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Zº Wisdom's Call BY Sutton E. Griggs $ $ $ / ſ “Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn noth- ing.”—Thomas H. Huxley. \ * To secure a copy of this book, “Wisdom's Call,” with postage prepaid, Send 55 Cents to The National Sentiment-Moulding Bureau, 658 So. Lauderdale Street - Memphis. Tennessee The Pºwº CPPºmºn Cºlº. MIT. Fºre. DEDICATION. The one dear life which, in all the on going of time, / shal/ be al/owed to live upon this planet, came to me within the borders of the imperial state of Texas. Whatever others may say, shal/ / not, therefore, love her ? We//, / do; and to Texas soil which fed me, to Texas air which fanned my cheeks, to Texas skies which smiled upon me, to Texas stars whose fiery orbs searched my soul, chased out the germs of s/umber and bade me come to them, this volume is affectionately dedicated by THE AUTHOR, WORKS OF SUTTON E. GRIGGS. “IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO'' “OVERSHADOWED” “UNFETTERED" “THE HINDERED HAND” “THE ONE GREAT QUESTION” “POINTING THE WAY.” “WISDOM'S CALL" AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The skill and the courage, the daring and per- sistence, the heroism, resourcefulness and mas- terful genius displayed by the sons of the white South during their four years of bloody travel and shifting fortunes from Bull Run's battle ground, by the way of Shiloh, of Gettysburg, of Antietam and other fields of carnage, on and on, and on, to the dreary plains of hope-ending Appomattox, settled for all time to come the question of thein- nate capacity of the white South for great achieve- ments. It is well that the South has had this lesson of her greatness coming out of the Civil War, for, stand- ing midway of the world's civic forests, with the world's most stupendous sociological problem strapped to her back, hedged in with briers, brambles and darkness, her ears beset with the harsh tones of the vicious, the false tones of the demagogues and the half tones of the timid, the lesson is needed that she may have the faith in her powers necessary for the performance of the great task that is hers and the nation's. But there are other lessons of equal importance to be drawn from the outcome of this same war. The result of the war wholly unforeseen by the leaders vii. PREFACE. of the South of that day, demonstrates that the white South with all of its acuteness of judgment is not by any means infallible, is not beyond the possibility of making grave mistakes. The result of the war also demonstrates that, with all of its power, the white South is yet not able to withstand the eternal drift of things, is not able to fight against the stars in their courses, is not able to thwart the purposes of the guiding hand of the universe however dis- tasteful the pathway mapped out may be. In view of the fact that the South can make mis- takes and can be ordered by eternal forces to re- trace her steps, an open ear should be ever kept at- tuned to catch dear wisdom's call. Such we feel our message herein given to be. Hence the name it bears. In “Wisdom's Call” we have striven to look at matters fundamentally, and feel that we have made a presentation which the white South can only re- ject or ignore at the cost of a silent, bloodless but costly struggle with eternal forces, which through the years will eat away her vitals. Very respectfully, SUTTON E. GRIGGS. vii; TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Danger of an Unprotected Spot. CHAPTER II. A Luxury of Great Price. CHAPTER III. The National Power As an Asset. CHAPTER IV. A Better System for Making Men. CHAPTER V. The Preservation of the Two Races. CHAPTER VI. Southern Statesmanship and the Negro Woman. CHAPTER VII. How to Keep the Colored Race from Being a Burden. CHAPTER VIII. The White Man’s Equity in Negro Education. CHAPTER IX. The Spirit of a People. WISDOM'S CALL. CHAPTER I. THE DANGER OF AN UNPRO. TECTED SPOT. We are living in a day in which great Small importance is being attached to what Things. was once regarded as the small, in- consequential things of the universe, a day in which the greatest and wisest among men do not consider it beneath their dignity to take note of what such lowly beings as flies, mosquitoes and rats are doing. Since Pasteur unfolded to the world the germ theory of disease, and demonstrated the presence in the human frame of tiny creatures, too small to be detected by the keenest eye when un- aided, creatures that feed upon and destroy the body, the minds of men have been very generally turned in the direction of small things. So small, so in- significant a thing as the house fly now stands charged with being a source through which typhoid fever germs are able to capture men and put them in (11) 12 WISDOM’s CALL. jeopardy of their lives. - The sneaking chinch, small, timid and cowardly, daring not to leave its hiding place except under the cover of darkness, has at last been singled out as the agency by means of which the smallpox is spread abroad. Tuber- culosis, the disease that vexes the soul of man, that has baffled the concentrated wisdom of the world and of the ages, is but the work of tiny germs of such size that hundreds of them can assemble upon the point of a needle without being visible to the naked eye. The discovery has been made that the bubonic plague, the terror of the nations of the earth, is transmitted from land to land by so humble a crea- ture as a rat that hides in the hold of a ship as it sails from port to port. It is now well known that the epidemics of yellow fever which in times past disor- ganized the business of states and nations, and con- verted whole cities into one great funeral procession, were organized and conducted by such tiny beings as mosquitoes which flew from the swamps and carried the disease from man to man. The suffering yellow fever patient strained his dying eyes in search of some far off mysterious providence that was hurrying him to an untimely death, while just above his head the mosquitoes were chanting in an unknown tongue the full story of his infection and his impend- ing dissolution. There are some who seem to be of Making the opinion that the complete adjust- the Negro ment in the South of what is called the Small. race question will immediately follow the repeal or annulment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United WISDOM'S CALL. 13 States. Their cry is, deprive the Negro of all politi- cal power; cause him to be absolutely helpless so far as affecting the situation one way or another is con- cerned; reduce him to the position of a governmental insect, and, they assert, our troubles will all be over. But small things, we have just seen, can give trouble. The fly does more harm than the eagle; the rat is more dangerous than the elephant; the chinch is far more to be feared than the lion. The Negro, though reduced to a position of utter helplessness will be the source of unending trouble to the white South and to the nation. We have no reference here to any possible injury the Negro might be able to in- flict by means of such strength as he could muster. Very little, perhaps, as matters now stand, need be feared from that quarter. But it is the weakened position of the Negro, not his strength, that is to be feared. The putrid body of a dead man lying at the bottom of a reservoir can poison the water of a city and thus slay more people than if the man were alive, dashing wildly through the streets of that city firing on the right and on the left. When in sixteen hundred and nine- A Small teen a handful of uncivilized and help- Beginning. less aliens was incorporated as slaves into the economic life of Virginia, the great issues bound up in that act were hidden from the most astute minds of that day. Utterly weak were those Negroes; a condition more abject is hardly conceivable. And yet they were not without the power of doing harm. The system of slavery ramified the South, poured its noxious poison into 14 WISDOM'S CALL. its life currents, marked its fertile fields for avoidance, transferred the seat of power to the northeast, north and northwest and finally became the bone of con- tention that provoked the most terrific war that the human family has thus far waged. “Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” But the advocates of the repeal of ºrian- the Fifteenth Amendment hold that Tºr, said proposed repeal would not weaken the Negro; hold that his position would be the stronger if he would but rest his case upon the sense of guardianship of his white neighbor, and not seek to have a voice of his own in the government. In fact there are some who seem fully convinced that the ideal situation for the South is one in which the Negro is granted protection in the matter of hold- ing property, is granted the right of trial by jury, but is denied all voice in the matter of conducting the affairs of state. The contention is made that the occupying of this position on the part of the Negro is not necessarily incompatible with the according to him of full protection, and as proof that an element shorn of the right of participation in the government can still be amply protected, the favorable treat- ment of women and children, non-voting elements, is cited. An instant's reflection will convince one that it is quite an error to base conclusions as to what can be done for the Negro upon whatever degree of favorable treatment is accorded women and children. The known relationship of woman to the social side of man at once discloses the fact that even without citizenship she occupies a position of vantage that WISDOM'S CALL. 15 in the very nature of things the Negro man can never occupy with relation to the white man. The mother, wife, sister, potential wife or sweetheart, the co- partner in the work of pro-creation—these have a thousand chances for protection to one that the Negro has as a simple contributor to the material side of civilization. The girl child is their woman in the em- bryo, and the boy a citizen in the embryo, and even the birds know how to protect their own eggs in pref- erence to protecting the fledglings of others. In view of the fact therefore, that the white woman and child are intimately interwoven in the social and civic life of the white man the protection that is ac- corded them cannot be pointed to as an example of what could be expected for the Negro placed in a weakened position in the body politic. Far better illustrations of what can Better be expected of the sense of guardian- Illustra- - - tions ship, unsupported by other considera- tions, are the treatment accorded Negro women, who, where Negroes are disfranchised have no social ties linking them to any of the sover- eign voters, and the status of the Negro child, who if a girl, is not a future social queen of the white race, or, if a boy, is not a future citizen where Ne- groes are denied the right to vote because of race. It is the universal plaint of the colored woman that she stands absolutely unprotected, that in the great majority of cases where an alleged offender against her honor is white she is laughed out of court, and further, that cases which would cause death were the racial connection of each party to the 16 WISDOM'S CALL. situation reversed, are actually denied entrance into court. As to the hold that the Negro child has upon the situation, we may readily judge from the mere fact that the desire in some quarters to have him grow up in ignorance prevents the more rapid growth in the South of a sentiment in favor of com- pulsory education. In short, the Negro child is so weak in reference to its enjoying its rights, that it is able through that weakness to keep the white child out of its rights. Here then, in the case of the Negro woman and child we have clear illustrations of what it means to be dependent upon a mere sense of guardianship. To prove that the Negro can safely Conditions rely upon the white man's sense of Have guardianship, reference is sometimes Changed. made to the protection that was often given the slave by his master. But that protection was born of a deeper motive than that of simple guardianship. The greatest of all mo- tives, self-interest, inspired the master to protect his slave. But now that the Negroes are free and there are no masters to guard their own interests by protecting their slaves, it is indeed poor reason- ing that would expect the same activity and, the same results under the changed conditions. No, the protection accorded to the slave is not in any sense an indication of what would be the plight of the Negro resting wholly upon such sense of guard- ianship as might be developed in the white race. WISDOM'S CALL. 17 Nature's one great remedy for all Nature’s situations threatening trouble is the Remedy. instinct of self-preservation. That in- stinct is the only thing that can be relied upon to do full justice by the individual in- volved, that can be depended upon to be on the alert at all times and under all circumstances. Whenever this instinct is forbidden to work, the element thus situated is in a weakened condition in the body politic. A toothless dog is certain to have more stones thrown at him than is one that can growl and show a gleaming row of sharp protectors when oc- casion requires. Yes, the Negro, denied the right to participate in the government, is in a weakened position, and we shall now proceed to show the harm to the whole body politic, the entire governmental fabric by virtue of his occupying this position. We shall first consider the psycho- When the logical developments, the effects upon State Dis- the minds of men, that result from the criminates. course of the state in discriminating - against the Negro, in putting him in a weakened condition. Where the Negro has the proper influences around him to guide him, his spirit will rise above and be unaffected by any course deemed unjust that the state may take, but to the unguided mind will come one of two conclusions. The victim of discrimination because of his race, will decide either that the state is right, that he is a being of a lower order—which conclusion robs him of his self-respect, or he will feel that the state is unjust, and bitterness will thereupon enter his 18 WISDOM’s CALL. spirit. In both cases the state has prepared a con- genial soil for the development of crime; for what better preparation can one have for a career of wrongdoing than a full supply of disrespect for one- self, or a spirit embittered through a sense of wrong done by organized society? The But the psychological influence ema- White nating from the attitude of the state ite Man Affected. reaches not only the Negroes, but the whites as well, only in a different way. The white citizen feels that he must uphold the laws of the commonwealth and his mind begins to take on such form as is necessary for upholding the decrees of the state. Those who are set apart by dis- criminating laws as the dominant class develop the feeling of occupying a superior station. It is the na- ture of a man to double his sense of being wronged whenever this wrong arises from a creature pronounc- edly beneath his level. Remember the groanings of the lion when kicked by the ass. It was the source of the kick that troubled him most. So when the state by discrimination bids the white citizen to look down on the Negro it is doubling the capacity of this white citizen to take offense. Wherever state discrimina- tion exists it will be observed that the sensitiveness of the whites is quickened and that the sense of pro- portion as regards offenses committed by Negroes is destroyed. Here we have the philosophy of the mood that has sometimes led white men to kill Negroes who have seen fit to say to them yes, in- stead of yes, sir. With the situation so richly ripened for crime by the course of the state, the story of 20 WISDOM’s CALL. while the voting element is able to reward, the non- voting element is powerless to punish. So the sit- uation logically paves the way for successful and un- rebuked lynching. The downward journey continues. Down! Perhaps the white man who formed Down! part of a mob to kill a Negro, a little later takes the matter in hand indi- vidually and seeks to have his own private killing of a Negro. Perhaps he is himself killed. But the right of self-defense is not one of the sacred rights of the submerged class. Has not the butcher, the higher animal, the full right to kill the steer? And is not any steer which will not tamely submit to be killed a vicious animal? Thus the Negro, who kills a white man in self-defense, who kills righteously, being of the submerged class, is sometimes lynched or even burned at the stake for his exercise of the right of self-defense. These injustices that inevitably dog the footsteps of the submerged ones, cause heart- burnings and ranklings that so operate upon their spirits that the soil is the further prepared for an in- creased crop of crimes. But the evils begotten by the weak- Character ened position of the Negro in the body of Whites politic are not by any means confined Influenced. to the Negro race. It is a matter of common knowledge that it is now ex- ceedingly difficult to convict a white man of murder even when his victim is a white man. For, the jurors that blunted their sense of the sacredness of hu- WISDOM'S CALL. 21 man life when they freed the white man that murdered a Negro, have had no moral grindstone on which to resharpen that blunted sense in time to properly avenge the death of a white man who died at the hands of a white. Yes, the, character acquired in dealing with the Negro is after all, character, a fixed part of a man, and will manifest itself in every walk of life. The Southern white dailies are White Wom- beginning to note the alarming num- en Are Suf- ber of crimes of murder and vio- fering. lence against white women on the part of their husbands that are being reported, and are tracing these crimes to the brutality begotten in the lawlessness practiced to- ward the Negroes. Hitherto the South has been her- alded far and wide as the home of chivalrous regard for woman-kind. Not long since in one of our South- ern cities a white man killed his wife in a most deliberate manner and without the semblance of just provocation. The estimate of the value of human life had sunk so low that the white people felt it their duty to call a mass-meeting to voice a demand for the punishment of the wife slayer, and one of the South's greatest newspapers, located in that city, began an editorial crusade calling for the man’s punishment. Just think of that! Mass meetings and editorial proddings deemed necessary to secure the proper handling of a murder charge, the victim being a white woman of means and good standing! In this same city, a short time previously, a white man, with great deliberation, killed four un- WISDOM'S CALL. ,23 arrive possessing in a marked degree a strain of brutality? A Southern white man discussing the Signs increasing brutality of lynchings, said Appear. that the excesses were due to the fact that the best citizens were no longer present at the lynchings to hold the more violent and brutal in check. Is that the case, or is it true that the mobs are now composed of young men and boys, as is so often asserted, who have been brought into the world since the prevalence of lynchings in the South? Did those fathers who took part in bloody orgies a few years ago imagine that when they retired to rest in the early hours of the morn that their spirits shed their bloody moods as readily as their bodies got rid of their woolen coats? Does the extra brutality of the mobs officered by the newer generation prove that the fathers got rid of the bloody taint as easily as was thought? Re- cently a young Southern white man deliberately threw scalding hot water upon his mother's back, and injured her to such an extent that her life was despaired of for a while. Was the father of this boy at one time a member of a mob, and was this boy born during his father's career as a lyncher? Who knows? To catch a further glimpse of what may be reason- ably expected of this newer generation born since the beginning of the reign of the mob in the South, read the following news items typical of what may be found in almost any day's paper. “Thornton, Ark. —News has just reached here of one of the most 24 WISDOM’s CALL. dastardly crimes that has ever occurred in the history of this county. , son of a prominent farmer of Woodberry was shot and killed by his wife, to whom he was married less than a year ago. She was not satisfied with shooting him once but took three at him, and then cut his throat. Those who saw the corpse say it was the worst mangled one they had ever seen.” Again: “Gainesville, Ga.