the investigations are discounted when necessary for this reason, it appears that in the more elementary mental processes the two races are approximately equal. White and ”colored” children in the Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., schools ranked equally well in memory; the colored children were found to be somewhat the more sensitive to heat.[135] Summing up the available evidence, G. O. Ferguson concludes that ”in the so-called lower traits there is no great difference between the Negro and the white. In motor capacity there is probably no appreciable racial difference. In sense capacity, in perceptive and discriminative ability, there is likewise a practical equality.”

This is what one would, _a priori_, probably expect. But it is on the ”higher” mental functions that race progress largely depends, and the Negro must be judged eugenically mainly by his showing in these higher functions. One of the first studies in this line is that of M. J.

Mayo,[136] who summarizes it as follows:

”The median age of white pupils at the time of entering high school in the city of New York is 14 years 6 months: of colored pupils 15 years 1 month--a difference of 7 months. The average deviation for whites is 9 months; for colored 15 months. Twenty-seven per cent of the whites are as old as the median age of the colored or older.

”Colored pupils remain in school a greater length of time than do the whites. For the case studied [150 white and 150 colored], the average time spent in high school for white pupils was 3.8 terms; for colored 4.5 terms. About 28% of the whites attain the average time of attendance for colored.

”Considering the entire scholastic record, the median mark of the 150 white pupils is 66; of the 150 colored pupils 62; a difference of 4%.

The average deviation of white pupils is 7; of colored 6.5. Twenty-nine per cent. of the colored pupils reach or surpa.s.s the median mark of the whites.

”The white pupils have a higher average standing in all subjects ...

the colored pupils are about 3/4 as efficient as the whites in the pursuit of high school studies.”

This whole investigation is probably much too favorable to the Negro race, first because Negro high school pupils represent a more careful selection than do the white pupils; but most of all because no distinction was made between Negroes and mulattoes.

B. A. Phillips, studying the public elementary schools of Philadelphia, found[137] that the percentage of r.e.t.a.r.dation in the colored schools ranged from 72.8 to 58.2, while the percentage of r.e.t.a.r.dation in the districts which contained the schools ranged from 45.1 to 33.3. The average percentage of r.e.t.a.r.dation for the city as a whole was 40.3. Each of the colored schools had a greater percentage of r.e.t.a.r.dation than any of the white schools, even those composed almost entirely of foreigners, and in those schools attended by both white and colored pupils the percentage of r.e.t.a.r.dation on the whole varied directly with the percentage of colored pupils in attendance.

These facts might be interpreted in several ways. It might be that the curriculum was not well adapted to the colored children, or that they came from bad home environments, or that they differed in age, etc. Dr.

Phillips accordingly undertook to get further light on the cause of r.e.t.a.r.dation of the colored pupils by applying Binet tests to white and colored children of the same chronological age and home conditions, and found ”a difference in the acceleration between the two races of 31% in favor of the white boys, 25% in favor of the white girls, 28% in favor of the white pupils with boys and girls combined.”

A. C. Strong, using the Binet-Simon tests, found[138] colored school children of Columbia, S. C., considerably less intelligent than white children.

W. H. Pyle made an extensive test[139] of 408 colored pupils in Missouri public schools and compared them with white pupils. He concludes: ”In general the marks indicating mental ability of the Negro are about two-thirds those of the whites.... In the subst.i.tution, controlled a.s.sociation, and Ebbinghaus tests, the Negroes are less than half as good as the whites. In free a.s.sociation and the ink-blot tests they are nearly as good. In quickness of perception and discrimination and in reaction, the Negroes equal or excel the whites.”

”Perhaps the most important question that arises in connection with the results of these mental tests is: How far is ability to pa.s.s them dependent on environmental conditions? Our tests show certain specific differences between Negroes and whites. What these differences would have been had the Negroes been subject to the same environmental influences as the whites, it is difficult to say. The results obtained by separating the Negroes into two social groups would lead one to think that the conditions of life under which the negroes live might account for the lower mentality of the Negroes. On the other hand, it may be that the Negroes living under better social conditions are of better stock. They may have more white blood in them.”

The most careful study yet made of the relative intelligence of Negroes and whites is that of G. O. Ferguson, Jr.,[140] on 486 white and 421 colored pupils in the schools of Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Newport News, Va. Tests were employed which required the use of the ”higher”

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