368 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTOR IX SOUTHEEX RACE 



PROBLEMS 



By JAMES BARDIN, M.D. 



CNI\'EESITT OF VIEGIXIA 



WITH the increasing complexity of society in the southern states, 

 the Negro problem is taking on a correspondingly complex 

 character, and is coming more and more into the foreground of southern 

 consciousness. Immediately after the civil war — in fact, during the 

 entire epoch in which the south was in the grip of reconstruction — the 

 Negro did not give rise to the same problems that he does to-day ; that 

 is to say, the fact that he was a Negro was not the fundamental ele- 

 ment in the situation ; at that time, the problem most in the minds of 

 southerners was the presence of the reconstructionists and the recon- 

 struction governments, and the Negro was feared only because he was 

 the tool and the weapon of the latter. But with the gradual rehabilit-a- 

 tion of southern political liberties and tlie reestablishment of stable local 

 governments, the period of economic and social expansion began in the 

 south, and southern men, freed from the necessity of combating cease- 

 lessly for political life and social integrity, set about developing the long 

 neglected natural resources of the country. With this change in condi- 

 tions and this alteration of profound interests there came a change in 

 the status of the various groups forming the southern social organism. 

 And the Negro, no longer a political bete noire, began to come to atten- 

 tion in a more normal way as an organic member of society; and 

 southerners, secure in their hard-won political and social ascendancy, 

 began to be interested in him as a Negro and to attempt to bring about 

 his better adaptation to southern social institutions. This attempt on 

 the part of southerners to help the Negro adapt himself to southern 

 social conditions has a peculiar significance to the average southern man ; 

 it implies an attempt to increase the social efficiency and the economic 

 value of the Negro rather than his elevation to a higher social rank. 

 Thus, in the thought of the average southerner, the uplift of the Negro 

 has a radically different significance, usuall}', from that which it has in 

 the thought of those living outside the south, who do not altogether 

 understand southern social conditions. 



First and foremost, the southern man is interested in raising the 

 economic value of the Negro. To accomplish this various means have 

 been adopted, all designed to train the Negro in things of practical use- 

 fulness. Concomitantly, the churches and philanthropical institutions 

 are working toward the same end by attempting to teach the Negroes 



