Musings of the South 165 



not allowed to sit upon juries, if there be not locally 

 a high sense of justice among the white men, there 

 is no redress. 



This was really the subject of the second day's 

 conference in Tuskegee: "How shall better rela- 

 tions be brought about between the two races?" 

 The relations of the white man to the negro are 

 already satisfactory to him, as he establishes them 

 by public sentiment and by law. The question 

 really, then, was, "How shall the negro win the con- 

 fidence and good-will of the white man?" Booker 

 Washington is right in believing that the negro can 

 win this confidence and good-will, and hence legal 

 protection, by the elevation of his own character. 

 Washington, Benson, and Smith of Texas, know 

 that he can only do it by making himself an indus- 

 trious, reliable, and valuable member of the com- 

 munity. If I had the ear of the public of the South, 

 I would say that they could do nothing better for 

 themselves than to give full recognition to merit by 

 insisting upon the civil rights of intelligent and 

 worthy negroes. This would put a high reward and 

 inducement before worthy colored people, and 

 before the unworthy, to rise. It would also satisfy 

 public Northern sentiment — a sentiment which, 

 though the South may not be aware of it, will as 

 surely culminate in drastic action as slavery did. 

 While a Georgia cracker, who can neither read nor 

 write, the lowest white man in America, can go to 

 the polls and counterbalance two white votes of the 



