Part 5
The Jews have ages of learning and wisdom to fall back upon, and the African, although interrupted in his advance, by ages of repression, nevertheless has the ages of high civilization, the reigns of the Queens Candace, the learning of the Egyptians from Ethiopian magi, and the startling wonders and marvels of buried cities and high culture recently unearthed in Africa as a foundation. These ought to be an incentive to him to regain the lost prestige. He has the opportunity now, and there is no one to stay his march upward, on the contrary, there are helping hands everywhere, and incentives such as no other race in the world ever had or will ever have.
He may look back to his ancestral days with as much pride as any other race, and he may point to the magnificent ruins of the departed glories of his race to prove that his origin is to be found in as high a type of civilization as compared to any other race.
_THE WORLD’S CONGRESS of RACES_ _Great Importance of Colored Race in the Tremendous World Upward Movement_ _One Thousand Delegates from Fifty Different Races Proclaim Uplift of People_
In considering the opportunities offered the Colored people of the United States, two things must be constantly borne in mind:
1. That the advance of the world and of the nations toward harmonious action and unity of motives, is purely of the mind and soul and not of the material things of life.
2. As to the world’s progress the Colored Americans of the United States occupy a prominent position in the vanguard with the other divisions of the human race, all of whom are moving in the same direction toward carrying out the Divine plan of bringing all nations into one fold.
On July 26, 1912, there opened in the City of London, England, a great congress of the races of the world including all the dark races or their representatives. In fact, fifty different races were represented by their leading men, consisting of over thirty presidents of parliaments, the members of the permanent court of arbitration and of the delegates to the Second Hague Conference, twelve British governors and eight British premiers, over forty colonial Bishops, a hundred and thirty professors of international law, the leading students of mankind, and other scientific men of the world.
When Lord Weardale, at the head of the World’s Peace movement, opened the first session of this congress, he looked into the faces of a thousand people representing fifty different races of men.
Lord Weardale said among other things: “To those who regard the furtherance of international good will and peace as the highest of all human interests, this First Universal Races Congress opens a vista of almost boundless promise.
“Nearer and nearer we see approaching the day when the caste population of the East will assert their claim to meet on terms of equality the nations of the West; when the free institutions and the organized forces of the one hemisphere will have their counterbalance in the other; when their mental outlook and their social aims will be in principle identical; when in short the color prejudice will have vanished and the so-called “white races” and the so-called “colored races” shall no longer meet in missionary exposition, but, in very fact, regard one another as in truth men and brothers.”
Dr. Felix von Luschan, of Germany, declared, “There is an increasing mutual sympathy between the races as they come to know each other.”
Mr. Gustave Spiller, the organizer of the congress, said:
“The common standard provided by university diplomas shows almost all races, even the majority of those which are regarded as inferior, represented successfully in the universities of Europe and America, and that they are equal in intellectual capacity with the others. Hence the difference between them are mere physical characteristics.”
Professor Robertson, of England, among other things established this comforting assurance:
“It is only after a long and painful apprenticeship that European nations have attained autonomy. Why not admit that it may be the same with the so-called backward peoples?”
THE POSSIBILITY OF PROGRESS
The possibility of progress with regard to the Colored Americans is emphasized by Professor Charles S. Myers of England, who gives the results of his personal observations in other nations.
Even viewing our Colored Americans as a primitive people with only two generations of removals from the primitive state, Professor Myers says:
“The possibility of the progressive development of all primitive peoples must be conceded, if only the environment can be appropriately changed.”
It is in evidence every day, that the “changed environments” of the Colored race in the United States, has forwarded their progressive development to an enormous degree.
BLACK MEN ORIGINATE EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION
In line with the opinion of Herodotus and the German ethnologists, that the Black Men of Africa were the first race, and the originators of the Egyptian and Cretan civilization, Professor Lionel W. Lyde, of England, announces:
“We are in a position to say that primitive man was dark skinned, and that he, as he made his way northward, began to bleach, thus creating a semi-primitive yellow type. This yellow man exposed to conditions of cold and moisture, might become entirely white. The human skin develops pigments to protect itself against a strong sun, and the quantity of pigment in the skin varies with the intensity of the sun.
“It is therefore the men who live in the hottest and least shaded parts of the world—that is to say, in the African, that we find the blackest skin. The white peoples, on the contrary, are confined to a region where the humidity of the atmosphere forms a screen against the rays of the sun. Finally, between the Negro and the White, is the Yellow man, who is a product of desiccating grasslands with seasonal extremes of temperature.”