-Because heremonstrat- ed with his son-in-law when the latter's children spoke disrespectfully to their mother the Rev. - was hacked to pieces and killed with an axe by his son-in-law at the latter's home.” Were the fathers of these two slayers members of mobs that tortured Negroes? Quite recently the white people of Texas and those of Georgia heard from their penitentiaries and were greatly shocked over the disclosures. The brutality revealed staggered them. But even now the white South has no adequate conception of the terrible brutality that reigns throughout the prison life of the South! What the convict guards are doing is illustrated by the following newspaper account of an incident that can be duplicated almost anywhere in the prison life of the South: “One of the convicts said that he was standing close to Jamison when he was fired upon, and told of the killing in the following manner: ‘Mr. Reasonover came down the line with a stick in his hand and told Jamison to wake up. Jamison told him that he was working as hard as he knew how. Mr. Reasonover then struck Jamison and said that he had told him to wake up. Jamison WIS DOM'S CALL. 25 had his shovel in his hands, but not in such position that he could have struck Mr. Reasonover. Mr. Reasonover backed off about eight feet and pulled his pistol and shot.’ It was shown that Jamison had shackles on his ankles when Reasonover shot him. ‘This man had absolutely no excuse for shooting this convict,” said Judge Edington.” Again: “Columbia, S. C., ... W S y aged 22, was shot and instantly killed and Mrs. dangerously wounded in the latter's restaurant here this afternoon by , a convict guard, following a dispute over a bowl of soup.” These things speak for themselves. The vast army of men engaging in these practices are also engaged in pro- creation and are having children born to themselves daily. Cannot a blind man see that it is only a mat- ter of a few years before there will be a pronounced strain of brutality running through the entire life blood of the South? And will not the brutal strain once Entire admitted into the life of a people, show Life to be itself almost anywhere and everywhere? Affected. If this strain ever fully comes to the white South, look for signs of it in a lack of reverence for aged men and women, in the existence of a marked indifference with reference to the welfare of children in general, in the increased insolence of children toward their parents, in the low estimate of the value of human life, in the re- volting practices of mobs which rack their brains in search of every conceivable method of torture, in the failure of legislatures to provide, or officials to 26 WISDOM'S CALL. enforce adequate laws against the crushing out of child life through employment in factories, in the efforts of sons and daughters in the full bloom of life to push their aged and infirm parents from the stage of existence ahead of the natural hour in those hidden ways made possible through the privacy of family life. Yes, if through that class that brutalizes itself on the Negro, the strain of brutality creeps through inter- marriage into the entire life of the white South, look for the coming of the sad and shameful days here forecasted. The loveliest flower of all the South- Chivalry land has not been the velvety red rose, Doomed. nor the beautiful lily of the field, nor yet the magnificent magnolia. No, the loveliest of Southern flowers has been the flower of chivalry, the tender regard for woman. When the strain of brutality comes, this flower is sure to die. An imitation thereof will no doubt be seen abroad in the land, but the genuine flower with all of its loveliness will be gone forever. Yes, yes, the weakened position of the Negro in the body politic causes the existence of a gap through which lawless- ness and brutality enter and threaten with their awful virus the actual blood of the white South. In yet another way the weakened Anarchy position of the Negro is threatening Headed to poison the life of the whole South. Southward. The pet aversion of the South is the anarchist, and its one great boast is that it has developed none of that brood. But is this true? There are two kinds of anarchists, the WISDOM’s CALL. 27 believers in a land without organized government, and in violence as the proper means for the over- throw of organized society, and the philosophical anarchists, who, though believing in a land without organized government, yet would overthrow govern- ment only by changing the thinking of men. The one goal at which all anarchists are aiming is a condition of society in which there is no law govern- ing men save the sentiment of the people as mani- fested on any given occasion. The anarchists, as stated, would attain this end by overturning in one way or another the laws now on the statute books, but is not the same end attained by the lifting of the spirit above the law? Has not the South done this very thing? Before you can move a race of thoughtful, civilized people, such as are the Southern white people, there must be formulated a satisfactory philosophy of things justifying the course to be pur- sued. What then is the philosophy that underlies the tolerance of lynchings? Here it is: Whenever the law does not meet the prevailing sentiment of the people, it is perfectly correct for men to do what the situation seems to them to demand. Let this code of ethics, formulated under whatever circum- stances may be, become firmly rooted in the minds of the Southern whites, become a part of their re- ligion, and it will finally be put to use by the poor as against the rich, by labor as against capital, by the public official who is elected to enforce the law, as against an element desiring the law's enforcement. The outbreak of “Night Riding” in Tennessee, Kentucky and portions of Indiana are but the 28 WISDOM'S CALL. triumph of the feeling of lifting one's mind above the law as it stands, and the substitution there-for the law of one's mind. This is anarchy, only a quicker route than that being pursued by the avowed an- archists. There is no killing of officials, no voting to abolish governments; only the simple lifting of the spirit above the law, a thing first learned in deal- ing with the weakened Negro. So this is the port toward which we of the South are headed, the living above the law, therefore the living without law, therefore anarchy. So far as the Negro is concerned he feels already that he has entered that port, that he is being governed largely without law. But the Negro is standing upon the prow of a ship, on whose stern the white man stands. If the prow of the ship has entered the port of anarchy bear in mind that the winds are yet blowing and the stern will soon follow the prow into the port. When, by and by, the work of long Philosoph- ages in building up a sentiment of ical An- reverence for law in the soul of archist. the white race has been undone, when the philosophy of the anarchist has been generally accepted throughout the South; that is, when men grow to feel that it is higher and wiser to look to their own bosoms for the law rather than to the statute books, when each unit has be- come a law unto itself, then will these philosophical anarchists, chosen as mayors, judges, legislators and governors feel free to discard their oaths, ignore the requirements of the law and the mandates of constitutions, and govern according to their own WISDOM’s CALL. 29 notions of what is right and what is best. As an evidence of the fact that what is here asserted is not some idle dream, but a grim reality, note the fol- lowing editorial utterance from a daily newspaper published in one of the South's most noted cities. Says that journal: “The head of the (naming its home city) municipal government it appears has undertaken to designate certain classes who shall be exempt from the ordinary operations of the law. It is a notorious fact that he has determined what laws shall be enforced, or at least what laws shall be ignored and nullified, but it is going a degree further when he makes a discrimination in those who shall be amenable to the laws restraints. That the Mayor should issue individuals of cer- tain classes exemptions from police control is a high handed and entirely unwarranted procedure, to say nothing of the immorality it involves or the purpose that probably induced it.” A law may be passed against gambling but a philo- sophical anarchist in the mayor's chair will allow the dens to flourish all around. Saloons may be abolished by law, but officials who are philosophical anar- chists will permit the existence of a greater number than before they were voted out. In the day when the philosophical anarchist is holding sway, contracts will be let, not to the highest bidders but to favorites. The results of white primaries, even, will be announced in keeping with the desires of election officers and not in keeping with the ballots cast. That the treatment accorded the Negro is to bear fruit in the direction of disorganizing the life of the whites of the South by means of the philosophy 30 WISDOM'S CALL. developed is strikingly illustrated by the turmoil existing in the state of Tennessee. For months the daily newspapers cried out that a condition of political anarchy, unparalleled in the history of the state, existed. In the course of an ar- ticle explaining the situation a newspaper corre- spondent of one of Tennessee's leading dailies said: “The fact is each faction is mortally afraid of the other. It must therefore be shown very clearly that there will be a square deal before anything will be done.” The Memphis News- Scimitar one of the strongest and most ably edited journals in the state, speaking of this same turmoil, says editorially: “It might all be set at rest by agree- ing that honesty shall be the rule of public life, and that our elections shall be held honestly, and the will of the people as expressed at the polls shall be the court of last resort. But we must confess that we are a long way off from this.” A white man, the president of a college in the state, in speaking of the Tennessee situation said: “The trouble with us is that we are afraid to trust each other. We are suffering with a case of broken down conscience. We broke down our consciences in dealing with Negroes and now we fear to trust one another because we know each other.” There is only one way of escape for Only the South. It must lift the Negro One Way from his submerged position; there of Escape. must be no points of necessary weak- ness. It was the undipped spot in the heel of the great Achilles through which he met his WISDOM’s CALL. 31 death. Weakness anywhere in the body politic will assuredly invite aggression. Placing the Negro where it is the natural thing to mistreat him, simply means that he will be mistreated, and that there will come a disorganizing of the souls of those who do the mis- treating. The suggestion that the Fifteenth Amend- ment be repealed is worse than idle. It would but fur- ther and inevitably invite the aggression that de- moralizes. What the South needs is not a weaker spot, but a wall of uniform strength, with not a single gap through which lawlessness may spring unhindered, and begin to work havoc with every- thing in sight, attacking with equal vigor the things that invited it and those that did not. Whenever an effort is made to in- A Sup- duce the dominant element of the posed white South to revise its attitude to- Impedi- ward the Negro with regard to the ment. suffrage the one retort of the past has been that political recognition for the Negro will mean that social intermingling between the two races will certainly follow. We have demonstrated, we think, how the weakness of the Negro in the body politic invites disease for the whole body, and any argument intended to influence the South to maintain, increase and perpetuate the weakness of this spot should certainly be subject- ed to the most careful scrutiny. How is this alleged breaking down of the social walls to happen? The white people have their churches, schools, newspapers, books and the fireside, agencies for the propaga- tion of the doctrine of racial integrity. Does any 32 WISDOM’s CALL. one pretend to say that the white people of the South with all these agencies in their hands are so constituted that the Negro race can vote its way into their social circles? But we need not theorize on these matters, for there are states in which the Negroes are accorded political rights where results may be studied. Maryland, West Virginia, Missouri and Kentucky have large Negro populations, accord the Negroes the suffrage on terms of equality with the whites, and, though the political party accredited with traditional friendship for the Negroes has from time to time been given control of those states, there has been no more breaking down of social lines than has been the case in Mississippi. The men who have come to the front as a result of the one party system that has obtained in the South, but who might not fare so well if the strenuous political conditions obtaining everywhere else in the English- speaking world were introduced, may continue to shout that the ballot in the hands of the Negro will mean a passport to the white man's parlor, but we are of the opinion that many of those who make this assertion for political effect are firmly of the opinion that all the voters of the world would not be able to vote the Negro into the Southern white man's parlor. The social life of the Southern white people is projected upon a plane far out of reach of the mere ballot. Ex-President Eliot, of Harvard Uni- The Two versity, is of that political faith that Are Distinct. now holds sway in the South, is highly esteemed in the South, and is the known sympathizer with it in its struggles. Hear WISDOM'S CALL. 33 a word from him: “As to the ballot, it seems to me reasonable that an educational qualification should be required, and that the payment of the poll tax is also an expedient condition for exercising the suffrage; but whatever qualifications apply to the Negro should also apply to the white man. Political equality seems to me to have nothing whatever to do with what is called social equality; but I recognize that the Southern whites are not of this opinion. They believe that political equality may lead to social admixture, or at any rate, to an assertion on the part of Negroes of a right to social intercourse with white people. So far as I know, this belief among Southern whites finds no support in the practice of any nation, or part of a nation, in which a broad suffrage now obtains, and I regret its prevalence among Southern whites.” In all candor, cannot the thought of social involvements be eliminated as a factor in this matter? Cannot the great race that overcame its belief in witches, ghosts and hobgob- lins, grow to see that the Negro's ballot is not a magician’s wand that will work the wonders ascribed to it, the wonder of establishing him in the social circles of the whites? Permit a final word. A physician A Final has an operation to perform on a person Word. that has poison in his system. On the physician's hand there is one slight abrasion. Without gloves he goes about the work of operating. Poison from the body of the patient comes into contact with the physician's blood at the point of the abrasion on his hand. 34 WISDOM’s CALL. Blood poisoning sets in and the physician dies. He was sound at every point but one. The better South may continue its heroic struggles to rear men of courage and honor, may continue to send forth into life its quota of pure and noble women, but all these will not be able to prevent the lawlessness, which enters the life of the South by way of the un- protected Negro from eventually permeating all its veins and arteries, to the death of its fair name in the earth. Its brooks will babble on; its flowers will bloom on; its skies will beam down as beautifully as of old, as of old; the chirp of the happy cricket and the song of the mocking bird will be heard as in the past, but with all this it will be a new South. Anarchy, robed in a thin disguise, will sit upon the throne of government, and the eloquent, the bril- liant, and the famous will lie wounded and dying in the gutters of the streets of the cities of the South, and men of high degree will be seen swinging in the dawn of beautiful mornings on the borders of fresh made lakes, much after the order of the weakened Negro, the unarmed picket whom Anarchy easily thrusts aside in her march to her Southern kingdom. - Let there be a uniform citizenship. The True Let all men have all rights needed for Solution. Self-protection. The sacred right of self-defense is as necessary to the moral health of a community as is the punishment for mur- der, and no one will or can be as alert for a man's protection as that man will be for himself. There- fore, let the Negro have the ballot as a means of defense against negligent officials. Only through WISDOM'S CALL. 35 the Negro's ability to protect himself in the way common to civilized society, will he be removed