Evening star., 1898-11-16
The Question of Average.


Inquirer" writes as follows:
IF Prof. Kelley Miller will pardon a
humble layman for doing so. he would like
to express himself as not fully persuaded
about one paragraph Of his excellent and
schoiar.y presC ntation of vexing prob en-
in the recent issue of The Star;
In the argument that the average stat
US Of the American negro falls at least TWO
stages below that of the whites the pro-
fessOr would doubtless give as this average
status for the negro the semi -civilzcd.
That would place the whites of Americ. at
the highest stage. what Prof. McGcc calls
the enlightened. If with nations as with in
NEidua!S. cne's just rating is not that
Whlcl which he puts upon himself but
rather that which comes from others in
positions to judge. then Americans will GER
tainy fa!l short Of Prof McGees highest
mark; for no one of the older and eniigh:-
ened countries Of Eurore looks upon Amer
lea as anything more than civilized-sor1a Q
as even less than that In fixing their
opinions the EurOpear people have no
Goubt made use of their knowledge of the
law Of action and reaction which has al
ready had two hundred and fifty years p!vs
thirty years IN which to operate in Amer
lea.
The writer would like to ask if. in ar
irving at this average status the arith-
metical process of finding the sum tota1
dividing, &c. IS the ona used? If so i
the professor certain that, including all
the ignorance and Incidence among the
whites of the south. and the lusts inherited
by them from licentious parentage together
with the vice and degrade ton among the
refuse of European population in the north
and west, is he certain that he could figure
by the process mentioned an average
status for the white man above that of
these negroes whose phenomenal rise in
one generation has refuted all past and
present day theories?"
Plea for Colonization.
w. Fl. Pritchett discusses the question in
the following manner:
Il have read with much interest the arti-
Gle in the issue of The Star of the 18th
and while there is large percentage of
Irony in the very scholarly article OF Mr.
Miller, there is also much good advice to
the colored race, well ii very sensible
tact stated when he says. We nave APP
Darently reached the limit of human wis
DOM. l would say in reference to Mr..
Watersons sentiment. if there was less
speculating and more praying in re-
spect to the negro's place in human society
there would be better results. in reference
to which a plain statement of a few cold
facts may not at this present time be out
of place.
Before petition is made to any one for
assistance to avert an existing calamity
resulting from former conditions it is Just
and right that we should ascertain why
the former conditions existed, and If thew
have been unjustly of our making. We
should make restitution as far as possible
of Our own selves, and II way had ever
been provided for such restitution as well
as II We had neglected, or refused to fol-
low this way until we had Cancelled every
obligation incurred In the transa ction
Here is the precise proposition we need
to investigate in relation to the w fTite and
colored-raees. -.
I'm discussing this subject we should in