from doing affects the racial opportunity for expansion. Our war with Mexico in 1848 resulted in the substitution of some millions of whites for the Indians and mestizos who by this time would have filled the annexed territory if this war of aggression had never taken place. How ought an impartial spectator, say a philosophical Oriental, to regard this? When we extended our Chinese exclusion laws to the Philippine Islands, we narrowed the sphere of expansion of the yellow race in order to reserve the islands for the posterity of the Malays. This may give the Malays a greater share in the ultimate population of the globe. Is this rational? The Monroe Doctrine enables a million and a third persons mostly Indian in blood to possess Ecuador which, we are assured, could easily sustain fifty millions of people. Everybody there prays for a white immigration which, however, refuses to come so long as the country is kept in turmoil under the native element. In the hands of a European power Ecuador would provide room for the expansion of the white race and the home birth rate would not fall so rapidly. It is polite to insist that it is just as important to mankind to have more Ecuadorians as to have more Europeans, but is it scientific? The West Coast countries of South America are worrying about Oriental immigration but they realize that they are not strong enough to exclude the Japanese and it may not be long before they will be unable to exclude the Chinese. But a large. insweep of Oriental coolies would press the bulk of the Indian and the mestizo population of tropical South America to the wall, so that Asiatic blood would largely replace Indian blood in Western South America. The Indian blood is doomed unless the United States throws its weight on the side of these countries in their endeavor to bar out Oriental immigrants. If we are appeale! to thus to extend the Monroe Doctrine, must not our decision rest upon some notion as to the comparative value of the Oriental races and the Indian races? The prolificacy of the Negroes in the American South is so great that, were it not largely offset by an appalling infant death rate, the colored people would soon overwhelm the whites. If health officers and social workers put forth as much effort to lower the death rate of colored children as they do to lower that cf white children, this overwhelming would actually take place. CHAP. VI Under these circumstances is it the duty of the more intelligent race to use its superior efficiency against its own expansion and in furtherance of Negro expansion? The Stupid in a People Constitute a Standing Temptation to the Exploiter and the Dema gogue Doctrines of Race Will Be The progress of civilization makes ever-severer demands upon the intelligence and if we wish our civilization to be democratic, i.e., understood and sustained by the majority, we should bar out stupid elements. However amiable the dogma that at bottom one race is as good as another, it is not only unscientific but positively mischievous at a time when the peoples are in movement and decisions are being made which share the surface and resources of the globe among the various races. DANGERS IN THE RECOGNITION OF RACE INEQUALITY On the other hand, recognition of the unequal value of races Inequality is fraught with great danger. Not only does it sow discord at a time when good will and the brotherly spirit were never so much needed, but it imperils the very existence of little and backward peoples. Any stigma of inferiority we cast upon a race may be made the excuse for their maltreatment and exploitation, perhaps even their extermination, by the capitalists behind the imperialistic policy of nations. Rather than let loose upon the weak this devastating greed one would cling to the majestic declaration of Paul to the Athenians: "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." 2 The conclusion of the whole matter is that what we know about the comparative value of races gives no people grounds for oppressing, dispossessing or exterminating any portion of mankind. On the other hand, we do know enough to have warrant for preferring one race to another in disposing of opportunities to expand and for discriminating among races in admitting strangers to the national society. 2 Says H. G. Wells, "I am convinced myself that there is no more evil thing in this present world than Race Prejudice; none at all. I write deliberately it is the worst single thing in life now. It justifies and holds together more baseness, cruelty and abomination than any other sort of error in the world." CHAPTER VII THE INFLUENCE OF THE GEOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT IT OHAP. Does En Determine the Higher Life of Society as It Does the Lower? T is obvious that the characteristics of the immediate physical environment-climate, soil, minerals, topography, elevation, contour, waterways, rainfall, harbours, etc.