Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-18
Lothrop Stoddard Finds a
NelU Menace to Civilization
NIITH the cheerful audacity Of youth
Wv nfhrnn Stnddard has set out to

MYTH the cheerful audacity Of youth
w Lothrop Stoddard has set out to
destroy the civilization Of Europe and
America. If he were approaching the
nge Of seventy years instead of the age
Of forty he would not be 70 cheerful
about It. The only way I can explain
his complacency Is BY the assumption
that he does not take himself seriously.
He Is the son Of John l.. Stoddard,
who used to 20 about the country de-
livering illustrated lectures on the bead
ties Of foreign lands. Men and women,
especially women, went TO hear the
elder Stoddard by the thousand. II Is
remotely possible that the son grew
SO weary of hearing about the splendid
civilization Of Europe and the magnif
cent monuments which It had erected
In the shape Of catbcdrals and bridges
and art galleries and macadam roads.
that in a moment of desperation he de-
cided that il would be best to do away
with the whole thing, and he set about
finding how It could be done.
At any rate, he has written three
books setting forth three menaces to our
civiliza ton. The first was THE Rising
Tide of Color in which the develop
mcnt of the colored races was exam
incd and in which the conclusion was
reached that these races are increasing
in numbers and In power and in knowl-
edge so rapidly that IL they continue
at the present rate they will be able
in the not distant future to do what
they will in the world.
Then on the chance that the colored
races should not he able to succeed
alone in wrecking the things which his
father talked about, Mr.. Stoddard
looked around TO find another force
which might be able TO do 1t. He
found It in the Moslem power. There
upon he wrote another book on The
New World of ISLAM" in which he dis
cussed the growth Of the Mohammedan
power. The religion Of Islam is pro.
fcsscd by whites and blacks and by all
the intervening shades. 1t is the bond
of unity which can hold them to fight
in common cause. The religion had
been propagated in the beginning by
the sword and there seemed to be no
reason apparent to Mr.. Stoddard why
it should not again be propagated in the
same way.
And now 10 make the destruction
of modcr1, civilization certain he has
found a third menace on the apparent
theory tina the rule of three times
| aud out ,cill rork.
Its third menace is what he calls
i J. the Under Man. He has explained
| in "Thc Revolt Against Civilization"
Charles Scribners Sons) how the
| Under Man is to DO it all. BY Under
Mamie spells it with capitals-he does
not mean the under dog. but the man
of inferior intellect who cannot ap-
preciate or comprehend the refnements
of civilization and who revolts against
the complexities of modern society.
This Under Man is increasing In
numbers so rapidly that Mr.. Stoddard
processes to be persuaded that he will
ultimately rebel against the domination
of the minority of superior intellectual
ability and force society back to the
primitive stage from which 1t has
emerged by slow and painful processes.
He reaches this conclusion after a
study of the operation of the law OF
hercdity as illusuated by the npplica
ton Of the Bnet test to the American
soldiers in the draft and to other groups
of mon and women.
He says that the race has not i'm.
nrored sinco n emerged from barbar.
ism, and that what has been mistaken
for improvement has been only the race
expressing itself under improved con
ditions. The inherent qualities of the
race remain the same from generation
to generation. As civilization has ad'
vanced there has been tendency fo'
the capable to mate with the capable
and the incapable to mate with the in
capable. They have transmitted thei'
capacity and incapacity to their on
spring. As society became complex thu