COLOUR AND RACE. The narrowing of the world by improved transport, the levelling df mankind by the spread of education, and the increase of wealth and rise in social position of coloured peoples are bringing the races into relationships which may provide the most difficult problems of this century. The progress of civilization is threatened by the serious danger of racial conflict and the still more serious evil, the demoralization caused by inter-racial and colour prejudice.
Mankind, according to most authorities, includes three primary divisions or races which are as difficult to delimit as the breeds of dogs. According to some authorities the three races are so differ ent that they should be regarded as distinct species; but the fact that all their members can interbreed and produce fertile offspring is weighty evidence of their specific unity. In opposition to the view than the human races are specifically distinct is the claim that there is no real difference between them, and that the apparent distinctions are no more significant than those varia tions in complexion, head f orm and size, that occur between members of the same family. That claim is based on the differ ences between the extremes of any one race being greater than the difference between the races. This overlap, however, no more proves the invalidity of racial distinction than the fact that a bee has more points in common with mankind than it has with a barnacle is evidence that man is an insect.
The characteristic which seems to be most constant and useful in the classification of man is the hair, which marks off three pri mary races : in Cymotrichi (wavy-haired, Caucasian) ; Leiotrichi (smooth-haired, Mongolian) ; Ulotrichi (woolly-haired, negro) (see fig. I.). The division into these three races is now generally accepted. Apart 'from the hair the physical characters of each of the races vary so greatly that their definition is difficult. The main distinctions are remarkably stable, for the negro and the Caucasian are clearly represented in early Egyptian pictures, and the three races were probably distinct in the Stone Age.
As Haddon points out, "the Ancient Egyptian artists who deco rated the royal tombs at Thebes in the XVIIIth Dynasty distin guished between four races : (I) The Egyptians, whom they painted red; (2) the Asiatics or Semites, who were coloured yel low; (3) the Southerners or negroes, who naturally were painted black; and (4) the Westerners, or Northerners, white. We our selves speak loosely of white men, yellow men, black men, red men and brown men." The correspondence between colour and races founded on hair form is not complete. The negro has woolly hair, the straight hair belongs to the Mongolians, while the Caucasian peoples have wavy hair. The colour differences are less reliable. The negroes vary in colour from chocolate hue to a brown so dark that it is often called black; the American Mon golians differ so much from the typical yellow that they were called the Red Indians. The Caucasians include the whites of Europe, the brown races of Asia, North Africa and Australia, and some of the blackest of the African tribes.
Characteristics.—The social and intellectual differences are well marked, though in these respects the races overlap. As re gards courage, endurance and self-sacrifice the three races are not unequal. The brown people have contributed to progress most of the chief handicrafts and the founders of all the chief religions— Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islamism and Christianity. The Mongolian is characterized by steady industry, high skill in craftsmanship, and habitual self-surrender to his community. The negro, on the other hand, has a strong individuality which is less adapted to political stability and social coherence; he generally lives in village communities, which, except where ruled and organ ized by non-negroes, have never united into a powerful wide-rul ing nation. The Caucasian race is not a political unity; for it is divided into the white section or European, including the white settlers in other continents, and the brown Caucasians, who are grouped with the Mongolian and the negro as the coloured section of mankind.
The European peoples have shown the greatest capacity for ini tiative, combination and sub-division of work, and have thereby subdued the forces of nature, yoked the powers of steam and elec tricity, and by an infinitely complex organization achieved success in industry on a great scale. The white nations during the last four centuries have established their dominion and direct rule over eight-ninths of the habitable land of the earth, although they number only one-third of its inhabitants. The benefits received from the European's skill in administration led many Eastern and African people to accept readily his help and even his rule; but his success has rendered inevitable a readjustment between the white and coloured sections of mankind.
The Ballads of Bengal, collected and published by Dines Chandra Sen (1923), show that in the 16th century northern India under its Mogul rulers was in appalling disorder. The Euro pean commercial pioneers were either preceded or followed by missionaries who gave important secular help and faithfully upheld the interests of the native population when they tended to clash with those of the trader. Hence the growth of European influence was widely welcomed. The Chinese, for example, appreciated not only the work of the early Jesuit missionaries, but the help of the European staff in its imperial customs service. The eastern people also prized the benefits of European trade; but they could not have much share in it without giving European capital and traders the security of extraterritorial privileges, which lapse as the neces sity for them disappears. In time, however, the material disad vantages of foreign control, the galling symbols of inferiority, religious fanaticism and the mistakes of government have led to reaction.
Reaction.—The control of the world by the European peoples is a comparatively recent development and may be only tempo rary. The uprising of national sentiment since 1 goo has already lessened the European domination. The most important single factor in this change was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. In India the rise of the professional class with the spread of western education, the irritation of some genuine grievances and the stimulus to Indian nationalism by the Japanese success led to the establishment of partial Indian self-government by a measure which contains the machinery for its further extension. The es tablishment of a republic in China with its remarkable develop ment of scientific and educational activity among the intellectual classes of that country, the recovery by Afghanistan of the man agement of her foreign affairs, the wresting by Arabia of its inde pendence from Turkey and the establishment of Egypt as an inde pendent Sultanate are some results of the growth of Asiatic nationalism.
European Problems.—Europe is a welter of racial problems. The surge from the East which brought the Magyars into the heart of Europe, the pressure of the Turk, the thrust of the Alpine race to the plains and peninsulas, the clash of Slav and Tartar and Mongol in Russia, the over-pressure of population in some coun tries, such as Germany and Italy, combined with the decline in the rural population of France, have played, and still play, a decisive part in shaping the political conditions of Europe. Differences of culture, religion, language and institutions go with differences of race, and, in south-eastern Europe, the tangled mountains enhance the separatist tendencies of the folk that dwell there.
Contact with northern Africa and the Mediterranean littoral is of great antiquity. The population of Portugal has a strong Afri can element. The Moorish occupation of Spain has left its mark on the characteristics, physical and political, of the Spanish people. The population of southern Italy and Sicily contains elements of African origin. The population of the south of France is very mixed. The extension of the French and Italian colonial empires to Africa has enlarged the area of contact, and with it, the range of problems. The Mediterranean peoples historically display a comparative readiness to absorb coloured groups, while the Teu tonic stock holds aloof from such intermarriages. Asia is firmly held by the Mongolians and dark Caucasians. Africa is the home of the negro and of a negro-dark Caucasian intermixture in the north, and taking the continent as a whole, the pure whites are in a small minority. Native influence tends to increase. The three other continents are the possible heritage of the European, though North America may have to absorb a considerable and increasing proportion of negro, and Australia will have to accept inevitable delays in the cultivation of its tropical lands by white labour. From tropical and sub-tropical countries come the raw materials which Europe needs for her factories. These areas are valuable markets for European products. The problems vary with the his torical circumstances in which European control was established in each area, and with the local political and economic conditions.