PIGMENT OF COLOR TO GUARD THE SKIN
The racial color, it will be understood, is merely a matter of skin coloring. Nature provides pigments of color to guard the skin against the inclemencies of sun and weather. Every modern man knows and has experienced the result of strong sun and wind in his own skin. “Tan” it is called, and sometimes, within a few weeks the color of a white man’s skin is transformed into a yellow or a dark brown. If the exposure continues, the color remains.
In the opinion of noted scientists, it is certain that the difference between the races as to color is merely skin deep. Their psychological conditions are equal, as we shall see when we reach that point.
Professor Felix Adler, the eminent scientist, speaking with authority, upholds the idea that the relations between the races can be only psychological and not physical. He said at the great Congress of Races:
“It is urgently necessary for us to have a clearer conception of the ideal to be realized in international relations. What principle shall we put in the place of war, brute force, etc?
“The appeal to sentiment and the progress of democracy, are not in themselves a safeguard against war. It is not peace itself that we must keep in view, but the object to be secured by peace. The ideal principle of international relations consists in the progressive organization of these relations between peoples and races. This organization involves two postulates:
“First. To attain the most extreme differentiation of types of culture, the maximum of variety and richness in the expression of human faculties. The peace and progress of the world will depend on the formation of a cultivated class of all civilized peoples.
“Second. This exchange between different types of culture will serve to bring to light the weak points in each, and lead to their improvement and healing.”
Sir Charles Bruce, the noted administrator of government attempts, in various localities where the different races confront one another, to give as his deliberate opinion, based upon experience and close study, this succinct truism:
“The blacks have long been the instruments of the cupidity, cruelty and luxury of the whites; but their intelligence, deliberately neglected for ages, needs only to be awakened.”
Sir Harry Johnston, of England, said:
“The Negro race has produced men of great ability in all departments.”
Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, learned editor of the Crisis, appeared before the Congress as a Colored American scientist, versed in ethnology, and the needs and qualifications of the Colored race. After giving the number of Colored Americans as about ten millions, and mentioning the fact that “They live at the present time under a system of theoretical liberty, which is restricted in practice by certain legal dispositions, and by custom,” he adds: “Intellectual emancipation should proceed hand in hand with economic independence.”
ALL NATIONS AND TRIBES ONE GREAT FAMILY
This is indeed the keynote to the elevation of the Colored Americans to the high plane sought to be reached by all the nations of the earth, and toward which they are surely drifting, in an unconscious fulfillment of the designs of God to gather all nations and tribes together into one great family.
Professor N. R. d’Alfonso, of Italy, laid before the Congress the most profound thought that forms the basis of all progress and gives the key to beneficial government:
“Speculative psychology teaches that the man, to whatever race he may belong, has always the same psychological possibilities.
“Subject from childhood to certain conditions of climate, environment and education, he can reach the highest and most complex grades of civilization.
“=It is the action and reaction of the external world on the internal world of the mind that issues in the creation of man.=
“If there are psychological differences between races they are the outcome of the particular history of various peoples—a history that has entailed a =different education=.
“=The psychological basis is the same in all men from whatever part of the world they may come, and they may evolve in the same way and attain the same psychic results.=
“In the same way racial hostilities and prejudices are not due to organic heredity, but to tradition and education.”
So far as science has gone, it must be apparent that the learned men of the age have returned to the Biblical account: Genesis, 1:26.
“26. And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
“27. So God created man =in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them=.”
Again in Genesis 2:7, it is said:
“7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; =And man became a living soul=.”
Everywhere in Holy Writ, human beings are always referred to as “=Man=” whenever he is considered as a being vested with a soul, a particular psychological condition that makes him different from all other creations.
In every movement toward human betterment, education, civilization, development, and especially in the onward movement toward unification, the human species is referred to as “=Man=” without any racial distinctions whatever.
WARS BETWEEN JEWS AND ETHIOPIANS
It is only when men are opposed to one another; when they depart from the Divine intention to unify all men, that man is designated according to his racial or national designation. For instance: The wars between the Jews and the Ethiopians three thousand years before Christ; the wars of the Romans, Persians, Assyrians, English, French, and all other divergent upheavals which depart from the Divine Design. In such cases the psychological man, the man with a soul, the man into whom God breathed the breath of life, is considered a different being and he is unified as “=Man=.”
