National Life and Character 303 



partly white, but chiefly Indian or negro, with their 

 language, law, religion, literature, and governmental 

 systems approaching those of Europe and North 

 America. 



Suppose that what Mr. Pearson foresees comes to 

 pass, and that the black and yellow races of the 

 world attain the same independence already achieved 

 by the mongrel reddish race. Mr. Pearson thinks 

 that this will expose us to two dangers. The first 

 is that of actual physical distress caused by the com- 

 petition of the teeming myriads of the tropics, or 

 perhaps by their invasion of the temperate zones. 

 Mr. Pearson himself does not feel any very great 

 anxiety about this invasion assuming a military 

 type, and I think that even the fear he does express 

 is unwarranted by the facts. - He is immensely im- 

 pressed by the teeming population of China. He 

 thinks that the Chinese will some day constitute the 

 dominant portion of the population, both politically 

 and numerically, in the East Indies, New Guinea, 

 and Farther India. In this he is probably quite 

 right; but such a change would merely mean the 

 destruction or submersion of Malay, Dyak, and Pa- 

 puan and would be of hardly any real consequence to 

 the white man. He further thinks that the Chinese 

 may jeopardize Russia in Asia. Here I am inclined 

 to think he is wrong. As far as it is possible to 

 judge in the absence of statistics, the Chinaman 

 at present is not increasing relatively as fast as the 

 Slav and the Anglo-Saxon. Half a century or so 

 more will put both of them within measurable dis- 



