AMERICAN TRAITS

AMERICAN QUALITY'

NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER

[Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906) was a distinguished American geologist, born in Newport, Kentucky. He graduated in 1862 at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. A few years later he became connected with the instructional staff in that institution, and held, from time to time, different professorships in his field of work. In 1891 be became dean of the Lawrence Scientific School. His interesting analysis of American character which is here reprinted shows the scientific attitude which is not content with the actual facts, but must seek probable explanations of its origin. It also shows traces of a favorite thesis of the writer-that human characteristics are the result largely of environment. This view is developed at length in respect to the United States in his book, Nature and Man in America.]

The most important, because the most fundamental, of problems concerning the quality of the American man, concerns his physical condition, as compared with that of his kindred beyond the seas. As to this point the evidence is so clear that it needs little discussion. It is evident that the American Indians, a race evidently on the ground for many thousand years before the coming of the Europeans, had found the land hospitable. For savages they were remarkably well developed, and though unfitted for steady labor, their bodies were well made and enduring. Taking their place, the North Europeans, representing a wide range of local varieties, English, Irish, Highland Scotch, Germans, Scandinavians, Normans, French, and many other groups of Old World peoples, have, since their implantation a hundred years or more ago, shown that the area of the continent from the Rio Grande to the far north is as suited to our kind as is any part of the earth. This is sufficiently proved by the statistics of American soldiers gathered during the Civil War; the American From International Monthly, vol. iv, p. 48 (July, 1901). Reprinted by permission.

white man of families longest in this country, is, on the average, larger than his European kinsman; the increase being mainly in the size of head and chest. It is further indicated by the endurance of these men in the trials of the soldier's life and by the remarkable percentage of recoveries from wounds. This endurance of wounds was regarded by the late Dr. Brown-Sequard as a feature common to all the mammals of this continent, being, as he claimed on the basis of an extensive experience, as characteristic of American rabbits as of American men. Moreover, the statistics of life insurance companies doing business in this country appear to indicate that the expectation of life is greater here than in the Old World.

Accepting the conclusion that the bodily condition of our race is, in this country at least, as good as in the continent whence they came, we will now turn to the questions as to their moral and intellectual development in the new land. First of these to be considered is that which relates to the attitude of the individual man toward his fellows of the commonwealth. However we may state this question, it is likely to appear to be of a shadowy nature; seen clearly, however, it will be recognized as of fundamental importance. It were best approached by a comparison of the usual state of mind of communities in Europe as regards other groups of the same race and country, from which they are separated, as are people dwelling in neighboring villages. Having journeyed much afoot in England and continental Europe, I have often had occasion to remark the very general lack of confidence which the common men of any place have in those who, though dwelling nearby, are personally unknown to them. Traces of this humor may be found in England and northern Germany, where it may commonly be noted in a good natured contempt for the unknown compatriot. Further southward this limitation of sympathy becomes more definite. Ancient hatreds between the citizens of neighboring communes find expression in legends and songs that continue the bitterness to this day. In Italy this partition of the people in spirit goes so far that the pedestrian who has become friendly with those who dwell in any little rural society will often be warned that he will

be in danger as soon as he comes among the dreadful folk who dwell on the other side of the divide.

To an observant American who journeys in Europe in a way that brings him in contact with its people, this morcellement of states into little bits which are united not by any common direct sympathy, but only by the bond of a common rule, is not only very evident, but in singular contrast to what he has been accustomed to in his own country. Though from its familiarity it escapes the attention of most people, it is one of the most noteworthy social phenomena of the New World, that the citizen of Maine accepts, as by a kind of instinct, his fellowman of Texas or California as a real compatriot, as a person who feels and acts as he does himself. It is evident that this is no recently acquired state of mind; its existence clearly antedates the formation of our government; it, indeed, made the Federal union possible. For a half century slavery limited the extension of the motive, though it did not altogether part the people of the North and South. This habit of confidence in the neighbor, however remote, which is at the foundation of the quality of our people, goes beyond the national limits. It has effectively made an end of the rancors which once existed toward the mother country. Watch as one may the talk of our people, we now hear nothing indicating more than a good-humored quirk concerning John Bull and his ways.

At first sight it may seem as if this confidence in the fellowman, which is the foundation of American quality, is but a manifestation of their prevailing good nature. That it is other and more than this is fairly well shown by many incidents occurring in and after the Civil War. Those who remember that mighty clutch will recall how in its worst days the soldiers of the contending armies trusted one another much as they would their own comrades. It is said that in the Fredericksburg campaign a number of Federal soldiers spent Christmas with a Confederate regiment with whom they had made acquaintance in the campaign. All the hard usage of war could not sweep away the neighborly trust between men who were yet ready for the bitterest fighting to accomplish their objects.

This feature of confidence in the essential likeness of the fellowman which holds among our people is, perhaps, best shown in the closing incidents of the Civil War. There was at the time much talk about guerrilla warfare, such as the Dutch have waged in South Africa; but when it became evident that effective national resistance was no longer possible, the subjugated people turned to their conquerors as to their fellowcitizens, with a measure of trust in their quality such as under like conditions the world had not before known. Owing to an unhappy series of political accidents and much actual knavery, the trust of the southerners in the quality of their northern brethren seemed for a time ill-founded. During the so-called reconstruction period, the states which had revolted were subjected to a very oppressive rule. Yet, through it all, the people trusted, happily not in vain, to the American quality of their sometime enemies to set them right. So, too, in the last step in the work of reconstruction, when the northern people found the southern undoing, in an indirect way, that provision of the Constitution which gives the negro the ballot on the same terms with the white man; the acquiescence of the Republican party in this course finds its explanation in the general conviction that the southern people are doing about as well as can be expected with a problem of exceeding difficulty. The history of secession and reconstruction discloses a consensus among the citizens of this country such as may be sought in vain in any other.

It is easy to see that the American's belief in the unseen neighbor as like unto himself is not only the foundation of his true democracy, but the basis on which rest certain other important elements of his quality. To it is due the exceptional range and activity of the sympathetic motives, such as led to the war with Spain, and to the almost preposterous welcome of the captured officers of the Spanish fleet; and such now moves so many of our folk to protest against the doings of this nation in the Philippines. It is also marked in the constant sympathy with suffering, whenceever comes the cry. Not that this accord with the fellowman is peculiar to Americans; it is, indeed, a part of modern life, but the effect of it is evidently felt by a