A MODERN SCALAWAG
As the professor entered the office Norton was surprised at his height and
weight. He had never met him personally, but had unconsciously formed the
idea that he was a scrub physically.
He saw a man above the average height, weighing nearly two hundred, with
cheeks flabby but inclined to fat. It was not until he spoke that he caught
the unmistakable note of effeminacy in his voice and saw it clearly
reflected in his features.
He was dressed with immaculate neatness and wore a tie of an extraordinary
shade of lavender which matched the silk hose that showed above his stylish
low-cut shoes.
"Major Norton, I believe?" he said with a smile.
The editor bowed without rising:
"At your service, Professor Magraw. Have a seat, sir."
"Thank you! Thank you!" the dainty voice murmured with so marked a
resemblance to a woman's tones that Norton was torn between two
impulses--one to lift his eyebrows and sigh, "Oh, splash!" and the other to
kick him down the stairs. He was in no mood for the amenities of polite
conversation, turned and asked bluntly:
"May I inquire, professor, why you have honored me with this unexpected
call--I confess I am very curious?"
"No doubt, no doubt," he replied glibly. "You have certainly not minced
matters in your personal references to me in the paper of late, Major
Norton, but I have simply taken it good-naturedly as a part of your day's
work. Apparently we represent two irreconcilable ideals of Southern
society----"
"There can be no doubt about that," Norton interrupted grimly.
"Yet I have dared to hope that our differences are only apparent and that
we might come to a better understanding."
He paused, simpered and smiled.
"About what?" the editor asked with a frown.
"About the best policy for the leaders of public opinion to pursue to more
rapidly advance the interests of the South----"
"And by 'interests of the South' you mean?"
"The best interest of all the people without regard to race or color!"
Norton smiled:
"You forgot part of the pass-word of your order, professor! The whole
clause used to read, 'race, color or previous condition of servitude'----"
The sneer was lost on the professor. He was too intent on his mission.
"I have called, Major Norton," he went on glibly, "to inform you that my
distinguished associates in the great Educational Movement in the South
view with increasing alarm the tendency of your paper to continue the
agitation of the so-called negro problem."
"And may I ask by whose authority your distinguished associates have been
set up as the arbiters of the destiny of twenty millions of white citizens
of the South?"
The professor flushed with amazement at the audacity of such a question:
"They have given millions to the cause of education, sir! These great Funds
represent to-day a power that is becoming more and more resistless----"
Norton sprang to his feet and faced Magraw with eyes flashing:
"That's why I haven't minced matters in my references to you, professor.
That's why I'm getting ready to strike a blow in the cause of racial purity
for which my paper stands."
"But why continue to rouse the bitterness of racial feeling? The question
will settle itself if let alone."
"How?"
"By the process of evolution----"
"Exactly!" Norton thundered. "And by that you mean the gradual breaking
down of racial barriers and the degradation of our people to a mongrel
negroid level or you mean nothing! No miracle of evolution can gloss over
the meaning of such a tragedy. The Negro is the lowest of all human forms,
four thousand years below the standard of the pioneer white Aryan who
discovered this continent and peopled it with a race of empire builders.
The gradual mixture of our blood with his can only result in the extinction
of National character--a calamity so appalling the mind of every patriot
refuses to accept for a moment its possibility."
"I am not advocating such a mixture!" the professor mildly protested.
"In so many words, no," retorted Norton; "yet you are setting in motion
forces that make it inevitable, as certain as life, as remorseless as
death. When you demand that the patriot of the South let the Negro alone to
work out his own destiny, you know that the mere physical contact of two
such races is a constant menace to white civilization----"
The professor raised the delicate, tapering hands:
"The old nightmare of negro domination is only a thing with which to
frighten children, major, the danger is a myth----"
"Indeed!" Norton sneered. "When our people saw the menace of an emancipated
slave suddenly clothed with the royal power of a ballot they met this
threat against the foundations of law and order by a counter revolution and
restored a government of the wealth, virtue and intelligence of the
community. What they have not yet seen, is the more insidious danger that
threatens the inner home life of a Democratic nation from the physical
contact of two such races."
"And you propose to prevent that contact?" the piping voice asked.
"Yes."
"And may I ask how?"
"By an ultimate complete separation through a process covering perhaps two
hundred years----"
The professor laughed:
"Visionary--impossible!"
"All right," Norton slowly replied. "I see the invisible and set myself to
do the impossible. Because men have done such things the world moves
forward not backward!"
The lavender hose moved stealthily:
"You will advocate this?" the professor asked.
