politicians never amounted to much. While they got hold of several State Governments, they had little or no effect on the National Government.

The first members were in the 42nd Congress, which convened in the year 1872, and the last went out in the 56th Congress, in the year 1900. It is highly improbable that there will be any more negroes in the House of Representatives or the Senate. The general consensus of opinion of the statesman of the United States is that the negro, after centuries of contact with the white race, is unfit for self-government.

The period of Reconstruction is known as the dark days in the South. The whites saw with terror the dangers of a black peril; in every State political corruption was rampant.

What was to be done? To use force was out of the question. Had the South tried to resist by force of arms, the whole strength of the victorious Union would have been arrayed against her.

One peculiarity of the ex-slaves was taken advantage of by their former masters, namely, the negro's intense superstition and fear of the supernatural. It was this fear that made possible the work accomplished by such organizations as the Ku-Klux Klan.

These societies were secret companies which sprang up all over the South. The members wore a disguise of a white mask, a tall cardboard hat, a gown or robe that covered the whole person, and when a member rode on horseback, a white cover for the bodies of the horses, and a sort of muffling for their feet.

Wherever ex-slaves grew unruly, disguised horsemen appeared by night, and thereafter the negroes of the neighbourhood remained under cover after daylight failed. The black voters were informed by the " spirit horsemen " that negroes should keep away from the ballot-boxes. And on the whole negroes followed the supernatural advice.

Granting the franchise to the ex-slaves proved a grievous error. Most of the political history of the South since the War is bound up in the question of negro suffrage. It has been almost impossible for a white man to vote as he chose. Perhaps on national questions he was in entire sympathy with the Republican party, yet he dare not throw in his lot with that party in the past, as it stood for negro domination in the South.

Enfranchising the ex-slaves brought about a vast solidarity in the social and political life of the South, so that one heard of the "Solid South" in politics. The class distinctions between the whites of the South were by no means so sharply drawn as they would be had there been no negroes.

The wisest men in the South saw the dangers of the secret societies in maintaining the supremacy of the white race. They realised that a disregard for the statutes of the land would lead to lawlessness. So the methods of the Ku-Klux Klan and kindred organisations were dropped, and a constitutional solution of the difficulty was sought.

After the Civil War two amendments to the Constitution of the United States were adopted, namely, the 13th and 15th. The 15th amendment reads as follows:-" The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

In all the Southern States the negroes were illiterate, and by degrees laws were passed calling for an educational qualification before the franchise was granted. This law has debarred the vast majority of the ignorant, penniless negroes from the ballot-box. Practically all the Southern States have passed laws qualifying the franchise. Here is an epitome of the legislation:-In all of the Southern States any negro who possesses a limited amount of taxable property, valued at $300 (£60 about), and can read and write the English language, is allowed to vote; in three of the Southern States any negro who can read and write the English language, and has paid his poll-tax can vote, although he own no taxable property; and in three States he can vote if he owns taxable property, even though he cannot read or write. In none of the Southern States is a negro legally disqualified from voting because he is a negro; in none of the Southern States is he disqualified if he possesses $300 worth of property and gives evidence of his ability to use intelligently the English language. It was simple enough for the Southern States to adopt these laws, but they had to pass before the searchlight of the highest tribunal in the land, to decide whether they infringed the constitution of the United States. When the Supreme Court of the United States decided that these laws of the Southern States did not conflict with the Constitution of the United States, there was a feeling of relief in the political life of the South.

The contention of the South all along has been that each State has the right to decide who shall vote, and who shall not vote. It is not a question for the National Government to decide.

What an extraordinary page of history is this experience of negro suffrage in the South! The conquerors declared that the freed slaves should become full-fledged citizens at once. The former masters quietly made up their minds to die rather than lose their ascendency. Their ingenuity saved a situation which could never have been won by force. It was one of the critical situations of modern times. Had the Southern people been of a less heroic mould, the future race might have been negroid, for you cannot acknowledge the absolute political equality of a race for ever, without acknowledging the social equality as well. Instead of the future of the South being worthy of the records and ideals of the Anglo-Saxon race, it would probably have sunk to the low level of a South American Republic. Now in the South laws of restriction have been passed to keep out the vast bulk of illiterate, indigent negroes, to take from them what they never had a right to, the vote given by a power which had no right to give it.

There is a terrible side to the negro question in America, namely, the unmentionable crime against white women. While the women of the black race can walk unmolested (so far as the white man is concerned) from one end of the South to the other, the wives and daughters of the white men in lonely districts dare not go far into the forest or away from their male protectors, lest a fate worse than death overtake them.

The chief explanation of this "New Negro Crime" can be traced to the promiscuous granting of the franchise. It was preached to the negro that he was the equal of the white man in every way, that he was free to do as he pleased.

The "New Negro Crime" will disappear when the conditions which brought it about pass away. Take the case of Mississippi, where the blacks greatly outnumber the whites. Since the disfranchisement of the negroes the crime has practically vanished from this State, where the negro has learned that, whatever may have been the theory that inspired reconstruction legislation, the black man in that State is not the political, much less the social, equal of the white. The crime is liable to vanish from the other States when the same hard, but indispensable, lesson is driven home.

