e of these letters Mr.
Washington agrees, as requested, to read the proofs of "The Basis of
Ascendency," and in another he thus characteristically comments upon
Mr. Murphy's fears that a pessimistic book on the status of the Negro
written by a supposed authority (a colored man) would do wide-reaching
harm: "Of course among a certain element it will have an influence for
harm, but human nature, as I observe it, is so constructed that it
does not take kindly to a description of a failure. It is hard to get
up enthusiasm in connection with a funeral procession. No man, in my
opinion, could write a history of the Southern Confederacy that would
be read generally because it failed. I am not saying, of course, that
the Negro race is a failure. Mr. ---- writes largely from that point of
view, hence there is no rallying point for the general reader."

In reply to a Western university professor who had asked his opinion
of amalgamation as a solution of the race problem he wrote: "I have
never looked upon amalgamation as offering a solution of the so-called
race problem, and I know very few Negroes who favor it or even think
of it, for that matter. What those whom I have heard discuss the
matter do object to are laws which enable the father to escape his
responsibility, or prevent him from accepting and exercising it, when
he has children by colored women. I think this answers your question,
but since there seems to be some misunderstanding as to how colored
people feel about this subject, I might say in explanation of what I
have already said: The Negroes in America are, as you know, a mixed
race. If that is an advantage we have it; if it is a disadvantage, it
is still ours, and for the simple reason that the product of every
sort of racial mixture between the black man and any other race is
always a Negro and never a white man, Indian, or any other sort of
man.

"The Negro in America is defined by the census as a person who is
classed as such in the community in which he or she resides. In other
words, the Negro in this country is not so much of a particular color
or particular racial stock as one who shares a particular condition.
It is the fact that they all share in this condition which creates a
cause of common sympathy and binds the members of the race together in
spite of all differences."

To an embarrassing question put by the society editor of some paper
Mr. Washington replied by merely telling a funny story the app