rds. in wards.

Chicago 14,271 34 9,122 in 3 wards.
Philadelphia 39,371 34 8,891 " 1 "
Boston 8,125 25 2,547 " 1 "
New York 23,601 24 13,008 " 3 "
Brooklyn 10,287 26 3,100 " 2 "

This tendency to concentration in undesirable places is found to be
greater in Northern than in Southern cities. Every large city has its
white wards and its black wards, which the politician knows as well as
the seaman knows the depths and shallows of the sea.

The evil of this tendency cannot be denied or gainsaid; but its cause is
not far to seek nor hard to find.

BLACK BELTS.

The author also notes with alarm that the Negro population is congesting
in the black belts of the South. There are 70 counties in this section
with an aggregate area of over 50,000 square miles in which the colored
population outnumbers the white nearly three to one. The general
conviction is that the Negroes will be gathered into black settlements
scattered throughout the Gulf states. The superintendent of the tenth
census writes on this subject: "I entertain a strong conviction that the
further course of our (Negro) population will exhibit that tendency in a
continually growing force; that this element will be more and more
drained off from the higher and colder lands into the low, hot regions
bordering on the Gulf of Mexico."[15]

Commenting on this subject Mr. Hoffman says: "This tendency if persisted
in will probably in the end prove disastrous to the advancement of the
colored race, since there is but the slightest prospect that the race
will be lifted to a higher plane of civilization except by constant
contact with the white race."[16]

It is undoubtedly true that the Negro has not the initiative power of
civilization. What race has? Civilization is not an original process
with any race or nation known to history. The torch has been passed from
race to race and from age to age. Where else can the Negro go? The white
race at present has the light. This concession is no reproach to the
Negro race, nor is it due to any peculiar race trait or tendency.

There is a stretch of country extending from southern Pennsylvania to
northern Alabama, containing sections of Maryland, West Virginia,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
and Alabama, and embracing the Appalachian system of mountains. This
section contain