- dictate the size and vironment local distribution of a population, the key industries, the basic occupations, the lines of specialization, the mode of life, the routes of migration, the channels of transportation and the character of commerce. In a word, the environment determines the general economic basis of society. Since no one disputes this, to dwell upon and illustrate it would be a waste of time. The real question is the influence of the environment upon human relations, social organization, institutions, moral and esthetic standards, the fine arts, religion and intellectual development. CLIMATE AND HUMAN ENERGY In a very marked way climate conditions social phenomena. In the tropics where food is provided the year round without labor on man's part, where frost and drouth do not afflict, where shelter and clothing are simple or even unnecessary, Nature has done so much that there is little left for man to do. Hence it is not in warm and moist climes that man has mounted to civilization. The natives of the tropics have the reputation of being indolent and untrustworthy, mañana folk. Only where Nature requires man to exert himself for a living has he developed the energy and enterprise necessary for any signal achievement. In the polar regions, on the other hand, where there can be no stock-raising, agriculture, or mining, where the food basis is extremely narrow and the woods, fibres, clays and metals we rely on are not to be had, where life is an eternal struggle with cold, darkness and famine, culture remains low and society does not advance beyond the rudimentary stage. No wonder, then, that it is in the intermediate climes that we come upon energy, ambition, self-reliance, industry and thrift. In the temperate In the Tropics Too Easy on Man; while in the Polar Regions Him CHAP. Man's Advance in the Art of Being Comfort able Even in the Permits Him to ulating Climates belt Nature offers few free gifts, but she recompenses man for the sweat of his brow and for his exercise of self-control and forethought. She braces him for labor and does not break down his habits of industry with enervating heat or a long benumbing winter. Significant is the migration within historic time of the major centers of human energy away from the warm belt. When the curtain of history rises the brilliant foci are in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia and India. During the classical period the peninCold Zones sulas of the Mediterranean are the brightest spots. In the Middle Ages northern Italy, France and Germany house the Most Stim- busiest hives. Modern times have seen Holland, England, Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, New Zealand, and Argentina come to the fore. One cause of this secular movement of civilization toward the inclement climates is the development of the arts of conquering cold, which permits man to avail himself more and more of the stimulus afforded by the bracing winter and the sharp seasonal changes of the temperate zone. Had the art of cooling kept pace with the art of heating the story might have been different. Ever since he invented fire and clad himself in skins, man has been in the way of invading the harsher climes; but only our own time has seen the beginning of a technique of cooling which may yet enable him to conquer the tropics instead of succumbing to them. The People of the Tropics Are Always CLIMATE AND POLITICS In the tropics there is no real self-government nor is there prospect of it. The natives of the hot humid zone lack the energy and self-control to provide themselves with such governRuled from ment as they need. If, as is almost inevitable, they fall under the Tem perate Regions The "'Equato the hand of powers in the temperate zone, their white residents constitute an upper caste and become the real rulers. The natives, although an immense majority, have little or no voice in their own government. Moreover, the white rulers tend to lose in time the democratic standards and ideals they may have brought with them and to gravitate toward the level of the natives rather than lift them to their own high plane. Climate, no doubt, is the key to many of the invasions and rial Drift" conquests which have bent the current of history again and of Peoples again. Peoples living at ease in the warm lowlands have been overrun by hardier races bred in the more rigorous climates farther north or higher up. In time the invaders themselves become enervated and succumb to the onslaught of another people from a harsh environment. The descent of the Aryans into India, the conquest of the Chinese by Mongols and Manchus, the recurrent barbarian invasions of Greece and Italy, the southward movement of Toltecs and Aztecs in Mexico, the northward pressure of Kaffirs and Patagonians, the absorption of Africa into European "spheres of influence," illustrate the equatorward drive from the less kindly climates.1 RELIGION AND ENVIRONMENT Climate and scene write themselves clearly into the middle stages of religion. After the stage of fetichism religion appears as a means of accounting for and controlling those natural phenomena which seem most to affect human life. The mysterious annual rise of the Nile was a matter of life and death to the people of Egypt, so the adoration of the Nile became a part of their religion. On the lofty plateaus of the Central Andes where it is always cold, sun-worship was quite natural. In ancient India the chief god was, of course, Indra the rain-giver. On the other hand, in Egypt the Satan was Typhon, the malevolent deity that sent the parching wind, while in India the Satan #25 Vritra, who holds back the rain. In Norway the evil gods were the frost giants and the mountains. In Norse mythology," says Whitbeck, "heaven was a place of warmth and hell, a place of cold and mist, but in the religions of Palestine and Arabia hell is a place of heat-eternal fire. To the Arab of the desert paradise was dreamed of as an oasis, or a garden, always having flowing water, shade trees, and fruit." To the ancient Hebrews, a settled people surrounded by maraudng desert tribes, walls were the symbol of safety and hence heaven or the "New Jerusalem" is a walled city with gates of precious stones and streets of gold. "Whether a people conceive of heaven as a place of eternal rest or as a garden with shade and flowing water, or as a happy bunt.ng ground, or a walled city or a great hall like the Norse IR DeC. Ward, "Climate," Ch. VIII. Whitbeck, "Religion and Environment," The Geogprahical Review, April, 1918. |