"In due time. The Southern white man and woman still labor under the old
delusion that the negro's lazy, slipshod ways are necessary and that we
could not get along without him----"
"And if you dare to antagonize that faith?"
"When your work is done, professor, and the glorious results of Evolution
are shown to mean the giving in marriage of our sons and daughters, my task
will be easy. In the mean time I'll do the work at hand. The negro is still
a voter. The devices by which he is prevented from using the power to which
his numbers entitle him are but temporary. The first real work before the
statesmen of the South is the disfranchisement of the African, the repeal
of the Fifteenth Amendment to our Constitution and the restoration of
American citizenship to its original dignity and meaning."
"A large undertaking," the professor glibly observed. "And you will dare
such a program?"
"I'll at least strike a blow for it. The first great crime against the
purity of our racial stock was the mixture of blood which the physical
contact of slavery made inevitable.
"But the second great crime, and by far the most tragic and disastrous, was
the insane Act of Congress inspired by the passions of the Reconstruction
period by which a million ignorant black men, but yesterday from the
jungles of Africa, were clothed with the full powers of citizenship under
the flag of Democracy and given the right by the ballot to rule a superior
race.
"The Act of Emancipation was a war measure pure and simple. By that act
Lincoln sought to strike the South as a political power a mortal blow. He
did not free four million negroes for sentimental reasons. He destroyed
four billion dollars' worth of property invested in slaves as an act of war
to save the Union. Nothing was further from his mind or heart than the mad
idea that these Africans could be assimilated into our National life. He
intended to separate the races and give the Negro a nation of his own. But
the hand of a madman struck the great leader down in the hour of his
supreme usefulness.
"In the anarchy which followed the assassination of the President and the
attempt of a daring coterie of fanatics in Washington to impeach his
successor and create a dictatorship, the great crime against Democracy was
committed. Millions of black men, with the intelligence of children and the
instincts of savages, were given full and equal citizenship with the breed
of men who created the Republic.
"Any plan to solve intelligently the problem of the races must first
correct this blunder from which a stream of poison has been pouring into
our life.
"The first step in the work of separating the races, therefore, must be to
deprive the negro of this enormous power over Democratic society. It is not
a solution of the problem, but as the great blunder was the giving of this
symbol of American kingship, our first task is to take it from him and
restore the ballot to its original sanctity."
"Your movement will encounter difficulties, I foresee!" observed the
professor with a gracious smile.
He was finding his task with Norton easier than he anticipated. The
editor's madness was evidently so hopeless he had only to deliver his
ultimatum and close the interview.
"The difficulties are great," Norton went on with renewed emphasis, "but
less than they have been for the past twenty years. Until yesterday the
negro was the ward of the Nation. Any movement by a Southern state to
remove his menace was immediately met by a call to arms to defend the Union
by Northern demagogues who had never smelled powder when the Union was in
danger.
"A foolish preacher in Boston who enjoys a National reputation has been in
the habit of rousing his hearers to a round of cheers by stamping his foot,
lifting hands above his head and yelling:
"'The only way to save the Union now is for Northern mothers to rear more
children than Southern mothers!'
"And the sad part of it is that thousands of otherwise sane people in New
England and other sections of the North and West believed this idiotic
statement to be literally true. It is no longer possible to fool them with
such chaff----"
The professor rose and shook out his finely creased trousers until the
lavender hose scarcely showed:
"I am afraid, Major Norton, that it is useless for us to continue this
discussion. You are quite determined to maintain the policy of your paper
on this point?"
"Quite."
"I am sorry. The _Eagle and Phoenix_ is a very powerful influence in this
state. The distinguished associates whom I represent sent me in the vain
hope that I might persuade you to drop the agitation of this subject and
join with us in developing the material and educational needs of the
South----"
Norton laughed aloud:
"Really, professor?"
The visitor flushed at the marked sneer in his tones, and fumbled his
lavender tie:
"I can only deliver to you our ultimatum, therefore----"
"You are clothed with sovereign powers, then?" the editor asked
sarcastically.
"If you choose to designate them so--yes. Unless you agree to drop this
dangerous and useless agitation of the negro question and give our people a
hearing in the columns of your paper, I am authorized to begin at once the
publication of a journal that will express the best sentiment of the
South----"
"So?"
"And I have unlimited capital to back it."
Norton's eyes flashed as he squared himself before the professor:
"I've not a doubt of your backing. Start your paper to-morrow if you like.
You'll find that it takes more than money to build a great organ of public
opinion in the South. I've put my immortal soul into this plant. I'll watch
your experiment with interest."
"Thank you! Thank you," the thin voice piped.
