ders
of their own race whom they can trust. The most hopeful indication of
progress for the negroes is the large number of voluntary religious,
beneficial, and insurance societies whose membership is limited to those
of their own color.[20]

Liberty has always come through organization. The free cities of Europe
were simply the guilds of peasants and merchants who organized to
protect themselves against the feudal lords and bishops. Latterly they
gained a voice in parliaments as the "third estate" and established our
modern representative democracy. The modern trade unions have become a
power far in excess of their numbers through the capacity of the workman
to organize. With the modest beginnings of self-organization among
negroes the way is opening for their more effective participation in
the higher opportunities of our civilization.

[Illustration: COUNTIES HAVING A LARGER PROPORTION OF NEGROES IN 1900
THAN IN 1880]

The negro trade unionist has not as yet shown the organizing capacity of
other races. Only among the mine workers, the longshoremen, and
bricklayers are they to be found in considerable numbers, although the
carpenters have negro organizers. But in most of these cases the negro
is being organized by the white man not so much for his own protection
as for the protection of the white workman. If the negro is brought to
the position of refusing to work for lower wages than the white man he
has taken the most difficult step in organization; for the labor union
requires, more than any other economic or business association in modern
life, reliance upon the steadfastness of one's fellows. Unfortunately,
when the negro demands the same wages as white men, his industrial
inferiority leads the employer to take white men in his place, and here
again we see how fundamental is manual and technical intelligence as a
basis for other progress.[21]

It must not be inferred because we have emphasized these qualities of
intelligence--manliness and cooperation as preparatory to political
rights--that the negro race should be deprived of the suffrage until
such time as its members acquire these qualities. Many individuals have
already acquired them. To exclude such individuals from the suffrage is
to shut the door of hope to all. An honest educational test honestly
enforced on both whites and blacks is the simplest rough-and-ready
method for measuring the progress of individuals in these qualities of
citizenship.