10 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



admit that intimate contact of the black and white, and the 

 growth of education, conduce to comparison of their relative con- 

 ditions which, on the part of the inferior race, may well be 

 expected to express itself in discontent. Recent native disturbances 

 like those in Port Elizabeth, Lovedale, and Bullhoek are, how- 

 ever, local in their origin and bearing, and do not represent any- 

 wide, deep-seated dissatisfaction, though this is usually the inter- 

 pretation given abroad. Education is at first a revealer of dis- 

 parity and engenders grievances, as we see in all parts of the 

 ■ world at the present time; but it can not be held back, and in the 

 end it makes for solidarity. 



The change of attitude towards the native in South Africa 

 is but a part of a world movement in the sympathetic inter- 

 relationships of peoples. Discussing the new modern organisation 

 of States in which social classes still persist, but in which all 

 caste systems are abolished and all the members of the nation are 

 regarded as being by nature free and equal, Mr. W. McDougall, 

 in "The Group Mind," remarks: "The change is very striking 

 also as regards the attitude of the citizens of one State towards 

 those of any other and towards even the members of savage and 

 barbarous communities. We no longer regard ourselves as devoid 

 of all obligations towards such persons. Rather we tend to treat 

 them as having equal rights with ourselves, and as having equal 

 claims with our fellow-citizens upon our considerate feeling and 

 conduct towards them." And again, "It would be easy for the 

 European nations to exterminate the black people of Africa, and 

 to possess themselves of all their lands. But public opinion will 

 not allow this; it insists upon our moral obligations towards such 

 peoples, that we are bound to try to help them to survive and 

 to raise themselves to our level of culture." 



Aversion Betw t een White and Black. 



To appreciate some of our racial difficulties it is necessary to 

 dwell upon the psychological aversion which so often characterises 

 the relationships of black and white. Many attempts have been 

 made to analyse the feeling. The problem is one of some com- 

 plexity in which a number of factors are concerned, instinctive 

 and acquired. Perhaps some assistance towards an understanding 

 may be gained from a survey of the conditions under which it is 

 and is not manifested. We may admit that a primitive instinctive 

 antipathy tends to exist among all peoples, between clans, tribes, 

 nations, and races, which is greater the more divergent are the 

 physical, mental, and social natures. It is a part of the universal, 

 tribal or clannish spirit, having isolation as a common factor 

 which, according to Dr. Keith, "is an essential part of Nature's 

 evolutionary machinery. It was in these isolated cradles of 

 primitive mankind that Nature nursed and reared new races." 



But this primary spirit of aversion is usually overcome as 

 peoples become acquainted, especially when the interests are 

 neither opposing nor competitive. Thus when brought together 

 ali white nationalities associate on terms of equality, as is seen on 

 a grand scale in the United States. Though not blending, whites 



