People who live in good climates are apt to look down upon those who live in poorer climates. That is a great mistake. The effect of climate is like that of food. We do not look down upon people who are weak because they have been unable to get good food. People such as missionaries and wise colonial administrators who have lived long in tropical countries have learned that while religion, education, and good government greatly benefit the natives, nothing can over come the effect of the climate. Will power, industry, and self-reliance like that of people in more bracing climates can be gained only by a process so slow that it will take centuries.
Because a person happens to be born in an unfavorable climate he is not necessarily incapable or less high minded than those born where the climate is more stimulating. In fact when a man who lives in an unfavorable climate such as that of Venezuela distinguishes himself he deserves greater credit than does an equally distin guished man from a more favored region such as Louisiana, and much more than one who lives in a highly stimulating region like Ohio. The Venezuelan has to draw upon his own will power for much of his energy, while the man from Ohio receives his from a stimulating cli mate. Thus our Southern States deserve more credit for their achievements than do the Northern States.
How Climate Explains the Distribution of Civilization.—Climatic energy has much to do with the advance of civilization. Fig. 86 shows the distribution of civilization according to the opinion of about fifty eminent men from different countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. The heavily shaded regions contain people who stand especially high in the scale of civilization. Compare this map with Fig. 85, which shows climatic energy. On both maps the black areas together with the heavily shaded areas which surround them cover approximately the same regions. They embrace most of the United States and southern Canada, most of Europe, Japan, southeastern Australia, and a portion of South America. The agree ment between regions of stimulating climate and high civilization means that the health and energy imparted by such a climate are among the conditions necessary for progress. Other conditions such as the influence of men of genius, good government, an ennobling religion, and strong institutions are also necessary just as good water, good food, and proper shelter as well as good air are necessary to health.
A Climatic Comparison: The Bahamas and Canada.—To under
stand the relation of climate and civilization let us compare the pro vince of Ontario, where the climate is one of the best in the world, and the Bahama Islands, which have a warm, monotonous, tropical cli mate. The original white settlers in both places were of the same stock. They were English colonists, many of whom left the United States at the time of the Revolution because of their loyalty to Eng land. To-day the descendants of the Loyalists in Canada are one of the strongest elements in causing that country to be conspicuously ,well governed and progressive. In the Bahamas the descendants of similar Loyalists probably show a larger proportion of inefficient, incompetent individuals than can be found in almost any other Anglo-Saxon community. Among the Canadians practically every one has a fairly good education. Among the Bahamans a large number have never been to school, and many who learned to read and write in their childhood have forgotten these arts because they do not practice them.
The main cause of these differences is the climate, although other factors such as the presence of negroes in the Bahamas play an impor tant part. As the Bahamans themselves say, "This climate is very healthful and pleasant as everyone knows. That is why people come from the North to spend part of the winter at beautiful Nassau. The only trouble is that it doesn't make one feel like work. In winter it's all right, although even then we can't fly around the way you Americans do. In summer we go to bed tired and we get up more tired, and our summer lasts from April to October. It's all very well for you Americans to think we're lazy, but try living here a year or two yourselves, and you'll be as lazy as we are." A Bahaman girl who returned to the Islands for a visit after studying nursing in New York was asked whether she enjoyed life more in the United States or at home. "How can one help enjoying it more there?" she an swered. "There one feels like doing things. Here one never feels like doing anything." The whole matter is well summed up by a local proverb which says that you cannot tell whether a Bahaman woman is pretty until she goes away and has a chance to grow plump and get some color in her cheeks. Some of the more thoughtful Bahaman parents send their children to the United States or England, not only for education, but to live permanently. They feel that the Bahamas are not a white man's country.