FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 151 



homes, after their period of service, would be advantageous. Their 

 training and experience would make them of much value to their 

 people. 



There are, however, certain signal disadvantages which would arise 

 from the employment of negroes as soldiers. In the first place, it would 

 tend to remove from the body of the folk the abler men — those to whom 

 we should mainly look for the uplifting of their race. This evil, 

 great in the case of all levies, would be most serious in this case; for 

 the reason that, while with white troops the rank and file are not 

 commonly by nature leaders of their society, they would be so with 

 black recruits. If the choice could be made of the Guinea type, this 

 loss would not be serious; but it certainly would fall to the more 

 militant stocks — those to which we have to look for advancement. In 

 the next place, we must see that the negro does not need the training 

 in passive obedience and mere order of life that the common soldier 

 receives. He has had that already in quite sufficient measure. He 

 now should have the lessons of individual responsibility — of control of 

 his life from within — lessons that civil life alone can give. Therefore, 

 the well-wisher of the race will be inclined to oppose this project 

 of recruiting our armies from the negroes of the Southern States. If 

 it is determined to enlist them it would be best to limit the age of 

 the recruits to' about twenty years, and the period of active service to 

 five years, so that the men may be returned to civil life young enough 

 to enter on ordinary employments. 



At present it is most desirable that the negroes of the South should 

 be induced to save money, for until that habit is formed, there is little 

 chance of lifting them in the economic scale or of developing in them 

 the business sense, which is one of the corner-stones of civilization. It 

 is probable that more could be done in the way of correcting the faults 

 and stimulating the latent capacities of the race by developing this 

 motive than by any other means. It is difficult to suggest any effective 

 system by which this end can be attained. The general conditions of 

 the South make rural savings-banks impossible. The receipts, at least 

 for many years, would be too small to render the business remunerative. 

 The only practicable method appears to be that of a Federal system 

 operated through the post-offices. The institution of such a system 

 appears to be justified by the two conditions: the exceeding need of 

 snch a provision and the impossibility of doing the work except through 

 the postal machinery of which the Federal Government holds a monop- 

 oly. It may be said that this method has proved successful under other 

 governments, and that it has been for some time established in Canada. 

 In our own country it is clearly demanded, in all rural communities,, 

 though nowhere else so gravely as in the Southern States. 



In looking over the latent possibilities of the negro people, the 