from the situation as a harm-inviting point of weakness. Strengthening the Negro's position in the body politic is a far better policy for the final good of the South than is the proposed policy of having him a permanent point of weakness. Let all political parties North and South throw open their doors to qualified Negro voters as to all other citizens. Let the Negroes enter the several parties, each according to his conviction on questions presented. With the importance, prestige and power that will come with his being a factor in the government, the Negro will no longer be the point of weakness inviting assault, and the South, the nation and the cause of humanity will all be the gainers thereby. CHAPTER II. A LUXURY OF GREAT PRICE. The It is very evident that large numbers of white people in the South yet esteem it a high privilege, a sort of civic luxury to be permitted to thrust the law aside, dangle the body of a Negro from the end of a rope and fill the swaying form full of bullets. While they realize that the duly appointed administrators of the law can be relied upon to take the life of any Negro condemned to die, the simple death of the Ne- gro is not what is wanted. They desire to have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that they had a direct, immediate, personal hand in the taking of the Negro's life. Demonstrate to those who feel thus, as much as you may, that lynching is not a necessity, you are met with the thought that it is a luxury and is to be indulged in as in the case of other luxuries. Luxury. Benjamin Franklin gave to the The Price American people many little sayings Paid for this which have helped them wonderfully, Luxury. and one of his exhortations is that a man be careful not to pay too dear a price for his whistle. Let us now take up the price (39) 40 WISDOM’s CALL. that the South is paying for the luxury of lynching and see if it is not going contrary to Franklin's ad- vice, see if it is not paying a million fold more for this alleged luxury than it is getting out of it. The state of South Carolina has ever been noted for her spirit of independence and her sense of strength. She it was who threatened nullification in the days of Andrew Jackson, and she the first a few years later to lead off in the experiment of walking out of the federal union. In the course of a speech delivered not long since upon the floor of the United States Senate the present senior Senator from that proud state asserted the utter helplessness of his state and section in matters of controversy with the rest of the nation, due to the fact that the South in point of population now constitutes but one-third of the government. He called attention to the fact that immigration was building up the population of the North and West at the rate of a million a year, causing the augmenting of the congressional strength of those sections equal to an annual gain of five congressmen from this source alone, a source from which the South is drawing practically no strength whatever. With the North and the West already constituting two-thirds of the national strength, and going forward by leaps and bounds through births and the influx of foreigners, while the South's increase is limited in the main to births within its borders, this Senator foresaw the constant and rapid dwindling of the relative strength of his section. The white people of the South have from time to time felicitated themselves upon the fact that they WISDOM’s CALL. 41 have not been afflicted with the undesirable class of immigrants, but there has been immigration of millions of sober, thrifty, industrious foreigners who would have brought strength to the South in every way, immigrants fully able to purchase the cheaper lands of the South and enter upon self-sus- taining careers. But why this avoidance of the South on the part of persons whose coming would be mutually advantageous? It has been due in large measure to the fact that the reputation of the mob has gone to the uttermost parts of the earth, and has created the impression that the southern section of the United States is nothing more nor less than a huge spot of blood; that red-handed murder walks our streets and promenades upon our highways, while justice, terror-stricken, has hidden herself in the deep recesses of some mountain cave. Whether justly or unjustly such is the reputation that the mob has given our bonnie Southland. Of course our editors and statesmen can explain that things are not so bad as they seem, but the news of blood- shed is telegraphed to many more places than are the carefully worded explanations as to what the killings did not mean. Another form of damage done the False Im- South by the undue advertisement pressions. brought about by the actions of the mob is the conveying of the erroneous im- pression that the white women of the South are in constant danger of assault. It has been demon- strated by statistics that the white women of the South are relatively safer from such attacks than are 42 WISDOM’s CALL. the white women of Chicago from the attacks of white men. The overwhelming mass of Negro men accord the white women of the South the utmost deference and respect, and the Negroes on the whole are every whit as ready to shield the women from harm as are the white men. They are the sons of their fathers. They are the sons of the men to whom the departing soldiers in the days of civil strife committed the care of their wives and daughters; the men who in every instance proved true to the sacred trust; who would have died to keep safe from harm the loved ones left in their charge. Here and there vile whiskey and a life of debauchery have evolved a Negro that has fallen so far from the common instincts of his race as to be guilty of the nameless crime, but he no more typifies his race, no more represents their overwhelmingly prevailing tendencies than Benedict Arnold can be said to be the normal type of the American revolu- tionist. The dust of the mob hides from view the sober faces of the ninety and mine faithful Negroes, while the flames of the burning pyre paint upon the sky the vicious likeness of the offending one; so that, men with wives and daughters, misjudging the situation, hesitate about turning their faces south- ward. Thus do false notions of the relative safety of the Southern white women check the growth of the South. Let not any one deceive himself Evils with the thought that the mob can be Travel. maintained as an institution that af- fects Negroes and Negroes only. As to whether the South is at all to have a civilization WISDOM’s CALL. 43 of law and order, even among its white citizens, de- pends upon its ability to give the Negro the pro- tection of the law. No chain is stronger than its weakest link. The dog of lawlessness unleashed to torment and devour the Negro will not return to his kennel until he has also throttled the master of the house. There is a unity to the social consciousness. The public mind cannot tolerate a given state of things with regard to one segment of the population without having a growth, perhaps silent and unob- served, of a similar line of thinking with regard to things far removed from that which first called forth the line of action tolerated. The men who invented the mob to Cabin and deal with the Negro little dreamed, Hotel perhaps, that it woulderelong be sum- Connected. moned to service to regulate the affairs of a Reelfoot Lake. Let us recount a bit of history. 'Tis night; we hear the tramp of horses. Their riders, silent and masked, reverence for law overtoppled in the soul are piloting them to a lonely log cabin in which a Negro resides. A few moments later they silently ride away leaving the swinging corpse of the black man that they have slain. Time wears on. The principle of adjusting grievances or fancied griev- ances by the methods of the midnight band is estab- lished, is tingling in their brains, is living in the thought of the social body ready for emergencies not Originally placed on the programme. Time wears on. 'Tis night; we hear the tramp of horses. Their riders silent and masked, reverence for law over- toppled in the soul, are piloting them to a lonely 2 44 WISDOM'S CALL. log cabin—no, we are mistaken—this time it is to a prominent hotel. When, on the following morning, the state of Tennessee awoke it could hardly believe its eyes when it saw the bullet-pierced body of one of its first citizens, Capt. Quentin Rankin, dangling from the end of a rope after the order of an humble Negro. To those who think that hiding behind logs, dodging bullets, fleeing through forests, wading through bogs and swamps, suffering the pangs of hunger and thirst, dreading the sight of man, are luxuries, the enjoyment of which can be wholly con- fined to friendless Negroes, we would say, “Ask the distinguished white man, the partner of Captain Rankin, Colonel Taylor, who made his escape from the banks of Reelfoot.” Note how vig- orously he shakes his head to let you know em- phatically that the luxuries mentioned cannot be so confined, that they will eventually pass around. The night rider, troubling the white people of the tobacco-growing regions of Kentucky and Tennessee and threatening the cotton growers of the South are but the reincarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, which was devised to handle the Negro. And note the fact that they made their appearance immediately upon the heels of the recent general laudation of the work and methods of the Klan. Yes, in one way or another, the Whole So- social body in its entirety is certain cial Body to feel the effects of poison that it ad- Affected. mits into any part of the body, be that part the sole of the foot or the crown of the head. It is of the highest importance that 46 WISDOM'S CALL. It is the very irony of fate that White the Southern Negro, unwittingly Woman enough, of course, blocks the path- Barred by way of the Southern white woman Negro. to the ballot box. Of all Anglo- Saxon self-governing commonwealths the Southern states constitute the only section where women are wholly denied the right to vote, where not a breath of sentiment seems stirring in that direction. In Australia, New Zea- land and several of the Northwestern states of the United States women have the full right of suffrage. In some of our Northern and Eastern states they have the suffrage to a limited extent, while in Eng- land they enjoy the right to vote in all elections save those involving seats in Parliament, and there are powerful influences at work to remove this one lim- itation. In Finland, a province of Russia, there are female members of the legislative body. In the sections of the world named the woman's suffrage movement has come forward upon the broad plea of the membership of women in the human family, holding that said membership constituted them the equals in point of rights of all other members. Claims for the political rights of the Negro have been pro- jected upon this same basis of equal membership in the human family. In closing its ears to this plea made in behalf of the Negro, the dominant element of the white South attained that frame of mind that has created the peculiar phenomenon of one great English-speaking section existing in the twentieth WISDOM'S CALL. 47 century with no woman's suffrage question with which to grapple. So here we have the attitude of the Southern white man toward the Negro so grooving his thoughts that it never occurs to him to enter save in a fixed, dogmatic way, upon the con- sideration of this question, which, more and more is engrossing the serious thought of the civilized world. Thus do matters spread. Industrial The Spread education, devised as a special need Is Certain. for the colored youth, in a few years becomes the national fad for the white youth. The view of human rights adopted to re- strain the Negro casts its shadow in such a manner that the Anglo-Saxon women of the world find no word of cheer coming from their Southern sisters as they carry on their world-widestruggle for the ballot. It is true that the dominant Southern thought may hold that such a state of affairs is ideal. Our only contention just here is that a wholly foreign matter, or the line of thought engendered by a wholly foreign matter, is the controlling influence in the situation. And so will the virus of the mob spread. It may take the form of night riding, as in the case of Cap- tain Rankin, or it may distill its poisonous contempt for the forms of law into the hearts of individuals to such an extent that the street duel will be sub- stituted for criminal and chancery courts by the men of eminence of the South. Laws against the manu- facture and sale of liquor have been passed in the South over the strenuous opposition of thousands. This work can be largely nullified by the mob spirit, 48 WISDOM’s CALL. the spirit of ignoring the recorded statute as the master, the regulator of the citizen's conduct. As Americans we are optimistic; Looking we believe in the future. Yet we do Ahead. not know what she has in store for us. The rich may grow richer, and the poor, poorer. Financial depression, such as we have never before known, may come. The pang of hunger may be felt in the land. Normal processes may be slow in setting matters aright. The distress cry of wife and babe may ring in the ears of the man al- ready mad from gnawing hunger. We have no great standing army. In that dark hour, if the mob spirit is still in the air, woe be unto this nation. How easy it will be for a maddened shout to rally a host, if the spirit of lawlessness be present. As the hunger-crazed hordes sweep through the streets, with no reverence for law in their hearts, no gleaming bayonets to inspire them with dread, well may those who have plenty in that day turn pale with fear. If there is riot and pillage and a total obliteration of all regard for what the law has to say, there need be no surprise, for the seeds of such behavior were sown when the mob was permitted to trample the law under foot and wreakits vengeance On the Negro. England but recently entered upon such times of want and hunger as we have here pictured, and the deep ingrained reverence for law for which she has long been noted stood her in good stead. WISDOM’s CALL. 49 In view of the fact that what- Treatment ever trend of thought, whatever of the warping of the spirit, whatever bent Negro of character are developed in deal- the Pivot. ing with the Negro, are to become integral parts of the life of the South, well may it be held that after all the crucial, the testing point in Southern civilization, the pivot around which all else will turn will be its treatment of this weak element of its population. The lesson of the Bible account of the fall of man is not without force in this connection. The weal or woe of the whole human family is made to hinge upon the matter of eating or not eating an apple. This concept is true to life. A small soulless stone can derail a long line of passenger cars and send without warning hundreds of human beings, including the president of the road, into the presence of the Great Unknown. And so can the Negro, even in an inert state, be come a determining factor in the life of the South. Will the future find the South with a well Or- dered civilization, affording soil and atmos- phere for its highest self to unfold and expand? Has the South the ability, the strength in its soul to suppress the lynching of Negroes? The answer to the first question is summed up in, and dependent upon, the answer to the second. Ere it is too late, ere the habit of lawlessness becomes an ingrained racial trait to be handed down from sire to son, ere we behold the ugly fangs of the mob, grown sharp from gnawing the Negro, buried in the vitals of our civilization, having reached this goal in ways un- 50 WISDOM'S CALL. dreamed of, ere, we say, it is too late, let the South rallying to the cry of pulpit and press, bench and bar, jurymen and sheriff, grapple resolutely with the mob even when its victim is a Negro. The com- plete dethronement of the mob is a crying need of the South. Permit us to relate just here a dream A Dream. that came to us in our waking hours. It was the last day of the argument of the cases of those accused of killing ex-Senator Carmack, of Tennessee, and the Attorney General had just spoken the closing word for the prose- cution. All eyes in the crowded court-room now sought the face of the Judge, who, through his charge to the jury, was to take the next important step in the great trial. Suddenly there was seen standing midway between the lawyers for the prosecution and defense a young man who at once began to address the Judge in a firm, clear, resonant voice, vibrant with deep emotion. All eyes now turned toward this young man. “Who is he? When did he enter? I did not see him until he was standing where he is now. Where is his chair? He must have been sitting, else I would have seen him. What does he want?” Such was the line of questioning and comment that ran through every mind in the court-room. “May it please your honor, I have a word which I would like to offer before this case finally passes from before the people of this state,” said the young man. WISDOM'S CALL. 51 The Judge bent forward and looked intently at the stranger, feeling that it was no ordinary personage before him, and yet unable to account for the strange procedure. “Which side of this case do you represent?” asked the Judge. “May it please your honor, I wish it to be clearly understood that I am not to touch one way or another the merits of the case before you.” - “Well,” said the Judge, haltingly, “your remarks would hardly be pertinent at this stage of the pro- ceedings, I fear.” “You, honored Judge, represent the state of Ten- nessee, a post of great honor and importance, but as between your judgment and mine you will have to surrender to me, for my post is more exalted than yours, and represents a superior jurisdiction. “I am the attorney of the Cosmic forces, the forces that preside over the destinies of stars, of worlds, of men and things, the forces that determine the paths of storms, the outbursts of volcanoes, the rise and fall of nations, the forces that can crumple your proud state with as much ease as you can an empty egg shell.” The Judge and the whole audience were so thrilled with the young man's eloquence that they were most eager for him to proceed. Turning to the audience, the young man continued: “He, into the manner of whose death you are assem- bled here to inquire, was called by you a great man, and, independent of the manner in which he met his death, you regard his going as a great loss. 52 WISDOM’s CALL. “Without expressing my approval or disapproval of the manner in which his life was taken, leaving that matter wholly and absolutely with the jury, I have come simply to say that some one of his rank and station simply had to suffer violence, or else