AND RACE FRICTION A STUDY IN SOCIAL ETHICS BY JOHN MOFFATT MECKLIN, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 All rights reserved Replace History Enchan Walr 1.19-1928 16338 PREFACE THE writer of the following pages disclaims at the outset any pretensions toward a final solution of the race problem. The years of study and observation of which the book is the final outcome have strengthened him in the conviction of its insolubility. There are certain problems which from their very nature do not admit of a categorical solution. They are as perennial as human existence itself. The real meaning of life is found in frankly acknowledging them and in bravely facing the duties to which this acknowledgment gives rise. It is only the dogmatic philosopher or the orthodox theologian who presents us with final solutions and then contentedly takes an intellectual and moral holiday. For the masses of men life is largely a compromise with insuperable difficulties, a persistent and courageous struggle for a modus vivendi. The race question belongs to this class of essentially insoluble problems. It is insoluble largely because it springs from those deep-lying and slowmoving forces that make for ethnic solidarity or ethnic diversity. The majority of those who have final solutions for it spend their lives at a distance |