Not only is this distinctive unity of soul, of mind, of intelligence, the predominating feature of the creation, known as “man,” but his physical characteristics outside the mere skin deep differences, are exactly the same.
Modern scientists, known as “biologists,” that is, men who investigate the origin of physical life in men, have advanced so far that they know and can easily demonstrate that there are no physical differences.
The infinitely small cells called “protoplasms,” which make up the tissues of the human body, and which are present everywhere, plainly visible to the eye under a microscope, are exactly the same in every human being whatever his race or color, condition, education, environment, etc.
All the machinery upon which these small cells of life operate and give action, energy, and duration—the heart, the nerves, the blood, and all the organs essential or co-operative, are identically the same.
Men have tried to find a difference in the physical make-up of the various races but they have signally failed. They have even endeavored to compare the blood and cells of inferior animals such as apes, going so low as the common monkey, to show that some of the races originated in what is known as the “Anthropoid Ape,” so as to bolster up the doctrine of evolution and maintain the existence of an exclusively, special God created race of men, of which they are the sole and exclusive exponents, but they, also, have signally failed, and all men today, proven by science demonstrating the truths of Holy Writ, stand upon the same psychological, or soul plane, whether his skin be black, yellow, brown, red, white or any other color or shade of color. They are all part and parcel of the Divine movement which is impelling man toward a universal psychological unity. Any man or nation that attempts to bar the way, is submerged or cast aside like a straw before an avalanche. This is written upon the pages of history so clearly, that it is beyond controversy.
PROGRESS OF THE DIFFERENT RACES OF MANKIND Marvelous Rise of the Japanese from Barbarism in Five Decades—The Jews without a National Government Rule the Finances and Commerce of the World—China in Contact with Civilization Has Created a Great Republic—The American Indian Raised From Savagery to Peaceful, Profitable Pursuits—The Colored American’s Part and Opportunities in the Great Onward Movement
A reader of history who does not go deeper than the mere words in books, sees nothing but confusion in the steady, onward march of all mankind from the dawn of creation to the present time.
We hope to bring something easily understood out of this chaos, that will be of benefit to the Colored Americans, and put them in line with the great movement of the human family toward universal peace and prosperity. We expect to show that he is an essential factor in the human race, and that he has performed his part when his ancestors, the powerful kings of Ethiopia, brought civilization and the art of working metals into Egypt, as far as Asia, and into Europe.
The most learned ethnologists hold that there was a time in the history of the human race when all mankind were unified, and that through different causes operating upon passion for power, religious differences and climatic necessities, they became separated and split into divisions each of which claimed supremacy, and made war upon the others who denied it.
Wherever we begin the national history of any nation or tribe, we find them separate from every other nation and tribe, individual entities with their own laws and government.
If we take any fanciful theory of the creation of man, or accept the biblical account of the Dispersion at the plain of Shinar, at the building of the Tower of Babel, 2218 years before Christ, we find them scattered over the face of the earth, whereas before that Dispersion “The whole earth was one language and of one speech.” (Genesis 2:1). After that event “The Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
The races of mankind began in unity, but separated and scattered becoming a multitude of nations with different languages and religions. But, at the same time, visible as a fine thread through the movements of mankind, was a trend toward another unification.
THE RISE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Nations rose and fell, leaving the earth to a few powerful ones who attacked one another until, finally, the vast and powerful Roman Empire rose upon the ruins of the others. The central point of unification was nearer, and it appeared when Christ was born, the Saviour of all the world.
From that time began a movement toward another unification, but not a national movement, a human movement, an uplift into higher aims and more complete brotherhood.
The conquest of Rome by barbarians did not stay this movement, because the barbarians fell in with it and moved along with it. Every great act on the chessboard of nations, whether war, or the present peace movement toward universal peace, demonstrates that the purpose of the entire human family, as a unit, will be fulfilled sometime. It is rapidly reaching that point.
The great nations that stood in the way of this onward movement toward unification, have been abolished politically, but not individually, the individuals becoming merged, unified into the great moving mass, and progressing onward with it to the end in view.
Of these unified nations or rather peoples of nations who have no more political power or significance, we find the following:
The Jews, the Semitic division of the human race.
The Colored Men, the Hamitic division of the human family.
The American Indians, Aborigines with tribal government.
We shall add to these, by way of illustration to demonstrate the power of civilization, the following:
The Japanese, an offshoot of the Turanian.
