THE PHYSICAL FACTORS IN RACE SURVIVAL 



C. G. CAMPBELL 



New York City 



The first and ever-present problem of a race is whether it is increasing or 

 diminishing in its ability to meet and overcome the obstacles to its survival. 

 The future of a race is dependent upon the increase or decrease in this human 

 quality. 



In considering the augmentation of survival value by improvement in 

 racial quality, many have been inclined to stress the improvement in in- 

 tellectual quality as the prime desideratum. There can be no question of 

 its great desirability and value, but it needs to be recognized that there are 

 other factors that immediately precede it in importance. The first of 

 these is the physical factor. Biological evolution is essentially a physical 

 phenomenon, and the survival prospects of a species depend in the first 

 instance upon the full maintenance of its inherent physical ability to cope 

 with the environmental obstacles that constantly menace its survival. 

 Hence whatever human improvement or advancement might seem to be 

 attained in other respects, the racial outlook can only suffer if the inherent 

 physical qualities of the species that go to insure human survival are in any 

 measure impaired. 



Now curiously enough, man through his intellectual superiority over other 

 species, his excursive desires, and an unheeding over-confidence in his in- 

 telligence and judgment in pursuing his racial destiny, does much that goes 

 to endanger his physical prospects of survival. Assent is much more readily 

 gained in lauding than in criticising civilized humanity, but sooner or later 

 it will find it necessary to reconsider its position. 



In the wild state of men, physical soundness, strength, and activity, 

 together with the requisite equipment to employ these to the best advantage, 

 were factors of supreme importance for their survival. In the civilized 

 state there is the inclination to relegate these factors to a secondary position. 

 In a highly conventionalized and specialized social economy, where the 

 various social tasks fall to particular groups, only certain elements need to 

 possess these physical qualities in any outstanding degree. Biologically, 

 however, they always serve to contribute to the survival value of indi- 

 viduals; and the race has not yet passed the mark, nor ever will, when a 



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