sutton elbert griggs--the one great question--a study of southern conditions at close range (1907)

8/3/2019 Sutton Elbert Griggs--The One Great Question--A Study of Southern Conditions at Close Range (1907)

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University of California Berkeley


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THE ONEGREAT QUESTIONA STUDY OF SOUTHERN CONDITIONS AT CLOSE RANGE

By SUTTON E. GRIGGSAuthor of "Imperium in Imperio,"" Overshadowed," " Unfettered,'*" Dorian's Plan," " The Hindered Hand," Etc., Etc., Etc.

THE ORION PUBLISHING CO.PHILADELPHIA. PA. q NASHVILLE, TENN.


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Copyrighted, 1907, byTHE ORION PUBLISHING COMPANYNashville, Tenn.


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' ' Is the statesmanship of our timesadequate to avert a direful crisis? Or,will it fail to solve the Negro problem,just as the statesmanship of 1860 failedto find a solution by the bloody expedientof civil war. That is undoubtedly the onegreat question for American civilization toanswer." HARPER'S WEEKLY.


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Contents

- PART I.PACK

The Case Stated 7Applying the Test 10The Queen City 11An Illuminating Incident 15The Penalty for Saying "Yes" 16A Young Woman Fined 18Fleeing from Injustice 19Guarians of the Peace 20The Tom Ray Case 21The Officer Creeps 22

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Just to See Him Run 24The Writer an Eye-witness 26For Standing by His Sister 28Prison Life 29A Roll Call 31A Tuskegee Professor 33

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Contents

PART II. THE CASE ARGUED. ,PAGE

To Be Expected 39The Larger Results 40The Aspiring Negro 42Broad Road to Depths, But Not to Heights 44The White South Affected 45Destroying the Sentiment of Justice 46Leadership of the White South. 47Cheapened Political Life 51Must Find Fault 51The Nation 52The One Solution 54A Plan of Action 55


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The One Great QuestionPART I. THE CASE STATED.

The late Hon. Carl Schurz, in the course of anarticle published a few years since, bearing upon thequestion of the relation of the races in the South, wroteas follows : ~

"And here is the crucial point : There will be amovement in the direction of reducing the Negroesto a permanent condition of serfdom the conditionof mere plantation hands, 'alongside the mule/practically without any rights of citizenship or amovement in the direction of recognizing him as acitizen in the true sense of that term. One or theother will prevail."In a more recent article appearing in the Century

Magazine, the Hon. Charles Francis Adams quotes,with evident approval, the following from Baker :"So long as it is generally considered that theNegro and the white man are to be governed bythe same laws and guided by the same management, so long will the former remain a thorn inthe side of every community to which he may un

happily belong."Owen Wister, in his recent book, "Lady Baltimore," essaying to photograph the current thought ofthe young North groping its way toward settled convictions, represents it as now feeling that the finalstatus of the American Negro is to be and ought to be"something between equality and slavery."


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The Hon. E. W. Carmack, the rather brilliantyoung United States Senator from Tennessee, said, ina speech delivered not long since, upon the occasion ofthe opening of his campaign for re-election :

"I believe this is a white man's country, awhite man's civilization and a white man's government. We belong to a race that has never yetdivided sovereignty and dominion."His successful opponent, ex-Governor Robert L.

Taylor, in stating his position on the race question, saidthat the Negro had been thoroughly eliminated fromthe political life of the South, and therefore, in thatrespect, was no longer an issue.

Says John C. Reed, in his "The Brothers' War" :"Booker Washington is a great, a decisive au

thority on this question. He counsels the Negro toeschew politics. This is wise. It is the solid interest of the Negro masses that they accept the inevitable, just as the South gave up slavery when wecould hold on to it no longer."In the course of an editorial bearing on the race

question, Harper's Weekly, in a recent issue, remarks :"The policy personified in Governor Varda-man and Mr. Hoke Smith points, of course,

straight to serfdom. * * * A step was takenin that direction when the Negro was disfranchised * * *."Remarks the Baptist Argus (Kentucky) :

"Has the Negro in America enough wisdom toadjust himself to the conditions yearly growingmore critical ? That is an important question ; oneof far-reaching moment. Negro leaders need torealize that the future of their people depends upontheir ability to make the best of the fact that theyare in a country governed by a more powerful race ;a race which would reverse all of its history and


