Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/280

256 better protected than they would have under a govern- ment of their own race. It must not be forgotten that much of their orderly and " peaceable " conduct is due to this fact. When left to themselves they are not distinguished for those qualities. They enjoy here the use of the numberless inventions made by the white race. They have the advantage of intellectual and ethical instructions controlled by them. These ad- vantages are offset to a small degree by the out- rageous treatment they too often receive from a de- graded type of white men in the South, whom the Southern authorities are not sufficiently active in bringing to justice. I may be wrong, but I do not believe that our coun- try ought to incur the risks incident to the existence of such a body of such a race in its midst. It is sim- ply a question of self-preservation far more urgent than that presented by the Chinese question. The prefer- ences of the negroes themselves must be in this case disregarded. In fact, the only natural right they have in the matter is to demand to be returned to Africa, from which their ancestors were carried against their own consent. The supposition that the South is not adapted for white labor will not bear examination. The negroes can be spared, and their place will be speedily filled with whites. It is, however, difficult to convey to the general reader the seriousness of the difficulty as it appears to the student of species-characters in body and mind. The conclusion to be drawn from the facts is. that what- ever of future progress the negro may have before him, it will take so long before he has reached the capacity to stand alone as competent for self-government, that we cannot take the risk of his presence here. Let him work out his own salvation without risking the future of the Indo-European. If he is so capable as some persons believe, it will do him no harm. If he suc- ceeds no better in the future than he has in the past,