THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



JUNE, 1885. 



AEE WE TO BECOME AFRICANIZED? 



Br HENEY GANNETT. 



DURING the past few months the presence of the negro in the 

 United States, his future, and his possible influence upon our 

 social and political fabric, have become a fertile subject of discussion. 

 Thus far the argument has tended entirely in one direction, all writers 

 seeming to be agreed that the country is rapidly getting into a bad 

 way, by reason of its millions of black laborers. Various remedies 

 have been prescribed, all of them more or less difficult to apply. 



It would appear that the wisest course to pursue would be to first 

 study the case thoroughly, and make sure that the alleged patient is 

 really ill, before pouring into him any nauseous draughts. It is pos- 

 sible that he is merely a hypochondriac. 



In " The Popular Science Monthly " for February, 1883, there ap- 

 peared an article by Professor E. W. Gilliam, entitled " The African 

 in the United States," in which, by a free handling of the statistics of 

 the last two censuses, the author attempted to prove that the colored 

 race is increasing in this country at a much more rapid rate than the 

 whites, and that consequently, unless some effectual preventive meas- 

 ure against this increase be taken at once, we are in imminent danger 

 of becoming Africanized. He proposed, as the cure for the impending 

 evils, a wholesale, forced migration of the colored people. 



This article is re-enforced by another from the same author, in the 

 November number of the " North American," in which the same views 

 are reiterated. 



As these articles have attracted much attention, it is desirable to 

 notice them in some detail. The argument upon which Professor Gil- 

 liam bases his conclusion that the negroes are increasing faster than 



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