cal working plan for the final solution of the problem, to that immediate purpose all discussion will be particularly directed.

The plan of the work embraces a division of the subject into four parts:

FIRST: An examination of the problem as to its present condition, with reference to its character and dimensions, its dangers, and the reasons which so urgently enforce the necessity of a solution.

SECOND: An inquiry as to the character of the plans heretofore offered for its solution, and a determination as to the righteousness of their adoption and their adequacy for the purpose of a final adjustment.

THIRD: A statement of the plan proposed by the writer, founded upon the principles advocated by Abraham Lincoln, with a discussion of the methods by which the plan offered for consideration could be carried out, and of the objections which might apparently be urged against its execution.

FOURTH: A discussion of the beneficial results certain to follow the adoption of the proposed remedy, as well to the negro as to the white race.

Few persons of discerning mind would be disposed to deny that the gravest question now confronting this nation is the one which, for want of a better name, we designate "THE NEGRO PROBLEM." This question concerns itself with the formation of a definite plan for the permanent adjustment of the future relations of the Caucasian and Negro races now inhabiting the country. It is a question of supreme importance; one neither to be evaded nor postponed. Deeply rooted in our country's history, defying all efforts heretofore made to bring about its solution, this negro problem is the one glaring blot upon the record of our national progress, the one enigma for which we can, apparently, find no satisfactory explanation.

It is, indeed, the one question which, past, present, and future, overshadows all others affecting our national development. In one great section of the country it obtrudes itself into all forms of industrial and business relations, and shapes the social and political institutions of the people. It occupies the attention of our courts and legislatures, and in its special developments defies the Supreme Court of the country. The presence of a large element of the negro race tends to alienate our people on the subject of religious belief, to impair the discipline of our army, and to disturb our foreign relations. Further, it strikes at the very root of our national virtue by rendering our elections in the South fraudulent,—a mere series of unworthy subterfuges; while in countless ways it corrupts the physical, intellectual, and moral fibre of the nation. The strained relations engendered by the race antagonism between the blacks and the whites operate at once as a clog upon the progress of the white race and a barrier against any advancement on the part of the black.

In the presence of this problem of the negro, all others are dwarfed into insignificance, and thinking minds concede that this is for our country the supreme social question of the time. Other important issues arise, demand solution, and are disposed of with satisfactory results, passing with settlement out of public attention, but this problem remains. All of our other exigent social questions involving moral and economic considerations are from one or another viewpoint susceptible of solution;—we can at least perceive some prospect of improvement, and can forecast the probable result of remedial measures.

If we have a problem of divorce, we can read the solution in the evolution of a higher conception of individual duty, conjoined with the abolition of conflicting and incongruous laws among the states, and the substitution of a harmonious

national system. If we have a disheartening problem ol child labor, we may reasonably expect that by carefully drafted statutes, rigidly administered and enforced through public sentiment, the little ones may be rescued from parental indifference and the heartless greed of employers. If we have a problem of immigration, we know that by the exclusion of undesirable elements and judicious selection and careful distribution of those permitted to enter the country and to enjoy the blessings of our institutions, we can control the situation and minimize possible evils. If we have a grave problem involving the management of railways, we can readily see how, by state supervision or federal control, reforms may be introduced and the crying abuses of the time lessened, or, indeed, eventually abolished.

But the negro problem, older than our national existence, increasing in magnitude and complexity with every decade, -after years of discussion, effort, and toil, after untold sacrifice of life and money,-confronts us to-day as it did our ancestors at the formation of the Constitution,-grim, menacing, unsolved, and apparently unsolvable.

No other of our troublesome questions necessitates a division of the nation along geographical lines. The sugar planter of Louisiana upholds the doctrine of a protective tariff quite as ardently as the lumberman of Wisconsin or the hop grower of the St. Lawrence Valley. The advocate of the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of liquor in Vermont rejoices when Georgia decrees the downfall of the saloon. Massachusetts resists the proposed merger of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad with the Boston and Maine with the same arguments and zeal that Alabama employs in enforcing her recently adopted passenger-rate law. The negro question alone is now, as it always has been, in its larger aspects one of geographical character, an impelling force toward the division of the country.

Further and even more important, by its very character this problem has a deeper gravity than any other. It denotes an evil which is organic rather than functional. It touches the very life of the nation because it relates to the material out of which future citizenship is to be developed. Other social problems concern themselves with the modification or improvement of the material,—this touches the very composition of the material itself. The United States has been not inaptly called "the smelting-pot of the nations," but if the material cast into this gigantic crucible is base and not susceptible of high finish, the product can be but dross, no matter what skill and effort may be expended in its composition.

For reasons which will be more definitely set forth in the succeeding chapters, the present situation of affairs appears to be exceedingly propitious to a renewal of the discussion concerning the solution of the problem. Indeed, events bearing upon its embarrassing influence on our national development crowd so closely upon one another's heels, that it seems as though some definite adjustment of the vexatious question could not long be deferred. Newspapers and magazines contain multitudinous contributions upon the various phases of the subject, while the output of books devoted to discussion of the question appears to have no limit. Many expressions could be quoted from these sources to the effect that, while the problem is daily becoming more and more pressing, the ultimate solution appears to be more remote than ever, and the prospect of amelioration of the evil correspondingly dubious.

In order clearly to comprehend the nature of the task before us, our first step must be to define and analyze the The Cause subject of the discussion. In seeking the cause

of the Problem.

of the existence of the NEGRO PROBLEM, we find ourselves confronted by an unfortunate and

unprecedented situation. So far as it affects the United States, it arises from the presence within the country of approximately ten million persons of an alien, inferior, and unassimilable race, domiciled principally in the southeastern section, where, in some states and in many large portions of other states, they form a majority of the population.

The Negro an Alien Race.

It will be observed that in framing the foregoing statement of the origin of the problem the negro has been characterized as being of an alien race. Such is his essential quality. The residue of the population of the country is substantially of what is variously termed Indo-European or Caucasian extraction, presenting in its ethnic characteristics a complete antithesis to the African or Ethiopian type. Throughout this discussion the term Caucasian will be employed as describing the white people of the United States as a measure of convenience, and without strict regard to its scientific

accuracy.

The great majority of the negroes now in the United States are the descendants of African tribes, but two or three generations removed from their original surroundings. Merely transplanting their forefathers from the African continent to the United States has in no manner changed the nature of the race or brought it nearer in physical or moral attributes to the Caucasian. Except for some slight intermixture of blood, producing a mulatto type, the negroes remain as completely aliens to the whites as are their cousins in Africa to-day. The Caucasian race has been for centuries, in one or another capacity, the superior guiding and controlling force in human history, and its record contains the epitome of human achievement. During the same. period, on the contrary, the negro has occupied in every relation of life a subordinate position, either as a savage awaiting the touch of civilization, or as a servile people,