CHAPTER 50

DIFFERENCE OF RACES

Relation of the Size of the Brain to Intelligence-Inferences from the Smaller Brain of the Negro-Nonsignificance of Size of the Brain in Determining the Mental Capacity-Inferiority of the Negro as Shown by Psychological Tests Applied to Negroes and Whites-Lack of Standard for Determining the Superiority of One Race over Another-The Indisputable Fact of Race Difference

SEV

EVERAL scientists have postulated a connection between the mental capacity of races and their form of head and average brain-weight. Charles Darwin was perhaps the first scientist to do this. In his Descent of Man is this statement: "The belief that there exists in man some close relation between the size of the brain and the development of the intellectual faculties is supported by the comparison of the skulls of savage and civilized races, the ancient and modern people, and by the analogy of the whole vertebrate system." 1

Dr. Bischoff admits the parallelism of large brain-weight and intellectual capacity, but does not believe that a large brain in itself uniformly betokens superior intelligence. Dr. H. Matiegka, who holds to the theory of correlation of brain-weight and intelligence, has collected data showing the average brain-weight of people of different occupations as follows:

14 Day laborers

34 Laborers

14 Porters, watchmen, etc.

123 Mechanics, workers at trades, etc.

1410.0 grams

1435.5 grams

1435.7 grams

1449.6 grams

28 Business men, teachers, clerks, musicians, etc. 1468.5 grams 22 College-bred scholars, physicians, etc.

1500.0 grams

2

Sanford B. Hunt, surgeon of the United States Volunteers, basing his conclusion upon autopsies of whites and blacks in the Civil

54.

1P. 'Uber das Hirngewicht die Schadelkapacitat und die Kopfform, sowie deren Beziehungen zur Psychischen Thatigkeit des Menschen.

War, states that the standard weight of the Negro brain is over five ounces less than that of the whites."

On this subject Ellsworth Huntington, in his recent book, The Character of Races, says: "Of course mere size does not mean that a brain is necessarily of high caliber, for the largest brain ever measured was that of an idiot. Nevertheless, it is a fact that as we go upward in the scale of evolution, both in men and animals, the size of the brain in proportion to the body is on the whole closely correlated with the degree of intelligence." He says that the Negro has qualities opposite to those of the Nordic people and if placed in such an environment as that of Iceland would probably be exterminated."

Roland B. Dixon, in his book, The Racial History of Man, correlates in a general way the capacity of races with the size and form of their heads. Classifying racial groups, according to form of the head, he finds that the larger-brained people, such as the MediterraneanCaspian and the Ural-Alpine, have played the great part in the world's history, the highest civilizations having sprung from a general mixture of these types. On the other hand, the small-brained people, whom he defines as the Proto-Australoid, and Proto-Negroid, with their low skulls, broad noses and prognathous jaws, have always been worsted in competition with the large-brained people.®

William McDougall thinks that "on the large average intellectual capacity varies with the size of the brain."T

In regard to this matter of correlation between intelligence and cranial form or size, I have to say that, although I appreciate the brilliancy, originality, and immense value from the historical point of view of the thesis worked out by Professor Dixon, and although I can agree with Darwin and others that in a very general way there is a correlation between the mind and its envelope, I doubt if we know enough of the character and extent of the correlation to justify us in applying it to any of our present-day race problems.

In recent years effort has been made to measure the intelligence of individuals by psychological tests, such as that of Binet and others. Sundry investigators have applied these tests to groups of Negroes and whites with a view of ascertaining the difference in their mental ca

pacity. George O. Ferguson applied tests to 489 whites and 421 colored pupils, and his findings were that in the so-called lower traits there was no great difference between the Negro and white; but in a test of higher capacity the average Negro appeared to be only threefourths as efficient as white persons of the same training. He says: "It is probably correct to say that pure Negroes, and Negroes threefourths pure, mulattoes and quadroons, have roughly 60, 70, 80 and 90 percent respectively of white intellectual efficiency." 8

The same writer in an article on "The Mental Status of the American Negro," in the Scientific Monthly for June, 1921, remarks that psychological tests indicate that the average ability of the American Negro is about ten percent below the average of the whites. He does not believe that the Negro will ever equal the whites in mentality.

Miss A. H. Arlitt, of Bryn Mawr College, tested 342 children from the primary grades of one district, including children of white nativeborn Americans, of Italians, and of Negroes. The results showed marked inferiority of the Negro children."

Professor R. S. Woodworth, in his article on the "Comparative Psychology of Races," in the Psychological Bulletin 10 summarizes the findings of three observers who applied intelligence tests to white and colored children, showing in each case the inferiority of the latter.

