RECENTLY, I read an article by a black author, Idang Alibi of Nigeria, discussing the remark of James Watson, of “Double Helix” renown, that black people are measurably less intelligent than others. Alibi agreed that the facts are so, but asked why the Blacks continue to allow their societies to be so dramatically, emphatically inferior.

Alibi is flattering, particularly, the Whites, it seems to me. Think back a century to, perhaps, the greatest of all Whites, Henry Ford I. He employed anyone who wanted to trade a hard day’s work for five dollars (except members of his own family.) In fact, the Ford foundry was run almost, if not entirely, by Blacks, whose melamine could withstand the heat and glare of molten iron. If Blacks could satisfy Henry Ford, the most successful industrialist in the United States, then they can satisfy any employer competing on a free market! Anyway, the Ford workers did not need exceptional intelligence: Ford succeeded because he left it to very many minds to find the best solutions to problems (in contrast to the “Scientific Management” preached by F. W. Taylor.

If Blacks cannot compete today, it is not because the Blacks have changed, it is because the market is no longer free. The notion is abroad today that "democracy" means, not liberty and justice for all, but government for the greatest good of the greatest number; thus there are seen minimum wage laws and compulsory health insurance and other measures that shut out the black minority. Black-majority nations have adopted bad government too, with the result that Whites with experience and judgment have been discouraged, if not indeed expelled: as Alibi remarks, the most successful nation in Africa is South Africa, where there are both Whites and Blacks in the same market.

The heuristic Gillaspy, in "The Drive to the North," remarked upon the historical trend for civilization to move from the most favorable places, such as the Golden Crescent in the Near East, to colder and colder climates, up to Scandinavia, Canada, even Alaska. His thesis was that as some country becomes more populous, the society becomes more conventional, less tolerant of non-conformity – and so the brightest and best men move out, to test their powers in a more difficult environment. This theory might very well explain Alibi’s lament that the black countries are falling behind, or even deteriorating: it is not because they are black, but because they cling to familiar failure.

If we have understood the phenomenon, can we make practical recommendations? We can indeed: ask yourself, “Is this an open society? If I invent a better mousetrap, am I free to make them and market them – or do I need permissions, permits, protection? Can I say, with the Lord Jesus, ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own?’ (Matt. 20:1-15.)”