the whole system of jurisprudence of the Cosmic forces would have been upset, as I will presently make plain. “There are two lines of procedure along which the Cosmic forces deal with the affairs of men. We allow those who constitute the governing forces of the earth to choose their own procedure, but after the choice is made we take charge of affairs and see to it that whatever happens to the lowly shall happen to the high. “He who thinks that the great creative force which fashioned the universe, which, with infinite pains, put under the reign of law all matter ranging from the humble atom to the largest of the distant stars—he who thinks that this force upon reaching human society grew careless and failed to arrange laws by which society is to live, and through the violation of which it must suffer or die, is vastly mistaken. For, whether men find it out early or late, there is a law of human conduct as exacting as any law in the realm of matter, and every deed that is wrong whether committed by a man singly, or by a group of men acting in concert, or by organized society, carries along with it a penalty that follows with as much certainty as a man's shadow follows the man. Wrong and retribution are twin sisters, and wher- ever you see the former, know that somewhere near stands the latter. WISDOM'S CALL. 53 “The Bible, which we have given you as your earthly guide states the matter thus: “Be not de- cieved; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “Our eyes have been upon your Athens of the South for lo these many years. We saw and mur- mured not, when over yon bridge in lawless fashion you flung the form of a Negro and took from him his life. “We saw, and murmured not, when officers of the law in your city chased a Negro youth into yon river, where in easy reach of men and boats you allowed him to drown as you would a common rat. We saw this, and as is our custom, said nothing. “We recall the fact that one day a Negro, who had been fined five dollars for vagrancy, was trying to improve what he regarded as a good chance to get away, when one of your guards shot and killed him for which offense your guard was never tried. “On numerous other occasions your officers have killed Negroes who were accused of no crime what- ever, and said officers have not even been required to swear that they were telling the truth when they said they thought their victims were reaching for pistols. “All of this we saw and murmured not, because it is our habit to allow men and nations to sow exactly as they please. But we take charge of the seed sown, and with all the exactness of omnipotence, we render back in our own way, what is sown. “Thus, it was only a matter of time when the reaping of the great among you was to begin. And 54 WISDOM'S CALL. the end is not yet. Remember the banks of Reel- foot where your Rankin so bravely met his end. “Oh, bonnie Southland, home of birds and ever- blooming flowers, where the winds blow softly and the sun in peculiar beauty rolls to rest in the evening sky, surrender yourself if you will to the pastime of lynching a helpless, perhaps a depraved and besotted Negro, but know that through this one unprotected spot in your armor will come that insidious poison, disregard for the orderly processes of the law, which will ultimately send your noble Rankins and your brilliant Carmacks to untimely graves.” As suddenly as he had appeared the attorney of the Cosmic forces vanished from the court-room and the great case was resumed. But the lesson that he taught upon the occasion of his brief visit is with us yet. JJ CHAPTER III. THE NATIONAL Power As AN Asseſ. Some few years ago a Southern white Individual man was called into the service of the Effort. national government to render aid to the cause of his country in a matter, international in its scope and of the most far-reach- ing importance. As he argued his nation's cause before one of the most eminent tribunals the earth has ever known, his ready flashes of wit, his erudition and cogent reasoning made a most favorable impres- sion upon the world's highest circles of thought. Upon his return to his Southern home with his in- ternational honors fresh upon him, he was duly banqueted by his fellow citizens who were keenly alive to the novelty of having one of their number attain unto international fame. In the course of his speech at this banquet he remarked that Southern men had all along been accomplishing all that might be reasonably expected of individuals, but conditions had been such that they could not harness the national power to their gifts, which at- tainment would have immeasurably increased their opportunities for usefulness. (57) 58 WISDOM'S CALL. What a carnal weapon is to a man en- Roosevelt gaged in physical combat, high official Had a station is to the man who would Lever. bring great things to pass. As matters now stand no citizen of the state of Georgia is handed the national power with which to demonstrate his use- fulness to the world. Hence, had President Roose- velt, whose mother was a Georgian, been born and reared in that state he would, perhaps, have gone through life without the presidency of the United States as an instrument with which to demonstrate his great powers. Strong in himself, the exhibition of that strength so powerfully wielding the strength of the ninety millions of souls comprising the nation, will give him a place in history that would have been denied him had he lived and died the mere individual unpossessed of the national power. One of old asserted that he could move the world if but given a place where he might stand. Theodore Roose- velt was given as a lever the place of primacy in the world's greatest nation. The prestige of the presi- dency gave him the limelight of the world in which to stand. Standing in this limelight, using his offi- cial position as a lever, he moved the world; moved it to applause when he brought the Russo-Japanese war to a close; moved it when through diplomacy he performed that modern miracle of converting the potential Americo-Japanese war-cloud that hung brooding in our western sky into a beautiful white dove of peace. Without the national power, Mr. Roosevelt’s work would have been that of an in- WISDOM'S CALL. 59 dividual of large capacity; with it, what he has achieved will stand out as the work of a mighty nation, speaking, thundering, toiling through him. It would indeed make for the uplift, An Inspir- the inspiration, the glory of the South ing Force. could its sons and daughters be given the boon of dreaming hopefully that it is within the realm of possibilities for them some day to have the national power as an asset in revealing to the world and leaving on record for coming generations, the full fruitage of their souls. Desirous of knowing how many of the boys of her class were cherishing the hope of some day being President of the United States, a teacher took a vote on the question. All the boys save one testified by lifted hands that such a hope inspired them. The lad who had not so voted was asked why he did not cherish the ambition. The little fellow replied: “It ain’t no use; I’m a Democrat.” In his heart the Southern lad of to-day is saying: “It ain’t no use; I’m a Southerner.” It would be atonic, a stimulus indeed to have the hope of national and international fame revived in the South. It would serve to summon into the public service the master minds, the geniuses that wait only for suitable conditions to call them into full bloom. Washington, Jefferson, Marshall, Jackson and Calhoun are all products of the South, but they are of the past. The present day South has need of the quickening touch of men of to-day who are given the national power with which to do great things upon the earth. In this question is bound up the larger glory of the 60 WISDOM'S CALL. South. It can but dwarf the spirits of its citizens to feel ever that they are in a sort of outlying prov- ince, doomed to serve in a nation whose larger glories and rewards are denied to them. In turning its thoughts to the matter What is in of bringing its period of isolation, the Way. its condition of political exile to a close it is well for the South to meet squarely the question as to how far its attitude toward the Negro contributes to this state of affairs, and what, if any, modifications of that attitude can be safely and honorably made. Surely the prize is sufficiently great to warrant a patient consideration of the ob- stacles in the way. There are several factors which operate to withhold from the Southerner the national power as an asset. The one-party system of the South, the absence of real, genuine testing political battles, the comparative ease with which men of mediocre talents get and stay in the lead, cause the front ranks of Southern statesmanship (barring an accidental giant here and there) to be composed of men lacking in those qualities that can compel the admiration of the nation. The Negro is a factor in the situation. There are certain states in which the white population has been in the past almost evenly divided politically, and the South has had about an even chance to have those states vote with it. Dissatisfied with some conditions in the South the Negroes have gone in large numbers into some of these pivotal states and have lifted them clearly out of the doubtful column. Reference is here made to such states as Indiana, West Virginia and New WISDOM’s CALL. 61 Jersey. Even states that were at one time certain to cast their votes with the South have been rendered debatable by the influx of Negro voters from further South. Missouri, Maryland and Kentucky are in this latter class. The influences causing many colored people to leave the South are the fear of mob violence, lack of faith in the courts as the dispensers of even-handed justice, inadequate school facilities, laws aimed at disfranchisement unequally applied and the discomforts encountered in travel upon public conveyances. It would be a profitable investment for the South to study this exodus and remove every just cause of complaint. This would aid in keeping the Negroes in the South, and would cause such as did leave to carry with them a ground-work of sympathy for Southern aspirations. The attitude of the South toward Unprepared the Negro is a factor in still another for World way. Our nation has become a world Duties. power, and must deal with men of every shade of complexion. There are the black Haytian, Liberian and Abyssinian; the brown Filipino and Japanese, and the yellow China- Iman. The Southerner who does not hesitate to proclaim his contempt for all complexions save the white, is deemed by therest of the nation as spiritu- ally unprepared to have charge of its foreign affairs as would be the case with a President. In sending men to the Philippines, to Cuba, to Panama, to handle delicate situations, it is regarded as a prime requisite for the envoy to be able in dealing with 62 WISDOM’s CALL. questions of state to forget the complexions of the men with whom he has to deal. Let us take the case of Congressman Hobson of Alabama. His contempt for the black man has spread until it now likewise embraces the brown man of Japan. Should our nation be inclined to go South in quest of a young man to whom to lend the national arm with which to display his soul, and its choice should fall upon the famous young Alabamian, we have no guarantee that he would not, when made President, bawl to the Haytian minister to go to the back door; no guarantee that he would not kick the Chinese minister down the steps and box the ears of the ambassador from Japan. The rest of the nation, which, with What is the help of the Negro, now shuts the Asked. South out of the national accord, which denies the national power as an asset for the Southern white man, asks, not that the South turn itself over to the control of anignorantelectorate, not that it lose its racial connection through amalga- mation, but simply that, in matters pertaining to citizenship rights it deal with every man according to his individual merit and not according tothe color of his skin. The potential glory of the South, imprisoned in the halls of the future, restlessly walking to and fro, anxious to be emancipated that it may fill the earth in behalf of the section it craves to serve, awaits with deep concern the final verdict of the South upon the proposition to have one law and one governmental practice for all men regardless of race or color or previous condition of servitude. 17:NZS 7:N7:N7:SN7:SN7:SN7:SN7:SN7:SN (@@@@@@@@@@) IV. A BETTER SYSTEM FOR MAKING MEN. CHAPTER IV. A BETTER SYSTEM FOR MAKING MEN. The scientists tell us that through- Survival out the realm of nature there has been of the one long, continuous struggle for ex- Fittest. istence, that in this struggle the weak have gone to the wall, leaving the earth to those that proved to be the fittest to meet the conditions that arose in the struggling. The species which now exist were made strong by means of this crucial struggle for existence through which they have passed. The necessity for traveling upon the water gave to the duckits webbed feet; burrowing beneath the surface of the soil gave unto the mole its nose of peculiar strength. The greatness of the United States is due in large measure to the fact that here, class distinctions have been abolished and the republic has been operated as a mammoth field whereon each individual has been made to battle against all comers, if he would enjoy the distinction of occupying first place. “Not by inheritance, nor yet by favor, but by prevailing over the best of his fellows shall a man wear the victor's crown,” is the decree of America to her sons. - (65) 66 WISDOM'S CALL. The game of football typifies the genius of the American nation. The team that would have itself proclaimed the champion of the football world must be the one that has arisen through a series of vic- tories to the point where it gives successful battle to the team which has come up to meet it from the other side of the mount of struggle. Striving, battling in desperate contests with forces wholly unfettered and sent upon him to test his mettle to the uttermost, is the native air of the young col- legian, as it is of his father also, toiling in the sterner realities of life. The value of such an atmosphere of Well of struggle is at once apparent. There is Reserve in man a reserve force that is only Energy. called forth by the strangely quicken- - ing power of a crisis. A psychologist has advanced the theory that every man carries within himself a well of reserve energy which he can only tap in times of dire extremity. All men who have been called upon to struggle supremely, who have encountered crises of overwhelming force can testify that there is strength to which the soul falls heir only in the time of peril. In the Supreme moment of struggle, every atom of power is mustered into service, and verily it seems that a new being is on the scene in every way outclassing the old. Preparation for battle demands the careful strengthening of weakpoints, the careful development of one's powers, the thorough discipline of one's self, the close study of an opponent, the eager search for possible weaknesses, eternal vigilance against sur- 68 WISDOM’s CAL1. In a wholly incidental way, yet with Striking startling clearness, the progressive Evidence. movement going on within the ranks of the Republican party has empha- sized the truth of what these eminent Southerners have said. While the men from the South con- stitute the bulk of the opposition party whose function it is to lay bare the weak points in the policy of the party in control, yet it has been left to men within the Republican party to make the great, illuminating, convincing speeches that have caused the nation to open its eyes and think. Why did not Southern men gather up these arguments and hurl them with dynamic force into the ranks of the American people, compelling attention? The facts, the arguments were all there awaiting the master hand to gather them up. But this task was left to La Follette, Cummins, Dolliver, Beveridge, all mem- bers of the party in power, whereas such service was due from the opposition party, recruited mainly from the South. Not only is the statesmanship at Decline Washington being dwarfed, but the General. same tendency toward enfeeblement is seen in the brand of statesmanship that is being called into service at home. In com- menting upon a Tennessee legislative body some- what recently in session, The Nashville American in the course of a carefully argued editorial, had the following to say: “The weekly press is almost unanimous in its condemnation of the late legislature. * * * As WISDOM'S CALL. 69 we have said before, the general littleness of the body, its petty conduct in many instances, its trades and combinations, the autocratic methods of self-seeking members, the quarrels, the cheap declamations and intemperate and undignified and unwarrantable pub- lic denunciations by members who should have shown a better sense of dignity and decency, the dishonesty in juggling with bills, the unreliability of promises— the general record and conduct of the body marked it as unworthy of the state or the approval of the people. What man of established reputation would care to be known as a member of the legislature just adjourned?” * When the Hon. Wm. H. Taft was a The Old younger man he was called to the South Order vs. by his official duties, and while so- the New. journing there he came into intimate contact with many of the South’s giant minds which were bred in the great days pre- ceding our Civil War and were the further quickened by those stirring times which tried men's souls. In later years Mr. Taft as a cabinet official was again brought in touch with the leadership of the South, and he could not but note the marked shrinkage in the brand of mentality that the South was putting forward. As from time to time Mr. Taft sat and conversed with some of the newer lights which the South had sent to Washington, his mind ran back to the days of her giants. Being a man of broad sympathies whose regard had been won by the many splendid social and mental qualities which he found the Southerners to possess, it gave him personal 70 WISDOM'S CALL. sorrow to note the falling off in the mental equip- ment of the statesmanship being produced in the South. It was Mr. Taft's opinion that it was the change from the two-party system of the past to the one-party system of to-day that had dwarfed the political genius of the South and was substituting men of mediocre talents for the great minds of former days. Feeling thus with regard to the South and fearing that a solid South would be answered by a solid North until one of the political parties of the North might die and leave that section also in the hands of this same dwarfing one-party' system, Mr. Taft decided that he would so conduct