we expect
to be numbered among the learned, the strong, the molders of public
sentiment, the masters of things material, free from abject menial
servitude, we must educate the people.

Let this idea run all through our schools until it permeates the life
of every boy, every girl, every man, every woman; making its influence
felt in every home, every clime and among all nations.

THIRD PAPER.

WILL THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO SOLVE THE RACE PROBLEM?

BY PROF. KELLEY MILLER.

It is a hopeful sign when those who are vitally concerned in the
outcome of the Negro problem are guided in their discussion by the
light of evidence and argument, and are not impelled to foregone
conclusions by transmitted prejudice and traditional bias. The article
of Professor John Roach Straton in the North American Review for June,
1900, is notable for its calm, dispassionate, argumentative treatment,
and for its freedom from rancor and venom. His conclusions, therefore,
if erroneous, are all the more damaging because of the evident
sincerity and helpful intention of the author.

With much erudition and argumentative skill Professor Straton sets
forth the proposition that education has failed to check the Negro's
degenerating tendencies or to fit him for his "strange and abnormal
environment."

There are two leading divisions of the race problem:

1. The development of a backward race.

2. The adjustment of two races with widely divergent ethnic
characteristics.

These two factors are, in the mind of many, antagonistic to each
other. The more backward and undeveloped the Negro, the easier is the
process of his adjustment to the white race; but when you give him
"Greek and Latin and eyeglasses" frictional problems inevitably arise.
Under slavery this adjustment was complete, but the bond of adjustment
was quickly burst asunder when the Negro was made a free man and
clothed with full political and civil privilege. The one great
question which so far remains unanswerable is, can the two be
readjusted on terms of equality? The solution of social problems
belongs to the realm of statesmanship, philanthropy and religion. The
function of education is to develop latent faculties. It was a shallow
philosophy which prophesied that a few years of schooling on the part
of the Negro would solve the race question. If the education of the
colored man has not worked out the fulfillment which its propounders
prophesied, it simply proves them to be