226 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



off his coat and go to work. He is beginning to learn the important 

 lesson that has made his brother of the North such a marvellous 

 success — the dignity of labour. Owing to the presence of the negro 

 it has taken the white man at the South nearly one hundred years 

 to learn how to work. 



In the development of one great industry of the South the negro 

 has taken no part. In the cotton mills no negroes are employed in 

 any of the skilled work. The negro cannot be relied on year in and 

 year out to work in these mills, and as reliability is a necessity, skilled 

 white labour is employed. 



Many of the Miners' Unions admit negroes on full terms, but the 

 blacks prefer not to become miners. The fact of the matter is that 

 the negro dreads continuous and conjfining toil, and prefers living near 

 the poverty line, rather than mounting to a higher position by hard 

 w^ork. 



The question of race amalgamation is one that has often been 

 discussed in America. By the people of the South, race amalgama- 

 tion is viewed with horror, and if there is one thing on earth thev 

 are determined on, it is that this amalgamation shall never come 

 about. Ask the leading negro men their views on the subject, and 

 you will find that those who are candid enough to tell you, have a 

 passionate faith in amalgamation. 



Substantially all of the States have laws against the inter- 

 marriage of blacks and whites, and the exceptions are in those States 

 iwhere either no negroes live or where they are so few as not to be 

 regarded by the law-makers. Even intensely pro-negro legislation, 

 supported by military power in the Southern States during the recon- 

 struction period, did not dare to legalize intermarriages of the blacks 

 with the whites. The words of Abraham Lincoln are very true : — 

 " There is a physical difference between the white and black races, 

 which I believe will forever forbid them living together on terms of 

 social and, political equality." 



This brief account of the negro in America makes a rather dismal 

 story. We all know the phrase " the white man's burden," but I 

 believe the people of the South have had, and still have, the greatest 

 part of the burden. The negro question is one that weighs heavily 

 on the keenest brains and the kindest hearts of the South. To-day 

 it is recognized that their first duty is toward their own race, who, in 

 some sections, are vastly outnumbered by the negroes, the thousands 

 of poor whites who never received a cent in money, or any sympathy 

 from the flood which burst o^er the South from the North after the 

 Civil War. These unfortunate whites are well worth trainine:, well 

 worth helping. 



For the sake of the negro himself, the poor whites, or " white 

 trash," as the negroes derisively call them, should be educated and 

 elevated. It is found that most bitterness, most race hatred exists in 

 those districts in which the white race is most illiterate. In com- 

 munities where the white race is highly educated, the black race is 

 treated with a helpful kindness that astonishes the visitor. 