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do violence to all of its ambitions should it consentto turn any part of its government over to anotherrace. This is a fact, and not a theory, which confronts our Negro brethren, and foolish is theNegro leader, foolish and criminally blind, whowould inflame his people with any hope to the contrary. Booker Washington is right. The onlyhope of the Negro is to improve himself, to geteducation and property, and by wise counsels getthe best terms, as the future unfolds, which thewhite race may see its way to give."The Wall Street Journal, supposed to represent

more or less the capitalistic view of matters, said in asomewhat recent editorial :"The race question is settled if the dominant

party will only allow it to stay settled."In the citations here given we have certain northern white men of wide repute suggesting that the

nation abandon as idle its dream of establishing amongits citizens an equality of citizenship without regard to"race, color or previous* condition of servitude;" southern men proclaiming it as the fixed policy of the whiteSouth to deny the Negro a share in the government,and the organ of the money power proclaiming that therace question is now settled if the dominant politicalparty will only allow it to so remain.These expressions bear out in full the prediction ofMr. Schurz as to a movement looking toward the abandonment of the contest for full-fledged citizenship forthe Negro.The content of the suggestion put forth is that theSouth be definitely cut off from the rest of the nation ;that in other sections the country's march towards itsdestiny be made over the hopeful highway of a democracy, while in Dixie the journey is to be made in a softol oligarchical by-path.


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The more humane among those who hold that theideal situation is one in which the government is administered for the Negroes and the whites by an exclusivewhite regime promise that the system will stimulate theNegroes along material lines, will foster education, administer justice, safeguard human life and advance theinterests of civilization in general. The more rationalof the advocates of this plan of adjustment of the relation of the races do not favor an agitation looking to therepeal of the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution,but hope for its nullification through a policy of non-enforcement, backed by an acquiescing public opinion.

APPLYING THE TEST.Precisely the system which is here proposed as a

permanent solution of the race question, a system withthe Negro occupying that "something between equalityand slavery" condition suggested by Mr. Wister, hasbeen in vogue in various of the southern States for anumber of years. In view of the prominence of thosesupporting the proposition to make this condition permanent a careful scrutiny of its fruitage would seem tobe peculiarly in order. Being somewhat familiar withthe actual workings of this system, having seen it thoroughly tested on sundry occasions, we have thought topilot our readers on a visit to the regions in question,that they may note the kind of fruit the tree of repression bears.

Such of the whites of the South as are opposed toaccording the Negro the full measure of his rights asset forth in the Constitution have usually found themeans of making it thoroughly uncomfortable for suchsouthern white men as Professor Sledd and GeorgeW. Cable, who have written contrary to their point ofview, and having thus practically acquired a monopoly10


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of local expression have been wont to taunt those whowrite from a distance with the fact that they are not onthe scene, do not thoroughly understand local conditions and hence write as mere theorists. A premiumhas thus been laid on first-hand knowledge of the situation. The writer has lived in the South practically thewhole of the thirty-four years thus far accorded him,and for the past seven years has resided in the city ofNashville, Tennessee. For the purpose of meeting themost exacting demands of those who call for first-handknowledge, and at the risk of being accused of descending to the particular, we shall confine our recital of conditions largely to such incidents as have come more orless under our own observation or the observation ofpersons known to the writer personally.

THE QUEEN CITY.It occurs to us that there is a unique value at

tached to the fact that our portrayal of conditions will,under the rule laid down, be confined largely to ourpresent place of residence, Nashville, Tennessee inview of the high standing of that city as an exponent ofsouthern civilization at its best.

Upon the general proposition that Nashville doesthus represent southern civilization, we would scarcelyexpect much dissent. During a visit to the city a fewyears since the Hon. Charles H. Grosvenor, of Ohio,remarked in the course of an address to the Legislatureof Tennessee :

"Taken all in all, Nashville is about the bestcity in the South."Philanthropists, with the education of the two races

at heart,, seemed to regard the city as a rather ideal,strategic educational center for both races, and as a

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result more than eight millions of dollars are hereinvested in educational institutions.

In the course of an address delivered somewhatrecently in the Academy of Music, in the city of Philadelphia, Prof. Booker T. Washington spoke substantially as follows :"We are accustomed to hear much about race

prejudice in the South. You will pardon me if I relate some of my personal experiences, a thingwhich I do not like much to do. Take the city ofNashville, for an example. Recently I visited thatcity and one of the most aristocratic white churchesof the city threw open its doors to me to addressthe white people, and the building was crowdedbefore the hour for the speaking to begin."The impression created upon the minds of his

hearers by Mr. Washington's remarks was very favorable to the city of Nashville, which impression was,perhaps, a true reflection of that made upon his mindby the hospitality extended him by the white people ofthat city. If we are to credit the public expressions ofother visitors made from time to time, it is a fact thatNashville has a way of commending itself quite generally to the good will of the stranger within its gates. If,then, in Nashville we are to behold the South's highestmountain peak, the imagination of the reader is at liberty to conceive its deepest valley. "If they do thesethings in the green tree, what shall be done in thedry?"

