Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-17
MoNeRELIzED RACES

which is certainly erroneous, lne Olner
very likely so. The first is that the
"mongrelizing'' of our American popu-
lation is regrettable and to be avoided
in so far as is possible; the second idea
is that hybrids (mixed breeds) mean
human degeneracy. Upon both these
ideas Professor Boas of Columbia has
shed a grateful and reassuring light.
Every European race is today-as 1t
has probably been since the dawn
of history-a mongrelized, that is,
mixed race. Possibly, but very doubt
full exceptions may be found in ireland
and in some regions in the north of
Scotland There is no absolutely pure
European type today, nor were such
type desirable. The Englishman who
supplanted the Indian on this soil was
a mixture of Briton, sane Roman,
Gaelic. Saxon, Teuton, Dane, Norman
and what not else; nor was the French
man, whose course lay from Canada
down through the Mississippi, a pure
type; nor the Swede who settled in
Delaware; nor the Dutchman who set
tied in and about Manhattan; nor the
Spaniard to the south. In the compost
tion of our people the Indigenous ele-
ment has never been important, except
for very short periods; Indian blood
does, without doubt, flow in the veins
of quite a number of our people, but
the proportion is insignificant.
But we are now fearing the coming,
not of the Englishman, the Frenchman,
or the German, but of people represent
ing the other European nationalities,
as also Western Asia and Northern
Africa. These latter are beginning to
worry us-Italians, the Slavic peoples
of Austria, Russia and the Balkan pen
insula, Hungarians, Roumamans ana
the like. No doubt these people repre-
sent a physical type distinct from that
of Northwestern Europe; and their
present social standards differ funda-
mentally from our own. And they
come among US, hundreds of thousands
every year. Nevertheless, precisely this
process of intermixture has been going
on throughout Europe during many
centuries with evidently beneficial re-
suits: the difference in the early Euro
pean mixtures and that resulting from
the modern transatlantic immigration
being in that the former took place at
a period when the density of popula-
ton was comparatively small. Besides
racial and group antipathies are sutfi-
ciently potent to prevent race mixtures
from attaining too great a rapldlty
among US.
The concern that is felt by many for
the continuance of racial purity in a
nation is largely imaginary; European
history demonstrates no racial purity
anywhere. nor has the continued inter
mixture of European types shown any
degrading effect upon these nation
alities.
In the second place Boas observes
most pertinently: ct can find no evil
dence that would corroborate the view
so often expressed that the hybrid OF
distinct types (as, for example, the
Caucasian and the Indian) tends to de-
generate" Yet very general opinion
is that the halfbreed is decidedly de-
generate. With regard to the Indian
at least, Boas seems to be correct In
his impression. These unfortunate
wards of ours are being dreadfully
decimated by tuberculosis. The bureau
of the census at Washington finds that
the indian is dying off from this dis
ease in greater ratio than the negro
and in much greater ratio than the
white. When we reflect that up to our
time every third or fourth adult Whlte
has been dying of consumption ana
every other negro between the tifteenth
and the forty-fifth years, it must be
obvious to us that the dusk of that
once mighty race of men is not far IN
the future. It has, however, been
found among our Indians in Montana
that whereas the mortality is as we
have stated there is a small section or
we'll educated, thrifty mixed bloods
(white and Indian) who live under con-
ditions equal to that of the average
white community and possibly even
better. Whilst often victims of con-
sumption these people are less sub1ect
to it than their full-blooded indian
neighbors: and when attacked live
longer under treatment. And in parts