The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-08

 NOT FOR ALL
Minister Takes Exception to Peary's Statement About Christianizing Eskimos

Commander R. E. Peary's declara- tion in his second article on his trip to the North Pole that the Eskimo tribe with which he has long culti- vated such intimate relations ought never to be civilized, was certain to bring down upon him the censure of the orthodox. He describes them
 as a happy people, who are essentially children and should be allowed to re- main so. He says they have no re- ligion but believe in evil spirits, whom they attempt to propitiate. He tells of their ideas about death and says
 that the Eskimo ''after-world'' is a distinctly material world. Then he adds:
 I believe that have said enough to
 give the reader a general idea of these
 strange people that have been so val
 uable to me. in my Arctic work. But efforts will ever be made to civilize them. Such efforts, if successful, would destroy their primitive com
 munis1n, which is necessary to pre- serve their existence. Once give them an idea of real estate interest and
 personal -property-rights in houses and food, and they would become as selfish as civilized beings. Whereas
 now, any game larger than seal is the common property of the tribe, and no man StarveS while his neighbOrS are gorging themselves. If a man has two
 sets of hunting implements, he gives enc of them to the man who has none. It is this feeling of good fellowship
 which alone preserves the race. I have taught them some of the damental principles of sanitation and the care of themselves, the treatment of sim pie diseases, of wounds and other ac- cidents; but there I think their civili-
 
 is not based on theory or prejudice, but on eighteen years of intimate study and experience. The Creator placed these happy and pure blooded people in their own peculiar habitat,
 and the conviction that He is wiser than the missionaries has been borne
 in upon me by what I have seen of the vitia ted, half-breed stock of South Greenland and the west coast of Baf- fin Bay.
 The first published words of protest against Peary's views come from a Baptist clergyman. A dispa tch from Cincinnati reports an address by the
 Rev. A. B. Leonard of New York be- fore the laymen's missionary conven- tion in which the reverend gentleman said:
 Commander Peary writes in his lat est magazine article that he hopes that no attempt will ever be made to Christianize- the Eskimo. I differ with him and am astounded that he should have written such a thing. A greater
 man than Commander Peary once said: "GO ye into all the world and preach the gospel.'' Commander Peary was not of the same type of men as
 those great explorers who diving into 1 the wilderness in search of strange l lands, left the message of the gospel with the people whom they met.
 hope that the Eskimo will be brought to the light and that the darkness and ] fear of evil spirits that now engulf them will soon be lifted. Commander
 Peary lost the opportunity of his life when he met those people and left them with no more than they had be- 1 fore his coming.
 MT. Peary used the word "civi1ize' | instead of "christianiZe," but one term
 evidently includes the other. It seems 1 impossible for men who are animal ted 1 by the missionary spirit to. comprehend | that there are parts of the world | where human beings may live kindly
 and mutually helpful lives without be-
 ing civilized or taught the dogmas
 of Christianity. But such is the f7ct. l There are millions of people in Gen. 1 tral Africa who would not be better | eff if they were compelled to adopt | the habits and customs of civilization. recent writer in the Geographical | Ma agazine las described some of these 1 A1r1Cdn CflOCS as l6duHS all existence 1 i'm which the conditions are essentially 1 the same as among Peary's Eskimo people, and where kindness and nu- i tual helpfui1iesS are more generally
 prevalent than among the people of
 civilized countries. writer in the l Sunday Magazine of Jan. 30, Mr. Edgar 1 Eeecher Bronson, quotes a physician
 who had been in charge for six years
 of government hospital in the north | ern Transvaal as saying that to com
 pei the people ir that region to wear
 clothes would seriously diminish their longevity This writer says: While | they remain naked the frequent wet tings they get during the rainy sea-
 son do them no harm; but once they begin wearing clothes, and when they get wei neglect changing them for dry,
 as they are always prone to do they often contract pneumonia The opin- ion is expressed that white men will
 never be able to impose their civilza- tion on the central Africans. Why
 should they?-Hartford Times.
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