| THE CROSSING OF THE RACES |
By Dr. J. G. WILSON
NEW YORK CITY
A Study of the General Principles governing the Successful Intermixture of Different Peoples, with Special Reference to the Question of Immigration into the United States.
THE question of racial amalgamation is almost as old as the race itself. For, not only the earliest traditions, but also the most ancient relics bear witness to the fact that extensive intermarriage of races had been brought about through commerce and war long before history had begun to unravel the tangled skein of man's wanderings.
The crossing between different tribes, which was commenced in prehistoric times, has been continued into our own era with ever increasing speed and complicity of results. For man has always been a migratory animal, and the improved changes in means of transportation and the ever-widening fields of commerce have increased rather than diminished this inborn tendency.
Looking over the world at large, and throughout all time, we see that the results of racial intermarriage have been exceedingly variable. Sometimes it has produced a better race. This is especially true when the crossing has been between different but closely allied stocks. The Englishman who has resulted from the commingling of so many Teutonic tribes with the native Briton and Celt, and the composite molded and directed by Roman culture, is perhaps the very best example of a good result from extensive crossing. Likewise the cross which has taken place in Ecuador, Mexico and Peru has produced a race not altogether hopeless so far as the future is concerned; for, however much it may have hurt the Spaniard, it certainly has improved the Indian immeasurably. It is not so much a question of the possibility of producing a vigorous cross race under favorable conditions, as it is a question of whether such a cross is, in itself, a desirable thing.
There are those who profess to believe that the incoming hordes of southern Europeans and the Alpine races will never mix their blood with us to any appreciable extent, and will always remain foreign in race as well as in ideals. Judged in the light of history, such an opinion is without firm foundation. It is not conceivable that the modern Greek, who is himself such a mixture of Serbo-groation, Slav and ancient Greek stock, can have any irrevocably inborn tendencies which will prevent him from eventually mating with our own people if given the
