St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1939-02-24

Wallace Praises George
Carver in Attack on
Fascist Aryan Theory

@>S $500 - ~NASSAAAS3 4NN" N~eNA VII
cial took the occasion to blast at
"racial" theorists in. this country
as well as those abroad, when he
said;
"It is the fashion in certain quar-
ters to sneer at those so-called
poor whites who suffer from poor
education and bad diet, and who
live in tumbledown cabins without
mattresses. And yet I wonder if
any scientist would care to claim
that 100000 children taken at birth
from these families would rank any
lower in Unborn ability than 100000
children taken at birth from the
wealthiest one per cent of the par
ents of the United States.
eff both groups were given the
same food, housing, education and
cultural traditions, would they not
turn out to have about equal men
tai and moral traits on the aver
age? ..... .....-.. .>..... 49,
eff 100000. German babies were
raised under the same conditions as.
100000 Hindu babies or 100000
Jewish babies, would there be any
particular difference? No such ex-
periments have been made or are
likely to be made and so no abso=
lutely scientific answer can be CIV
en-. But when raise such ques-
ton, I mean to imply that every
race, every nation and people from
every economic group of society
are a great genetic mixture.
There is far greater variability be-
tween the heredity of individuals
within the groups than between the
groups" ....-. ..~.... ..-..,.
Praises Negro Scientist
when I was small boy" he
said, "George Carver, a Negro who
is now a chemist at Tuskegee In
stitute, was a good friend of my
fathers at the Iowa State College,
Carver at that time was specialize
ing in botany, and he would take
me along on some of his botanizing
trips. It was he who first intro
duced me to the mysteries of bo-
tany and plant fertilization. Later
on I was to have an intimate &C.
quaintance with plants myself, be-
cause I spent a good many. years
breeding corn. Perhaps that was
partly because this scientist, who
belonged to another race, had deep
ened my appreciation of plants in
way I could never forget.
Carver was born in slavery, and
to this day he does not definitely
know his own age. In his work
as a chemist in the South, he cor
rectly sensed the coming interest
in the industrial use of the products
of the farm-a. field of research
which our government is now push
ing.
81 mention Carver simply be-
cause he is one example of a truth
of which we who meet here today
are deeply convinced. Superior
ability is not the exclusive possess
sion of any one race or any one
class. It may arise anywhere,
provided men are given the right
opportunities"
The government official warned
that democracy's chief danger lies
in selfish economic practices which
produce vast wealth for the few
on one hand and abysmal poverty
for large sections of the popula-
ton. Deeds alone, he asserted, are
what democracy will be judged by:
'Democracy-and that term in
cludes free science" he said, "must
apply itself to meeting the material
need Of men for work, for income,
for goods, for health, for security,
and to meeting their spiritual need
for dignity, for knowledge, for self
expression, for adventure, and for
reverence. And it must succeed.
The danger that it will be over
thrown in favor of some other sys-
tenn is in direct proportion to its
failure to meet these needs. We
may talk all we like about the
beauties of democracy, the ideals
of democracy, the rightness of de-
mocracy. In the long run, democ-
racy or any other political system
will be measured by its deeds, not
its words"