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Chapter 7. Population 167
4. Ends and Means of Population Policy ®
As is apparent from what we have said, several of the factors of change
are dependent upon policy, and we shall now turn to programs instead of
prognoses. Our discussion of population policy will have to be most abstract
and, in part, conjectural. For not only are the basic data poor, but there
has been less thinking in America devoted to the broad problem of a
rational population policy than to other spheres of social engineering.
One reason for the inarticulateness and inadequacy of American discus-
sion of population policy is the heterogeneity of America’s population, and
the fact that some of its component groups are commonly considered to be
inferior. This complicates tremendously the formulation of a rational and
unified population policy. It creates conflicts of valuations which make it
uncomfortable to discuss the problem. The strength of church and religion
in America presents another inhibition. Specifically, the fundamentalistic
Protestant religion in some of the regions where fertility is highest in the
South and the Catholic Church in the big Northern cities are against discus-
sions of population policy.^®
We shall avoid the unsettled problem of an American population policy
at large and restrict our treatment to the Negro angle of it. In stating our
value ’premises a distinction must be made between ends and means.^^
We shall find that for the white people the desired quantitative goal con-
flicts sharply with their valuation of the means of attaining that goal. For
Negroes no such conflict is present.
If we forget about the means, for the moment, and consider only the
quantitative goal for Negro population policy, there is no doubt that the
overwhelming majority of white Americans desire that there be as few
Negroes as possible in America, If the Negroes could be eliminated from
America or greatly decreased in numbers, this would meet the whites’
approval
—
provided that it could be accomplished by means which are also
approved. Correspondingly, an increase of the proportion of Negroes in the
American population is commonly looked upon as undesirable. These
opinions are seldom expressed publicly. As the opinions, for reasons which
we shall develop, are not practicable either, they are not much in the fore-
ground of public attention. But as general valuations they are nearly always
present. Commonly it is considered a great misfortune for America that
Negro slaves were ever imported. The presence of Negroes in America
today is usually considered as a ^‘plight” of the nation, and particularly of
the South. It should be noted that the general valuation of the desirability
*This section will be concerned with policy only as it deals with the total number of
Neg:roes in the United States. Population policy as it deals with the distribution of Negroes
within the United States will be discussed in the next chapter. Population policy as it deals
with the migration of the Negro people will be discussed in Chapter 17, Section
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