248 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
without being impressed with the fact that prejudice and precon- 
ceived opinions have greatly influenced the verdict of a large 
proportion of those who have dealt with the problem. It is no 
easy matter in most cases to distinguish the effects of race cross- 
ing per se from the influence of the social environment under 
which the cross breed lives. The product of race mixture is very 
frequently a person of unsettled social status. He is more or less 
alienated from both races from which he sprang. His associations 
are only two frequently with the worst elements of the more culti- 
vated stock. The family environment and traditions under 
which he is brought up are often less favorable than they are for 
the offspring of either pure race. Contact between whites and 
natives has effected the debauchery of the native women, in- 
creased addiction to alcohol, and the introduction of tubuculosis 
and other diseases which are apt to be especially severe upon the 
inferior race. The spread of venereal diseases with the most 
deplorable influence upon the native and mixed population is an 
occurrence which has been repeated almost times without number 
wherever civilized man has mingled with more primitive peoples. 
Where race mixture occurs old customs which form the chief 
restraining influence on conduct become broken up; tribal feeling 
and character are weakened, and moral laxity naturally follows. 
The saddest pages of history are those which deal with the 
relations of the white man with his less enlightened brethren. 
The whites may have introduced missionaries, salvation, and a 
measure of education, but they have also brought syphilis, de- 
bauchery, industrial slavery and not infrequently extinction. 
There can be little doubt that the shortcomings frequently 
attributed to mongrel stocks are the result of causes quite inde- 
pendent of heredity. Nevertheless, nothing is more common 
than to find the defects and vices as well as the virtues of mixed 
races attributed to the influence of race mixture per se. An opin- 
ion on race mixture which is frequently appealed to is that of 
Prof. Agassiz who says, in speaking of the mixed population of 
Brazil, ‘Let any one who doubts the evil of this mixture of races, 
and is inclined from mistaken philanthropy to break down all 
