e judged, by the best that the race can produce,
rather than by the worst. Keep the searchlight constantly focused upon
the criminal and worthless element of any people, and few among all
the races and nations of the world can be accounted successful. More
attention should be directed to individuals who have succeeded, and
less to those who have failed. And Negroes who have succeeded grandly
can be found in every corner of the South.

I doubt that much reliance can safely be placed upon mere ability to
read and write a little as a means of saving any race. Education
should go further. One of the weaknesses in the Negro's present
condition grows out of failure, in the early years of his freedom, to
teach him, in connection with thorough academic and religious
branches, the dignity and beauty of labor, and to give him a working
knowledge of the industries by which he must earn a subsistence. But
the main question is: What is the present tendency of the race, where
it has been given a fair opportunity, and where there has been
thorough education of hand, head and heart? This question I answer
from my own experience of nineteen years in the heart of the South,
and from my daily contact with whites and blacks. In the first place,
the social barrier prevents most white people from coming into real
contact with the higher and better side of the Negro's social life.
The Negro loafer, drunkard and gambler can be seen without social
contact. The higher life cannot be seen without social contact. As I
write these lines I am in the home of a Negro friend, where in the
matter of cleanliness, sweetness, attractiveness, modern conveniences
and other evidences of intelligence, morality and culture, the home
would compare favorably with that of any white family in the
neighborhood; and yet this Negro home is unknown outside of the little
town where it exists. To really know the life of this family, one
would have to become a part of it for days, as I have been. One of the
most encouraging changes that have taken place in the life of the
Negro race in the past thirty years is the creation of a growing
public sentiment which draws a line between the good and bad, the
clean and unclean. This change is fast taking place in every part of
the country. It is one that cannot be accurately measured by any table
of statistics. To be able to appreciate it fully, one must himself be
a part of the social life of the race.

As to the effect of indu