EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY 



new one is readily understood when we remember 

 that negroes operate our most complex and delicate 

 machinery and that they were unable by their own 

 initiative to progress beyond a rudimentary state of 

 civilization. They were flung into our complex socie- 

 ty and have been in a condition of independence less 

 than a century; they conform to the customs of an 

 industrial world and an intricate social life without 

 understanding its motives or its meaning and cannot 

 add a tittle to its ideas. Is such an example not a proof 

 that native ability has not advanced appreciably 

 during historical times ^ How long would it have 

 taken the Greek or Egyptian population to perform 

 the simple operation of levers and buttons, labelled 

 to pull or push, if one of our machines could have 

 been presented to them and its manipulation ex- 

 plained? Does anyone suppose that they could not 

 have run a Ford automobile or a motor boat as well 

 as thousands are doing today under the supervision 

 of the expert? 



What the Evolutionists expected of sociology was 

 that it would become a true science which would for- 

 mulate laws, derived from the study and observation 

 of past times, applicable to guide the course of future 

 society. What has happened is, that sociologists have 

 accumulated a mass of statistics relating to human 

 affairs which they are not able to digest; for theory, 

 they have compiled text-books whose real informa- 

 tion consists of excerpts from philosophers and his- 



C 343 3 



