Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-11-11
RACE is IMPROVING
The Present Generation Excels in
Every Possible Way.
MORAL and PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Americans Are the Longest Lived
People in the World.
AN PSYCHOLOGISTS VIEWS

| Written for The Evening Star
| Mankind is not deteriorating. Certain
| alarmists are continually crying ont that
| the human race, having reached the PIN
| nGcfe of material prosperity has lost its
| hardy virtues. They admit superior eX-
| ceIIence in Individuals but argue that the
man of today has become enervated and
| degenerate. They say that he is over
! worked and underfed They claim that he
has become emascuIated by twentieth CEN
| Jury civilization; that he is deteriorating
! physically, mentally and morally,
But this is not So Even Paris grows
| no worse as the tide of time sweeps on.
| And the remainder of the world is growing
| better. The human race is progressing
! Men are growing healthier. stronger, brain
! Ter; they are larger. more fleet Of foot and
! strong OF limb, more quick TO think and
! TO do; they know more, work more, ac-
| complish more and better for the life
| that they lead today. Contrary to a wide
| spread and general impression they are less
given to the excessive use of liquors and of
| tobacco than they once were: they are
| more moral and more religious
The latter half of the nineteenth century
| has witnessed a growing desire on the part
! of men to know something more definite
| about the progress that they suppose that
! they are ma king, They want to know where
| they stand: the effect of the civilization
| selves. They have been loathe TO believe
| the dire prophecies and conclusions of the
| little humans" They desired to know
whether the house they are building around
| them 50 painfully is after all Il house of
cards.
Wonderful New Science.
So Of comparatively recent years men
| have turned their attention to a science
which purported' to gauge the rise and fall
| of human progresS-the science of ethnoI-
| ogy-that science which Mr.. Webster de-
| fines as treating of the different natural
races and families of men" The subject
| matter is broad enough, and since the time
| of Mr.. Webster the field of inquiry has
been broadened still more until the ethnol-
osist of today is less a student of the bones
| of prehistoric man than "A close observer of
| the mental. moral and physical qualities of
| the varying types of civilized man. Such
| a scientist as the one indicated can speak
with the authority of the accumulated
! knowledge of mankind back of him. and so
] far as any one IS capable of judging now
| can sit in judgment on his race. Such a
nan is Prof. W. J. MCGEE. in charge of the
United States bureau of ethnOlogy, one OF
the most pro sreSSiVe and important of the
| scientific departments of the government
1t was after o clock. the usual hour for
| the closing Of the departments. that the
writer called at the bureau of ethnology
! and found Prof. MCGEE still at his desk
| YOU want to know my conclusions about
my fellow man of the present generation?
| falling back in the great race or standing
still on his present pinnacle or pushing for
ward to an 2ven greater development?''
| said Prof Mctiee. summarizing the qles-
! tons put to him.
Man is today at the high water mark
| OF his development as compared with the
| past continued he Looking forward 1t
| may safely he predicted. In view of the
! present progress that the billion five hun
dred million OF human beings who inhabit
| the globe are making that but on
he of 1t
| transcends that Of the present as the pres
| ent surpasses that of centuries since
Advancing Mentally.
The stores of useful knowledge which
| men are accommodating, the good that
| they are doing. not buried with
| them. Knowledge may be transferred in
defnit ~ from party to party, yet no
| party loses, though all may gain But all
| grant that We are advancing from tht.
standpoint of mentality. The critics point
| to the physical man of today and make the
| claim that he does not equal the physical
man of the past.
| lone of the best indications of the
strength of a race, all things considered, is
the longevity of its peoples. Recently there
| have been exhumed from the ruins of Pom
peii a number of actuaTies' tables. In
| these the ancient italian insurance agents
| had worked out carefully the expectation
| of life for the people with whom they did
business. When the Italian actuarieS' ia
hes were compared with the actuaries' ia
| beS of the insurance companies now doing
business in the United States a remarka-
BILE condition was found to obtain at pres
ent. 1t discovered that the eypecta-
ton of life of the American citizen exceeds
| by eleven years the expectation of the an
| cient italian.
Americans Are Long Lived.
"In this connection 1t will be Of interest
to many to know that the average expecta-
ton of life in the United States exceeds by
two years the average expectation of life
in England The estimates for England
exceed in turn the estimates for France
Germany and Italy and the rest of Europe
taken as a whole by about two years
Another important factor which must
be considered with the question of the
improvement of mankind is that of stature
1t is fact that the average American of
today is a taller man than the average
founder of this country. The average En-
glishmau of today is unable to encase HIM
self In the armor which his forebears wore
on either side at the battle of Hastings
By the way Of comparison il may be re-
marked that the American is an inch taller
than the Englishman, while the English
man in turn IS an inch taller than the aver
age continental
'How does the average white man COM
Fare with the savage in point of strength? p
was asked,
White Men and Savagex.
81 presume that you have in mind the
Indian and his traditional superiority in
point of strength and enduranCe?" was