commonweal, involving, as they so often do, the most determined
self-renunciation, the most heroic self-sacrifice, even the Caucasian
nature is by no means full-grown, and the Negroid is altogether
unequal. There is not the slightest probability that the great labour
organizations would, in general, think of admitting to their membership
an element of such notable weakness as the Negro would certainly be.
Such would be the case, even if other considerations were absent. But
they are present. As inferiors, accustomed to a lower standard of life
and more pliant to the demands of employers, the Negroes would present
the same problem and the same menace as the Chinese--only in a more
aggravated form. In their admission in large numbers to the ranks of
skilled labour, this latter could not fail to see a terrible and
instant threat of reduced wages, of lowered life, of baser thraldom.
Race prejudice, if you call it so, would blaze out immediately, and
with irresistible violence. It makes not the slightest difference
whether labour would be right or wrong, justified or unjustified; it
would be the instinct of self-preservation fanned suddenly into
vehement flame, and nothing could withstand it. As an example in point,
take the violent opposition offered a few years ago by the miners of
Illinois to the importation of Negro labourers; take the recent
practically total expulsion of Negroes, many of them peaceable and
unoffending, from various towns, districts, and counties in
Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and elsewhere.
Consider all this as unreasonable, as outrageous--it matters not; it
shows the temper of the American-Caucasian labourer, which will hardly
tolerate the competition of his equals, and certainly not of any form
of labour lower than his own. And in defence of what he regards as the
most important and most sacred of all his rights, he will not hesitate
for an instant at the adoption of means.[28]
[28] Hear the testimony of the ablest of Negroids, Professor W.
E. B. Dubois, in his admirable sociologic study, "The
Philadelphia Negro":
"How now has this exclusion been maintained? In some cases by the
actual inclusion of the word 'white' among qualifications for
entrance into certain trade unions. More often, however, by
leaving the matter of color entirely to local bodies, who make no
general rule, but invariably fail to admit a colored applicant
except under pressing circumstances. This is the most workable
system and is adopted by nearly all trade unions" (p. 128). "To
repeat, then, the real motives back of this exclusion are plain:
A large part is simple race prejudice, always strong in working
classes and intensified by the peculiar history of the Negro in
this country. Another part, and possibly a more potent part, is
the natural spirit of monopoly and the desire to keep up wages
... Moreover, in this there is one thoroughly justifiable
consideration that plays a great part: namely, the Negroes are
used to low wages--can live on them, and consequently would fight
less fiercely than most whites against reduction" (p. 129)....
"The Negroes of the city who have trades either give them up and
hire out as waiters and laborers, or they become job workmen and
floating hands, catching a bit of carpentering here or a little
brickwork or plastering there at reduced wages" (p. 130). It is
needless to accumulate such depositions.
Accordingly, we may confidently affirm that the experiment of Mr.
Washington and his Northern multi-millionaire admirers, to solve the
race problem by making of the Negro a skilled labourer, may indeed be
magnificent, but, in any large measure, it cannot succeed. If at any
time it seemed to promise any very wide success, it would rouse a race
animosity, North and South, the like of which we have not yet beheld.
What fields of employment, then, remain open to the Negroid? We answer:
Those he has thus far occupied, where there is no great organized
competition of the Whites. The plantation and the countless forms of
personal and occasional service are undoubtedly the regions where his
abilities may be most naturally and most profitably employed. There,
too, his better qualities, his endowments both of mind and of body,
find fullest and most useful play. Small farming and retail dealing he
may also do successfully; he may teach his kind, he may preach and
plead and prescribe and publish for them. Superior artisans will show
themselves here and there, and occasionally abilities of still higher
order will crop out, especially among Mulattoes. If they will, these
can find ample scope for their powers within the ranks of their own
people. _Spartam tuam exorna_ will, in all such cases, be the
counsel of friendly wisdom. Vain and foolish for even the superior
Negroid to try to take the kingdom of heaven by force, to conquer a
position among the Whites commensurate with his abilities as a Black.
Better a big frog in a small puddle than a small frog in a big puddle.
In general, whatever tends towards the sharp demarcation of the two
races, towards the accurate delimitation of their spheres of activity
and influence, will unquestionably make for peace, for prosperity, for
mutual understanding, and for general contentment. On the other hand,
every attempt to blur these boundaries, to wipe out natural
distinctions, to mix immiscibles, must always issue in confusion,
discord, failure, reciprocal injury, and final ruin.