To begin with, Nashville is a repressionist city,having all the earmarks of such. During the recentpresidential campaign it was in this city, and beforewhat was said to be the flower of the white race, thatSenator E. W. Carmack made the applause-provokingdeclaration :"The man who does not know the difference12


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between a white man and a 'nigger* is not fitto be President."Somewhat recently, one of Nashville's and Tennessee's most noted citizens, the Hon. John J. Vertrees,

took the position in a published statement that theNegro should be denied the right to vote because of hisrace, and that the white people of the South will resort to violence, if necessary, to eliminate the Negroesfrom politics when in large numbers they overcome thepresent handicaps of illiteracy and poverty and measure up to all the requirements imposed by the presentdisfranchising laws.The elimination of the Negro from the politics ofthe city of Nashville is not brought about directly bylegislation, but by the predominance of the repression-ist sentiment among the whites. Primaries are heldfrom which Negroes are excluded because of theirracial connection, and, when the primaries are regardedas having been fairly conducted, contumely is visitedupon any white man who dares to attempt to thwartthe expressed wish of the white primary by an alliancewith Negro voters.We are now to see how the Negroes fare in thisideal southern city in which, by the sentiment of somany of their white neighbors, they are denied a voicein the city's government.

In the city of Nashville there are three universities for the education of the Negroes, and the influence of these institutions, coupled with the work ofthe public schools, has quickened the interest of theNegro population in the matter of the education of theiryoung. The facilities for the accommodation of theNegro children in the city public schools are not nowand for years have not been adequate for their needs.

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It is estimated by competent authorities that seatingfacilities exist for not more than one out of four Negrochildren of school age. As a result many Negro children are annually denied admission to the schools froma sheer lack of room. The writer remembers quite wellthe look of keen disappointment on the face of hisseven-year-old girl when he was told by the principal ofthe school to which he had taken her that there was noroom for her.Mass meetings have been held by the Negroes,committees have been appointed to lay the facts beforethe School Board, City Councilmen have been personally besieged, School Superintendents have pointed outthe need of more room to Boards of Education, and theBoards of Education have recommended increases tothe City Council, but all to no avil. When the writerlast inquired of the Negro leader of the movement forincreased facilities as to the status of affairs, the following was the answer:

"Our friends among the whites have told me tokeep quiet ; that the Board of Education has askedfor an appropriation of sufficient size to enablethem to squeeze out another building for us. Andif the appropriation is made as asked for, we mayget the school by having kept the City Council inignorance as to what was being done."This is the manner in which the repressed have to

struggle in the enlightened repressionist city of Nashville to save their children from ignorance and evil-breeding idleness. The City Councilmen are hedgedabout by the white primary system, and care nothingfor the agonizings of the Negroes from whose politicalwrath they are securely shielded.

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AN ILLUMINATING INCIDENT.Negro roustabouts engaged in the Cumberland

river traffic between Nashville and other points beganto give accounts of life on the river that poisoned theminds of Negro laborers in general against that form ofemployment. Among other things they charged thatthe men were worked without proper shifts in the forcebeing made; that they were not provided with decentsleeping quarters, but were compelled to sleep on thebare floors and near the boilers for warmth ; that theirfood was served to them in one huge pan out of whichall the workmen were compelled to eat at the one time,each using a large spoon ; that the petty officers werevery tyrannical, feeling themselves amply protected bystringent United States laws against insubordinationon the seas; that often when a piece of freight wasdropped by accident into the water the party droppingit had to choose between jumping into the river after itor being clubbed by the white officer in charge of thework, and that roustabouts thus forced to jump overboard had lost their lives. As a result of these accountsof the treatment accorded roustabouts, that form oflabor lost all attraction for Negro laborers.When boat owners found themselves in straits forlabor, they repaired to the City Hall and related howdifficult it was for them to get roustabouts even byoffering greater pay than was usual. To solve the problem, on one occasion a squad of policemen appeared oncertain business streets, rounded up indiscriminately allNegroes that happened to be in sight at that time, anddrove them aboard one of these boats needing labor, asthey would so many slaves.

During the summer months these river boatsare used largely for excursion purposes to carry the

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various Negro churches and Sunday Schools on annualoutings. As a protest against the alleged treatment ofthese roustabouts these forty or fifty churches, withpossibly two exceptions, joined in a boycott of theboats and declined their use for pleasure purposesthroughout the summer following this crisis in thelabor situation on the river.

But the practice of enforced labor has not beenabandoned. Whenever there is a scarcity of labor onthe river, complaint is made at the City Hall and policemen are forthwith sent to arrest Negroes who have theappearance of being out of work, and who, when arrested, are told to choose between being fined and sentto the chain gang and going to work on the boats.The business men who help to make Mayors receive prompt attention from the hands of the authorities. The dumb laborers, shut out from the governingforce, cannot so much as get their grievances investigated.THE PENALTY FOR SAYING "YES."

