New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-05-02
The Fiction of Race and Reality of
Race Prejudice.

RACE PREJUDICE. By Jean Finot- Translated
by Florence Wade-Evans. 6vo. PIP 800. E p
Dutton & Co.
Of all studies aspiring 70 the dignity Of a
science. anthropology is at once the most COM
plex, the most hopeless and the most easily af
fected by amateurs. Every man has decided
feelings toward various races IS impressed by
complexicns, features, heads and bodily forms
in short, has large stock Of information which
needs only a faclle pen to transform 1t into an
interesting anthropologicaI treatise. Nowhere
are more broadly sweeping generalities more
easily uttered than in the study of the charac-
teristics and destinies Of human types; and
nowhere are ponderous masses Of theory more
perilousy poised upon fragile Impressions and
unreasoned likes and dislikes. Who could not
write 2 thick. entertaining volume upon the
eternal inferiority of the Hottentot or the hidden
resources of Slavic genius? And all that TOO.
with more data than might be CLEANED from
q tour through the East Side or a winter voyage
10 the upper Nile
But what is easily written is easily criticised.
Nobody has suffered more merciless criticism at
the hands Of literary lightning artists than the
poor anthropoogist. n. Jean Flnot demon
strates this fact in some three hundred pages of
vivid. thrustng satire and seriousness. through
all Of which he strives to prove the obvious and
The almost universally admitted fact that mixed
races are the best. and that inbreeding in every
animal species notably among men. brings de-
terioraton Of the type Just why NJ. Finot has
felt the call rethunder platitudes may puzzle
the reader who has been happy enough TO escape
the thin but swelling stream Of books on vari-
kinds of racial supremacy issuing during the
last two decades or more from the presses Of
almost every civilized country. Home brewed
fancies about the world leadership of the Ger
mans, the world supremacy of the Russian
type" the degeneration Of Latin peoples" "the
triumph Of Anglo Saxon mentality" the essen
tial inferiority Of the negro" and the initiative
Of Asiatcs'' have been sealed-alas. not
hermetcallyt-in half hundred readable vol
umes and distributed for purposes of intoxica-
tion. n. Finot. having drunk deeply of all
these reaches the stage of bellicose and witty
but somewhat incoherent exlilaration in his
book on Race Prejudice" Although his criti-
cisms q the "blue-bloods' embody many excel
lent points he gives his readers. on the whole.
q wrong idea Of the nature of racial differences
and the problem Of race prejudice.
IN fairly accurate historical introduction the
author sketches the development Of methods
and measurements used 10 distinguish racial
types Count Gobineau who in 1854 hit upon the
method Of classifying types according TO the
size and shape Of the skull. is called the father
Of scientific race prejudice. The long series of
investigators following him and developing his
cranionletry did actually tend, NJ. Finot says
to exaggerate the superiority Of Aryans and to
decry the Latns, who were regarded as but
partly Aryan. The amusing eXultation Of Ger
manic peoples which has eliminated in Cham
berlains long, clever panegyrc, The Founda-
tons Of the Nineteenth Century On German is
a logical conclusion Of this tendency in anthro-
poogy. VI. Finot makes merry over the absurdi-
ties Of this theory; and we'll may he do so. for
IT, 1za-c aud
morbid fears o. its Latin champions IN
scientific as they are childish. Some advocate a
war Of extinction against all non-Aryans, while
Others among the latter class make the l,Igu-
brious forecast that their own miserable races
will by intermingling with the blueblooded
Aryans. utterly corrupt the latter and reduce
the world u rnopgrel savagery.
u. Fin0r's first serious mistake, though. lies in
his unsparing condemnation of all anthropology
and race psychology. In this he shows his igno-
rance Of first hand information: he has taken
the earliest works on anthropology as indicative
OF the value Of the science-as If one might de-
nounce all physics and physiology because Of
the erroneous teachings Of those who first pursued
these subjects, As a matter Of fact. modern
anthropologists studying the correlation Of
human characteristics with an exactness and de-
tai about which N. FfnOt evidently has not even
the most attenuated knowledge. Moreover. in
the present generation. the men who ex-
plotting Germanic superiority and such non
sense are not scientists, but hack writers, fc-
aon spinners and literary critics. who talk about
things beyond their ken for the sake of rounding
of essays irnpressively.
Two simple Illustrations will make clear the
authors incapacity 10 condemn modern anthro-
poiogy In the first place, although he has read
about De Vries's theory Of mutations and other
equally up-to-date matters. nowhere does he
even refer 70 the we'll known connection between
intelligence and the depth and number of con-
volutons on the surface Of the brain. He con-
tents himself with dsproving the value Of skull
measurements. size and weight Of brain. facial
contour. color Of skin. stature and on: never
q word though, about the nervous system, al
though his constant cry is that differences be-
tween human beings are not morphological so
much as Intellectual Fer ages mans eyolu-
ton has depended on brain development only
To this neglect Of comparative neurology NJ.
Finot adds the logical bunder of declaring that
environment is the dominant factor in human