tured the allegiance of all really representative Southern whites,
and by consistently adhering to this position he, in an
ever-increasing degree, won and held their allegiance till the end.

Frederick Douglass, the great leader of his race during the closing
days of slavery, during the War and the Reconstruction period, had
died only a few months before. Everywhere, by leading whites, as well
as blacks, Washington was acclaimed as the successor of Douglass--the
new leader of the Negro race. One of the first colored men so to
acclaim him was Emmett J. Scott, who was then editing a Negro
newspaper in Houston, Texas, and little realized that he was to become
the most intimate associate of the new leader. In an editorial Mr.
Scott said of this address: "Without resort to exaggeration, it is but
simple justice to call the address great. It was great! Great, in that
it exhibited the speaker's qualities of head and heart; great in that
he could and did discriminately recognize conditions as they affect
his people, and greater still in the absolute modesty, self-respect,
and dignity with which he presented a platform upon which, as Clark
Howell, of the Atlanta _Constitution_ says: 'both races, blacks and
whites, can stand with full justice to each.'" Perhaps the most
remarkable feature of Booker Washington's leadership was that from
that time on he never deviated one hair's breadth in word or deed from
the platform laid down in this brief address.

It was not to be expected, however, that such a radically new note in
Negro leadership could be struck without some discord. As was
perfectly natural, some more or less prominent Negroes, whose mental
processes followed the lines of cleavage between the races engendered
by the embittering experiences of the Reconstruction period, looked
with suspicion upon a Negro leader who had won the approbation of the
South, of leading white citizens, press, and public. In the days of
slavery it was a frequent custom on large plantations to use one of
the slaves as a kind of stool pigeon to spy upon the others and report
their misdeeds. Naturally such persons were hated and despised and
looked upon as traitors to their race. Hence, it came about that the
praise of a white man was apt to throw suspicion upon the racial
loyalty of a black man. This habit of mind, like all mental habits,
long survived the system and circumstances which occasioned it.
Therefore, it was inevitable that the fact that