We pass now to the matter of the administrationof justice in the city of Nashville, choosing such casesto illustrate its operation as have come more or lessunder the direct observation of the writer. If we gosomewhat minutely into this phase of our subject, bearwith us, as the results issuing from the Courts are far-reaching in their bearings upon the welfare of the nation, a fact that will soon perhaps be apparent to themind of the most unwilling reader.

In the city of Nashville there resides a Negrominister, who, though comparatively unlearned, hassucceeded in building up a religious publishing house tothe point where it does a business of over one hundredand fifty thousand dollars annually. This Negro insti-

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tution, it is said, does a larger amount of business withthe Nashville postoffice than any other local concern.One evening one of the young women in the stenographic department was detained after hours in orderthat some very urgent correspondence might receivedue attention. When in the earlier part of the nightthe young woman was ready to leave, the daughter ofthe head of the establishment loaned her a cloak toprotect her from the increased chilliness of the air,while a son of the publisher offered his services as anescort.

When, a few minutes later, the young woman arrived at her door, she handed the borrowed cloak tothe young man to be returned to his sister. He threwthe cloak across his arm and proceeded toward hishome, it still being in the early part of the night.Two policemen saw him and called to him to halt.Not knowing that they were addressing him, he continued walking. They called a second time, saying, "youfellow there with the cloak on your arm."The young man now halted and the officers drewnear. They questioned him as to his residence and soforth, he replying to their queries. In answer to one oftheir questions he said "yes."

"Don't you say 'yes' to me, you d d niggeryou ; I'll beat your head off," said the enraged officer.. The young man was taken to the city jail, locked

in a cell and kept there for some time before he wasallowed to communicate with his family. Finally hisfather was reached and came to furnish bail.

In due course the young man was arraigned fortrial. The cloak was his sister's, and the ownershipthereof was never in dispute. The hour at which theyoung man was abroad was not an unseasonable one,

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and no objection was due on that score. He was by nomeans a vagrant, as he was engaged in legitimateservice, drawing a larger monthly salary, perhaps, thanthe officers that arrested him. There were present inthe Court white persons and Negroes high in the business world to testify to the young man's character.This young man was one of the most orderly, straightforward, inoffensive young men it has been the pleasure of the writer to know. Yet he was adjudged acriminal and a fine of ten dollars was set down uponthe books opposite his name.

After the record had been made and the youngman's name handed down to posterity as a criminal,to the marring of the family record of the publisher,the Court magnanimously decided to remit the fine,taking care, however to allow the judgment of guiltyto stand. The offense charged was abusive languageaddressed to the officers, which the young man, on hisoath, swore was nothing more nor less than the leavingoff of the "sir" in response to a question. His accusersdid not mention a single word of abuse that he used,simply stating to the Court that the young man's manner was very offensive. As it was very offensive insome quarters for a Negro to leave off the "sir," therewas no necessary conflict between the testimony of theyoung man and the officers on this point.A YOUNG WOMAN FINED.

A young Negro woman, highly esteemed by thepeople of her race, a graduate of the City High Schooland from the business course of one of the local universities for colored people, was arraigned before theCity Judge about whose Court we have just written.The charge against the young woman, in the Judge'sown words, was that she "might have given the white

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lady a more civil answer" to a question. She had beendragged from her parents' home into which policemenhad entered without due warrant of law. Her fatherhad been refused the privilege of taking her to thestation in his own vehicle, and the mother the privilegeof riding with her in the patrol wagon.She was adjudged a criminal and fined five dollars.There was absolutely no mention of vulgarity, boister-ousness, or abusive language. The reply of the youngwoman to a commonplace question by a white womanwas not deemed as civil as it might have been, and sothe young Negro woman had her name entered uponthe record books as a criminal.

During the proceedings in the City Court in bothof the cases cited the writer was present throughoutand saw for himself the workings of the Court. Suchwas the justice meted out when the parties accusedwere intelligent, members of good families, havingrecords in the community absolutely untarnished, andable to employ legal talent to defend themselves.

FLEEING FROM INJUSTICE.All elements of the Negro population have grownto regard the Courts as the temple of injustice, ratherthan the temple of justice. The spot of all others thatshould be deemed sacred to the cause of right is regarded as doubly sure to be guilty of wrong.

The lower stratum of Negro life gathers in greatnumbers on Court days and keenly watches the dispensing of the repressionist brand of justice. TheNegroes have come to the conclusion that, as betweenan accusing policeman and a prisoner, there is absolutely no chance for the prisoner.