Messrs. S. L. Pressey and G. F. Teter, in an article on "Comparison of Colored and White Children by Means of Group-scale of Intelligence," in the Journal of Applied Psychology for 1919, have summed up their conclusions as follows: "The colored children of a given age are at about the average for white children two years younger. . . . Analysis by test shows the colored to average below white children of the same age on all the tests."

The United States Army records, giving the results of mental tests applied to different races, show that the mental age of the Negro ranks lowest, being 10.37 as compared to the 13.08 for the native whites.11

"Our army recruits," says East, "after passing successfully on a physical basis, were tested by examinations especially designed to grade inherent ability without giving advantage to the educated man because of his education. These examinations formed the greatest psychological investigation ever conducted, and they yielded results which are Journal of Heredity, Ap. 1917, p. 153.

8

9

Quoted by McDougall in Is America Safe for Democracy? p. 63.

10 Vol. 13, p. 462.

"Paul Popenoe, "Intelligence and Race," Journal of Heredity, Vol. 13, No. 6.

extremely useful. They are not perfect by any means, but as a measure of mental capacity they compare favorably with the average school examination designed for measuring knowledge in a given subject. It must be confessed that I for one hesitated in coming to a judgment on their validity until I had had an opportunity of examining the complete report on them published as a memoir of the National Academy of Sciences. There is in this report ample evidence to convert the sceptic to the belief that they give a picture of innate ability which is statistically valid, when averages only are considered.12

"A very large number of individuals were given various tests, and were rated on a letter-scale running from the very superior, rated A, to the very inferior who had not sufficient mentality to become satisfactory common soldiers, rated D—. A random sample of these examinations geographically representative follows:

"Some of the examinations undoubtedly placed the Negroes at a slight disadvantage, but since others were advantageous to them, the table makes out a very good case for white superiority. And the results are corroborated in other ways. For example, 45.6 percent of a large sample of Negroes from Northern States rated D or D-, while 86.2 per cent of a sample of similar size from the Southern States obtained this low rating. Thus, after making large corrections for possible unfair application of the tests, the ambition and relative intelligence which has made so many Negroes migrate to the North is measured quantitatively." 13

An analysis of the Army intelligence measurements seems to show that the low rating of certain white and Negro groups is related to defective elementary education, and this fact raises the question as to whether the low rating of the Negro as compared to the whites might not be due to lack of schooling.

Some psychologists interpret all mental tests as of negative value in determining the question of inherited race differences. For example, "Popenoe, "Intelligence and Race," Journal of Heredity, Vol. 13, No. 6. 13 Ibid., p. 134.

Henry C. Link in his article "What is Intelligence," in the Atlantic Monthly, September, 1923, says:

"There is absolutely nothing in the technique of intelligence tests as applied so far, which warrants any comparison whatsoever between the inherent intelligence of various groups or races. All that we can say is that there is a difference in their scores, and that this difference may be due to any number of factors, of which native endowment is only one."

In the opinion of the author of this book psychological tests are very valuable for vocational guidance, and they indicate individual and racial differences, but are not conclusive as to the superiority of one individual or race over another. For illustration, two individuals may show the same I. Q. and yet be as opposite as the poles in the urge to adventure, in persistency, in constructive imagination and other characteristics which no psychological test has been able to discover. A Chinaman may show a lower intelligence rating than an American and yet may have traits which admirably fit him for his native environment. He may be considered inferior only in the sense that he is not admirably fitted to our environment.

It has been often pointed out by school teachers as evidence of the inferiority of the Negro that the development of his mind tends to be arrested about the age of puberty. Testimony to this effect seems to be pretty unanimous among teachers in Africa. Carr-Saunders, however, suggests that this tendency to arrest in Negro education may be merely "a turning away from the training felt to be strange and foreign, owing to the strength of the native tradition which claims all the affection and interest of the young man." 14

The term race equality involves a good deal more than a general ability to learn. It means like response to the same stimulus, the possession of the same propensities, the same emotional temperament, and the same general aptitudes. For myself I see no reason for assuming that the races of man are alike in these respects if dogs are not. I do not think that any one acquainted with dogs will contend that the traits and propensities of the bulldog are the same as those of the birddog, although in general intelligence the two may appear to be equal. Presuming that the American Indian and the African Negro are equally endowed mentally, it is nevertheless obvious that they differ strikingly in temperament, that the Indian, having adapted himself by natural selection to his environment, has acquired mental, emotional, and phys"The Population Problem, p. 398.