The social and economic side of the negro question presents as great a problem as the political. To-day the two races are further apart in social relations than ever before, and the breach is ever widening. The difficulty of the negro problem is enhanced by the fact that the vast majority of the blacks are concentrated in the Southern States. The figures are, roughly, 8,000,000 in the South, and 1,000,000 in the North.

The negroes are not increasing at a greater rate than the white race. Numerical supremacy of the blacks in the South is a danger that will not threaten the country. During the years 1880-1890 the increase of the coloured population in the Southern States was only 13.24 per cent., while that of the whites for the same section was 23.91 per cent. The increase of white population for all the United States was 26.68 per cent., while the increase for the whole coloured population was 13.51 per cent. It might be claimed that the large immigration of the past 50 years is responsible for the big increase of the white population, but the South has scarcely felt the tide of immigration, which flowed to the West and North.

The tendency of the negroes of the United States, both in the South and North, to flock to the cities is very marked. In 1860 fourteen cities in the Southern States contained a black population of 18.85 per cent., while in 1890 these large cities had 29.08 per cent. coloured population, although the total per cent. of negro population for the whole country was less. There are few such instances of wholesale migration to the cities as is shewn by the negroes.

In the cities the negroes concentrate in single wards. Needless to say, these districts are the most undesirable parts of the cities. The vast majority of the criminals come from the negro wards. Extra police precautions are taken.

There is no reason for this flocking to the cities on the part of the negroes. In two of the richest agricultural States of the Union, Ohio and Missouri, the negroes are leaving the land for the cities, in spite of the demand for their labour as farm hands. Once in the city, the negro seldom goes back to the country.

The negroes in the country generally congregate in certain counties, known as the Black Belt, principally in the neighbourhood of the Mississippi River. In these districts the negroes greatly outnumber the whites. Here are some of the most striking instances of the disproportion of the two races in a few counties of the black belt. In East Carroll parish, Louisiana, there are 11,394 negroes to 1000 whites; in Madison parish 14,183 negroes to 1000 whites. In the county of Beaufort, South Carolina, there are 11,659 blacks to 1000 whites.

Let us now consider the vital statistics. Of all races for which statistics are obtainable, and which enter at all into the consideration of economic problems as factors, the negro shows poorly in his power of resistance in the struggle for life. In the South the negro birthrate is in excess of that of the native whites. In the Northern States the negro mortality is in excess of the natality. The death-rate of the negroes is far and away higher than that of the whites all over the States. In the cold climate the negro race would die out in a few generations were it not for the continual influx from the Southern States.

Here are the relative death-rates of the two races in six Southern cities, taken from the 12th Census of the United States. The deathrate is per 1000 population :

It is sometimes stated that environment explains the very high negro death-rate. While environment plays an important part, there is no doubt that the factors of race and heredity are the chief causes for this high death-rate. Given the same conditions, whether the most favourable or unfavourable, you always find the higher death-rate amongst the negroes. Even in the swamp lands, where malarial and typhoid fevers are prevalent, the white men stand the unhealthy conditions far better than the black men. The African

race in America seems to have deteriorated during the past hundred years, especially in the last thirty years, for there is a much higher death-rate now than formerly.

Of individual diseases, by far the greatest number of deaths is due to consumption. This dread malady is decidedly on the increase amongst the negroes of America, while amongst the whites it is steadily decreasing. Even under ideal hygienic conditions the negro shows an increasing tendency toward consumption. Let me give some figures for three American cities bearing on this point, taken from the census of 1890:

Mortality from Consumption (per 100,000).

The figures from St. Louis are very remarkable. They show how well the white inhabitants stand the cold winters of this severe climate, so far as consumption is concerned, and how disastrous the effect is on the black race.

The religious life of the negro in America is an interesting aspect of the subject. His religion is greatly coloured by his African origin. As a rule, religion and morality are two distinct things with the black people. When I was a boy, I remember well how the white folk would guard their hen roosts and water melon patches, whenever there was a big negro revival on. It was not uncommon to hear of a convert to the Coloured Baptist Church stealing a new suit to be baptised in.

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But the negro is very religious even when immoral. generally of an emotional nature, and only those denominations, like the Baptist and Methodist, where shouting, mourning, and ducking, and all other such ceremonies are in use, can boast a large membership amongst the negroes. Such denominations as the Presbyterian have an insignificant following. At their meetings the observer notes the hypnotic influence of the preacher and shouters on the congrega tion. Long before the service is finished, a number of the negroes are completely hypnotized. They readily respond to the suggestion of the speaker, and see all kinds of visions, which they sometimes describe at the top of their voices.

There is little of the moral imperative in the negro's religion. In fact, one of the saddest aspects of the subject is the immorality, and especially the unchastity, of the race. Education of the negro has not improved his moral tone. Recent reports of the United States census returns show that in the case of the district around Litwalton, Virginia, the younger generation of negroes possessed more property and "book learning" than their fathers. But in respect for the rights of others, in manners, and in character, the younger generation are distinctly degenerates. In many cases education has elevated the individual, but the moral tone of the negro race to-day is lower than it was before emancipation. Take the returns from the city of Washington, where the negro has greater opportunities for advancement, and less excuse for the infringement of the moral law than anywhere else in the world. What do we find? In 1879