"Race Questions and Prejudice."

Professor Josiah Royce spoke last evening in Phillips Brooks House under the auspices of the Ethical Society on "Race Questions and Prejudice."

Professor Royce began by emphasizing the importance of race questions today. The development of facilities for transportation, the growth of international trade, and the movements toward conquest or peaceful alliance inevitably bring about the contact and conflict of different races. The race problem is everywhere. It confronts the English in the Coolie question in the West Indies and the Chinese question in South Africa; it confronts us in the negro question in the south and the Chinese question in the west.

The solution of these race problems will be found when we learn to differentiate between accidental and essential race characteristics. We must learn to look not at physical but at mental traits in judging races. This the English are doing in Jamaica; they give fair government to the negroes, allowing them to govern themselves whenever possible, and, as a result, there is no negro problem. The same policy, Professor Royce said, would solve our Southern question.

This was the first lecture held under the auspices of the Ethical Society, recently formed to cultivate high ideals in college and professional life. The society will endeavor to do this by means of lectures by prominent speakers, followed by informal discussion among the members.