The Chinese, pure Turanian.
The two latter races are foreign to our unification in the United States, many of their people, however, have inserted the thin edge of a wedge into our civilization and time alone will tell what the upshot will be.
We have in the United States a most remarkable unification, or merger into one political status, of the descendants of three great divisions of the Human Family, who are living together substantially in peace and amity. Whatever differences and difficulties arise are purely personal.
Of the Colored Americans in the United States, this book refers almost exclusively; in fact, it is dedicated to them and their interests, and intended for their benefit. Hence, we may omit them in this chapter, there being a full account of them elsewhere.
A short sketch of the Jews may be considered as pertinent to the subject and as having a bearing upon the status of the Colored men.
THE JEWS
The Jews considered from the biblical accounts exclusively, are the descendants and representatives of the oldest branch of the human family, but they existed as a nation contemporaneously with the Ethiopians, in whose descendants we find the Colored men of the United States.
It may be said that the unification of the Semitic or Jewish race began with Moses, although Noah was in fact the father of the race. Their history is one of the wildest, most varied and romantic of that of any other race or nation.
After centuries of miserable bondage under the Babylonian kings, and in Egypt, they emerged under the leadership of Moses who married an Ethiopian, and began anew the struggle for national autonomy.
Prior to Moses the government was essentially patriarchal, but after Moses and in the course of time it became monarchical, with various petty kings and offshoots, always quarreling with one another, and meeting with defeats and slavery from other nations, until the Romans had acquired power to conquer the world, and included in their conquered territory the various sovereignties established by the Jews.
Although the political power was taken from them, the Jews were allowed to retain their religious authority, but in process of time, and at the coming of Christ, their chief priests and spiritual rulers generally, were sunk in corruption. In the 70th year of the Christian era, Jerusalem and the great temple of Solomon were utterly destroyed, and from that time until quite recent times, the Jews have been wanderers, obtaining a foothold here and there against fearful opposition and amazing suffering.
ADVANCEMENT OF THE JEWS
Bereft of political power and national autonomy, the Jews advanced along the line of racial unification, and became leaders in the arts and sciences, and have made themselves the financial and commercial masters of the world. A power they never could have reached had they maintained their national distinction under a monarchy or other form of government.
Their position in the United States is exactly that of the Colored Americans. They have all the political rights of freemen, and can rise to positions of high trust and honor. Like their Colored brothers, they are not a race within a race.
THE JEWS THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE
They are all intensely interested in education, and their children possess an insatiable thirst for knowledge. As a consequence they are always ready to seize upon opportunity when it comes their way, and they always profit by experience, and gather information from every source.
Many of the most distinguished scientists and statesmen in the world have been Jews, and although able to dictate financially to governments, and possessing political power, they have never yet attempted to seize upon the reins of any government, or take it out of the hands of those selected to govern.
If a Jew were to become President of the United States, and all the offices filled by Jews, the government would run along the lines upon which it was formed, without a change or jar, and at the expiration of their term of office, or a change in political power, they would lay down their trust and return to their individual avocations without a single regret.
This is a unification such as the world has never before dreamed of. And it is the same unification with regard to the Colored Americans. The situation is the same, the conditions identical with the single exception that the Jews are farther advanced than the Colored man, his experience extending over a larger period of time, but the Colored men are improving and soon they should be where the same sort of unification can be said of them.
THE AMERICAN INDIAN
The American Indian has no ancestry of civilization to look back to. His forebears so far as is known to history were savages, and the Indians found in America by the first white settlers were also savages.
Their origin as a race is shrouded in obscurity, some asserting that they are descendants of the Semitic race of Asia, others that they are Turanian and Malaysian mixed. It is certain, however, that nothing remains of any very ancient civilization, what does exist consists of “mounds” containing crude articles of pottery, flint arrows, etc., and in the case of the descendants of the cliff dwellers in New Mexico and Arizona, their habitations remain, showing that their surroundings were crude and their civilization at a low ebb.
The descendants of the Aztecs, Toltecs and other tribes whose ancestors were ruthlessly slaughtered by Cortez and his Spanish soldiers, and oppressed by his successors, had small title to what is known as civilization. Of these little can be said except that the present descendants present the vestiges of degeneracy, and have no marks of being a pure race of any sort. They are just the same as they were when first discovered, barring vices which they have acquired from the civilized races without receiving any benefit from their virtues.