his presidential office as to secure, if possible, two strong political parties North and South, vieing with each other for the control of affairs. He realized that in days of strenuous conflict there would be a premium on strong men, that both sides would seek for such, and that the result would be the pushing to the front of all that was great from all sections of the nation. “But what about our white pri- Nature's maries? Do they not furnish ample Habits. room for our men to engage in the contests that breed great statesmen?” Such are the questions which the white South will naturally ask, and we shall now proceed to demon- strate beyond the shadow of a doubt that the white primary system does not meet the demands of the Anglo-Saxon political genius. In view of the im- portance of this matter let us view it fundamentally. The tendency of nature everywhere is toward a WISDOM'S CALL. 71 varied expression of the heart of things. Out yonder in the open field where the hand of man has done no planting we find the flower and the fern; among the fowls of the air we have the beautiful bird of song and the solemn, hooting owl; in the matter of the seasons, there is the summer's heat, and there is the winter's cold; in the realm of the emotions we have joy and sorrow; in literature, the realist and romantic; in philosophy, the epicurean and the stoic; in the constitution of the human family, the male and the female. The minds of men are not all cast in the same mould and they do not, therefore, approach subjects in the same way. Even when they have the same ends to attain they must approach them in different ways. Charles Lamb says that he can accept as true, the story to the effect that two men, who had never seen or heard of each other before, who had no grievances, real or fancied, against each other, met and proceeded instantly to pummel one another, each having perceived at the very first glance that the other was his born antagonist. In order that the human family may The Two be sure to move forward, nature grants Types. unto it men of a progressive turn of mind, men eager to press forward. It is this type that we behold instituting reforms and inaugurating revolutions. But the human family can attempt to go forward at such a pace that it will lose much of permanent worth that it has acquired. Hence the need of conservatives. Conditions are by no means what they should be 72 WISDOM'S CALL. unless there is opportunity for the full, unhampered development of the opposing orders of intellect. Our country stood sadly in need of those two great opposing statesmen, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. But for Jefferson, we might have had a centralized form of government which would have prevented the diversity in state govern- ments and the free play of forces, essential factors in the glory of our country. On the other hand but for Hamilton we might have had an aggregation of states void of that degree of national power so needful for us in our efforts to play our rightful part in the affairs of the world. America is proud of her Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great romantic novelist, but she is also proud of Mr. William Dean Howells, her great realist. These men belonging to two schools of thought radically, fundamentally, ir- reconcilably different are both great ornaments to our literary life. One of the most dangerous features White about the “white primary” is its Primary misleading name. It is not “white,” Not White. is not a normal product of the white ra,Ce. The white race stands for healthy division, not unwholesome congestion; for freedom of thought and expression; for an absolutely untrammeled field in which political plants may grow according as their respective natures require. By calling the primaries “white” the people of the South may be led to feel that they are having a white man's government. As we look out upon the world to-day, it must be conceded that a cramped WISDOM'S CALL. 73 One-party political life is not the white man's method. The Germans, the French, the Russians, the English the Spanish—all great white nations, have more than the one political party. The South, politically speaking, is the one great group of white people that is politically one-eyed. The narrowing of the South down One Form to the one political party stifles that Not Suf- diversity of development in which ficient. nature so evidently glories and by means of which she accomplishes her tasks. It is not enough to throw open the doors of the “white primaries” and bid all white men enter. The mischief of the situation is in the fact that there is but the one political form provided for the situa- tion, whereas one political form is no more adequate for the expression of Anglo-Saxon political genius than the fern is capable of showing all that nature can do in the way of flower making. Nature, who carefully and with wonderful exactitude arranges the human family into sexes, seeing to it that there is everywhere about an equal proportion of men and women born, also so shapes the minds of men that they will under normal conditions fall into different schools of thought in such proportion as is necessary for healthy development. The suggestion may be offered that . Side the defect here pointed out, the failure ann- - -- - - pered. to provide for all orders of minds is practically cured by drawing no rigid line between the whites by allowing well nigh all the 74 WISDOM’s CALL. whites who so desire to participate in the “white primaries.” But this does not provide for the free and untrammeled—mark the emphasis, play of forces. The primary will be held under the auspices of the dominant party and will be called that party's primary. The great minds, assigned by the fiat of nature to lead the opposition, robbed of the power to develop a formidable following, must, upon en- tering the primary of the party to which they are opposed, remain very quiet, and content themselves with the simple function of casting their own ballots. For if they become too active they will be seized and cast out as strangers at the feast who have not on the wedding garments. It is readily seen, then, that when all is over the political field has not been threshed to the extent of its possibilities, as one side of the political genius of the race entered the pri- mary lame, halt and blind and was required to speak in muffled tones. If Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, the two men whose opposing and yet blended thoughts gave us this nation that has Hamiltonian stability along with Jeffersonian free- dom, had both lived in the South under present day conditions, and Jefferson's party had been the one overshadowing party, Hamilton would have been practically a nonentity, creeping into Jefferson's white primary with his one vote; and the common- wealth would not have gotten the great uplift re- sulting from the sifting of things to their very founda- tions by two great minds looking at things in ways that differ fundamentally. Hamilton's activity would have been the one thing needed to stir Jefferson to do his best, not Hamilton's one quiet vote. But Ham- \ ISDOM’s CALL. 75 ilton could not have been active with any reasonable hope of success. His very activity would have been used against him. He would have been accused of coming into Jefferson's household as a stranger to seek to control the household as against the head of the house. Hence we can see that in the matter of furnishing an opportunity for the exercise of all sides of the political mind of the white race the “white primary” of the one dominant party is fatallyandinherently defective. However strenuously the South may strive to have both schools of thought to thrive in the one camp it can have no more success than the keeper of a zoological garden who tries to make a fish feel at home in a well built bird’s nest. It has often been observed that the Discord Democratic party as constituted to- Accounted day lacks cohesiveness, has not the For. faculty of attaining unto a sufficient oneness of thought to make it effective as a governing agency. Evidently the reason for this is that the South has but the one political home for the white man and men who are ordained of nature to oppose each other, radically, fundamentally, are forced to try to live together in this one home. What but an uneven journey can be expected when the mule, good in his place is hitched to a racing cart with the fleetest of race horses? Hitched to- gether thus, neither the mule nor the horse can show his real worth. 3 76 WISDOM’s CALL. We have cited elsewhere the fact Mistakes that individuals have in themselves Ratified Not wells of reserve energy that are not Corrected. called upon except when grave crises come. The same may be said of so- ciety. It too has a well of reserve energy upon which it draws only in trying times. There is always a considerable portion of the public that takes but little part in the preliminary skirmishes pertaining to civic affairs, knowing of no evil designs and pre- suming that all will go well without activity on its part. This group constitutes society's well of re- serve energy. It sometimes happens that the few who do take part in the preliminary affairs are cor- rupted, or are misled, or exercise decidedly bad judgment. Where there are two parties, the re- serve of the opposition party, seeing how the good people in the other party were caught napping, be- stirs itself and sees to it that its party does not make a similar mistake. When the general election comes off, all the reserve forces go to the polls to defeat and teach the erring ones to be more careful in the future. But where only one party exists this reserve force merely shrugs its shoulders and proceeds to ratify the mistake at the polls. Thus it is that the South must jog along without the benefit of its reserve energy, against which mediocres and weaklings can hardly stand. Before the eyes of the world to-day M e - - • P en or there stands a living illustration of the rinci- - ples? harm wrought by the one-party white primary system, a widespread evil affecting gravely the South and the whole nation. f 78 - WISDOM’s CALL. The Nashville Banner, edited by one Mr. Bryan of the most astute of Southern editors, and the said in the course of an editorial that South. the hold of Hon. William Jennings Bryan upon the South was as much a fit subject for study for the psychologist as for the political observer. When we look into the matter of the allegiance of the white South to Mr. Bryan we do find much that is peculiar. Advocating prin- ciples wholly at variance with the practices of the dominant element of the South, silent for years upon the matter of the white South's attitude toward the Negro voter—the South's one great question—that section has nevertheless insisted upon Mr. Bryan's nomination for the presidency, has steadily cast her votes for him, and has just as steadily elected men to the Senate and House of Representatives who have with equal steadiness voted against some of Mr. Bryan's favorite policies. Such devotion to the personal fortunes of a man is perhaps without a parallel in the history of the politics of the English speaking race in modern times. When the soci- ologists of the future take up our era and study this phenomenon let them not fail to bear in mind that the absence of a normal political life in the South caused nearly all contests to be battles between personalities, caused the Southern mind to be thrown to the personal basis, which basis allows men's personalities to assume large propor- tions in their minds, to the exclusion of the considera- tion of separating principles. There are many thoughtful minds that contend that it is this personal WISDOM’s CALL. 79 devotion to Mr. Bryan—not to his principles, but to him, that is the chief factor in the way of building up a strong opposition party in the nation. The person- al politics of the South have about South American- ized it, save of course as to the armed revolutions of such frequent occurrence. Pause to think what this means! Endangers The vast interests of the South and of Political the nation are subjected to the decrees Efficiency. of a voting element that in the very nature of things, is being trained by its system of politics to move along the line of personal attachments. The tendency fully acquired, pushes forward and makes itself manifest when vast and vital interests are involved. Of course it is hardly to be feared that the tendency to follow men rather than principles will at any time lead to a clash of arms in our country as in South America, but the habit of mind engendered by voting according to personal attachments will however very materially impair the political efficiency of any group that indulges it. We shall now cite a case that will clearly illustrate the vast importance of the point here made. Wm. H. Seward was the personal choice of the majority of the delegates to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. Lincoln often remarked jocularly, yet truthfully, that he had the honor of being nominated by a convention that wanted “the other fellow.” When the dele- gates became convinced that Seward, the man around whom their affections were entwined would in all likelihood meet defeat at the polls on account of the WISDOM’s CALL. 81 welfare, but in the main the speeches are all devoted to the other fellow’s failings or alleged failings. What has this to do with municipal government? Who cares a continental what one candidate thinks about another, or what one candidate says about another? What have opinions of individuals to do with the expenditure of the million and seven hundred thousand dollars poured into the treasury every year by the taxpayers? The American does not seek to decry candidates for municipal offices. It does not seek to hold them up before the public as a lot of incapables. But in not one single speech delivered so far in the campaign has there been a semblance of suggestion that would help Nashville or encourage the hope of wise and economical government. On the contrary the campaign so far has been one of criticism of one or the other candidates by the opposing candidate. One man works himself into a frenzy over law enforcement. His opponent, seizing the cue, en- deavors to go him one better along the same line. Another candidate says his opponent, an office- holder, voted to give 'Steenth ward a sewer and voted against giving another ward needed improvements. The campaign is all personal. It is self-glori- fication on the one hand, and criticism on the other. The real needs of the city are never touched. What will or will not be of advantage to the com- munity which pays the salaries these candidates are all striving to reach is not of moment. And strange and unaccountable as it may seem, the crowds which stand around the speaking booths 82 WISDOM’s CALL. applaud personal attacks of the one candidate upon the other and at the same time hardly ever realize, after it is all over, that none of the speakers advanced a suggestion, idea orthought that made for betterment of the city government. And The American is not interested in the success of a single candidate in this primary, but it does have a very great interestin Nashville. It would like very much to see men in the field, who could point out our shortcomings as a city and suggest wise and practicable remedies, men who know the city's needs and its resources, and who can show how to cut the cloth to suit the public pocket. There is no public advantage to accrue from crimination and re- crimination. Nothing tangible comes from this sort of campaigning. What the people should be told is whether A or B or C can give them proper government at the lowest possible expenditure. They want to know how their taxes can be reduced; how they are to get more streets and sewers and lights; how the police and fire service is to be im- proved. These are the things they are interested in, or should be interested in, not what Tom thinks of Harry or vice versa.” Nashville, Tennessee is the great The educational center of the South, is System. thought by many to be the most cultured city below the Mason and Dixon line, and yet we have the above lament from its chief organ of opinion with regard to the childish plane upon which the political life of the city is projected. The fault is not with the candidates, WISDOM’s CALL. 83 nor yet with the people, whom the paper chides for their tolerance of the style of campaigning indulged in, but with the system under which the South is seeking to move forward, which drags political life to the basis of personalities as surely as the law of gravitation drew that apple to the head of Sir Isaac Newton. This is the philosophy of the Southern situation and can be no more set aside than can be this same law of gravitation. When politics descends to the simple Strong level of a scramble for office on the Minds basis of personal friendship, men of Disgusted. large minds then steer clear thereof. Big ships avoid shallow streams and great souls cannot be expected to take part in these personal scrambles. Thus we have another weakening influence of the situation, the driving of the larger minds away from civic affairs. An editorial pertinent to the point here raised was published recently in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. It was headed “Just Suppose” and ran as follows: “Over a thousand men went into and out of the Business Men's Club yesterday and took part in the election. The candidates themselves were active all day, and their friends were active, and interest was at white heat from daylight until sundown. The leading citizens of Memphis took part in this election. Perhaps one-half of the taxable wealth of this city was represented by the voters. Suppose the people of Memphis took as much in- terest in the election of candidates for political WISDOM’s CALL. 85 There was an element of the pathetic Seeking to in the journeying of that Memphis, Import Tenn., delegation to Washington, D.C., Greatness. to invite, to urge, to persuade the Hon. Wm. Jennings Bryan to abandon his Nebraska home and come to Memphis. The white South boasts of the purity of its Anglo-Saxon blood, claims that it is the most truly Anglo-Saxon section of the American people. Why, then, with all of this richness of blood can it not manufacture great men rather than import them? Mr. Bryan refused to come to Memphis to reside. That city could offer to him political preferment, unswerving loyalty, social attentions galore, and an Opportunity to earn millions of dollars, but under existing conditions it could not give the atmosphere that breeds greatness in men. Blessed is that man who is so situated that his environments call into service all that is great within him, and accursed is that man, what- ever his food, raiment, or lineage whose environ- ments issue no such call