We think that universal history attests the correctness of this
observation. Wherever border lines have been closely drawn and
distinctly recognized, whether between species or races, nations or
tribes, castes, classes, or individuals, there have been found at least
comparative quiet, harmony, mutual regard, and even happiness. But
ill-defined borders have been everywhere and everywhen the fruitful
source of strife, destruction, and misery. It was with a just feeling
for this great truth that the profound Gnostic, Basilides, declared
that in "the restoration of all things," at "the consummation of the
aeons," every element would seek its own place and there abide forever,
and not as if fishes were trying to pasture with sheep upon the
mountains. A kindred sense of the fitness of things is revealed here in
the South (and also in the North), where one will often hear it said
that "I like a Negro--in his place." This does not mean, at least it
need not mean, any harshness or over-haughtiness on the part of the
speaker. We have often heard it on the lips of the kindest-hearted, the
most humane in their treatment of the Negro. It is a just recognition
of a patent, unmistakable, and incontrovertible fact, which no humanity
can amend and no sophistry can disguise. The same feeling is frequently
met with among sober-minded Blacks, who, much to one's surprise
sometimes, are found to resent the ambitious attempts of their fellows,
generally Mulattoes, to rise above their own race and align themselves
with the Whites. We affirm then that drawing the colour line, firm and
fast, between the races, first of all in social relations, and then by
degrees in occupations also, is a natural process and a rational
procedure, which makes equally for the welfare of both.
That this process will actually go on, though with many interruptions
and much opposition, we cannot doubt. The latter will be due in the
main to aspiring Mulattoes, to purblind philanthropists, and to
designing politicians--all three the real enemies of the Negro and the
disturbers of his peace.
In spite of them, however, the process will go on, and we shall see
whether the Negro be able to maintain himself in the presence of the
Caucasian, though in an inferior place, playing a subordinate role,
within a protected but contracted sphere of activity. Certainly not a
brilliant future that opens before him, at the very best. Even the
highest success might seem humble enough, but is it sure that even such
a lowly victory awaits him?
Here, again, prophecy would seem to be hazardous, but we cannot fail to
notice and to record some significant tokens. Of these, one of the most
notable is the marked tendency of the Negroes to herd together in the
cities. It is well known that the problem of securing labour in the
country is becoming increasingly difficult. Many plantations have, in
fact, been abandoned for no other reason than that labourers could not
be found to cultivate them. Italians and other Europeans are
immigrating thither, and the question is eagerly debated whether they
will fill acceptably the gap left by the departing Negroes. Whether
this tide cityward, which is actually decimating some sections of the
Black Belt, will turn and roll back, we may not guess; but it seems
unlikely. To all appearances the Negroes will stream steadily towards
the towns, and gather more and more densely in certain localities.[29]
[29] "Fully ninety-four per cent. have struggled for land and
failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom. For these there
is one other avenue of escape towards which they have turned in
increasing numbers, namely, migration to town ... this is a part
of the rush to town." Dubois, _The Souls of Black Folk_, p. 162.
"The crop-lien system which is depopulating the fields of the
South is not simply the result of shiftlessness on the part of
Negroes" (p. 170). Here, again, evidence may be supplied in any
measure desired. From the census reports it appears that in the
North the same tendency is quite as strong, if not even stronger.
But this tendency deals them _death_. The mortality among the coloured
population of our cities is frightful. The gravest maladies establish
themselves among these unsanitated throngs and rage with ruinous
virulence. In ante-bellum days pulmonary tuberculosis was infrequent
among the plantation Blacks of the South; now it lashes them with a
scourge of desolation, and pneumonia even more ruthlessly. Typhoid
fever also ravages their ranks with fury. Still worse, contagious
diseases are fearfully prevalent. Among a populace to which chastity
and continence are terms almost unknown and meaningless, these must
diffuse and propagate themselves like an epidemic, they must lower the
general vitality, and still more directly the virility and fecundity.
Hitherto, the rate of multiplication has been in a measure maintained
by a high birth rate in the face of a fearful mortality. But this
cannot last. The plain indications now are that the birth rate is
falling and must fall, while the death rate rises with the steady
influx into the towns, the abandonment of the simple and healthful
modes of country life for the vice and diseases of the village.[30]
Even at best, the city is an ulcer on the face of the earth, a
maelstrom, a minotaur devouring the yearly tribute of the strength and
beauty of the land.[31] But for the Negro, it stands ready with
two-handed engine of death.
[30] For a minute study of birth and death rates, see _infra_,
pp. 225-49.
[31] To be sure, this charge holds in only very modified degree
of the modern sanitated city.