This prevalent belief has influenced the Negroyouths, however innocent, to decide to take no chances


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before this Court. As a result when they are accostedby a policeman, if they feel that they have anythinglike a chance to get away, they run, regarding theirconviction, be they guilty or innocent, as an assuredfact if but arrested. To counteract this running habitthe policemen adopted the practice of shooting to killall Negroes who, when accosted, dared to run.GUARDIANS OF THE PEACE.

We shall now cite several cases, the first four ofwhich occurred within a period of about six weeks.At a wholly seasonable hour of the night a numberof Negro youths were walking along in the southernpart of the city. They were in no way breaking the law,but an officer, for some reason, desired to interrogatethem. They were respectable young boys, belonging togood families, and unaccustomed to Court troubles.Though conscious of the fact that they were not guiltyof any offense, yet fearing that they would be fined,they ran. The policeman fired several times at the fleeing group, and succeeded in killing one of the number,the fatal bullet having entered the victim's back. Nopunishment of any character has ever been meted out tothis officer.A Negro man, evidently a stranger in Nashville,was walking through the railroad yards when he wascalled upon by the guard to halt. He was makingno threatening demonstration was simply passingthrough the yards. Failing to stop when called to bythe guard, he was shot and killed. No punishment wasadministered to his slayer, who was not even broughtto trial.A Negro was arrested for vagrancy, fined five dollars and placed in the chain gang. The pick that wasplaced about his ankle to prevent his escape dropped

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off in the course of the day. Finding himself so unexpectedly unhampered, the Negro began to run in thehope of escaping. Though the offense charged was butvagrancy, and the fine being worked out but five dollars, the guard felt warranted in taking the life of thefleeing Negro. He fired, killing the Negro. No punishment was inflicted upon this guard.

THE TOM RAY CASE.We shall now cite a case in which the position of

the Negro in the community in the matter of having hislife protected was most squarely brought to a test. Aswe are trying to set forth the essential character ofNashville civilization, typical of a repressionist regime,we again beg pardon for the minuteness which will justnow characterize our statement.Two young Negro men called one evening to see ayoung Negro woman. These parties were all of thehumbler, though not criminal walks of life. Tom Ray,one of the two young men, seems to have offended theyoung woman by leaving her home and taking theother caller, in whom the young woman was interested,away sooner than she desired.On a Saturday evening, we think, candidates forDemocratic primary nominations were holding a meeting in one of the wards, and Tom Ray was standing on the outskirts of the throng listening to thespeeches. The Negro girl whom he had offended in themanner mentioned above, saw him, approached andchided him for having treated her as he did. Tom disavowed responsibility for the leaving of the otheryoung man, but this did not pacify the young woman.In order to wreak vengeance on Tom she accosted anofficer and told him that he was carrying a pistol.

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The officer sought Tom and caught hold of himfor the purpose of making an arrest. Tom shed hiscoat, leaving it in the hands of the officer while he madehis escape. The officer fired, but did not succeed in hitting him.On a previous occasion this officer had arrestedTom as a vagrant, but Tom's white employer havingappeared for him, he was not convicted. Tom's previous victory over this officer, and his escape in the present instance, seems to have nettled the policeman.

In order to make clear what is now to follow, wesubmit the following diagram :

MARK 5T.

UJ-J

PO tCHte

SALO3NLI5CHEY .

ALLEY GATEorUJHOQJ

THE OFFICER CREEPS.On the Tuesday night following the Saturday night

mentioned above, a number of persons sitting onporches at the point indicated in the diagram, saw TomRay walk out of a saloon on Foster street and enterthe mouth of Lischey street He turned back rathersuddenly and went across Foster into Mark street.While the persons on the porches were still wonderingwhy Tom had changed his route so suddenly, two

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officers were seen entering Foster street from Lischey.The trouble that Tom Ray had on Saturday nighthaving been duly reported in the daily papers, theparties on the porches knowing Tom, now readilyunderstood that he had seen the officers, whom he wasabout to meet, and as a consequence had changed hiscourse.

The two officers conversed a while on the corner ofFoster and Lischey, one going west on Foster and theother east. The officer going east entered a gate andcrouched out of sight almost directly opposite theporches on which the persons mentioned were sitting.Tom Ray passed down Mark street to alley I, camethrough alley i to alley 2, through alley 2 back to Foster street. Approaching the people sitting on the firstporch, he said : "Did you see two cops pass herea while ago?"The parties addressed were afraid to talk freely toTom, for the officer in hiding across the street couldeasily hear whatever might be said. One of the womenon the porch said : "You had better go on about yourbusiness, Tom." Her husband, who was sitting, aroseand walked rapidly across his porch trying to hint toTom to be in a hurry.Tom did not apprehend what the man was seeking to convey. He said : "You know the cops are afterme. I am willing to be arrested by the day cops, but notby the night ones, for they have a way of clubbing younearly to death. They club you up for nothing.""You had better go on, Tom," remarked thewoman, who had previously spoken to him.Tom left the porch and walked diagonally acrossthe street, toward the mouth of Lischey, stopping aninstant in the middle of the street to adjust his shoe.