for the powers of his soul. Out in the great West where Mr. Bryan resides, men cannot hide behind party names, cannot be sure that the halo of some fond tradition will secure the ratification at the polls of all blunders however grave. Out there men must appeal to the judgment and consciences of their fellows, must be able to meet in fair and open fight men of opposing schools of thought, who have an equal chance to do battle for their convictions. It was upon this Darwinian field of political battle that Mr. Bryan grew to greatness. It was there that he was forced to draw upon every 86 WISDOM'S CALL. drop of his well of reserve energy, knowing full well that not an inch of standing room would be accorded him except such as he conquered and held by the strength of his own soul. And, thus, when he was asked to leave and come to a land where the one- party practice was slowly but surely murdering the political genius of the Anglo-Saxon race, he answered, No. We hear much of the havoc being Medioc- wrought in the South by the bollweevil, rity’s Path how it bores into the boll and saps the to the life out of the plant, but it is far less Throne. dangerous to the South and to the na- tion than the insect of personal politics that creeps into the minds of men and eats away that consideration of great questions that has hither- to wrought mightily in the upbuilding of Anglo- Saxon institutions. In a very direct manner the welfare of the entire nation is bound up in this mat- ter of producing statesmen in the South. Let us suppose that the processes which we have outlined become general throughout the South and the small minds worm themselves to the front and secure seats in the House of Representatives. Though they fall far short of representing the South at its best, by the same methods used to get to the front they can manage to stay there. The Congressmen from other sections are tried first in their own pri- maries, and later in a general election, and a sifting, and eliminating process is constantly going on, but these men from the South escape the second fiery test at least and have the greater chance to remain. By the mere lapse of time they are car- WISDOM’s CALL. 87 ried forward to seniority on the great committees which really shape legislation. Finally in the course of time, the rest of the nation unwilling to continue one party in power for too long a period summons the opposition party to take over the reins of govern- ment. The men from the Söuth who have come to the front and remained there after the manner des- cribed, by virtue of their long stay are made chair- men of the important committees and thus assume charge of the affairs of the nation. Some, who have become known to the people of their respective states through their long sojourn in the House of Representatives, are sent to the United States Senate and there have still greater influence in the matter of regulating the affairs of the nation. So, here we have the products of the one-eyed political system of the South, men who have never been subjected to the severe tests of which society is capable, placed in charge of the affairs of the richest nation on the earth. Truly, truly has the nation a vast interest in the methods that obtain in the matter of choosing her rulers. For, so surely as the rivers run to the sea, the mediocres that are allowed to flourish and crowd into the background the able minds of the South will one day come to power in the nation and work whatever harm is to be expected of weakness exalted to the place rightly due to the man of strength. - But let us take even a closer view Great of the injury wrought and the dan- Tasks gers to be apprehended because Needed. of the present political conditions in the South. The political isolation 88 WISDOM'S CALL. of the South, its constant ignoring at the ballot box of those issues that are dividing the people of the rest of the country, has left national affairs to the care of other sections. This means that so far as its larger political life is concerned, the South has abdicated its seat on the throne of the government and has become like unto a governed province. It is no light thing for a great people to be shorn of the privilege of dealing with the larger affairs of its existence. Likening the Anglo-Saxon mind unto a tree whose fruit is a sadly needed food for mankind, let the South deny it sufficient soil in which to sink its roots; deny it skies in which to shoot its branches, and unfold its buds; deny it sunlight and rain upon which it may feed, and it will shrivel, become barren, become the hiss and by-word of the hungry sons of men who come looking for fruit there- on, but find none. Behold the fate of the Jews! They Why the lost their independence, had no great Jews Erred. affairs of state with which to deal, and therefore gave themselves up to sharp disputations on small matters. They developed such a passion for things of small moment that the coming of Christ, the great seer, found them utterly unprepared to receive Him. If they had had the larger affairs of their national life with which to deal, a means for the expansion of the mind and the racial soul; if they had not had their vision narrowed by the poring over the minutiae of the ceremonial law and the inconsequential traditions of the elders, it might have been that they would have escaped the odium WISDOM'S CALL. 89 attached to the slaying of the Christ, an odium that has clung to them throughout the ages as a veritable body of death. If a system is maintained in the Georgia South which hems in and slays the Pays strong minds, and pushes the small Penalty. ones to the front, the people, led by Small, warped minds will ultimately grow narrow of Soul, blind to the demands of the higher life; and in some mad moment they may do that which will stain their name throughout eternity. Look at imperial Georgia! Not being a factor in national affairs, she failed to furnish a field broad enough for the mind of one of her sons. Lacking great national issues that would interest a people inclined to vote the one way regardless of the issues involved, this son of Georgia decided to put saddle and bridle upon the primitive passion of racial hate and on this ride to glory. His campaign against the Negro served to generate the atmospheric condition that caused the storm clouds of racial feeling to burst upon the proud city of Atlanta and wash away the city's good name which thousands of true men and women had been years in building. Another baneful effect of the one- In The party system is the fact that under its Hands of operation only a small proportion of The Few. the citizens, even among the whites takes part in governmental affairs. A glance at the returns from the regular elections or from the “white primaries” where matters are really 90 WISDOM'S CALL. settled reveals this fact. But if the few who do take part in elections furnish good government the question might be asked as to what harm, after all, comes of the non-participation of those who have evidently surrendered a vital interest in civic affairs. Much harm in every way as will presently appear! Nature has not placed in the hands of man a chart of the earth, nor of the souls of his fellowmen that discloses just where she has deposited her richest treasures or bestowed her choicest mental and spiritual gifts to men. Thus it is that man has been left to stumble upon silver, gold, diamonds, radium, brilliance of intellect, greatness of soul in most unexpected quarters. In California, at whose borders the voracious, land-swallowing Pacific just happened to halt we find rich deposits of gold, while carelessly rolled in the mud of far away South Africa we get our most beautiful diamonds. Out of little Greece came the world-filling mind of Aristotle; out of little Corsica came the mighty Napoleon; out of the solitude of Kentucky woodlands, came the human giant Abraham Lincoln; out of the manger in humble Bethlehem came the immortal Christ of God. In view of the fact that we know not where nature has planted the divine fire of genius, they indeed sin against humanity who institute systems that lull great sections.of the human family to sleep. In trying to escape evils of one char- Sleeping acter, lo, they who have brought to Hosts. pass the condition of affairs that has put the millions of the South to sleep and left matters in the hands of the few, have WISDOM’s CALL. - 91 rushed into the crushing embrace of another great evil. Think of the millions of whites of the South who never go to the polls; look upon this vast, sleeping army and consider how much of genius, what trans- cendent powers that will not be called into service nature has without doubt deposited in the camps of these sleepers. Grave problems are bearing down upon the modern world to vexits heart sorely. Who knows but that in this great sleeping army of the Southern whites there may be nature's grant of power to some soul or souls which, properly harnessed could move the modern world to its goal. The cry of the age for great souls would undoubtedly find somewhat of an answer from the ranks of these sleeping hosts. “Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre, * * * Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country’s blood.” It should be the one great dream of society to furnish conditions for the flowering of those powers that cause men to be able to add to the comfort, the delight, the glory of the human family for all time. Alas, then, for those conditions in the South that put such great numbers to sleep. The evil sustained is not confined to Other the possible loss of transcendent Lines statesmanship. When the man of Affected. public affairs goes to sleep he takes to bed with him the poet, the sculptor, 92 WISDOM's CALL. the artist, the man of letters. Observe that contemporaneous with great rulers and great epochs, have been the great poets of the world. It was statesmanship manifested in the lives of strong characters that quickened the mind and imagination of Shakespeare and equipped it for its loftiest flights. It was a Victorian jubilee, the commemoration of a great reign, that fired the soul of Kipling and enabled it to sing so appealingly of the “God of our fathers known of old, Lord of our far flung battle line Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine.” Let the mind but scan the world's great literature and note how often it is the deed of the man dealing with the affairs of state that awakens the genius of the poet. It is not enough to have merely a de- mocracy in name, a theoretical government of the people by the people. To get the benefit of the quickening power of a democracy the people must take part in the management of their affairs. We have shown elsewhere how that Arouse the absence of strenuous political The contests works against the summoning Sleepers. to the front of the reserve powers of the mind; how that the “white pri- maries” being wholly within the one household, do not furnish room for the development of men to represent fully the two opposing schools of thought, a division that has played such a vital part in push- ing forward Anglo-Saxon political life; how that the W1SDOM'S CALL. 93 loss of the national power as an asset is losing to the South its ability to multiply the influence of its choice minds and to enlarge the aspirations of its youths. Now, add to these weakening influences the further consideration, that so much of its civic genius goes to waste through slumber brought on as herein pointed out, we clearly see what a dreary prospect is held out to the South moving along present lines. The people of Florida have awakened to the fact that immense fortunes are lurking in the everglades, only awaiting the hand that will draw off the waters. The hitherto barren lands of the western wilderness are being reclaimed, called into service, and are now blossoming and blooming as the rose. Oh, statesmen of America, what are swamps and deserts compared to the great areas of sleeping and unused men? Holy Writinforms us that “there is a Mistaken. way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Over and over again in the history of the world has the truth of this assertion been demon- strated. The ancient Greeks, a people of strong mentality cherished the belief that their glory rested upon the maintenance of the autonomy of the several Greek states. The men who advocated this idea succeeded in thoroughly fastening it upon the minds of the Greeks; but they caused the fading of the glory which they sought to sustain. For, the jealous guarding of the autonomy of the several states prevented the growth of a strong federation, which, like the coming together of the early English 94 WISDOM'S CALL. kingdoms, would have secured a permanent place among the great nations of the earth. As the devotion of the Greeks to the notion of autonomy proved to be the undoing of the Greeks, so will the reliance of the white South upon the one-party, “white primary” system continue to bring to pass its decay in genuine political power. Son of the white South, withdraw The Course that frown directed toward your fellow To Take. who would think his own political thought; encourage the two-party system regardless of your political affiliations; if needs be lead off in the work of emancipating your section from the thralldom of the one-party idea. It may be that this service rendered by you, this saving of your section from political death may be your crown of eternal glory. Let the word go forth in all the South that each man is to think and express his own political thought, that divisions of opinion are to be encouraged rather than discountenanced, that no form of social Ostracism is to be visited upon a man because of his political convictions, that politi- cal differences are not to be carried into the business life of the community, that the press of the South as a patriotic duty is henceforth to give ample attention to the sound contentions of opposition parties. Under such conditions the genius of Thomas Jeffer- son and of the other great giants of the South will no longer object to reincarnation and will cheerfully come back to dwell in the bosoms of the youths of the South of to-day, thus ensuring the grandeur of the times in which we live. 96 - WISDOM'S CALL. the South. In view of the fact that freedom of political thought is an absolute necessity for the South that cannot be dispensed with except at a. tremendous cost, it behooves it to walk up to the ob- jection here raised by this governor to decide whether it is a genuine menace, whose existence justifies the continued huddling of the South in the one political party, or, on the other hand, is a scare crow, frightful in appearance but absolutely harmless withal. A glance at Negro nature and the circumstances surrounding the race will go to show that the Negro vote instead of being a menace to the South can become one of its most helpful assets. Being mainly of the industrial class whose prosperity is bound up intimately with the prosperity of the community, the Negroes would be sure to keep a keen look out and could be relied upon to discover helpful policies by means of that peculiar sharpening of the vision that comes in the school of stern necessity. On one occasion a certain Southern city was in the grasp of a railway monopoly and the only hope of redemption seemed to lie in having the city to vote substantial aid to a movement that sought another outlet. There was a sufficiently large satisfied class among the whites to prevent the securing of the required three-fourth vote from the white race in favor of the proposed aid. The Negroes were ap- pealed to, and seeing clearly and at once the great benefit to the industrial class of the proposed move, they supported the proposition in such numbers as to make up for the more than one-fourth defection of the whites. The whole city now rejoices in what the Negro vote made possible. 98 WISDOM'S CALL. friends. A certain well known Southern novelist in one of his stories pictures the unerring judgment of an aged Negro servant who could read the character of the whites so well that he became the accepted guide of the family in doubtful cases and could seal the doom of a would-be acquaintance by an ominous shake of his woolly head. An important consideration to be Chasm borne in mind is the fact that the Can be Negro race is not by nature revengeful, Bridged. thus making it possible to close the gap between the white and colored people far more easily than the long drawn out political war between the two races would seem to indicate. We submit, here is a situation that offers a good soil for the controlling forces of the South to cultivate with the full assurance that every natural element points to a harvest of beneficial results. Should the white people of the South see fit to discountenance the talk about the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment and proceed to address themselves to the task of es- tablishing a working relationship with the worthy element of Negroes it would be readily seen that the majority sense of the Negroes would be in substantial accord with the majority sense of the whites. Where such was found not to be the case a campaign of edu- cation would certainly bring about the desired results. It is to be observed that the religious divisions among the whites have parallel divisions among the Negroes, and in all probability political divisions among the whites would mean corresponding divisions among the Negroes, so that the efforts of the whites to WISDOM'S CALL. 99 divide and strive strenuously to arrive at the best results would not be nullified by the solid massing and blind voting of the Negroes. The wise handling of the Negro vote The of the South would have a salutary Northern effect upon the national interests of Negro and the South. When in the course of the South. events it has seemed to be the time for the opposition party in the North to come into power, when there has been a decided tendency on the part of the majority sense of the whites of the North to make a shift in the control of affairs, fear of the South on the part of the Negro voters of the North has caused them to be slow in taking such steps as would give the South national power. A careful analysis of the vote in many elections will disclose the fact that the control of the House of Representatives, and of the electoral college has several times been lodged in the hands that favored economic policies out of harmony with the South's desires through the Negro vote solidified by fear of the whites of the South. The Negroes of the North are not Ground on the whole toilers in the factories. For an At present they are largely denied Alliance. work as factory hands. They do not therefore come immediately within that group of laborers that are supposed to be pro- tected by the tariff as now levied. Their economic