vogue is exceedingly simple, requiring no very high degree of intelligence. The greater proportion of farmers among negroes are those who operate farms as tenants or as sharing profits with the owners. Of the 746,715 farms of negroes in the United States in 1900, 187,797, or a little upwards of 25 per cent. of the total, were owned, in title at least, by negroes; the central figure in the Southern farm life of the negro race being the tenant class, over half a million of black men occupying their farms on various terms, a large proportion of whom stand about midway between serfdom and quasi-ownership.

Cotton is the chief crop of the small negro farmer, but rice is largely cultivated in South Carolina, sugar in Louisiana, and tobacco in the more northern states, these appearing to be the only crops which the negro has displayed sufficient ability to cultivate.

As to the value of the farms thus owned by negroes in the South (because in the North the negro farmer is practically unknown), estimates may well differ. Professor Du Bois, in his discussion of the subject, says that the total value of the farm property held by negro farmers June 1, 1900, was approximately two hundred million dollars, or a little less than three hundred dollars for each negro farm. After some discussion of the question of property owned by negroes and rented out to other negroes or whites, and other minor considerations, he arrives at the conclusion that the total value of the property owned by negro farmers in the United States at that time would be two hundred and thirty million dollars. He further discusses, in figures too extended to be quoted here, the probable value of the personal property, consisting of live stock, tools, and other articles, and from his examination, upon the whole, we may conclude that the wealth of the negro race at that time might fairly be estimated at four hundred million dollars.

In his address of November 15, 1907, at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Howard University, at Washington, an institution devoted to the higher education of the negro race, President Roosevelt, in his careful review of the progress of the race, calls attention to the fact that "since the Emancipation Proclamation the colored citizens of the United States have accumulated property until now they have, all told, some $350,000,000 worth of taxable property in this country." This is probably a fairly accurate estimate of the value of the real and personal property under nominal negro ownership.

These estimates, however, do not take into account the mortgages upon the real property nor the debts of the negro owners, and as it is familiar knowledge that in cases of small farmers the mortgage indebtedness is frequently one-half to two-thirds of the value of the property, and the individual indebtedness of the owner something in addition, it is fairly doubtful that, if the exact financial status of the Southern negro could be ascertained, it could be established that he was actually the owner of any considerable property.

In the North, while some individuals have by thrift made considerable accumulations, their holdings form but an inconsiderable part of the wealth of the section. In a general way, in the discussion of the subject, the optimistic negro essayist says that his race has accumulated six hundred millions of property, but it is certainly doubtful if this statement would stand the test of close analysis.

Probably of all the states in the Union the state of Georgia, having the largest negro population, would have the greatest valuation of property owned by negroes, but we find from the report of the Comptroller General of that state for the year 1902 that the assessed value of the negro taxpayers' property was but $15,188,069, against a valuation of the white taxpayers of $452,122,577, the negro owning but three

per cent. of the assessed valuation although constituting about forty-seven per cent. of the population.

Assuming, as an outside estimate, the value of property held by the African race in the country to be five hundred million dollars, this would signify an average of fifty dollars per person for the people of that race, subject to deductions for debts and incumbrances.

Now, the Bureau of the Census report recently issued 1 gives the estimated value of the entire property of the United States in the year 1904 as $107,104,211,917, showing an average of upward of $1250 for each man, woman, and child. As of this amount negroes own less than half of one per cent., the question of their ownership of property cannot constitute an important factor in the solution of the problem. The ten states having the largest value in property were:

In other words, any one of these wealthy Northern or Eastern states could, with scarcely perceptible effort, purchase the whole property accumulated by the negroes in the United States. Indeed, there are many large corporations in the country the wealth of any one of which exceeds that of the negro race, and some few individuals whose possessions are reputed to be in extent almost equal to the meagre holdings of that dependent people.

1 Estimated True Value of Property: 1900 and 1904. Department of Commerce and Labor, 1907.

In addition to individual ownership, both North and South, the negro in his corporate capacity has in many instances acquired ownership of school and church property, possibly in all some fifty million dollars, but considering the wealth of the country, its resources and increasing valuations, the negro's holding is inconsiderable. When we regard the vast development of our national wealth, the great railroad systems, manufactories, mines, steamboat lines, municipal corporations, agricultural enterprises, and other commercial developments, it will be readily appreciated that what little proportion of wealth belongs to the negro race offers no great obstacle to any rational plan which may be proposed for the solution of this troublous problem.

With this general survey of the physical dimensions of the problem, we will take up for consideration in the next chapter the present condition of the negro race, with a view of ascertaining the facts which create a necessity for action upon the subject.

CHAPTER IV

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NEGRO RACE

You may set the negro free, but you cannot make him otherwise than an alien to the European. The moderns, then, after they have abolished slavery have three prejudices to contend against, which are less easy to attack and far less easy to conquer than the mere fact of servitude-the prejudice of the master, the prejudice of the race and the prejudice of color.-DE TOCQUEville, Democracy in America.

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AVING in the foregoing chapter briefly considered the physical dimensions of the great problem we are seeking to solve, and acquired some comprehension of the physical difficulties of the task arising from the enormous numbers of the negro population, and the extent of the territory affected by their presence, and having further in view the condition of extreme ignorance and poverty in which the great mass of the race are submerged, the next step in orderly procedure will be to ascertain what is the actual condition of the ten millions of that race with whom the problem concerns itself, both as an absolute factor as well as in their relation to the superior race.

Manifestly, to make this a matter of personal investigation would be a task impossible of execution. It is, therefore, necessary to have recourse to such sources of information as may be found in the numerous publications upon the various branches of the subject, and to make a study of the differing views of those in various regions of the country who have given it special attention.