486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE CKOSSING OF THE EACES 



By Dr. J. G. WILSON 



NEW YORK CITY 



A Study of the General Principles governing the Successful 



Intermixture of Different Peoples, with special 



Peference to the Question of Immigration 



into the United States. 



r I THE question of racial amalgamation is almost as old as the race 



-*- itself. For, not only the earliest traditions, but also the most 



ancient relics bear witness to the fact that extensive intermarriage of 



races had been brought about through commerce and war long before 



history had begun to unravel the tangled skein of man's wanderings. 



The crossing between different tribes, which was commenced in 

 prehistoric times, has been continued into our own era with ever increas- 

 ing speed and complicity of results. For man has always been a migra- 

 tory animal, and the improved changes in means of transportation and 

 the ever-widening fields of commerce have increased rather than di- 

 minished this inborn tendency. 



Looking over the world at large, and throughout all time, we see 

 that the results of racial intermarriage have been exceedingly variable. 

 Sometimes it has produced a better race. This is especially true when 

 the crossing has been between different but closely allied stocks. The 

 Englishman who has resulted from the commingling of so many Teu- 

 tonic tribes with the native Briton and Celt, and the composite molded 

 and directed by Boman culture, is perhaps the very best example of a 

 good result from extensive crossing. Likewise the cross which has 

 taken place in Ecuador, Mexico and Peru has produced a race not 

 altogether hopeless so far as the future is concerned ; for, however much 

 it may have hurt the Spaniard, it certainly has improved the Indian 

 immeasurably. It is not so much a question of the possibility of pro- 

 ducing a vigorous cross race under favorable conditions, as it is a ques- 

 tion of whether such a cross is, in itself, a desirable thing. 



There are those who profess to believe that the incoming hordes of 

 southern Europeans and the Alpine races will never mix their blood with 

 us to any appreciable extent, and will always remain foreign in race as 

 well as in ideals. Judged in the light of history, such an opinion is 

 without firm foundation. It is not conceivable that the modern Greek, 

 who is himself such a mixture of Serbo-groation, Slav and ancient 

 Greek stock, can have any irrevocably inborn tendencies which will 

 prevent him from eventually mating with our own people if given the 