interests, whatever they are, would seem to be in line with those of the consumers rather than those 100 WISDOM’s CALL. of the manufacturers. It is generally held that the predominant interests of the South are those of the consumer, hence the consuming Negro of the North would seem to be the natural ally of the Southern consumer. But an unfriendly attitude toward the Negro voter of the South serves to alienate the Negro voter of the North and causes the South to pay millions of tribute annually that might be retained at home. It seems to be generally conceded that the tariff might be much lower than what it is without injury to the country, and a friendly spirit between the whites of the South and the Negroes of the nation would perhaps long since have given enough Congressmen favorable to the consumer's viewpoint to have insured the desired result. Those who refuse to grapple with The the question of trying to find a working Amend- basis with the worthy Negro in political nnent matters, who prefer to continue the Secure. policy of slowly murdering, through the one-party system, the political genius of the South in the hope that time will bring about the abrogation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the constitution, are hardly wise. President Taft, representing the conservative thought of the nation, the element that believes more in evolution and development than in legislation as an adjusting force, says that the Fifteenth Amendment never will be repealed and ought not to be repealed. Those influences in the North which have uniformly pleaded for the largest sympathy and trust for the WISDOM'S CALL. 101 South, which strenuously opposed federal inter- ference in the matter of enforcing the Fifteenth Amendment are still insistent that the amendment abide in the federal constitution as the ideal toward which the nation is to work. These particular forces have the ascendency in the nation to-day. They urge that the task of squaring the life of the South with the federal constitution be left to the better element of Southern whites, and they differ from those who would enforce the amendment only as to the best method to finally attain the end of having that amendment represent the actual conduct of the nation. To obtain the abrogation of the Fifteenth Amendment would involve the absolute overturning of the ideals of the North and the West, a total revulsion against democracy in general, the flowering in those sections of the caste spirit. The arguments needed to overturn the amendment would have to be fundamental in character and would carry down far more than the Negro. No such general upsetting of ideals may be expected. The general drift is all the other way. Nor need it be expected that the Supreme Court of the United States will run counter to the ideals of the nation as reflected in the constitution and in the enlightened public sentiment of the day. Thus it is that the white South is destined to a long dreary wait if it is to sit by the nation's highway waiting for its ideals to be overturned. 102 WISDOM’s CALL. During this period will the mediocre Roll Call have so fixed his spirit upon the South of the Fu- as to have fully snuffed out its political ture. genius, leaving it, like Greece, the at- tenuated shadow of its former self? Shall the South inherit all and bequeath nothing? From across the waters there have come out of the ancestral home of the Anglo-Saxon, Burke and Pitt, Fox and Disraeli, and hosts of others to inspire the youth of to-day. Out of the loins of the South of the past sprang Washington and Jefferson, Marshall, Jackson and Calhoun, fixed stars in the firmament of American statesmanship. But all of this is the output of the blood of the past. Shall the South of to-day not add to the galaxy? In the roll call of the future, when our decade is reached and the names of our contributions to the ranks of the immortals are called for, will there be an oppressive silence to last throughout the eternal ages? Shall we have no great names to keep our section and our era alive in history? It is not enough for the whites of the South simply to fill the House of Representatives and the Senate at Washington with “just anybody,” for the togas of intellectual giants may be tightly wrapped about the bodies of intellectual pigmies. The South should divide; should have strenuous. battlefields which will summon to the front all the latent qualities of mind and soul. The Negroes are no necessary menace. Their majority sense can be appealed to in such a way as to yield a rich harvest to the common good. The cry of the hour, so far as the higher interests of the South are concerned is WISDOM'S CALL. 103 this, is simply this: “Give us men to match our mountains, Give us men to match our plains, Men with empires in their purpose And new eras in their brains.” Let the white people of the South meet half-way the efforts of the worthy Negroes to influence the political thought of their race that the better ele- ments of the two races may be found working healthily for the common good. Such a consum- mation is indeed immeasurably better than the delivery of the throat of the political genius of the South into the hands of the strangling one-party system which according to the South's highest thought, leaves that genius, bleeding, gasping, dying upon the threshold of the period of the world's greatest enlightenment. 108 WISDOM’s CALL. As an illustration of the wide gulf The that can separate the respective meth- Irish. ods employed by races when acting as aggregations, we call attention to the wide difference between the methods employed by the Irish and those employed by the Japanese. An Irishman who in our day has attained unto an international reputation as a writer and student of Irish affairs once said in the columns of the New York Independent that the Irish people would never obtain Home Rule for their country by means of a resort to arms, giving as a basis for his assertion the alleged fact that the Irish people were so lacking in the quality of secretiveness that their leaders did not dare to adopt the plan of storing away arms from year to year, by which means alone they could hope to secure the equipment necessary to successfully cope with England upon the field of battle. He as- serted that the secret preparations which were car- ried on by the Boers in South Africa, which finally enabled that small body of people to surprise the world and put England to the supreme test could not have been carried on among Irishmen because of the impulsive, out-spoken, non-secretive trait in Irish character. As a result of the alleged presence of this trait in Irish character, the Irish leaders, so says our authority, have settled upon agitation as the fixed method of striving to advance Ireland's interests; and thus the Irish seek to keep the world stirred by their continuous outcry. So Ireland is WISDOM'S CALL. 109 the world's “* * * infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.” But it cannot be denied that the Irish by their chosen method have been able to push forward their cause very materially. The very opposite of the Irish as The Jap- pictured by this eminent Irishman are an eSee the Japanese who are a secretive people. Knowing themselves to possess this trait, and knowing how much they could make it count in their favor, the Japanese were willing to engage in that life and death struggle with the Rus- sians. One talkative, indiscreet Jap located in the inner circle of Japanese affairs could have affected very easily the whole course of the Russo-Japanese war. If a bare hint as to Japan's initial move had but drifted out of those inner circles the Russians would have been prepared for that night attack made before the issuance of the declaration of war, which attack carried disaster to the Russian navy and gave to Japan immediate mastery of the seas bordering the seat of trouble. Without this mastery Japan would have been woefully handicapped in the matter of transporting her soldiers across the waters to the scene of conflict. Not only was secretiveness a factor in this initial move, but it played its part throughout the entire struggle. With the whole world asking with bated breath as to the whereabouts of Togo's fleet, not one word of enlightenment came out of the 110 WISDOM’s CALL. silent East until the news flashed the world around that the wily Japanese admiral had waylaid and annihilated the last great branch of the Russian navy. Here we have a marked contrast, the Irish discarding secrecy altogether, while the Japanese relied upon it as the pivot around which their policy and their destiny revolved. The white people of the South are The Anglo- well pleased with their Anglo-Saxon . Saxon Tem-temperament, the mental and spiritual perament. constitution of their racial soul. They rejoice in the fact that there is written in the blood of the Anglo-Saxon race those elements which have permitted the flowering of the great civilization of that race. This blood has proven susceptible of sustaining a civilization based upon love of country, deep reverence for woman, love of home, hatred of tyranny, freedom of the individual, the inviolability of the plighted word, the faculty for dropping all internal differences and presenting a united front to a common foe. With it, blood is thicker than water. It does not swap horses when crossing a stream. Not for a thousand years per- haps has the race voted an administration out of power during a war. It has a proven capacity for social efficiency, for the successful conduct of great governmental affairs with millions of free men working together without being in each other's way. This blood harbors a “restless discontented, burn- ing, striving energy” that insures the onward march of its civilization in spite of all obstacles of whatever nature thrust athwart its pathway. This 116 WISDOM'S CALL. passing an ordinance of secession would make slav- ery secure; it paved the way for immediate emanci- pation. There has arisen in the South a set of men who have proclaimed themselves the special guar- dians of the purity of Anglo-Saxon blood, and they bestir themselves in season and out of season in search of ways and means to make sure that Negro blood does not flow across the line into the veins of the white race. Permit us to demonstrate how that this element constitutes the greatest of all the forces working for the mixing of the blood of the two races. As the question is grave and should be treated funda- mentally, bear with us, though for a time it may appear that we have left the subject. We shall re- turn. - - As we contemplate the workings Nature's of nature, one of the most striking Methods. facts that everywhere presents itself for our consideration is the diligence with which she seeks to equip her creatures so that they will be fully able to meet whatever conditions of life are to confront them. Observe how the straw- berry, the grain of corn, and the hickory nut differ among themselves. Nature, seeing that the career of the strawberry was to come to a close while the weather is yet warm, gave to it no covering. The grain of corn, having a longer journey to pursue, being very likely to encounter one Jack Frost ere the close of its pilgrimage, was duly provided with a shuck for a shield. After the fading and the falling of the leaves, after the summer and autumn have bidden the earth adieu and left it in the clasp of WISDOM'S CALL. 121 advance toward the black complexion, preserved it and transmitted it in augmented form, on and on until a thoroughly black race was developed. But in the work of retracing her steps if she so desires, nature has a far better start. As a result of conditions existing in the days of slavery numerous persons are to be found who have light complexions but are classed as Negroes. Nature ever keeps under her jurisdiction the marital in- stinct which fact has begotten the aphorism, “There is no accounting for tastes.” Taking charge of the marrying within the Negro race, nature can see to it that the dark man and the dark woman take no marked interest in each other. It can incline the dark man to admire the woman of light complexion, and can prepare that woman to return the affections of the dark man. The same can be done for the dark woman and the man of light complexion. By regulating marriages on this wise, nature can see to it that the thoroughly dark complexion is eliminated. When a child is born in a family where there is one parent dark, nature can see to it that its tastes run in the direction of the lighter complexion, and that child's marriage can be so shaped as to continue the race toward the lighter complexion instead of returning in the di- rection of the darker parent. The process here outlined can go on until no one will be able to tell just where the Negro race ends and the white race begins. The next step would be the blending of the two races and the blood of the millions of Negroes of the South @ - -- irº - - -- SN - - --- - @ o Ni ( @ N º ſº Ni ſº Ni ( @ , Ni ( @ ) ( @)-- ( ©) - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - © N \ N VI. SOUTHERN STATESMANSHIP AND THE NEGRO WOMAN. |7:SN 7:SNZºSN 7:SNížSN 7:SN 7:SN 7:SN7:SN7:S ©(@@@@@@@@@) WISDOM'S CALL. 137 cule and contempt when she tries to go to court but it may also be said that the white man who aspires to a relationship with her that means and can only mean in its larger consequences the whitening of the Negro race and the ultimate blending of the blood of the two races, has it in his power to utilize the mob to wreak vengeance upon her for daring to repulse his advances. Of course he could not openly avow such a basis for his grievance and gain support from the more respectable classes, but he could easily put forward some other ground for complaint, and, as a mob is not a judicial body that carefully sifts statements and searches for motives, he could in this way wreak vengeance upon the colored woman. Permit us just here to cite a case Woman that will clearly illustrate how the mob Terrorized. can be called into action to chastise the colored woman because of her hav- ing repulsed the advances of a white man. There lived in one of the smaller towns of the South a mulatto woman of high standing among both the white and colored people. Her husband enjoyed the good will of the whites to a marked degree and mainly through their influence held the position of principal of the colored school of the town. One day the colored woman in question had occasion to enter a white man’s clothing store for the purpose of making a few purchases. The proprietor waited on her and while so doing sought to converse with her in a familiar sort of way, calling her flatly by her given name. She had heard that he had said that he was desirous of the friendship of some nice-looking 138 WISDOM'S CALL. colored woman, and perceived that he was trying to lay the foundation for improper advances toward her. When he leaned over to talk to her in an offen- sive manner, she said, “I would rather that you would not talk to me at all. Just sell me the goods and let me go.” That afternoon the white man accosted this woman's husband and told him that he must send his wife to him to apologize or else he would wreak vengeance upon him. Later, on hearing that the colored woman had said that she would never again set foot in his store this white man went to her place of business, ordered her to cease all criticism of himself, insisted that she had to pay his store another visit, and threatened to organize a midnight mob for the purpose of taking her out at night and severely whipping her. The affair between this white man and colored woman be- came known to the whites of the town and he succeed- edin lining up the white people on his side by stating that the trouble was wholly due to the desire of this woman to be called Mrs. Had the mob been formed the rallying cry, of course, would have been to keep a “smart” colored woman in her place, whereas she would have been receiving punishment for not having become the mother, perhaps, of a child which under the circumstances would have been so light of complexion as to be able to easily carry its share of Negro blood into the white race. In a certain community in one of our Preacher Southern states some Negro girls who Driven Out. had been led astray by white men listened to a sermon from the Negro pastor, which caused them to discard their alliances. 