"And now that we understand each other," Norton went on, "you've given me
the chance to say a few things to you and your associates I've been wanting
to express for a long time----"
Norton paused and fixed his visitor with an angry stare:
"Not only is the Negro gaining in numbers, in wealth and in shallow
'culture,' and tightening his grip on the soil as the owner in fee simple
of thousands of homes, churches, schools and farms, but a Negroid party has
once more developed into a powerful and sinister influence on the life of
this state! You and your associates are loud in your claims to represent a
new South. In reality you are the direct descendants of the Reconstruction
Scalawag and Carpetbagger.
"The old Scalawag was the Judas Iscariot who sold his people for thirty
pieces of silver which he got by licking the feet of his conqueror and
fawning on his negro allies. The Carpetbagger was a Northern adventurer who
came South to prey on the misfortunes of a ruined people. A new and far
more dangerous order of Scalawags has arisen--the man who boldly preaches
the omnipotence of the dollar and weighs every policy of state or society
by one standard only, will it pay in dollars and cents? And so you frown on
any discussion of the tragic problem the negro's continued pressure on
Southern society involves because it disturbs business.
"The unparalleled growth of wealth in the North has created our enormous
Poor Funds, organized by generous well-meaning men for the purpose of
education in the South. As a matter of fact, this new educational movement
had its origin in the same soil that established negro classical schools
and attempted to turn the entire black race into preachers, lawyers, and
doctors just after the war. Your methods, however, are wiser, although your
policies are inspired, if not directed, by the fertile brain of a notorious
negro of doubtful moral character.
"The directors of your Poor Funds profess to be the only true friends of
the true white man of the South. By a 'true white man of the South' you
mean a man who is willing to show his breadth of vision by fraternizing
occasionally with negroes.
"An army of lickspittles have begun to hang on the coat-tails of your
dispensers of alms. Their methods are always the same. They attempt to
attract the notice of the Northern distributors by denouncing men of my
type who are earnestly, fearlessly and reverently trying to face and solve
the darkest problem the centuries have presented to America. These little
beggars have begun to vie with one another not only in denouncing the
leaders of public opinion in the South, but in fulsome and disgusting
fawning at the feet of the individual negro whose personal influence
dominates these Funds."
Again the lavender socks moved uneasily.
"In which category you place the author of a certain book, I suppose?"
inquired the professor.
"I paused in the hope that you might not miss my meaning," Norton replied,
smiling. "The astounding power for the debasement of public opinion
developing through these vast corruption funds is one of the most sinister
influences which now threatens Southern society. It is the most difficult
of all to meet because its protestations are so plausible and
philanthropic.
"The Carpetbagger has come back to the South. This time he is not a low
adventurer seeking coin and public office. He is a philanthropist who
carries hundreds of millions of dollars to be distributed to the 'right'
men who will teach Southern boys and girls the 'right' ideas. So far as
these 'right' ideas touch the negro, they mean the ultimate complete
acceptance of the black man as a social equal.
"Your chief spokesman of this New Order of Carpetbag, for example, has
declared on many occasions that the one thing in his life of which he is
most proud is the fact that he is the personal friend of the negro whose
influence now dominates your dispensers of alms! This man positively
grovels with joy when his distinguished black friend honors him by becoming
his guest in New York.
"With growing rage and wonder I have watched the development of this modern
phenomenon. I have fought you with sullen and unyielding fury from the
first, and you have proven the most dangerous and insidious force I have
encountered. You profess the loftiest motives and the highest altruism
while the effects of your work can only be the degradation of the white
race to an ultimate negroid level, to say nothing of the appalling results
if you really succeed in pauperizing the educational system of the South!
"I expected to hear from your crowd when the movement for a white ballot
was begun. Through you the society of Affiliated Black League Almoners of
the South, under the direction of your inspired negro leader, have sounded
the alarm. And now all the little pigs who are feeding on this swill, and
all the hungry ones yet outside the fence and squealing to get in, will
unite in a chorus that you hope can have but one result--the division of
the white race on a vital issue affecting its purity, its integrity, and
its future.
"The possible division of my race in its attitude toward the Negro is the
one big danger that has always hung its ugly menace over the South. So long
as her people stand united, our civilization can be protected against the
pressure of the Negro's growing millions. But the moment a serious division
of these forces occurs the black man's opportunity will be at hand. The
question is, can you divide the white race on this issue?"
"We shall see, major, we shall see," piped the professor, fumbling his
lavender tie and bowing himself out.
The strong jaw closed with a snap as Norton watched the silk hose
disappear.