widows, our daughters,
our sisters, and rob them of their living."[56]
This is the solemn declaration of 800 workmen in the metropolis of South
Carolina, and represents fairly the white labor sentiment of the South.
The trades unions and labor organizations preach the same doctrine. If
the alleged low industrial efficiency of the Negro is to be chargeable
to race traits, it should be attributed to the domineering and
intolerant race traits of the white workmen who are not disposed to give
the colored man a fair chance. The fact that in almost every contention
between white and colored workmen the employers take the side of the
Negro, is an eloquent argument in behalf of the industrial merits of the
latter; for these employers are in the business for profit and not for
philanthropy.
ACCUMULATION OF PROPERTY.
The accumulation of property on the part of the blacks shows that in
Georgia they own $12,941,230, in North Carolina $8,018,446, and in
Virginia $13,933,908. The land held by the colored people in Virginia
alone has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Rhode Island.
These facts make a decidedly favorable showing.
CHAPTER VII.
Conclusion.
The need of this chapter is hardly apparent, for the author's conclusion
is as clearly set forth in the beginning as at the close of the
treatise. As to his leading conclusion, the author is not only out of
harmony with the general opinion prevalent among students of the Negro
problem, but is also strangely inconsistent with his former self. The
same author who in 1896, wrote: "It is not in the condition of life, but
in the race traits and tendencies, that we find the cause of excessive
mortality,"[57] in 1892 affirmed: "The colored population is placed at
many disadvantages which it cannot very well remove. The unsanitary
condition of their dwellings, their ignorance of the laws of health, and
general poverty are the principal causes of their high mortality."[58]
The Frederick L. Hoffman of 1892, according to the general judgment, is
much nearer the true analysis than the Frederick L. Hoffman of 1896.
The author's conclusion will not stand the philosophical tests of a
sound theory.
1. It is based upon disputed data. The accuracy of the eleventh census
is not acceptable either to the popular or the scientific mind.
2. It is not based upon a sufficient induction of data. The arguments at
most apply to the Negroes in the large cities, who constitut
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