That is the situation. But is there no way to avert
this coming strife? I am here to say that there is. As communicants of
the Catholic Church the negroes will not listen to the labor agitator.
He will listen to the church, which will advise peace and submission to
proper authority."

The priest had not gone far into his discourse before the Major began to
walk up and down the porch in front of him, nodding at him each time as
he passed. And when the clergyman ceased to speak, the Major, halting
and facing him, thus replied: "There may be some truth, sir, in what you
have said--there is some little truth in the wildest of speculation--but
I should like to ask you why is not a Protestant negro in a Protestant
country as safe as a Catholic negro in a Protestant country? You tell me
that your religion will protect the negro, and I ask you why it does not
protect the laborer in the North? You say that the Protestant negro in
the South is a local issue, and I ask you why is not a Catholic laborer
in the North an international issue? If the negro of the South, yielding
to your persuasion, is to become a part of the great nervous system of
Rome, why are not Catholic laborers everywhere a part of that system? I
think, sir, that you have shrewdly introduced a special plea. Your
church, with its business eyes always wide open, sees a chance to make
converts and is taking advantage of it. And I will not say that I will
oppose your cause. If the negro thinks that your church is better for
him than the Protestant churches have proved themselves to be, why I say
let him be taken in. I admit that we are not greatly concerned over the
negro's religion. We are satisfied with the fact that he has his
churches and that he has always been amply provided with preachers
agreeing with him in creed and color of skin. I will concede that his
professions of faith are regarded more or less in the light of a joke.
But I want to tell you one thing--that the negro's best friends live
here in the South. From us he knows exactly what to expect. He knows
that he cannot rule us--knows that he must work for a living. The lands
belong to the white man and the white man pays the taxes, and the white
man would be a fool to permit the negro to manage his affairs. Men who
dig in the coal mines of Pennsylvania don't manage the affairs of the
company that owns the mines. I cannot question the correctness of one of
your views--that the old tie is straining and ma