Moreover, the gloomy hopelessness of the situation must become apparent
as the decades glide by. The Negro must feel that competition is
becoming sharper, that his territory is becoming narrower and narrower,
that twentieth-century citizenship is, like the Gospel commandment,
made for those who can receive it, that he is unequal to the load cast
upon him, that he is sinking beneath the burden of an honour unto which
he was not born. Herewith the joyousness of life must depart, the
old-time buoyancy of the race give place to a deepening despond.[32] As
the generations pass on, the Negro will be hemmed every way within
straiter and straiter limits, his numbers will decrease, his digit will
move further to the right in the great sum of humanity--slowly,
silently, steadily he will be driven to the wall. Possibly he may
emigrate in large numbers to some tropical clime which nature has
forbidden to the Caucasian. This would indeed be the happiest possible
solution for the South, and he would be a courageous seer who would
declare that this century will not see a large exodus of Negroes from
the Gulf region. But we do not believe that such emigration will go
northward. Our Northern friends have no more affection or use for the
Negro than have we. They love to pet him and let their benevolence play
about him--this so long as they can patronize him, can "offer him
financial assistance," and "stick a diamond pin in his coat," and lay
at his feet "the Presidency of Haiti as soon as it is conquered by an
expedition now under preparation." Besides, his vote is a very
important weight to throw into the scale in cases of doubtful
elections. But once let the Blacks turn their faces northward in great
numbers, let them begin to swarm by myriads, and derange the labour
conditions, and drag down the scale of wages, and oust the Whites from
their places--then philanthropy will be thrown to the winds, and the
arm of the government at Washington will not be strong enough or long
enough to guard these wards of the nation from violence and persecution
and outrage.[33]
[32] What a note of infinite melancholy sounds through "The Souls
of Black Folk," the finest product of the Mulatto mind. In his
"The College-bred Negro," the same author, Dubois, has put the
question as to the future of his race to hundreds of these
representative Negroes and recorded their answers. It is easy to
perceive that the hopefulness of the majority is quite
artificial, based on some religious faith or moral trust, and
that the really weighty answers are given by the hopeless
minority.
[33] Events in the North, still fresh in the mind of the reader,
illustrate these statements profusely. That the Negro is steadily
losing ground industrially as well as otherwise, is witnessed
unequivocally in the most diverse quarters. Thus Dubois, "The
Philadelphia Negro," p. 43: "It cannot be denied that the main
results of the development of the Philadelphia Negro since the
war have on the whole disappointed his well-wishers.... Not only
do they feel that there is a lack of positive results, but the
relative advance compared with the period just before the war is
slow, if not an actual retrogression; an abnormal and growing
amount of crime and poverty can justly be charged to the Negro;
he is not a large taxpayer, holds no conspicuous place in the
business world or the world of letters, and _even as a workingman
seems to be losing ground_." So, too, in Chicago: "There are a
few in the trades, as carpenters, painters, etc., _but these are
decreasing_.... There is a large class of unemployed Negroes in
the city, numbering several hundreds. Could a careful census of
this class be taken, it would no doubt be found to reach into
thousands." Monro N. Work, in _American Journal of Sociol._, Vol.
6, p. 206. Everywhere throughout the South this expulsive process
has already proceeded far and stiff proceeds apace. In the
foregoing, the italics are ours.
If the Blacks should occupy and settle, should colonize, some outlying
tropical region,[34] and should there start out on their own path of
development, it is interesting, though not so important, to ask, What
would be their probable future? We answer, though we build no argument
whatever on this answer, that the experiment would most likely be a
repetition of Haiti; removed from the sustaining atmosphere of European
civilization, the Negro would most probably sink back into barbarism.
If there be anything in the history either of man or of nature that
would lead us to anticipate some other result, we know not what it is.
[34] The late Professor E. D. Cope recommended the deportation of
the Negro.
At this point our forecast has become so sombre that the optimistic
reader may grow impatient with such pessimism, and may at least demand
some confirmation of our vaticinations. The fact is that we have long
hesitated to make public our convictions, since the role of Cassandra
has few attractions, and it is only an after-thought to print them in
this volume, though they were indicated, many months ago, in _The
Nation_ of March 5, 1903. However, to enhearten us, within the last
week we have lighted upon the corroborative testimony of perhaps the
highest authority in the United States--a scholar whose opportunities
for forming a judgement are certainly unsurpassed, if indeed
equaled--whose abilities are not questioned, and whose freedom from
prejudice is absolute. In a notable address delivered May 10, 1900, at
the First Annual Conference held at Montgomery, Ala., under the
auspices of the Southern Society for the promotion of the study of race
conditions and problems in the South, Professor W. F. Willcox, of
Cornell University, Chief Statistician of the United States Census
Office at Washington, a "New Englander by birth and ancestry," declared
that he could "not read the evidence as Dr. Curry apparently does,"
"Races, like nations, exist to serve humanity, and come and go in the
long run according as they meet or fail to meet this test." "These
diverse races of men may be roughly graded according to their value to
humanity and their ability to improve. In any effort so to arrange
them, the least serviceable and least progressive people are found to
be those whose habitat secured the greatest isolation, freedom from
competition and lack of incentive to improvement. Such peoples were
found especially in the islands of the ocean, in the continent of
Australia, in America, and in Africa." Nevertheless, Africa seems to
have been the scene of most extraordinary mingling of bloods--a battle
ground of widely diverse tribes;[35] in spite of this the African still
belongs to "the least serviceable and least progressive people." "Those
two backward races, viz., the Negro and the Malay." "When higher and
lower races meet and interpenetrate, only two permanent solutions have
thus far been recorded in history. Either the lower race has
disappeared, or the two have fused, and in the case of especial moment
to us all, and to the future of this country, I cannot believe that
looking down through the centuries any other permanent solution than
one of these two can be found. During the period of slavery the Negro
race in the United States was protected from competition with the
Whites, somewhat as it would have been by local isolation, or somewhat
as domesticated animals are protected from the dangers nature throws
about them. Only since emancipation has genuine competition between the
races in this country existed, and during the early years after the
Civil War the conditions were such as to favor the Negro race and to
handicap the whites." "Notwithstanding the fact that the Negroes were
aided and the whites downcast during these dark years, the white
population has grown with great and increasing rapidity." "The
conditions to which the white race is subject will probably never again
be so unfortunate, the conditions to which the Negro race is subject
will not soon, if ever, be so favorable as during the years after the
Civil War." Yet notice some of the changes that have occurred during the
thirty years from 1860 to 1890, brief span as this is in the life of a
race.