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The policeman now crept from his hiding place and began to move stealthily toward him.At about this time a number of men and womenfrom a nearby Negro church were entering Fosterstreet from Mark, and saw the Negro walking alongand the officer creeping up behind him. They watchedwith extreme interest what was taking place, as did alsothe persons sitting on the porches who, as we have seen,had for many minutes been eye-witnesses of the ma-noeuvering of Tom and the officers.

According tp the sworn affidavits of eye-witnesses,whom the writer has known for years, and for whosegeneral truthfulness he can most positively vouch,when the officer drew near to Tom, to the amazement ofall he lifted his pistol and fired, the fatal bullet enteringTom's jugular vein. Tom sprang into the air and theofficer leaped toward him, the two falling together.An effort was made to have this officer indicted,but all to no avail. A Negro lawyer who had been employed in connection with a white lawyer to labor foran indictment was spoken to thus by the court officialwhose duty it was to. summon witnesses :"You are the cause of all this," said he, referring tothe investigation. "If it hadn't been for you therewould not have been anything of it. The first thingyou know, you are going to be killed." This courtofficial, and all others under a repressionist regime, canafford to use the entire legal machinery for the protection of those who murder Negroes and yet fear nothing, as the white primary shields them from the Negrovoter that would vote for court officials who wouldpunish rather than shield crime.

JUST TO SEE HIM RUN.There are numbers of white men in the South who

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their attention is called thereto. But we are now to citea case that will show just how much justice can bewrung from the courts of the repressionists in cases inwhich Negroes are involved, even when white people ofstanding are engineering matters.An aged, inoffensive Negro boarded a street car onhis way home. He gave the conductor, he claimed,fifty cents, and was handed five cents in change. He insisted on getting forty-five cents, but was refused.When the car reached the end of the line the conductorgot off and likewise the Negro, who renewed his request for proper change. The conductor thereuponopened fire upon him. The Negro turned to run andthe conductor chased him, firing four shots in all. TheNegro was wounded, dragged himself home and died.The white people who held him as their propertyin the days of slavery heard of the incident and tookan active interest in the effort to punish the conductor.Being influential, they succeeded in having him indictedand brought to trial. His defense was that he shot inself-defense.

"Well, if you were shooting in self-defense, whydid you shoot after he began to run ?" asked a lawyer.

"Well, I just shot at him to see him run," was hisreply.

In the face of the sworn statement that he shot atthe Negro to see him run, the jury assessed his punishment at five years in the penitentiary. An empty flask ofwhiskey was found in the jury room, and upon thestrength of this find the lawyers for the defense applied for and were granted a new trial for the conductor. On the occasion of the second trial the conductor was given two years in the penitentiary. Hestayed there a few months, when a petition was circu-

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lated in his behalf and he was pardoned by theGovernor.

THE WRITER AN EYE-WITNESS.A Negro boy, whom, for the sake of a name, wecall Henry, got into an altercation with some whiteboys, in which altercation no one was hurt. He was arrested, tried and sentenced to ten months on the countyfarm. Having heard horrible tales as to the treatmentaccorded prisoners on this farm, to which conditionswe advert later, Henry decided to jump out of thecourt house window and make an effort to escape.*"Arising quickly he sprang up into the court housewindow. An officer rushed toward him to intercepthim, but it was too late. Out of the window he jumped,dropping to the pavement below. He dashed out of theside gate of the court house yard and ran southwardacross the square, in the center of which the courthouse stood. Coming to the street which led to thebridge over the river that intersected the city, heturned eastward and started across the bridge with allthe speed at his command.The court officials were now in hot pursuit of thefleeing lad, one officer seizing a buggy, another jumping upon a street car and ordering the motorman toproceed at his utmost speed.

Henry had almost covered the full length of thebridge when the cry of the officers, caught up fromone to another, had about come up with him. Whenhe had all but reached the farther end of the bridge,in order to avoid an officer whom he saw standingawaiting him with a drawn pistol, he leaped over therailing and dropped about twenty feet, striking the

* The Hindered Hand.26


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embankment reared up for a resting place for the endof the bridge.

