Now, equality means simply equality; it is subject to no qualification, permits no limitations, brooks no denial, will undergo no abridgment. Less than the most absolute equality is no equality whatever. In a democracy there is no room for a class based upon unchangeable physical characteristics and doomed to permanent inferiority in any relation of life. To realize his yearning, to establish his equality, and to command equal opportunities, the negro must be granted: (1) Industrial equality. (2) Business equality. (3) Political equality. (4) Social equality. (5) Matrimonial equality.

Each and every one of the foregoing is equally essential; debar the negro from one, you debar him from all; impose upon him as a race any restriction and equality ceases to exist.

To live in comfort amidst decent surroundings, to enjoy the respect of his family, his neighbors, and employers, the Industrial negro must be allowed the opportunity of workEquality. ing in the same occupations and upon the same terms and conditions as the white man. He must be subjected to no discrimination based on factitious reasons, and must be freely admitted to association with his fellowlaborers and to participation in the benefits of the great principle of equality underlying the labor organizations, so potential in advancing the condition of those engaged in manual occupations.

Business

The necessary and, indeed, unfailing consequence of equality in industrial occupations is the opportunity for advancement to equality of business position Equality. and influence. Unless the negro workman may aspire to the position of foreman, unless the negro foreman may himself become employer, unless the negro clerk may be promoted to partnership, there can be no such thing as business equality. If the black man is not to be allowed

to compete in all respects on equal footing with his white competitor, he will find himself hopelessly handicapped in the struggle for business success.

Without political equality all other is a mockery and delusion. Unless the negro citizen may be assured of free access Political to the polls and in perfect equality may enter Equality. the jury box; unless he be recognized as in every respect the political equal of every other citizen, and subjected to no species of discrimination; unless he be given the opportunity to render honorable service as an official in any community in which his race chances to constitute a majority; all other equality is delusory. Without political equality there can be no industrial or business equality, and unless we are prepared distinctly to repudiate the timehonored principle of no taxation without representation, there can be no denial to the black man, North or South, of his privilege to participate at elections and to sit upon the jury panel, in every respect in equal association with the members of the superior race.

Social

We now approach the consideration of an element in the question of equality which many uninformed writers on the negro problem affect to consider as separate and Equality. distinct from those just covered by our discussion. There appears to be a belief in some quarters that industrial, business, and even political equality may exist without involving the concession of social equality. Such a thing is impossible. As remarked at the opening of the discussion of this phase of the subject, if equality exists at all, it must be absolute and unconditional. Unless there is to be the most emphatic recognition of the social equality of the members of the two races, it is impossible to maintain that either one or the other will not be compelled to accept inferior business advantages, and there can be but little question in such case as to which race will be the sufferer.

The negro understands this. Even the "Jim Crow" laws enacted to establish his inferior social status, and which will later receive some consideration, in form provide equal accommodations for both races, but the negro well knows that, in point of fact, the discrimination is entirely against him. Unless, untrammelled by racial qualities, the individual is entitled to be respected as a social equal on his own merits, no business success or accumulation of wealth, nor even the possession of political power, can make him other than an inferior. If the man with whom I transact business is deemed unworthy to accept social courtesies at my hands, I proclaim him to be my inferior, and any theory upon which it is assumed that in this country the Caucasian and negro can meet upon a plane of equality in the shop, the market place, or the political caucus, and yet hold themselves aloof in all social relations, is thoroughly fallacious.

Occasion will be taken as the argument develops to emphasize the fact that in the existing situation as to social customs, the negro, North and South, is denied the privilege of associating freely and on a footing of equality with other citizens. In the words of Kelly Miller, one of the foremost writers of the race,

Here are two peoples domiciled in the same territory, invested with equal civil and political rights, speaking the same language, loyal to the same institutions, worshipping God after the same ritual, and linked together in a common destiny; and yet in all purely personal and pleasurable intercourse they are as far apart as if separated by interstellar space.

Accepting this rigorous denial to the negro of social equality as a present and continuing factor of the problem, we can see how in its inexorable result it operates to deprive him of his political and civil rights as well as to restrict his edu

cational and industrial opportunities. We are, therefore, brought face to face at this stage of the inquiry with this final question:-Upon what reasonable foundation does this refusal to accord to the negro the much desired privilege of social affiliations rest, and is it likely to remain an enduring element in our future attitude towards that race?

Matrimonial Equality.

The answer is simple, the rejection of all claim on the part of the negro to mingle with the white race on a plane of social equality is based on the perception of the superior race that to permit such a custom would inevitably lead to the debasement of the Caucasian blood. The instinct of race purity, implanted especially in the women of the superior race, impels the most strenuous opposition to all attempts to establish a condition of matrimonial equality between the races. Yet such a condition would necessarily follow from permitting social equality.

It is idle to assert, as is frequently done by negro essayists upon the subject, that the two races could establish intimate social relations, commingling freely in all walks of life, without bringing about a general condition of miscegenation. White men, and particularly white women, know that to admit negroes to the intimacies of family life, to welcome them to the table and the drawing-room, to associate with them at the church and theatre, to join with them in the dance and in the thousand and one different ways in which young people find enjoyment and recreation, would be possible only upon the assumption of the eligibility of the race to join in matrimony with the Caucasian.

Against such a possibility the strongest instincts of the more refined and progressive race protest. Its members appreciate the full force of the danger of race deterioration following any intermixture of African blood, and in the most emphatic terms forbid the suggestion of matrimonial equality.

A striking illustration of this feeling was afforded in the recent acrimonious debate in the House of Representatives upon the proposition to establish separate accommodations for the two races in the street cars of Washington. Pressed by embarrassing questions, and carried away by oratorical fervor, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Campbell) professed to believe in the association of whites and negroes in school and church. When, however, he was called upon to announce his belief in the propriety of marriage between the races, the instinct of the Caucasian blood asserted itself, and to the applause of both sides of the House he declared with impressive emphasis that such unions were impossible.

There is no necessity for prolonged discussion upon this point. The repugnance of racial feeling, based upon the opposite characters of white and negro, will insure, in the future, even more rigidly than in the past, the denial to the negro of matrimonial equality. And failing in this, as our reasoning demonstrates, he can achieve no equality what

ever.

Forbidden matrimonial equality, he cannot attain social privileges. Denied social equality, his political status becomes that of an inferior. Refused political equality, his progress in business is hampered, his education retarded, and his industrial subordination assured. In fine, so long as his ethnic traits remain as they are, his position in this country must continue to be one of recognized inferiority.

What has heretofore been said in relation to the character of the problem may perhaps appear to some readers unnecessary, as many of the propositions discussed are elementary and probably familiar to those who have read much of our current literature upon the subject. But in order that the proposed remedy for the evil might be properly presented, it has seemed necessary to devote the foregoing pages to the examination of the nature of the question and a brief description of the principles underlying the situation.