298 



The Journal of Heredity 



"(b) All officers seem further to 

 agree that the negro is a cheerful, 

 willing soldier, naturally subservient. 

 These qualities make for immediate 

 obedience, although not necessarily 

 for good discipline, since petty thiev- 

 ing and venereal disease are common- 

 ei than with white troops." 



These conclusions as to the negro's 

 relative inferiority for responsible mil- 

 itary service are apparently borne out 

 by the service records of the negro 

 regiments sent to France. 



As the conclusions of the army tests 

 agree with those made under other 

 auspices, it may be taken as certain 

 that the negro is. as measured by 

 intelligence tests, markedly inferior t?' 

 the white men among whom he lives. 

 Is this inferiority an innate and in- 

 eradicable condition, or is it, as some 

 have supposed, merely a handicap due 

 to unfavorable tradition and environ- 

 ment ? 



Professor Johnson and I have else- 

 where pointed out the historical in- 

 dications that the negro's low mental 

 estate is irremediable." If the number 

 of original contributions which his 

 "race has made to the world's civili- 

 zation is any fair criterion of its rela- 

 tive value, then the negro must be 

 .placed near zero on the scale. 



''The following historical consider- 

 ations suggest that in comparison with 

 some other races the negro race is 

 germinally lacking in the higher de- 

 velopments of intelligence. 



"1. That the negro race in Africa 

 has never, by its own initiative, risen 

 much above barbarism, although it 

 has been exposed to a considerable 

 range of environments and has had 

 abundant time to l)ring to expres- 

 sion any inherited traits it may pos- 

 sess. 



"2. I'hat when transplanted to a 



new environment — say Haiti — and left 

 to its own resources," the negro race 

 has shown the same inability to rise; 

 it has there, indeed, lost most of what 

 it had acquired from the superior 

 civilization of the French. 



"3. That when placed side by side 

 Vv'ith the white race, the negro race 

 again fails to come up to the higher 

 standard, or indeed, to come anywhere 

 near it. It is often alleged that this 

 third test is an unfair one ; that the 

 social heritage of slavery must be 

 eliminated before the negro can be 

 expected to show his worth. But 

 contrast his career in and after slav- 

 ery with that of the Mamelukes of 

 Egypt, who were slaves, but slaves 

 of good stock. They quickly rose to 

 be the real rulers of the country. 

 Again, compare the record of the 

 Greek slaves in the Roman republic 

 and empire, or that of the Jews under 

 Islam. Without pushing these anal- 

 ogies too far, is not one forced to 

 conclude that the negro lacks, in his 

 germ-plasm, some qualities which the 

 white races possess, and which are 

 essential for competition with the 

 civilizations of the white races of the 

 present day?" 



The mental tests strongly support 

 this conclusion ; for they measure 

 traits which are largely independent 

 of schooling. They point clearly to 

 the fact that the observed inferiority 

 of the negro is to a large extent one 

 vv-hich no amount of education, or fav- 

 orable environment can obviate. While 

 there are many bright negroes, and 

 many dull whites, the average of the 

 two races is measurably different. The 

 negro is mentally, therefore eugenical- 

 ly, inferior to the white race. 



All treatment of the negro, in the 

 United States or elsewhere, must take 

 into account this fundamental fact. 



'Applied Eugenics, by Paul Popenoe and Roswell Hill Johnson, New York. I9i8,p.284. 



""The most' satisfactory settlement of this discussion may be found, I believe, m_ a 

 careful study of the negroes of Liberia, a state founded with free negroes, a state m which 

 the negroes have been allowed full and free expression of their inheritance, in a natural 

 climate, where advice of the whites has been available, but their blood has been withheld. 

 Surely here, if anywhere, at the present time one should be able to observe the negro's 

 possibilities, unhampered by slavery or race oppression."— Harris, Reginald G. "Eugenics in 

 South America." Eugcnical Nczvs, vii, p. 28, March, 1922. 



