PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 29 



is likely to occur. How the different elements making up the 

 nation will arrange themselves in industrial and economic com- 

 petition is our cardinal sociological problem. It must be conceded 

 that on the whole the present relationships are workable, and we 

 may well consider how far they are likely to continue. 



In trade, industry, and the general affairs of the country, 

 all having equal opportunity, the leaders will be those manifest- 

 ing the greatest ability; they will be the directive forces of the 

 nation, and the others less endowed must naturally occupy the 

 lower strata in accordance with their lesser powers. In a white 

 community, such as exists in most European countries, we may 

 allow that natural endowments are fairly uniformly distributed 

 among the different classes of the people and, given equal oppor- 

 tunity, outstanding individuals will arise from any level. But it 

 is otherwise in a country with diversity of races. Physical, social, 

 mental, and spiritual characteristics are hereditarily different in 

 the various human races, and uniformity of opportunity will in 

 no measure eliminate them. It is readily conceded that the 

 physical divergencies are constant and unalterable, but the heredi- 

 tary constancy of the others is not so manifest; yet it is none the 

 less true, despite the dictum that "all men are born equal." In 

 the whole human family scarcely any greater physical contrasts 

 occur than those between the Bantu and the European, and their 

 mental attributes are just as diverse. No sane person would con- 

 tend that given equal opportunity, or placed under the same 

 environment, these hereditary differences would be nullified ;* they 

 are represented by germinal factors and the germ plasm does not 

 ordinarily change. To determine their relative status in the 

 future we may attempt to appraise the hereditary qualifications 

 of the various South African peoples, though it can be done only 

 in the most general fashion; for it is here that, the greatest need 

 exists for experimental data. 



The many negative qualities of the Bantu have already been 

 noted. Looking to his past history and present attainments there 

 is no reason to hold that in all-round executive ability he will 

 never more nearly approach the white man than he does at 

 present, though we may allow for the exception and for the fact 

 that as a race he has yet to prove his full cumulative capacity 

 under a new and sympathetic environment. The Indian in South 

 Africa is admittedly a selection from a labouring class of low caste. 

 In India is to be found some of the most desirable blood in the 

 world, but not much of it flows in the veins of the coolie. Heredity 

 is all powerful, the blood of the labourer produces the labourer, 

 and outstanding individuals do not arise from ancestrally poor 

 stock. The mixed group we call the Malays have shown little 

 capacity beyond that necessary for industrialism, and are happy 

 therein; natural endowment for the higher attainments of life is 

 questionable. The Eur-Africans by their very origin are mosaics 

 of the Bantu and European, and, in the main, are from the lower 

 types of the latter. They cannot wholly possess the innate quali- 

 ties of the pure white. 



