Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/586

 REVIEWS

The Color Line: A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn. By WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co. Pp. xv + 261.

This is in many respects a notable book on the negro problem. Its author is professor of mathematics in Tulane University, New Orleans, and is well known for his interest along a number of scien- tific lines. The book has already had a wide sale, especially in the South ; and for this reason, as well as because of its scientific pre- tensions, it demands the attention of the sociologist. Its publishers advertise it as the first treatment of the negro problem in America " from the scientific point of view " ; and the author himself in his " Foreword " speaks of it as a " purely scientific, and ethnological inquiry." It must be said at the outset, however, that the book is not a scientific inquiry. It is distinctly controversial in its character : and is, in fact, as its sub-title indicates, a brief, or rather a polemic, in defense of the attitude of the southern white towards the negro. The author makes such skilful use, however, of scientific facts and principles in his argument that the book has a value far beyond that which ordinarily attaches to controversial works. The polemical character of the work and, we may add, of its literary style should not be permitted to obscure its value as a contribution to the study of the negro problem in the United States.

The first chapter adheres faithfully to the purpose set forth in the title of the book. It is a plea for the continuance of the social separa- tion of the races in the South. It is a justification, from the social and racial point of view, of " the color line," as it is maintained in the South even against exceptional individuals. There is nothing in this chapter which any sensible person, resident in a southern community, or even tolerably familiar with the conditions in our southern states, could possibly object to. If the book contained simply this plea for the maintenance of " the color line " in the South, I personally could find little to criticise in it.

But the rest of the book after the first chapter is taken up mainly with the larger problem of the destiny of the negro race in America, and, by implication, with the problem of the practical measures which

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