senses and in the power to perceive and to discriminate between
different kinds of objects there is also practical equality. When
it comes to the higher faculties, however, such as judgment,
inventiveness, and the power of organization, a difference begins
to be apparent. These, as Ferguson* says, are the traits that
"divide mankind into the able and the mediocre, the brilliant and
the dull, and they determine the progress of civilization more
directly than do the simple fundamental powers which man has in
common with the lower animals." On the basis of the most
exhaustive study yet made, Ferguson believes that, apart from all
differences due to home training and environment, the average
intellectual power of the colored people of this country is only
about three-fourths as great as that of white persons of the same
amount of training. He believes it probable, indeed, that this
estimate is too high rather than too low. As to the Indian, his
past achievements and present condition indicate that
intellectually he stands between the white man and the Negro in
about the position that would be expected from the capacity of
his brain. If this is so, the mental differences in the three
streams of migration to America are fully as great as the outward
and manifest physical differences and far more important.

* G. O. Ferguson. "The Psychology of the Negro," New York, 1916.


Why does the American Indian differ from the Negro, and the
European from both? This is a question on which we can only
speculate. But we shall find it profitable to study the paths by
which these diverse races found their way to America from man's
primeval home. According to the now almost universally accepted