THE UNIVERSAL RACES CONGRESS 



By Mrs. I ri. i \ F. Solly. 



( )n a former occasion* 1 sketched the design of the Uni- 

 versal Races Congress, which took place in London at the end of 

 July, [911. Now that the Congress is an accomplished fact, I 

 venture to lay before you some of the results, positive and nega- 

 tive, both as found in the printed reports and in the personal 

 reports of South Africans who were present. 



The mechanical arrangements for the Congress were hardly 

 commensurate with its inception and intellectual and spiritual 

 significance; the meeting hall was unsuitable, the reporting poor, 

 and discussion limited and arhitrary. It was perhaps natural at 

 such a gathering that the wearer of a picturesque costume or a 

 dark skin should he preferred to the common or garden English- 

 man (who, after all, is there all the time), but that the Hon. 

 W. P. Schreiner had no opportunity for speaking on South 

 Africa, while a lady resident here for a few years was allowed 

 to discourse at length, seems amazing, as also the fact that it was 

 with great difficulty that representatives from this country were 

 allowed to contradict definite mis-statements or incorrect 

 inferences. 



These minor details apart, all present agreed that it was a 

 •remarkable achievement, and all interested in the idea of the 

 Congress, " to encourage a further understanding, the most 

 friendly feelings, and a heartier co-operation between all races," 

 look forward to the next meeting, which is planned for 1914. 



The book published before the Congress, entitled " Inter 

 Racial Problems," should be in every public Library, and it is 

 -till procurable by those who did not secure it before the Con- 

 gress. Over 1,000 people scattered all over the world obtained 

 it, and even a most cursory study of the book should dissipate 

 at once and for ever the idea that the colour of the skin affects 

 the ability of the brain, or, in the words of one of the resolutions, 

 " that difference in civilisation does not necessarily connote either 

 inferiority or superiority." In a newspaper article the other day 

 the same idea appeared more colloquially in a warning to the 

 Caucasian not to confuse swelled head with a large brain. 



It will surprise no one who has read " The Souls of Black 

 Folk " to hear that the most striking and attractive personality 

 present was Professor du Bois, of Atlanta University; a man 

 be it remembered who, in some of the United States of America, 

 has to ride in a "Jim Crow" car: so far have some of the 

 American citizens forgotten the words of their grand Declara- 

 tion that promised to all, equal opportunities ; and we do well to 

 note it now, when this very point of railway travelling seems 

 agitating some of our own people. The resolution that imme- 

 diately appeals to a Society like this is the third, which is antici- 

 pated by the work of this section and acted on by some of its 



* Report S.A. Ass. for Adv. of Science, Bulawayo, tqt r, pp. 128-32. 



