478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



not be disputed, but that this will long remain the basis of eastern 

 Asiatic politics is not certain, or even probable. The Japanese alliance 

 with England shows how feeble are ethnic as compared with purely 

 national interests in international relations. The negroid peoples, al- 

 though they have made little progress towards a distinct race conscious- 

 ness, are beginning to show glimmerings of a sense of ethnic unity, or 

 at least a consciousness of separateness from the whites. After the 

 Russo-Japanese war a vague rumor that a white race somewhere had 

 been beaten in war by a colored people filtered into very remote portions 

 of Africa. During the Boer war news of British defeats spread with 

 incredible rapidity among the blacks and was everywhere received with 

 exultation. Among the blacks of South Africa the colored churches 

 are found to very soon cast off their alliance with white churches and to 

 insist on separate ecclesiastical organization. This so-called " Ethio- 

 pian " movement, it is interesting to note, is fostered by the negro 

 churches in America, with which in several cases definite alliances have 

 been made. 8 



Weale's alarm call to the white race is based on the assiimption 

 that the whites as whites are likely to be faced by the colored races in 

 solid array. He calls attention to the fact that the European nations 

 are disunited and can not act harmoniously in either Asia or Africa, 

 and that they will be so hopelessly outnumbered in the near future that 

 even united action would leave their position hazardous. Now it may 

 be possible that we are to see a great development of geo-politics, so 

 that the cry " Asia for Asiatics," or " Africa for Africans," will unite 

 the peoples of those continents in solid mass. But geo-politics must 

 not be confused with ethnic politics; and if considerable independent 

 white groups should arise in Asia or Africa it is probable that they 

 would be among the foremost in resenting European domination. Nor 

 is it likely that the yellow and black races will ever find common 

 ground of union among themselves and against the whites, just as it is 

 unlikely that the white peoples will always remain disunited in the 

 face of a real peril. To assume such a danger is to suppose that the 

 ethnic element will continue to constitute the important factor in 

 world politics that it now does. It is much more reasonable to believe 

 that economic and cultural interests will ultimately supplant purely 

 ethnic interests as the groundwork of world contacts. 



The real kernel of the color problem, then, is likely to continue to be 

 what it is at present, the question of social contact among peoples of 

 different racial stocks, and particularly of different cultural levels, 

 living together within given political areas, rather than a struggle of 

 independent racial masses against each other. In America there 

 is a wide-spread belief that our color problem is one peculiar to 



1 See the report of the South African Native Eaces Committee entitled 

 "The South African Natives," Ch. VII. 



