HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



increasing factor in America, affecting fecundity to the greatest extent 

 in those families most completely amalgamated. This view is the 

 opposite of that which holds that amalgamation is a mixing or blend- 

 ing together of diverse ethnic groups into a homogeneous group. This 

 view does not accept the "melting-pot" theory. 



In other words, when we consider ethnic groups in the three areas 

 studied, the terms "pure-bred" and "prepotent" are practically 

 synonymous. This other conclusion must be added: that as yet the 

 "American" is not a pure-bred ethnic group, but is an extremely 

 amalgamated group, and, in consequence of the amalgamation, is a 

 decidedly impotent group. 



Startling as this conclusion may seem to some Americans, it should 

 not surprise us, if we think biologically. It should have been expected 

 that, in the long run, the evolutionary factors of variation, selection, 

 adaptation, and heredity would make the marriage of men and 

 women of the same pure-bred ethnic group, reared under the same 

 culture and the same environment, better fitted for reproduction than 

 the intermarriage of men and women of different pure-bred ethnic 

 groups reared under different cultures and different environments. 



Further, it may be said, we should expect that an environment 

 so dominant and vitalizing as is that of America will, in time, select 

 from the myriads of children born here those whom it favors — those 

 whom it owns — and with them breed up a "pure-bred" and "pre- 

 potent" American ethnic group. Evidently it is too early in the 

 history of the American people to be able to know what ethnic group 

 or groups now amalgamating here will find lasting favor in the Ameri- 

 can environment, and so be selected as the parents of the ultimate 

 American race. 



University of Minnesota 

 Minneapolis 



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