THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN AMERICA
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—TO realize the difficulties of this question, all sentiment must be eliminated, and it should be considered only in the light of well-known facts. Most of the American slaves were of the lowest type of African, captured, taken to the coast, and sold by Arabs and tribes of higher intelligence than them- selves ; probably few members of the superior classes crossed the water. The few who did might account for the coloured genius who crops up now and then, though when his parentage is known it usually turns out that he has white blood in him. The negro is, as a rule, nebulous about his pedigree. His migration to the north has made American politicians of both parties realize that the coloured vote is worth cultivating and organizing ; hence the increased amenities.
To those who know their America, it will be a commonplace that no public man or newspaper in the U.S. dares to express an opinion not in accord with the standardized opinion of his political party : even a private person is well advised to keep divergent views to himself. Political exigencies determine what the average American says on the negro question ; what he feels is shown by the penal miscegenation laws of many of the States forbidding marriage between white and black, which are rigorously enforced. No coloured man is admitted into an orthodox Freemason lodge, and if anyone suggested to a white citizen that his daughter might marry a genticman of colour he would probably shoot the offender, and would certainly be acquitted for doing so by any jury.
The real drawback to the negro as a citizen in a white community is not that he cannot learn useful trades and in some cases show mental capacity, but that his veneer of civilization falls off him like a garment when his vanity, desires, or superstitions are involved. Arouse his latent pas- sions and he reverts to the ways of his pagan ancestors, without heed to consequences. He cannot help it ; it is in his blood as much as the colour is in his skin.
There are also phases of the negro question, especially where he exists in quantity, which are well known, but it is better not to. mention them.
The negro woman is extremely fertile, often bearing ten or more children, but there is heavy infant mortality through the ignorance of the mothers in feeding them. Given a little rudi- mentary medical attention, which they are now likely to get, the numbers of the coloured race must increase by leaps and bounds, quite out of proportion to the increase of the white classes.
It would seem to me that it is the most serious problem of all the problems which exist in the United States. Mr. Julian Huxley's letters show a masterly and accurate grip of things as they are. What they will be in the future who can guess ?
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