Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/13



one comes to write a book upon such a subject as is treated of in the pages of the present little volume, there is usually some very definite reason that inspires the undertaking. This was distinctly the case in the present instance, and apart from all other considerations, be their nature what they may, my object in publishing a book on the negro race as it is now represented in this country, has been for the sole purpose of pointing out, from a purely scientific viewpoint, the effect that these introduced Ethiopians have had upon our progress and civilization, in the past, and what their continued presence among us means in the future. In offering to my readers what I have in the following pages I desire above all else to state that, although anthropologically speaking, the negro race of the stock here treated is not by any means a favorite ethnic group of mine among the world's peoples, either to study or to come in contact with, still I have no special prejudice against them, and in penning what is set forth in the ensuing chapters I have in no case or instance been actuated by any other motive than telling the truth, and telling the truth most plainly and fully. For nearly forty years past I have enjoyed unusually good opportunities to study the negro in the United States as well as in the West Indies, and that, too, in every phase of his (9)