Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/198

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THE NEGRO

eighty per cent, of white blood in their composition, and that blood probably derived from the best class of educated Americans. It has further been shown, both physiologically and anatomically, that the bulk of them derive no benefit from educational measures of any kind, and as for the matter of that they have, even when crossed with the best of the white race, produced no man or woman in any way entitled to be recognized as a profound thinker or as one possessing skill in any of the crafts of sciences above the plane of mediocrity. And, as has been pointed out, this has been the case only when the individual exhibiting such prominence had a very large proportion of white blood in his composition. On the other hand, there is a very considerable amount of proof available toward establishing the fact that in a very large proportion of cases modern education has been downright harmful to the negro, and had the sole effect of improving his opportunities for criminal practices of various kinds; of having him entertain entirely false notions of his worth, ability and real social status; and of furnishing thoroughly untrustworthy evidence of his value as a factor in modern civilization, which baseless testimony has been employed by the short-sighted, narrow-minded and uneducated supporters of this race in the United States to continue their attempts to force these savage and semi-simian creatures upon a long-suffering and civilized community.

It is equally clear that the criminality and savagery of the negro in this country has, in the case of the more criminally disposed whites, begotten both savagery and crime, as well as lawlessness. It is the presence of the negro among us that is responsible for lynch-