The Colored Race 



173 



the low rate of infant mortality in Japan are interesting as 

 showing how, in spite of the low birth rate in that country, 

 the low death rate among infants and young children up to 

 the fifth year has led to a large increase in the census re- 

 turns. And how much better this state of affairs is from an 

 economic standpoint than that of a high rate of genesis with 

 a high infant mortality. How much greater the loss of 

 vitality from the general store of the race ! In the first in- 

 stance there is so much the more vitality to be expended upon 

 individuation, and that meajis racial progress ; in the second 

 case, a large amount of the vitality of the race is lost in 

 blighted and immature individuals, and the general level of 

 individuation is lowered, and that vieajis racial decay. The 

 laws of propogation have been violated in some way, and the 

 vital equation of the race lowered. And it naturally follows 

 that the more complex the problem of life becomes, the more 

 closely these inimical factors are brought to bear, and the more 

 evident and far-reaching will be the destructive influences 

 upon the race. And here in the United States, which is be- 

 coming more and more densely populated with the Caucasian, 

 where the struggle for existence is becoming fiercer, with a 

 great increase in material civilization and all the requirements 

 devolving upon it, all the inimical factors I have enumerated 

 will bear with redoubled force. 



And still another point worthy of consideration is this, that 

 despite caste and social barriers, there can be, and is, a phy- 

 siological fusion of the two races. The extent of this fusion 

 is seen in the mixed element. The exact proportion of this 

 element to the pure negro we are unfortunately unable to in- 

 dicate , the attempts made by the last census being quite unsatis- 

 factory. This element, I am persuaded, is much greater than 

 is generally believed. I also think that it will increase with 

 much greater strides in the future as the social barriers to 

 miscegenation are removed. As I have attempted to show, 

 this element is largely an un.stable one, and of a low vital 

 equation. The process may be likened to a reducing agent, 

 chemically speaking, which borrows vitality from the pure 

 race to produce a new compound which is unstable. The 



