Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



669 



THE COLOUR QUESTION. 



IS THE NEGRO HAVING A FAIR 

 CHANCE ? 



This question is asked in the November 

 Century Magazine by Brooker T. Washington. 

 It is not an easy one to answer, but after 

 reading- Mr. Washington's paper we are in- 

 clined to say that he is not. 



In the South, certainly, the negro gets some- 

 thing like fair play. In the North, however, 

 he has not only lack of opportunity to face, but 

 cruel restrictions. How these restrictions 

 operate is shown by the following : — 



Here is an experience of R. S. Lovinggood, a coloured 

 man of Austin, Texas. I know Mr. Lovinggood well. 

 He is neither a bitter nor a foolish man. I will venture 

 to say that there is not a single white man in Austin, 

 Texas, where he lives, who will say that Professor 

 Lovinggood is anything but a conservative, sensible man. 



" At one time," he said to me, in speaking of some of 

 his travelling experiences, " I got off at a station almost 

 starved. 1 begged the keeper of the restaurant to sell me 

 a lunch and hand it out of the window. He refused, and 

 I had to ride a hundred miles farther before I could get 

 a sandwich. At another time I went to a station to pur- 

 chase my ticket. I was there thirty minutes before the 

 ticket-office was opened. When it did finally open I at 

 once appeared at the window. While the ticket agent 

 served the white people at one window I remained there 

 beating the other until the train pulled out. I was com- 

 pelled to jump aboard the train without my ticket, and 

 wire back to get my trunk expressed." 



The law of America treats the negro more 

 harshly than anything else. It is impossible for 

 him to get justice. In the civil and criminal courts, 

 judges, lawyers, and juries are white, and how is 

 a negro to get justice under such circumstances 

 when he has a case against a white man? 



In Alabama eighty-five per cent, of the convicts are 

 negroes. The official records show that last year Ala- 

 bama had turned into its treasury $1,085,854 from the 

 labour of its convicts. At least $goo,ooo of this came 

 from negro convicts, who were for the most part rented 

 to the coal-mining companies in the northern part of the 

 State. The result of this policy has been to get as many 

 able-bodied convicts as possible into the mines, so that 

 contractors might increase their profits. Alabama, of 

 course, is not the only State that has yielded to the 

 temptation to make money out of human misery. The 

 point is, however, that while $goo,ooo is turned into the 

 State treasury from negro-convict labour, to say nothing 

 of negro taxes, there came out of the State treasury to 

 pay negro teachers only $357)585- 



But, in spite of all these things, when the good 

 is weighed against the bad, Mr. Washington's 

 belief is that, notwithstanding all the defects in 

 the American system of dealing with him, the 

 negro in that country owns more property, lives 

 in better houses, is in a larger measure 

 encouraged in business, wears better clothes, 

 eats better food, has more school-houses and 

 churches, more teachers and ministers, than any 

 similar group of negroes anywhere else in the 

 world. 



THE NEED FOR INTER-RACIAL 



UNITY. 

 William H. Seed contributes to the African 

 Times and Orient Review a sturdy protest against 

 " the darned nigger form of national insanity." 

 The spread of colour prejudice, he writes, can 

 only mean bitterness amongst the races of 

 mankind, and it promises to perpetuate war, 

 oppression, and all the evils of the past into 

 the far future. It rests, however, on a com- 

 paratively feeble basis. Every white individual 

 who freely associates on terms of equality with 

 those of a darker colour is materially assisting 

 to overthrow the social barrier upon which the 

 whole evil istructure depends. So important 

 is this question that it is matter for wonder 

 that democratic thinkers and workers have not 

 taken it up from this side, and made a special 

 point of social intercourse with our brothers 

 and sisters of different races. It ought to be 

 considered a duty, other things being equal, 

 for liberal-minded Europeans to associate with 

 non-Europeans, and to celebrate their mutual 

 friendship and their determination to combat 

 antagonism, to wage war against war, just as 

 those Englishmen who are anxious to keep the 

 peace between Great Britain and Germany, for 

 example, never miss a reasonable opportunity 

 of friendly intercourse with Germans. 



THE PROBLEM IN INDIA. 



A PAPER in the Round Table, on India : Old 



W^ays and New, declares that there is no more 



important and difficult duty before the Indian 



administration at the present moment than 



gradually and steadily to introduce a well-tested 



element of Indian material into the structure of 



the Government. This will ask much of the 



Indian Service in India : — 



They are asked, for a greater end, to surrender in 

 part the work of their lives to less competent hands; 

 to stand aside even, and " endure awhile and see in- 

 justice done " ; to pause, to argue and explain and coax, 

 when they have been accustomed to command ; and to 

 abide patiently interminable discussions when mischiefs 

 are crying out for remedy. And they will do it, 

 grumblingly often, but loyally always. English officials 

 worked out Lord Morley's proposals and carried them 

 further than even he was prepared to go. 



The December issue of Chambers's Journal is 

 a double number, the extra pages containing a 

 series of complete stories by Mr. Frank Hird, 

 Marian Bower, Mr. R. Machray, and others. 

 The most important article in the number is an 

 exposition of the science of eugenics ; it has 

 been contributed by Waldemar Kaempffert. 