This officer of the law saw Henry leap, and ranto the steps, which were not far from the spot whencehe had jumped. The officer reached the steps in timeto see Henry sliding toward the water's edge. Theofficer began running down the steps, shooting as heran. The people on the bridge crowded to the side overwhich Henry had leaped and witnessed the race between Henry and the shooting officer. Henry fell, andit was thought that he was hit, but he arose and continued his running. He turned under the bridge andran along parallel with the waters of the river. Afterpassing fully under the bridge, Henry plunged into thestream and ran somewhat diagonally toward the centerof the river until he was up to his neck in water.'Move a step further out and I will kill you/ saida bareheaded officer who had at last reached the riverbank, brandishing his pistol as he spoke.

By this time hundreds perhaps a thousand or soof people had gathered on the bridge. Henry stoodin the water tossing his arms up and down. He fearedto come ashore and was equally afraid to try to swimfurther out, feeling that he would be killed in anyevent. Some one on the bridge lifted a revolver to therailing, leveled it at Henry's head and fired.

'Shame! Shame! Shame!' was the word passedfrom lip to lip as the noise of the shot was heard.Henry threw up his hands and fell, his arms up-stretched above his head as he disappeared beneath thesurface of the water. No one of the thousands stirred.In breathless silence they watched the spot where thelad had sunk out of sight. Some felt that Henry hadsimply dived and in due time would rise. Second after

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second passed; on the brief moments of time flew,while the eager eyes of the multitude were fastenedon the murky waters of the river. Henry did not rise.He was dead. When it was known that life must beextinct, officers of the law rowed out to where he waslast seen and fished his body out."The killing of this boy was not even investigated.The writer was an eye-witness of this tragedy and assuch wrote the above accurate description of the occurrence, which appears in his story, "The HinderedHand." FOR STANDING BY HIS SISTER.

There resided near Springfield, Tennessee, a Negrowidow, who was the mother of two children, a boyand a girl.The owner of the farm on which they lived, awhite man, desired to pay attention to the girl, butregarded the boy as being in his way. He ordered theboy to leave the farm, which the boy refused to do,knowing the man's designs toward his sister. Thewhite man and the Negro youth eventually came toblows over the matter, and in the fight the white manwas seriously injured.The Negro was arrested and carried to Springfield,ostensibly for safekeeping. The sheriff who had theNegro boy in charge on the way to Springfield got intoa conversation with a fellow-passenger. He asked thepassenger to come back from Springfield that night,stating that they were going to have some fun withthis Negro. This fellow-passenger, as it happened, hadNegro blood in his veins, though traces of such werenot discernible to the eye. He was riding in the coachset apart for whites and was presumed to be white.28


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Upon arriving in Nashville this Negro gathered adelegation of the more prominent Negroes and waitedon the Governor, citing the remarks of the sheriff andasking his intervention to save the life of the prisoner.For a time he seemed to take an interest in the case,until a chance remark let him know that the white-looking man was a Negro. Finding that his delegationwas composed of Negroes entirely, he stated that therewas nothing that he could do. Being urged to communicate with the sheriff, he declined, saying he couldonly act when appealed to by the sheriffs of the counties. That night a mob took the Negro youth from thejail, hanged him to a tree and riddled his body withbullets.

PRISON LIFE.Such is t'he life of the free Negroes. Perhaps

something should be said concerning those who are notfree those who are imprisoned by the duly constitutedauthorities that we may see just what sort of a prisonsystem a repressionist regime evolves.The writer remembers having seen a man who hadjust returned from the county farm with one foot eatento a nub, the result of being frost-bitten through exposure on the farm, to which he had been sent for aminor offense. He also recalls having seen a womanwho testified that she had been made to lie on herstomach and receive a whipping from the guard, withher clothes thrown over her head. As she was leavingthe room the man who had whipped her knocked herin the eye with his elbow, saying, "Take that, youhussy." As a result of that blow the woman was blindin that eye when relating her treatment to the writer.The tales, of horror coming from the county farm equalthose coming from Russia's Siberia.

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A Negro lawyer purchased a printing press andsold it before he had finished his payments on it. Otherthan this offense his record seems to have been good.For the offense cited he was sent to the State penitentiary. He states that during his incarceration, coveringa period of twenty-three months, four Negroes werewantonly murdered by prison officials, and that one ofthis number was killed while being shot at as a targetby one of the guards.We confess that we were more than inclined todiscount this story, but when we recall the manner inwhich Tom Ray was killed by a policeman, and remember that a street car conductor swore that he shotat a Negro "just to see him run," which conductor waspardoned by the Governor, we pause and ask the question : Who knows but that this Negro lawyer is tellingthe truth; who knows what abuses have grown up inthe prison life of the South under the one-party systemof government?

