2. Social separation of races (as the "color line" in the South and to a
large extent in the North, between Negroes and whites who yet live side
by side).
3. Continuous racial antagonism, frequently breaking out into race war.
This third possibility has been at least threatened, by the conflict
between the white and yellow races in California, and the conflict
between whites and Hindus in British Columbia.
None of these alternatives is attractive. The third is undesirable in
every way and the first two are difficult to maintain. The first is
perhaps impossible; the second is partly practicable, as is shown by the
case of the Negro. One of its drawbacks is not sufficiently recognized.
In a soundly-organized society, it is necessary that the road should be
open from top to bottom and bottom to top, in order that genuine merit
may get its deserts. A valuable strain which appears at the bottom of
the social scale must be able to make its way to the top, receiving
financial and other rewards commensurate with its value to the state,
and being able to produce a number of children proportionate to its
reward and its value. This is an ideal which is seldom approximated in
government, but it is the advantage of a democratic form of government
that it presents the open road to success, more than does an oligarchic
government.
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