[35] Witness Schweinfurth, one of the carefulest observers and
highest authorities: "If we could at once grasp and set before
our minds facts that are known (whether as regards language,
race, culture, history, or development) of that vast region of
the world which is comprehended in the name of Africa, we should
have before us the witness of an intermingling of races which is
beyond all precedent. And yet, bewildering as the prospect would
appear, it remains a fact not to be gainsaid, that it is
impossible for any one to survey the country as a whole without
perceiving that, high above the multiplication of individual
differences, there is throned a principle of unity (he refers to
the autochthonous black stock), which embraces well-nigh all the
population" (_Heart of Africa_, Vol. I., p. 313).
"The black belt may be defined as those counties in which the Negro
population outnumbered the white. In Maryland in 1860 there were five
such counties, and in 1890 only two. In Virginia there were forty-three
and in 1890 only thirty-three. In North Carolina there were nineteen
and in 1890 only sixteen. The group of adjoining counties in
southeastern Maryland, eastern Virginia and northeast North Carolina,
which formed the most northerly outpost of the black belt in 1860, has
decreased in thirty years from sixty-two counties to forty-six, or
almost exactly one-fourth. In 1860 Kentucky had one county belonging to
the black belt, while in 1890 it had none. In 1860 northern Alabama had
two counties belonging to the black belt, but in 1890 both of these had
disappeared from the map. In the cotton-growing regions of the more
southerly States there has been an increase of the counties belonging
to the black belt, but not enough entirely to offset these changes. It
seems that locally the Negroes have begun to yield ground to the whites
in the regions most favorable to the latter, and that such a change is
likely to continue.
"I have no time to go into the complex statistical evidence bearing
upon the vitality of the Negro race, and its power to meet successfully
the increasing industrial competition, to which it must be exposed, as
these States fill with people, as cities spring up and prosper, and as
industry, trade and agriculture become diversified and more complex.
The balance of the evidence, however, seems to me to indicate for the
future a continuance of changes already begun, viz., a decrease in the
Negro birth-rate decidedly more rapid than the actual present or
probable future decrease in the death-rate. This would result obviously
in a slackening rate of increase, and then in a stationary condition,
followed by slow numerical retrogression. If this anticipation should
be realized, the Negroes will continue to become, as they are now
becoming, a steadily smaller proportion of the population.
"The final outcome, though its realization may be postponed for
centuries, will be, I believe, that the race will follow the fate of
the Indians, that the great majority will disappear before the whites,
and that the remnant found capable of elevation to the level of the
white man's civilization will ultimately be merged and lost in the
lower classes of the whites, leaving almost no trace to mark their
former existence.
"Where such a lower people has disappeared, the causes of their death
have been mainly disease, vice and profound discouragement. It seems to
me clear that each one of these causes is affecting the Negro race far
more deeply and unfavorably at the present time than it was at the date
of their emancipation. The medical evidence available points to the
conclusion that they are more than ever afflicted with the scourges of
disease, such as typhoid fever and consumption, and with the physical
ills entailed by sexual vice. I have argued elsewhere to show that both
in the North and in the South crime among the Negroes is rapidly
increasing. Whether the race as a whole is as happy, as joyous, as
confident of the future, or thoughtless of it, as it was before the
war, you, my hearers, know far better than I. I can only say that in my
studies I have found not one expression of dissent from the opinion
that the joyous buoyancy of the race is passing away; that they feel
upon them a burden of responsibility to which they are unequal; that
the lower classes of Negroes are resentful, and that the better classes
[are] not certain or sanguine of the outcome. If this judgment be true,
I can only say that it is perhaps the most fatal source of race as of
national decay and death."