egro can have is the Southern white
man, and that the growing interest which the Southern white man is
taking in the development of the Negro is one of the most encouraging
reasons for believing the problem is capable of solution. The hope of
the Southern Negro is in teaching him how to be a good farmer, how to be
a good mechanic; in teaching him how to make his home attractive and how
to live more comfortably and according to the rules of health and
morality.

Some Southerners who have given expression to their thoughts seem to
think that the only solution of the Negro question is his migration to
Africa, but to me such a proposition is utterly fatuous. The Negro is
essential to the South in order that it may have proper labor. An
attempt of Negroes to migrate from one state to another not many years
ago led to open violence at white instigation to prevent it. More than
this, the Negroes have now reached 9,000,000 in number. Their ancestors
were brought here against their will. They have no country but this.
They know no flag but ours. They wish to live under it, and are willing
to die for it. They are Americans. They are part of our people and are
entitled to our every effort to make them worthy of their
responsibilities as free men and as citizens.

The success of the experiments which have been made with them on a large
scale in giving them the benefit of thorough primary and industrial
education, justifies and requires the extension of this system as far as
possible to reach them all.

The proposition to increase the supply of labor in the South by
emigration from Europe, it seems to me, instead of being inimical to the
cause of the Negro, will aid him. As the industries of the South
continue to grow in the marvelous ratio already shown, the demand for
labor must increase. The presence of the Southern community of white
European labor from the southern part of Europe will have, I am hopeful,
the same effect that it has had upon Negro labor on the Isthmus of
Panama. It has introduced a spirit of emulation or competition, so that
to-day the tropical Negroes of the West Indies do much better work for
us in the canal construction since we brought over Spanish, Italian, and
Greek laborers.

Ultimately, of course, the burden of Negro education must fall on the
Southern people and on Southern property owners. Private charity and
munificence, except by way of furnishing an example and a model, can do
comparatively lit