have similar attitudes toward the various things that appear important in life. 

 On the other hand, people of the same physical type may carry on totally 

 different modes of life in different parts of the world, or in different ages. They 

 not only speak different languages, but may have quite different ideas about 

 the world and different ideals about values and goals. At the same time, a 

 study of living races shows very little consistent variation in the internal or- 

 gans or even in the bones, corresponding to recognizable types. There is no 

 evidence whatever that the human organism has changed in any essential 

 detail in the past ten thousand years. 



The chief objection to mixed marriages Is the social one. Where a com- 

 munity disapproves of mixed marriages, the children are likely to be at a dis- 

 advantage. They may be excluded from recreational, economic and cultural 

 opportunities, or be otherwise socially handicapped. There is also the more 

 immediate difficulty in many cases of disharmony between the parents. For 

 with different training and background, they may not agree as to the right 

 way to do any one of the thousand little things that make up our daily living 

 with others. Such disadvantage, however, is obviously unrelated to questions 

 of race or organic constitution. We may see disasters in families of well- 

 meaning men and women who have not learned how to meet differences in 

 points of view, in temperament, in mannerisms, and in the routine manage- 

 ment of affairs. These difficulties arise even where the mates are of the same 

 stock, the same religion, the same political views, but come from different 

 kinds of homes. They arise with the two or three generations of the same 

 family, living in the same house! 



Race Superiority The American melting pot has brought Into being a 

 population that combines cultural resources from all over the world. Regard- 

 less of the motives which sent people from the homes of their ancestors into 

 this new world (and some were forced to come here unwillingly), each has 

 brought with him something of human value. But this mixing of peoples has 

 also raised many new problems. Those who have been occupying a particular 

 portion of the earth for any length of time can hardly help feeling that new- 

 comers are intruders. If these newcomers please us, we are glad to have them 

 stay; but if they annoy us, we may tell them to go back where they came from. 



It is easy to forget that we and our ancestors have been here but a short 

 time, perhaps a few generations at the most. And there were others here 

 before us who resented our coming. From this point of view, there is no 

 question of right. Primitive people fought it out, and the stronger drove the 

 weaker away or destroyed them. From a broader point of view, however, the 

 human race in its life through the centuries has been made up of many kinds 

 of peoples in constant migration and in constant conflict. 



It is largely a matter of chance that you and your family live In one state 

 rather than another, or on this continent rather than another. Nevertheless 



520 



