The Washington times., 1936-10-24

ter a billion
years of human
life on earth Edwin C. Hill
and 5000 years of recorded history,
as absolute purity Of race.
The noted Prof. j. B. Haldane
offers some extremely interesting
conclusions and Speculatlons on
the subject of race.
He is not to be read as assert
ing there is any overlap among the
great races, white, yellow, brown,
black and red. No, they are
sharply defined and distinct.
He does contend, though, that
it is foolish to assert as the Ger
man textbooks do that a race is
a group of men who are all alike
in body and soul.
This is obvious nonsense. Among
people who certainly belong to the
same race there are large differ
ences, both Of body and soul.
There are tall and short, dark
and fair, good and bad, clever and
stupid, and some OF these differ
ences are obviously not due to
upbringing.
Members of the same race are
not exactly alike. They are not
even as like as different members
of the same animal breed, say
white Wyandotte fowls, or Sealy-
ham terriers.
That does not mean that race
is a word without meaning. IN
fortunately, it means two differ
ent things.
AWKWARD FACTS
On the one hand, if you take
thousand Negroes and a thousand
Europeans, the palest Negro is
darker than the swarthiest Euro
pean. There is no overlap between
the two groups and no doubt as
to the race to which any chosen
man belongs.
Also, we know that these differ
ences are inherited even if Negroes
live in cold countries and Euro
peanS in hot countries.
On the other hand, if you take
a thousand Swedes and a thous-
and Spaniards, chosen at random,
or members of any other two
groups within Europe except per-
haps the Laps, you find a very
different state of affairs.
On the average, the Swedes will
be much fairer and rather taller
than the SpaniardS. But the dark
est Swede will certainly be darker
than the fairest Spaniard, and
the shortest SWede far shorter
than the average Spaniard.
Some anthropologists tried to
get round these awkward facts by
a beautiful theory. 1t was sup
posed that long ago the population
of Europe consisted of pure"
races, whose members were all
closely alike and which did not
overlap, any more than white men
overlap with negroes.
This was a lovely theory till 1t
was tested.
The chief original races in west
ern Europe were supposed to be
a Nordic race, tall with long heads,
fair hair and blue eyes, an Alpine
race, short with round heads and
brown hair, and a Mediterranean
race of medium height with long
heads and dark hair and eyes.
The various races were sup
posed to have had their own psy-
Geological characteristics, but it
was generally held that the Nordic
race had a monopoly of certain
virtues and was, therefore, fitted
to rule the others.
Curiously enough, this is gen.
orally believed in Germany, al
though Herr Hitler is typical
Alpine.
MORE IMPORTANCE
How do races originate and how
do they change, apart from mix
ture with other races?
One of the tenetS of the German
racial theorists is that racial char
acterS are fixed, that the Germans
today have the same essential
characters as their ancestors who
lived in forests 1000 vars ago, and
that the Jews do not differ from
the men who followed Moses into
the wilderness.
Yet almost the only point on
which evolutionists agree COM
pletely with fundamentaliStS who
believe in every word of the Book
of Genesis is that all human races
are descended from the same an
cestors, and have since come to
differ.
Prof. Haldane believes that the
question of race is becoming more
and more important, and that the
relations politically and socially of
the various races, in the years to
come, constitute probably the
greatest of all world problems.
He notes vast stirring of the
yellow race, awakening from the
browse of centuries. He wonders
80.