It has been well shown by the same distinguished member of the New York Bar already quoted, that "the disparity between the Southern States where the ignorant Negro vote has been practically eliminated and the Eastern States, though glaring, is less than that between the Eastern States and some of the Western States. For example, "Rhode Island's vote is 1.59 times as great as Alabama's, but South Dakota's is 3.39 as great as that of Rhode Island. Vermont's is 2.22 times as great as Florida's, but Utah's is 3.01 as great as Vermont's. Maine's is 2.36 as great as Georgia's, but Colorado's is 3.48 times as great as Maine's.†

The figures cited fail to give the strength of the Southern vote. The small vote in the Southern States is due partly to the fact that the ascendancy of one political party is so great that voters do not feel it necessary to attend the polls.

In the next place, though it was frankly admitted that the motive of the disfranchisement clauses was to disfranchise the ignorant colored vote, while the ignorant white vote was admitted for a time, provided the voters or their fathers had been soldiers, this is but a temporary inequality; and that the ignorant colored vote does not come within the grandfather-clause or other saving clauses, is an accident of the time. In a comparatively short time the effect of these saving clauses will have passed away

*For example, in 1880 the vote of

North Carolina was 81 per cent. of its voting population. Massachusetts

56 82

It may also be well to consider the effect of such a penalizing measure on the future of the Negro himself. To adopt it would be to violate the one principle on which the permanent advance of the Negro race must be founded. That is, the recognition, even at this late hour, by the Negro that he must stand on his own merits and is to be left to work out politically, as well as economically, his own future. To adopt it would mislead him into thinking he is still the ward of the nation and is to be supported by it, irrespective of his conduct an idea to which may be traced a considerable portion of all that has retarded the Negro's advance in the past. It will tend to divert once more his aim from the paths of industry to which it is being turned by the wisest of his friends. It will engender a new hostility to him on the part of the stronger race, on whose friendship his future welfare must depend.

Finally, should such a measure be adopted, it may lead the whites of the South to do what they have hitherto steadfastly refused to do-apply the money derived by taxation on the property of each race exclusively to the education of that race. It has been publicly alleged and appears to be generally assumed that the recent election in Mississippi was in a measure reactionary. The ground for this assumption seems to be that the successful candidate for the governorship had declared himself to a certain extent opposed to a continuance of the prevailing system. The writer, while recognizing the disappointing results that have followed the large expenditure for the education of the Negroes, would deplore immeasurably any backward step in the matter of education in the South. Light, however glimmering, is far better than darkness. The present system of education may be a poor one, but it is infinitely better than none. Every consideration of public policy would seem to urge its continuance until a better system can be devised. And one consideration would appear unanswerable. The Negroes will always have their own leaders, and it is better that these leaders should be enlightened rather than ignorant. No more deplorable disaster could befall the South than in this age of advancing enlightenment to have a great pariah class hope

In this view he believes the great body of thoughtful Southerners will unite. But no one can foretell what effect on public sentiment a crusade against the South, based on her attitude toward the Negroes, might produce. It might sweep away the last remnant of good feeling that remains, and with it every dollar raised by taxation on the property of the whites to educate the blacks. The South is now spending on the education of the Negro race by voluntary taxation of the property of the white race, over five and one-half millions of dollars annually. It would be a poor bargain to exchange for the figment of a right which ignorance should never have had, the remaining good-will of the whites of the South and the sum they annually expend from their own pockets in trying to uplift the Negro and fit him for the exercise of that right.

It is the conviction of the writer, and he gives it for what it is worth, that the disfranchisement of the main body of the Negro race in the Southern States was a measure of high necessity. He further believes that this disfranchisement is for the permanent welfare of both races. It removes for the time being what is the chief cause of bitterness-a bitterness from which the Negro is a greater sufferer than the white. It will turn the Negro generally from the field where, in his present condition, he has proved a failure, and leave him to develop himself in a field where he may be the equal of any other man.

One of the fundamental errors has been in considering the Negroes as a special class, to be regarded, discussed, legislated for, aided and sustained as such, instead of as plain human beings who, judged according to certain universal standards, belong to various classes in which those standards would place other members of the human family. This was the fundamental error of the doctrinaire in the first instance, and, unfortunately, the Negroes themselves have gotten it so firmly fixed in their minds that they have long regarded their race as a special species, to be considered from quite a special standpoint; judged by different standards, and dealt with in a different manner from the rest of the world.

Nothing could be more unwise, because

If a white man is a brute or a blackguard, all whites do not feel it necessary to defend him. If a white man commits a crime, all whites do not conspire to shield him and aid him in escaping the law. If a white man is arrested, even illegally, all whites do not assail the arresting officers; he is left to his remedy at law. If a white man has committed rape and murder and a mob catches and lynches him, all white men, however they deplore and denounce lawlessness, do not feel it necessary to declare the miscreant innocent and a martyr.