140 WISDOM’s CALL. the disadvantage of the colored woman, but it is needed now and then to be used for the protection of the white woman, and therefore must be preserved even if it is diverted from time to time from the main purpose for which it is retained.” Far from aiding the white woman the mob works injury to her cause. Its methods often arouse the germs of evil in the bosoms of depraved Negroes and the result is an increase of the very offense of which com- plaint is made. He is not a wise friend to the white woman who indulges in practices that brutalize and inflame the minds of beings by whom she is sur- rounded and among whom she must move. The interests of the white woman call for a decrease in savagery, not its increase. Nor is this stubborn fact altered in the slightest by the other fact that the white mob has it in its power to kill with torture every savage that appears, for all the torture inflicted can not recall from the victim her horrible expe- riences. Why then cause an increase of victims by increasing savagery? No, the mob is no help to the cause of the white woman. On the contrary the white woman’s White Wom- most vital interests are bound up in an’s True the matter of protecting the colored Interests. woman. Whenever a white man takes up his abode in the Negro race in mari- tal relationship it is some white woman's loss. He either fails to wed a white woman or if wedded, so divides his attention as to be far removed from what would be termed an ideal husband. Thousands of unwedded white women in the South have been 142 WISDOM'S CALL. Anglo-Saxondom, may it be hers to succeed in planting deep in the bosoms of her sons a feeling of respect for the colored woman, and with the re- straining influence of respect as a factor in the situa- tion the misalliances will assuredly be fewer in num- ber. As we view the matter, every in- Sacred terest of the white race, if its one pas- Atmos— sionate dream of an unmixed race is to be phere. fulfilled calls for the protection of the Negro woman. She should be encouraged to speak out. The courts of the land should be thrown wide for her protection. She should not be left alone in her struggle to save her daughter from the wooer of the other race. The mob should be suppressed. The entire white South looking out for the ultimate purity of its own blood should in every way possible sound the slogan that the colored woman must have as sacred an atmosphere to sur- round her and her daughters as the best civiliza- tion affords. The colored woman is entitled to re- spect and protection in her own right, but if such a plea should fall on deaf ears surely the white South's own interests will be heard as they too cry aloud for the protection of the colored woman. CHAPTER VII. HOW TO KEEP THE COLORED RACE FROM BEING A BURDEN. - “Why kill the hen that lays the gold- Is Crime en egg? Since the Negroes who are Profitable? sent to the penitentiaries in the South by the thousands annually are so farmed out that they produce a handsome revenue for the state treasuries why should cool-headed business men of the white race be concerned about reducing the number of Negro criminals? Ought sensible men shed tears when, people of their own volition, break the law and are thenceforth put to work in such a manner as to reduce the tax rate?” But is the Negro criminal a hen laying a golden egg? When all the facts are in, is the criminal in reality an asset, a paying institution? Much depends upon what those who Cost of are now shaping the destiny of the Crime. South think on this subject. The first step toward a life of crime is a life of idleness. Crime and steady employment are sometimes found in each other's company, but as (145) 146 WISDOM’s CALL. a rule they are not very good mates. In order that he may have ample time and the very best oppor- tunities to plan and to execute his crimes, the man who decides to follow a life of crime, usually with- draws himself from honorable gainful occupations. Being unemployed he can move about at will and is under no obligations to account to any one as to his whereabouts. His incoming and outgoing are not subject to the supervision of an employer. This idleness on the part of the criminal class, the idleness which precedes incarceration and is of an extensive and ever-present character, subtracts just that much from the stock of useful things that should be produced by the human race in its efforts to maintain itself. For the world to fare well, it requires the world to take care of the world; else some one is pulling a double load. When some are drones, it can only mean more toil for the toilers. Multiply what is reasonably expected of the average man, by the number of idle, uncaught criminals now roaming the earth and you have the enormous loss that society is sustaining through their failure to engage in honorable pursuits. Even those crimi- nals now in prison and at work, must have charged against them the periods of idleness and consequent loss to society that preceded their capture and in- carceration. Not only does society suffer a negative loss through the failure of those gravitating toward the prisons to be producers, but the loss is also posi- tive in that the criminals, though not at work eat food and wear clothes produced by others, and are thus a drain on others. In the loss sustained by s 148 WISDOM'S CALL. the people, because of the existence of the criminal class. Such is the cost of the criminal in The Negro general. Let us glance now at the Criminal. special opportunities of the Negro criminal to pile up costs on society. Since the day on which Nathan stood before David to tell him of a wrong that had been committed in the latter's kingdom, (and before that day as weli) men have had a habit of viewing the sins of others with a greater degree of horror than that with which they contemplate their own. As sin draws nigh to a man's own door, through some magic process it sheds a portion of its hideousness, so that the man simply laments in himself that which he violently denounces in others. Thus the white people of the South have an extra vial of wrath for the Negro criminal, and this criminal has it in his power to uncork this extra vial. It is the function of civilization to lull to sleep the primitive passions of men; to keep securely tethered those powerful giants of wickedness yet found in the human bosom; to give to mankind a life of law and order. Through toil and sorrow and the untimely death of countless thousands a measure of social order has been evolved, the giant passions subdued. But the perpetration of some peculiarly revolting crime by a Negro often gives these giants an inspiration that enables them to break their bands and make wild rushes through earth. Once upon a rampage, they batter down the fabric of the law, trample under foot the most sacred usages of civilization, and clearly reveal how much 158 WISDOM'S CALL. hope, that kept your feet from going too far afield, that aided you to keep the path that has led you up to renown? The Negro youth is human. He must have his ambition quickened; must have goals for which to strive; must have incentives to nerve him to breast unyieldingly the waves of temptations that dash against him; must hear a sound up yonder in the heavens of hope so charming as to drown the cry of the baser passions arising from the depth and im- ploring him to descend. º That Negro playmate of yours who romped and wrestled and played marbles with you; who cheered you with his sunny laugh and the genial warmth of his nature; who, alas as a man committed that awful crime, which shocked the world and brought down upon his head the wrath of multitudes that wrecked your law in seeking to be rid of him—that man might have been so different if the white South had not denied to him all hope of rising in the sphere of civic duty! Let the white South in every community take up the matter of judiciously honoring worthy colored men. The Hon. Wm. H. Taft, trusting to An the goodness of heart of the white Appeal. South, while insisting upon the justice of giving recognition to worthy Ne- groes, yet left the matter to the white South, express- ing the hope that with the approval of that element of the population, the needs of the Negro in this di- rection may ultimately be met in a larger degree than was formerly the case. May it come to pass that the white South shall fully realize that the Negro ... -- } N2 o, irº -- - Si ſº Si -- - --- -- - - -- -- -- - 7, 7:SN N7: Silº N7 N7:SN7 N SN ©(@@@@@@@@@) - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - VIII. THE WHITE MAN’S EQUITY IN NEGRO EDUCATION. (5) (5) (3) (G) CHAPTER VIII. THE WHITE MAN'S EQUITY IN NEGRO EDUCATION. The European mind is of an in- Skeptical quiring turn, very much disposed to Europe. examine with great care reputed hap- penings that are ascribed to Supernat- ural agencies. While Asia is the birthplace of all the great religions, Europe has furnished all the great criticisms of them. Peter preaching to Jews, children of Asia, proclaimed the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and at the close of his sermon had three thousand persons asking for baptism. Paul, preaching to Greeks–Europeans, was making progress it seems, until he mentioned the resur- rection, whereupon the Greek mind revolted, mocked him and called for further explanation. Prying is the abiding mood of the European mind, and it demands a look at the foundation stones of its temple of faith, even though the priest thereof stands in the doorway threatening death, and asserting that the proposed look at the foundation will assuredly over-turn the temple. Sacred veils are ruthlessly torn from the face of every (163) 166 WISDOM’s CALL. These African women told the white children of God, of the devil, of hell and its lurid flames, of the signs and wonders of the Bible; told of those things by means of the solemn look, the quavering voice, the subdued whisper of awe; told the children with that impressiveness which can be found only where there is full faith on the part of him who tells. Generation after generation of white children passed through this crucible. It is thus that the mind of the white South has been so wrought upon that it now has the capacity to absorb the teachings of the Bible concerning supernatural oc- currences while other minds of European extraction are “storm swept and tempest tossed.” Here is a matter of the deepest What it possible significance, fraught with a Means. lesson so very plain that he who runs may read. Nothing strikes deeper than the fundamental religious bent of the mind of a race, and yet we here have this bent of the white South taken in charge and affected in a way that attracts the marked attention of the world; for the orthodoxy of the South is known and spoken of by all men. Out of the great fact here cited there comes a lesson of the utmost clearness, that the white people of the South cannot afford for their own sakes to be indifferent to the kind of life that flourishes near them. If white people sprang into the world fully matured the matter might not be so serious; but whatever the attainments of the race, each generation has to come into the world absolutely 170 WISDOM'S CALL. in the masses of the Negro race, written itself into the natures of the Southern whites? In the Besse- mer Alabama mines, the superstition obtains among the Negro miners to the effect that it is the most un- lucky thing in the world for a woman to go into the mines, and it is said that the white officials and employees connected with the mines have become very largely imbued with the same superstitious belief. Shortly after having learned of the super- stition concerning the going of women into the mines, the writer had occasion to go into the mining district where the superstition is said to prevail. Meeting a colored man who was a miner of that district we asked him about the existence of the superstition and then put to him the following question: “Do the white men connected with the mines fear the entering of women into the mines?” With not the faintest hint of the theory that was at work in our mind, and without an instant’s hesitation, the young man said: “The foreign white men such as Scotchmen and Frenchmen who work in the mines do not have the superstition but the native white men, the Southerners, do.” Not long since a Southern educator Result of instituted an investigation of a certain an Investi- Southern university to find out to gation. what extent the students, all white, were superstitious. The following summary of his findings appeared in one of the leading daily newspapers of the state of Mississippi: “One boy, for example, expressed his firm belief that if he picked his teeth with a splinter taken from - CHAPTER IX. THE SPIRIT OF A PEOPLE. It is a matter of common knowledge Physical that the environments of a people, the Environ- forces of nature, such as the soil, the nnents. sea and the sun, the animal and the vegetable life all have their influence in shaping the habits, temperament and character, and therefore the destiny of that people. A familiar yet striking illustration of the powerful influence of environment upon the fortunes of respective peoples is the fact that the invigorating climate of the Temperate zone has given to the men thereof a zest for the duties of life which enables them to become the rulers of those who dwell in the Torrid zone where men's energies are sapped by the fierce rays of a blazing sun. A man sitting astride the equator, with a tropical Sun beating upon his head, would perhaps hardly have the energy to read, much less to write a “Paradise Lost.” Another formative, environing in- Political fluence operating strongly upon a Environ- people is the question of the relation- ments. ship of that people toward its neighbor. The mental attitude that the neighbor (181) WISDOM’s CALL. 185 of his possessions and for a season placed in charge of his former slaves. Where in all of human history has there been a case of a greater miscalculation than that which the white South made, and to what may it be ascribed, but to the fact that the Negro was the Southern white child’s environment and furnished food for the development of an exaggerated notion of its prowess, without which notion the Civil War would never have been invited? Not only did the yielding Negro as an Prolonged environing influence bring on the The war, but as such an influence he pro- Struggle. longed the struggle and made it the more bloody. One of the facts that stands out most conspicuously with reference to the Civil War is the facility with which the South furn- ished its armies with splendid commanders. The institution of slavery had given to the Southerners the habit of command. The Northerners, going to the war out of an industrial democracy, had to acquire step by step, the art of handling men, whereas with the Southerner it was often an inheritance, handed down from father to son and accentuated through the constant exercise of lordship over slaves. When therefore, we behold the Southern commanders marshalling their poorly equipped battle lines against their better fed, better equipped and far more numerous foes; as we see the skill of these Confederate officers as commanders of men making up for the disparity of numbers; as we think of the length of the titanic struggle and glance around at the hundreds of thousands of graves, we must 186 WISDOM'S CALL. admit the importance of the part played by the Negro as a silent human environment when as a slave he furnished the material upon which the white South developed and sharpened its instinct for the exercise of executive ability in the matter of handling men. So much for the past. But the Affecting Negro is still here as a silent environing Spirits. influence of great importance as will presently appear. It is very evident to all observers that while the South has in it men and women of an intensely vigorous spirit who have builded a new and prosperous empire upon the ruins of the former South which the war so largely des- troyed, there are also present in its life millions of dull, unaspiring, listless, spiritless whites who plan no great things for themselves nor yet for their children after them. Philanthropists, sociologists and sundry classes of men and women have made a study of this un- aspiring element of whites in an effort to account for its utter lack of spirit. Let us join them in the search. One of the great, all pervasive forces What Spurs at work in the hearts of men, causing Men On. them to exert themselves, is the desire to attain unto a sense of station, to reach that state of mind where they can feel that they are something when compared with something else, that they are beyond some point which all men would be glad to pass. The effort of the child to stand at the head of its class, the quest of the student of maturer years for degrees, the strivings of rich men for 1S8 WISDOM’s CALL. the races they feel it incumbent upon themselves to keep strengthened the spiritual barriers between the two races. For the furtherance of this end there has been a careful cultivation of certain modes of thought with regard to the Negro race. The more refined and cultivated among the whites confine their efforts to the cultivation of the thought that there is a difference between the races and rely upon the stressing of the fact of difference to keep each race in a distinct sphere. This thought of difference is what is used in the matter of having girls and boys move in different spheres. The editor of the New York Independent, Mr. William Hayes Ward, an un- compromising champion of the rights of the Negro, in setting forth his attitude toward the intermarriage of the two races, stated that he would not desire a child of his to marry a Negro, and stated that he would base his objections to his child, not on the ground of superiority, but upon that of difference. When the question of Japanese immigration was up for discussion in Congress a distinguished Con- gressman from the South asserted that the influx of Japanese was opposed, not because they were in- ferior, but because they were different from the American people. But some of the white people of the Wrong South, especially a certain type of Method politicians, have seen fit to make use of Employed. the thought of superiority as an aid to the thought of difference. The back- ward element among the whites has it sung into WISDOM’s CALL. 191 the white man, does there not lurk harm for the spirit of the white race? Let us here quote the words of the late Chancellor Hill, of the University of Georgia: “The thing which the South cannot afford in its relation to the Negro race is injustice; all history teaches that injustice injures and deteriorates the individual or nation that practices it, while on the other hand, it develops and strengthens the race upon which it is inflicted.” The white people of the South out- Free Yet number the Negroes and hold the Not Free. political power in their own hands. Our form of government permits a large measure of local self government. The Su- preme Court and the Congress of the United States have ever been slow to interfere with the white South in the matter of the adjustment of the relations between the races, not exercising such powers as clearly belong to them under the constitution. In view of these facts the white people of the South are largely free to build up whatever sort of system they may desire. But be it known unto them that the High Court of Things Eternal has decreed that all systems of caste shall finally wither the souls of the men that in- stitute them; that an unjust deed eventually breeds and hands back an unjust heart; that, in so far as the white people of the South, by legislative enact- ment or in the execution of the laws, practice dis- crimination supposedly in the white man's favor, and seek to lift him from the sphere of the operation of the law of the survival of the fittest, to that ex- tent they shall write lethargy, stupor, distemper in the hearts of millions of their kind. WISDOM'S CALL, 193 In view of the mighty deeds done Spiritual in the various climes of earth in the Restless- years that have gone; in view of the ness A strenuous strivings of men of every Vital Need. kindred, tribe and tongue in this great age of the world, if the white South would hold its own, would develop a social body able to compete with the North, with France, with England and with Germany, it must have that spiritual restlessness, that burning discontent which located in the bosom of the units of the Anglo- Saxon race has heretofore pushed that race forward into its present position of world-wide influence. But it cannot have the presence of this mighty influence, cannot have it, so long as there hangs over Southern skies the dark shadow of discrimination distilling its poisonous dews over the souls of men, giving unto them a sense of satisfaction, intense in nature, causing millions to sit down spiritually, and quietly take their ease when they should be on the alert grappling with the great problems of human society. - - * º ~. º, ** º ------- º - -- - - University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 r —- Return this material to the library ." - from which it was borrowed. . . *-- -- gº. ~ * ºn º ºMM; º - At IIBRARY) º - a-v) = # = E º 5 s > -- ~ 2 s = - c. tº . . . ºr ºs 3 - %04DV)10^ -