156 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1364 



Negro as ours seems at present destined to be- 

 oome. If we are no't to blunder on in tbe 

 dark, it is well to learn what forecasts of the 

 future can be made by asking scientific ques- 

 tions of tbe present. 



Tbe fourth Negro movement I diall note is 

 that of growing political power due to develop- 

 ing race consciousness and purposeful organi- 

 zation for political action. 

 , August 19, 1920, the newly elected president 

 of the Universal ISTegro Improvement Associa- 

 tion is quoted in the press as saying, " The day 

 is not far distant when the Negro wiU be a 

 power in politics." In the October, 1920, num- 

 ber of The Journal of Negro History an article 

 by Norman B. Andrews entitled " The Negro 

 in Politics," closes with these words : 

 , In several of the cities of the North there is 

 such a large Negro population and so much appre- 

 ciation among the Negroes of their political power 

 that they are now launching a movement to nomi- 

 nate and elect members of their race to represent 

 them in Congress. It is likely that this may soon 

 be effected in Chicago, New York and Philadel- 

 phia. 



The National Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Colored People says that in 1913 it 

 defeated bills in eleven states out of twelve 

 which aimed to prevent Negro-white inter- 

 marriage.^" When an organization in the 

 interest of one race in America, a race 

 which numbers one tenth of our total popu- 

 lation, can control legislation in eleven out 

 of twelve states as far separated as New 

 York on the Atlantic and Washington on the 

 Pacific, it is very evident that that race is 

 rapidly becoming an important political factor 

 in the life of our nation. 



A few years ago one of the foremost admin- 

 istrators of research funds in the United 

 States said the American Negroes could not 

 be researched by his institution because they 

 were a political factor in America. Is this 

 not the all-sufficient reason why we should 

 have all possible scientific data and knowl- 

 edge concerning the Negro ? The Negroes and 



10 Pourth Annual Report of the Board of Di- 

 rectors of the National Negro Protective Associa- 

 tion. 



whites in America have become too dynamic 

 for national disaster longer to be trusted to 

 adjust their differences mainly on the basis 

 of race prejudice on the one hand, or un- 

 thoughtful sentimentality on the other. 

 ■ I have endeavored to show in this paper that 

 our nation should make large use of definite 

 and specific anthropological knowledge to help 

 insure her national development. I am as 

 interested as any anthropologist in aU re- 

 search into the development of man. I am in- 

 terested in the development of culture. I prize 

 as one of my very richest experiences my in- 

 timate contacts with primitive peoples, but, as 

 an American believing in America and her 

 possibilities, I am to-day first of all anxious 

 that anthropologists use their scientific knowl- 

 edge to assist America in the solution of her 

 momentous problems. 



Albert Ernest Jenks 

 TJniversitt of Minnesota 



A BRIEF HISTORICAL CONSIDERATION 



OF THE METRIC SYSTEMi 

 ' The World Metric Standardization Council 

 wishes briefly to present to the Mathematical 

 Association of America the desirability of en- 

 rolling actively in support of the adoption of 

 the metric system in the United States. This 

 organization is an advisory organization, uni- 

 fying the efforts of aU who are ujging the 

 adoption of the metric units of weights and 

 measures throughout the United States, the 

 British commonwealths and the world. There 

 are no decimal dues, but contributions to the 

 cause are welcome. 



■ Whatever theoretical advantages a duodec- 

 imal or sixty system might have, the fact re- 

 mains that man is ten-fingered and learns to 

 count and reckon with these mechanical aids 

 assisting in the process of computation, either 

 consciously or ujiconsciously. Among civili- 

 zations reaching any high degree of culture, 

 only two have carried to any extent any other 

 than a decimal system The sixty system of the 

 Babylonians and the twenty system of the 



1 Paper presented before the Mathematical As- 

 sociation of America, Chicago, Dec. 28, 1920. 