A great step will be taken toward the correct solution of the problem when the Negroes shall be considered not "in the lump," but as individuals, just as any other members of the community are considered; not as a separate class, but as part of various classes to which their standing morally, mentally, and personally would assign them

when they shall be judged by the same standards and governed by the same rules; when the malefactor shall be dealt with as a malefactor; the reputable man shall be esteemed for his good character: in other words, when every man shall be judged on his own merits and shall stand or fall on his own showing. This must be the work of both races. It is what the more enlightened Negroes say they desire; but unfortunately, not a great many of them act upon this. Their acts, their addresses delivered at Afro-American meetings, their writings all tend to show that those who claim and would appear to be the leaders among them regard all matters wholly from a racial standpoint. They clamor for recognition and for assistance as Negroes; make inflammatory speeches; call on Congress to intervene, and at times even suggest, in case Congress does not interpose, that an appeal be made to foreign nations.

It is worth while to note that most of the appeals, addresses, resolutions and other things that tend to stir up the Negroes in the South come from those who are outside of her borders, and consequently are beyond any direct suffering from the oppression and other outrages against which they proIn the main, the Negroes in the South appear to get on fairly well with their

test.

other fellow-citizens; and the resolutions and addresses that emanate from these are much more temperate and reasonable than those which come from the outside. Compare, for example, the addresses and resolutions of the Negro Convention held last year at Louisville, with those in some of the Northern cities.

A sentiment has developed in parts of the South since the recent agitation to repeal the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but this has not been strong enough to lead to any concerted attempt to promote the movement. On the contrary, the leaders among the Southern people have hitherto firmly opposed the suggestion of such a measure. One reason undoubtedly has been the practical difficulties in the way of carrying it through; but another has been that they have generally not wished to exclude from the suffrage the best element among the Negroes.

Personally the writer does not, under existing conditions, believe in repealing the Amendment, He would, indeed, rather have it repealed than have a perpetual continuance of the evils that have resulted from unrestricted suffrage. But he believes that these evils will to a large extent be done away with by the new constitutions, and he believes that proper restrictions being provided, the rule should be applied impartially to all; and those individuals, whether white or black, should be admitted to the rights of citizenship who measure up to the full standard of citizenship.

A certain element among the Negroes are good citizens, and are becoming better citizens all the time. When this element shall have broken away from the false teaching which has been their bane, they will have no need to ask for outside aid. The South will recognize their value, and their reward will be the clear distinction between them and the ignorant element which now weighs them down.

It has long appeared to the writer that the prime necessity of the Negroes is to learn to distinguish between Negroes and Negroes; between the law-abiding and self-respecting Negro and the law-breaker and blackguard; between the honest man and the thief; the decent man and the divefrequenter; the good citizen and the tough. In other words, to create for themselves

some standard of virtue and right living for both men and women. Not the least evil of the solidifying of the Negro race during the period of reconstruction was the destruction of all distinctions between virtue and vice, as a qualification for civic promotion. After thirty years the upright, law-abiding, conservative Negro is bound by that manacle to the thief and the evilliver, and strangely enough he mainly appears unwilling to help break the shackles which hold him down.

These laws give him a chance to break away from his burden, if he but has the sense to see it. It will tend to break up the dense solidarity of the Negroes, and will give the best among them-that is, the conservative, the industrious, the thrifty and the enlightened-an opportunity to rise and range themselves in a class where they will be freed from the burden of the ignorant mass which weighs them down, and may form a better class to which the others may aspire. And this the writer esteems a supreme necessity. It leaves open the avenue by which all who are capable may re-enter the former field, not as Negroes who are admitted simply as such, however feeble and dull they may be, but as men who are admitted because they are strong and intelligent.

The Negro as a race, considered and acting solidly, may be a burden and a menace; but many Negroes are good men and good citizens. They contribute their part to the public wealth and are on every ground of justice and sound policy entitled to consideration.

This upper fraction of the race, relieved from the incubus of the great body which they have been forced to carry, would inevitably secure political representation in the South precisely as they have secured it in the North. They would before long probably have the intelligence to divide upon all economic questions just as any other race divides, and the whites, released from the necessity of maintaining a solidarity, would likewise be free to divide, in which case there would always be an inducement to secure rather than to repress the Negro vote.

A possible step in reaching the solution of the question might be for a reasonably limited number of representative Southern men to meet in conference a reasonable

number of those colored men of the South who are more familiar with actual conditions there, and thus are representative of the most enlightened and experienced portion of that race. These, in a spirit of kindness and of justice, might confer together and try to find some common ground on which both shall stand, and formulate some common measures as to which both sides shall agree and which both shall advo

cate.

One principle should be, that having established a law to eliminate forthwith the ignorant Negro and henceforth all ignorance, this law should be administered honestly, bravely, and impartially.

