AMERICA REVISITED [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—I have
been reading with great interest and an equal pleasure Mr. Julian Huxley's articles on " America Revisited." Engrossing as they arc and bearing internal evidence of the author's culture, wide experience, and tolerance of mind, I never supposed, as I am sure he would not claim, that they represented a conclusive judgment on the matters treated therein. I am prompted to offer these remarks by the some- what pedantic criticism by Mr. Edwin Heath of Mr. Huxley's views on the negro problem. I will not attempt to comment on a subject so profoundly interesting and so potentially important as the subject matter. Even the most experienced and trained minds must feel their limitations when discussing the great racial developments of the world's population in a distant future.
But, and here is my point, if intelligent and honest observers of Mr. Huxley's authority are to be denied a hearing on the score that they cannot be sufficiently acquainted with their subject—well, then, no one will ever be justified in writing on any subject save the demonstrable facts of pure science, and even these may often be but tentative. If a foreigner is not to be permitted to express his opinions about, say, the State of Texas, on the grounds that he cannot possibly b' familiar with all the conditions of a country so vast, we should logically be restricted to an approved literature such as authoritative Encyclopaedias guaranteed perhaps by recog- nized Universities. To attempt a forecast of the possible mental development of the negro is a very big question. His future progress may indeed prove one of the world's great surprises.
But when Mr. Heath quotes in his support the large sums spent on negro education and names a few outstanding examples of negro achievement and intellectual worth, his argument leaves me unmoved. Drops of water in the ocean would be an entirely fair estimate of their relative importance. Finally, I would express the hope that Mr. Huxley may long continue to extend his trawls, and after- ward convey to us others his impressions of all that lie ha.; seen and pondered upon during their prosecution.--I am,
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