at all. Just how far personal and servile contact can elevate the moral and manly tone of a people is not quite evident. But the result of indirect missionary contact is, perhaps, the surest way to lift a race into civilization. I point to Japan as a recent, striking illustration of this argument. The black belts will afford the richest field for missionary and philanthropic endeavor. No section of this country can remain long in an uncivilized state or relapse into barbarism that has in its midst a Hampton Institute or a Booker T. Washington. CHAPTER II. Subject. Vital Statistics. Gist. “The vitality of the Negro may well be considered the most important phase of the so-called race problem, for it is a fact which can and will be demonstrated by indisputable evidence that of all races for which statistics are obtainable and which enter at all into the consideration of economic problems as factors the Negro shows the least power of resistance in the struggle for life.”[18] [Pg 11] [Pg 11] Death Rate. Death Rate. Statistics are collected from ten of the largest cities with the result that the death rate among the whites is 20.12 per 1000, and among the blacks 32.61. It is acknowledged that the great bulk of this excess in the colored death rate is due to infant mortality. This fact of itself would suggest that the real cause is condition rather than race traits. This truth shall be established out of the mouth of Mr. Hoffman’s own witness. “Fifty per cent of the (Negro) children who die never receive medical attention.”[19] “The indifference to medical attendance in cases of illness of their children is due to ignorance.”[20] To the ordinary mind this would imply the most unfortunate condition. Birth Rate. Birth Rate. But the death rate is only one factor in the vital equation. The birth rate is equally important. Mr. Hoffman concedes, with reluctant reservation, that the colored birth rate may be greater than that of the whites. “That the birth rate of the Negroes is in excess of that of the white population is probably true even at the present time, at least as compared with the native whites.”[21] This is indeed a very feeble admission of a very obvious fact. Mr. Hoffman contends that the death
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