there are no characteristics which per se indicate that one race is
inferior or superior to another. The existing differences are differences
in kind not in value. On the other hand, whatever superiority one race has
attained over another has been largely due to environment.

A German writer in a discussion of the origin of African civilizations
said some time ago "What bold investigators, great pioneers, still find to
tell us in civilizations nearer home, proves more and more clearly that we
are ignorant of hoary Africa. Somewhat of its present, perhaps, we know,
but of its past little. Open an illustrated geography and compare the
'Type of the African Negro,' the bluish-black fellow of the protuberant
lips, the flattened nose, the stupid expression and the short curly hair,
with the tall bronze figures from Dark Africa with which we have of late
become familiar, their almost fine-cut features, slightly arched nose,
long hair, etc., and you have an example of the problems pressing for
solution. In other respects, too, the genuine African of the interior
bears no resemblance to the accepted Negro type as it figures on drug and
cigar store signs, wearing a shabby stovepipe hat, plaid trousers, and a
vari-colored coat. A stroll through the corridors of the Berlin Museum of
Ethnology teaches that the real African need by no means resort to the
rags and tatters of bygone European splendor. He has precious ornaments of
his own, of ivory and plumes, fine plaited willow ware, weapons of superior
workmanship. Justly can it be demanded 'What sort of civilization is this?
Whence does it come?'"

It is also pointed out that one of the most important contributions to the
civilization of mankind was very probably made by the Negro race. This was
the invention of the smelting of iron. The facts brought forward to
support this view are: that no iron was smelted in Europe before 900 B.C.;
that about 3000 B.C., there began to appear on the Egyptian monuments