It is not imagined that such a conference could settle the question, but at least it would throw some light on it, and it would serve two good purposes. It would be a starting point for securing information which would command respect, and it

would show what the most conservative and broad-minded element at the South, both of the whites and of the blacks, who know the subject thoroughly and have no personal interest to subserve except the just and reasonable settlement of this vital problem, think of it, after they have had the fullest means of information.

Meantime, let the politician and the doctrinaire, if they are truly the Negro's friends, hold hands off. The direst injury the Negro's worst enemy can do him is to perpetuate hostility between him and the Southern white. Left to themselves they would settle the question along economic lines, and this it must come to at last.

However one side or the other may dogmatize, it is safe to assume that any final settlement of the problem must be one that will commend itself to the body of the intelligent whites at the South. No other settlement will ever be final.

WAS with Osborne when he got the telegrams. We were standing near the little station at Santa Lucrecia, watching the broken-winded engine of the Tehuantepec railroad puff asthmatically up to the platform, when the station agent came out of the telegraph office and handed them to him. Of course he opened the wrong one first, and had to resort to the second for a key to the puzzle. As he stood there reading and re-reading them in the blistering sun-it was January and the tropical heat was fierce the perspiration trickled off his frowning brow and a vexed despair was apparent in all his features.

"By George! what an ill wind," he groaned. "Read these," he went on disgustedly, handing me the two pieces of paper. One was dated Mexico City and had been sent to Osborne by Richard Coleman, the owner of the big coffee plantation

ingly. "Mr. Coleman's kid brother has evidently run off with some nice little girl, and in their desire to escape from New York and irate parents, they naturally thought of taking refuge with their let us hope-sympathetic brother in his hacienda in the wilds of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Of course, it never occurred to them that the said brother could be inconsiderate enough to be in Mexico City indefinitely at such a crisis in the affairs of their cosmos, and so they have come serenely on their way, never doubting that they would be met and taken care of."

Osborne wiped the perspiration from his streaming brow.

"Such confounded ill luck, Randolph! Here I've only had a week of your visit, and what pleasure we might have had to gether in the remaining two weeks is to be spoiled by the arrival of these two young idiots!"

An attack of tired nerves on the completion of a particularly difficult piece of engineering in Montana had sent me off on a six weeks' vacation to Mexico, where Osborne, my old chum at Sheffield, was living. We had always been the best of friends, and my hurried telegram to him had been answered by the most cordial invitation to come down to the big coffee hacienda which he was managing on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. I secured passage on the Vigilancia immediately, and ten days later, after a delightful, restful trip, I had been met in Coatzacoalcos by Osborne and taken to the Coleman hacienda. We had had only a week of riding about in the fragrant coffee fincas, shooting alligators and otherwise enjoying ourselves after a semi-tropical fashion, when business had called Osborne to Santa Lucrecia. I had gone with him so as not to lose any of his companionship and to enjoy the doubtful delights of a two days' trip in a dug-out canoe, the naphtha launch being temporarily disabled. To be met with these telegrams announcing the arrival of the young runaways and foreshadowing the finish to our much-talked-of plans for a hunting trip was distinctly aggravating.

Suddenly I gave a low whistle. An idea had just struck me.

"Don't faint, Osborne," I said softly. "I have just thought-I am almost sure I came down on the same steamer with them!

There was a young bride and groom aboard named Coleman who had the whole ship interested in them and-let me see the telegram-yes, it would have been just about that time. I suppose they have been fooling around Orizaba and other romantic spots since landing. Oh, my boy, we are in for it! They are just about the spooniest couple you ever set eyes upon! They had some sort of a tiff one day, and the whole outfit, from the Captain to the cook's scullion, was unhappy until they made up. I kept out of their way religiously, I can tell you!"

As I finished speaking another idea suddenly flashed through my brain, and I turned in distressed amazement at my own stupidity to look at Osborne. He was leaning against the door of the little telegraph office, gazing out across the yellow road blistering in the fierce heat, with the most bitter expression on his face that I have ever seen.

"So they are a pair of love-sick young fools, are they?" he said contemptuously, feeling my eyes upon him. "I wish to God they had not chosen to come to the Providencia hacienda for their honeymoon!"

I laid a detaining hand on his shoulder as he half turned away.

"Forgive me, Osborne! I had forgotten. It is hard on you, old chap. But they don't know, probably; and after all, he seemed to be a nice, manly sort of fellow, and she

"Oh, don't bother. I dare say I shall survive it all right. We will have to take the two o'clock train for Coatzacoalcos. I'll send back a couple of mozos in a canoe with instructions to Enrique to have the place in readiness for them."

He turned away definitely and walked down the road toward the river bank where the long dug-out canoes lay moored, and the Indian boatman lolled about in the shade of the mango trees. As he swung along, his hands in the pockets of his khaki riding trousers, his whole miserable story came back to me, and there were few choice epithets I did not apply to myself when I recalled what I had said.

Two years previous Osborne had married a very beautiful, spoilt young girl without the consent of her family, and a year later they had quarrelled and parted, and he, seemingly anxious to sever every