The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-07-30

New Orleans Picayune.
Hon. James Bryce, member of the Brit
ish Parliament. and one of the most
scholarly public men in England, recent
ly delivered at Oxford University a lee
ture on the Relations of the Advanced
and the Backward Races of Mankind"
The subject is one which deals with
problems of politics and sociology with
which the people and government of the
United States at the present moment
have great concern.
Mr.. Bryce commenced his discourse by
noting the fact that the exploration of
our globe Is all but finished and may be
considered entirely so, so far as the races
of men are concerned. Geographically,
the lands at the earth's poles are still
closed against exploration. but conditions
are such that is little likely that any
considerable number of human beings will
be found there. Possibly there are none.
With the fuller knowledge of the fam
lilies of man there has come far closer
and more widespread contact of those
families with one another. Our time
stands peculiar in this, that 1t marks the
completion of a process placing all the
backward races in more or less COM
plete dependence upon the more ad-
Vanced. Commercial rivalry and the de-
sire for conquest operating on great ma
tionalities have brought the various races
into relations constantly growing closer
and in this contact, which is made under
strong pressure, the weaker must suffer
Under such conditions the result must
be the subsection of the weaker, with
final destruction or absorption. Where
races are not physically different, ANAL
gamation and absorption go on steadily.
Mr.. Bryce thinks that the thirty Ian
guages of Europe were originally one
hundred or more, and they have been re.
duced to their present number by the
blending. of the various races of people
that once existed there. The several
tribes and nations were varieties of the
white race and when issues of tribal
or national hostility had been settled,
there was no obstacle in the way of ra-
cial amalgamation. The dark-haired Ro-
mans were greatly enamored of the
blonde locks and snowy skins of the Ger
manic and Frankish peoples And thus
it Is that many Of the smaller nationali-
ties of ancient Europe have been alb
sorbed out of separate existence, while
only the races that had large populations
have maintained their peculiarities.
But when people of different races pos
sassing radically dissimilar physical char
acteristics come together, race reprlsion
has always been powerful enough to pre-
vent extensive amalgamation. Take the
example of the red races on the Ameri-
can hemisphere. In North America, save
in Mexico the Indians are suffering an
inevitable process of determination. The
United States census of 1900 shows that
the total number of Indians in the limits
OF the republic, including those in Alaska.
is 266. 760. OF these 242 are classed as
civilized and are assessed for taxation,
while 129, 5lS are not taxed. and are on
the reservations. classed as wild. and
the total for 1900 is 1000 less than for the
census year of 1890, showing that the
process of determination still goes on.
White men first settled on the coast of
what is now the United States in 1907,
some three centuries ago. They found
the red men in considerable numbers
along the Atlantic coast, from the frozen
regions to the tropics. Those who pene-
trated into the interior as far as the Mis-
sissippi River found every part of this
vast continental region. between the At
lantic ocean and the great river, occu-
pied by numerous tribes OF Indians usual
ly hostile to each other, and speaking diff
ferent languages. II has been estimated
that at the time of the first appearance
of the English settlers in Virginia there
was an Indian population of some 10000,
over one-quarter of a million. The In
dams who have disappeared were not alb
sorbed into the white population, but for
the most part have been eXterminated.
Mr.. Bryce, who takes broad view OF