sidered necessary; for, having the excess in numbers on their
side, the whites will finally rest assured that the Negroes may be
encouraged without any apprehension that they may develop enough power to
subjugate or embarrass their former masters.

The Negroes too are very much in demand in the South and the intelligent
whites will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to that
section, knowing that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move
freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition,
will never endure hardships like those formerly inflicted upon the race.
The South is already learning that the Negro is the most desirable laborer
for that section, that the persecution of Negroes not only drives them out
but makes the employment of labor such a problem that the South will not
be an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered
the duty of business men to secure protection to the Negroes lest their
ill-treatment force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a
stagnation of their business.

The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South is
at the mercy of the Negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bulldozing
whites will not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally
reach the position of regarding themselves and the Negroes as having a
community of interests which each must promote. "Nature itself in those
States," Douglass said, "came to the rescue of the Negro. He had labor,
the South wanted it, and must have it or perish. Since he was free he
could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take it
elsewhere, as he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could,
if he would, make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him
than either fire, sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of
the South through its pocket."[11] Knowing that the Negro has this silent
weapon to be used against his employer or the community, the South is
already giving the race better educational facilities, better railway
accommodations, and will eventually, if the advocacy of certain southern
newspapers be heeded, grant them political privileges. Wages in the South,
therefore, have risen even in the extreme southwestern States, where there
is an opportunity to import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the
southern aristocrats have begun to lose some of their race prejudice,
which h