the Negro against it advises
him to do that which he himself has not done. The bed-rock upon which
every individual rests his chances of success in life is securing the
friendship, the confidence, the respect, of his next-door neighbour of
the little community in which he lives. Almost the whole problem of
the Negro in the South rests itself upon the fact as to whether the
Negro can make himself of such indispensable service to his neighbour
and the community that no one can fill his place better in the body
politic. There is at present no other safe course for the black man to
pursue. If the Negro in the South has a friend in his white neighbour
and a still larger number of friends in his community, he has a
protection and a guarantee of his rights that will be more potent and
more lasting than any our Federal Congress or any outside power can
confer.

In a recent editorial the London _Times_, in discussing affairs in the
Transvaal, South Africa, where Englishmen have been denied certain
privileges by the Boers, says: "England is too sagacious not to
prefer a gradual reform from within, even should it be less rapid than
most of us might wish, to the most sweeping redress of grievances
imposed from without. Our object is to obtain fair play for the
outlanders, but the best way to do it is to enable them to help
themselves." This policy, I think, is equally safe when applied to
conditions in the South. The foreigner who comes to America, as soon
as possible, identifies himself in business, education, politics, and
sympathy with the community in which he settles. As I have said, we
have a conspicuous example of this in the case of the Jews. Also, the
Negro in Cuba has practically settled the race question there, because
he has made himself a part of Cuba in thought and action.

What I have tried to indicate cannot be accomplished by any sudden
revolution of methods, but it does seem that the tendency more and
more should be in this direction. If a practical example is wanted in
the direction that I favour, I will mention one. The North sends
thousands of dollars into the South each year, for the education of
the Negro. The teachers in most of the academic schools of the South
are supported by the North, or Northern men and women of the highest
Christian culture and most unselfish devotion. The Negro owes them a
debt of gratitude which can never be paid. The various missionary
societies in the North have done a work whi