Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/582

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578
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY
persons of pure African extraction in positions of high consideration, authority or responsibility (p. 34).

Respecting the status and worth of the mulatto in Jamaica, Governor Olivier expresses the opinion that he is

an acquisition to the community, and, under favorable conditions, an advance on the pure-bred African. . . an indispensable part of any West Indian community, and that a colony of black, colored and whites has far more organic efficiency and far more promise in it than a colony of black and white alone. . . . The graded mixed class in Jamaica helps to make an organic whole of the community and save it from the distinct cleavage (p. 38).

The mulatto has appeared through the white man's acts. He will greatly increase in the coming generations, by breeding with both his kind and with pure negroes. A high fertility is increased relative to the negro by a lessening death-rate. It is fortunate that he represents an advance on the negro, and a real national advantage in our efforts to adjust the negro "problem."

Three further questions must be considered before a summary can be given of the mulatto's social and civic value. (1) Are there fairly well-fixed upper limits of mental capacity for negroes and mulattoes? (2) What are the known and established principles of inheritance of racial traits of negroes and whites; in other words, will it be possible by some control of hybrid and inter-racial crosses to produce a colored stock in which a majority may combine the desirable traits of both white and negro? (3) Will it be possible under the constitution and its present amendments to deal with the problem in accordance with the dictates of science and common sense?

With respect to the first point then: We have here only opinion; but it is absolutely unanimous: the negro can not undergo mental development beyond a certain definite maximum.[1] The curious thing

  1. Since this was written I have seen practically the contrary conclusion stated by Professor Herbert Adolphus Miller, of Olivet College, Michigan, in a work which he has kindly permitted me to read in manuscript and from which he allows me to quote. This is a splendid investigation, unique from the standpoint of its materials, and marked especially by originality and caution. In essence it is exactly the sort of research I am pleading for in my paper. "Psychophysical tests" were "given to 2,488 Negroes, 520 Indians and 1,493 Whites, including 596 Mountain Whites in the Tennessee and Kentucky Mountains." Six tests were employed for (1) Memory (a) discontinuous; (b) logical; (2) Rational Instinct; (3) Imagination; (4) Color Choice; and (5) Reaction Time. He summarizes his conclusions as follows: (1) There is no sharp line of demarcation between the races within the range of the given tests; (2) the differences are of degree, not of kind; (3) this degree is not a race-limitation, for many whites are inferior to many negroes, even in logical memory; (4) from the standpoint of original endowment there is nothing in kind to differentiate the negro from the Caucasian; (5) no faculty is lacking in the negro, and there are some that are especially strong; (6) limits of capacity do not follow race lines (italics my own.) The question arises as to how far these