od example by
which to judge the future of the Negro of the United States, so far as
mortality is concerned. The argument drawn from Jamaica is valuable,
chiefly because the race there has been free for sixty-two years,
instead of thirty-five, as in our own country. During the years of
freedom, the blacks of Jamaica have been in constant contact with the
white man. Slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838. The census of
1844 showed that there were 364,000 Negroes on the island. In 1871
there were 493,000, and in 1891 there were 610,597. In a history of
Jamaica written by Mr. W. P. Livingston, who spent ten years studying
the conditions of the island, we find that, immediately after
emancipation on the island, there was something of the reaction that
has taken place in some parts of our country; but that recently there
has been a settling down to real, earnest life on the part of a large
proportion of the race. After calling attention to certain weak and
unsatisfactory phases in the life of the Jamaica Negro, Mr. Livingston
says:

"This, then, is the race as it exists to-day, a product of sixty years
of freedom; on the whole, a plain, honest, Anglicized people, with no
peculiarity except a harmless ignorance and superstition. Looking at
it in contrast with what it was at the beginning of the period, one
cannot but be impressed with the wonderful progress it has made;
and where there has been steady progress in the past, there is
infinite hope for the future. * * * The impact of Roman power and
culture on the northern barbarians of the United Kingdom did not make
itself felt for three hundred years. * * * Instead of dying off before
civilization, he (the Negro) grows stronger as he comes within its
best influences."

In comparing the black race of Jamaica with that of the United States,
it should be borne in mind that the Negro in America enjoys advantages
and encouragements which the race in Jamaica does not possess.

What I have said, I repeat, is based largely upon my own experience
and observation, rather than upon statistics. I do not wish to convey
the impression that the problem before our country is not a large and
serious one; but I do believe that in a judicious system of
industrial, mental and religious training we have found the method of
solving it. What we most need is the money necessary to make the
system effective. The indications are hopeful, not discouraging; and
not the least encouraging is the fac