Rather than such a condition, the legitimate
production of pure-blood Negroes is preferable, even though they be
inferior in individual ability to the illegitimate mulattoes offered as
a substitute. There are not at the present time enough desirable white
fathers in the country. If desirable ones are set aside to produce
mulattoes, it would be a great loss to the nation; while if the
mulattoes are the offspring of eugenically undesirable white fathers,
then the product is not likely to be anything America wants.
From whatever standpoint we take, we see nothing good to be said for
miscegenation.[141] We have discussed the problem as a particular one
between the blacks and whites but the argument will hold good when
applied to any two races between which the differences are so marked
that one may be considered decidedly inferior to the other.
Society,--white society,--long ago reached the instinctive conclusion,
which seems to us a correct one, that it must put a ban on intermarriage
between two such races. It has given expression to this feeling by
passing laws to prohibit miscegenation in 22 states, while six other
states prohibit it in their constitutions. There are thus 22 states
which have attempted legally to prevent intermarriage of the white and
black race.
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