This lawyer also states that when Negro womenare whipped they have on but one garment, which isfirst wet that it may cling close to the flesh' while thelash is being applied.We pass these statements from the Negro lawyerover to the reader for whatever they are worth. This,however, we do know to be a fact : that quite recentlythe Governor had under consideration charges againstan official connected with the penitentiary managementof so revolting a nature that the newspapers declaredthem to be unprintable. The answer of the accusedwas also said by the newspapers to be virtually an admission of guilt.

Such is the state of affairs begotten in and aboutNashville by the policy of repression, the policy of the

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controlling influence among the whites to establish agulf between the Negroes and the governing force having in its care and keeping their lives and, to a largeextent, the destinies of themselves and their children.

It is by no means here contended that there are nogood white people in the city. There are many who,personally, are as high-minded and humane as can befound anywhere. Nor do we seek to convey the impression that Negroes must dodge bullets every stepthey take as they walk along the streets. But we domost emphatically assert that the general feeling ofthe Negro population is one of insecurity; that theyregard the government machinery as actively hostile;that they feel that not so much as the weight of afeather can be laid upon any white man of murderousinstincts who may see fit to claim a Negro as his victim.In marked contrast with Prof. Booker T. Washington's quoted opinion as to the feebleness of race prejudice in this city is the following comment from one ofNashville's leading colored citizens, who is likewise aspecial friend of Mr. Washington: "The phase of life(in Nashville) that is making more progress andgreater strides than anything else, is the feeling againstthe Negro. Conditions are fast becoming unbearable."A ROLL-CALL.

Nor can the conditions in Nashville be dismissedwith the assertion that they are abnormal.

The writer has for years been in touch with theNegroes of the repressionist region. He has been atpains, in season and out of season, to make diligentinquiry as to how all classes of Negroes are faring, andthe story has ever been the same, namely, that wrongand repression are twin sisters and ever go hand-in-hand. Wherever the Negro's hands have been tied the


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baser spirits among the whites have regarded themselves as licensed to kick and cuff him.

Choose whatever spot you will where repressionreigns, thrust in the lance and you will find oozingtherefrom helplessness on the part of the Negro in theface of aggression, unrestrained maltreatment on thepart of the mean of heart, cruel indifference, paralyzingself-interest and sometimes wanton oppression on thepart of the chosen governing agencies chosen with thedistinct understanding that the Negroes, having novoice in their making, are to be utterly ignored as afactor in determining their policies.To further demonstrate the essential character ofa repressionist regime, we shall now call the roll of anumber of States which are avowedly repressionistand cite some more or less conspicuous fruitage of thesystem.ALABAMA. This State should possess a peculiarinterest for the sociological investigator, for the reasonthat it has for a quarter of a century been the homeof the two most conspicuous bearers of the olive branchthat the Negro race has produced since emancipationProfessors Booker T. Washington and W. H. Council.The philanthropy of the nation as it touches the Negrohas of late years been largely concentrated on an industrial institution in this State. Let us briefly glance atwhat we have here.

First, the type of leadership for the Negro that thedominant element of the white South applauds.Second, the kind of education favored by the white

South.Third, the nation, by means of Presidential visits,

mention in a Presidential message, the practicallyunanimous voice of the public press, the inaction of

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Congress, committing itself for the time being to theplan of adjustment advocated by the type of leadershipapproved by the white South.To illustrate just how much security exists even insuch a State, we will simply cite a few incidents connected with the town of Tuskegee. During the recentPresidential campaign the most violent of all the utterances reported throughout the nation was that of thesuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress fromthe Congressional District in which Tuskegee is located, the speaker suggesting that a bomb blowing upthe President and Mr. Washington would be engagedin a rather good work. One of the first steps taken bythis Congressman upon entering Congress was the introducing of a bill providing for "Jim Crow" street carsfor the District of Columbia.A TUSKEGEE PROFESSOR.

One day one of the instructors of Tuskegee Institute, in company with his wife, drove into the town forthe purpose of making some purchases at the grocerywhere they were accustomed to trade. The proprietor,a white man, on all former occasions the instructorbeing alone had invariably addressed him as professor.On this one occasion, the instructor's wife being present, the proprietor dropped the word professor andcalled him bluntly by his given name. Stung by whathe regarded as undue familiarity, brought on, perhaps,by the presence of his wife, the instructor and his wifeleft the store without another word to the proprietor.

Upon reaching his home the instructor wrote anote to the offending groceryman, expressing in a politemanner his displeasure at the latter's calling him by hisgiven name. It seems that the letter, before reachingthe proprietor, fell into the hands of one of the clerks,

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who exhibited it to such white men as came into thestore. The conclusion was reached by those who readthe note that the teacher had been guilty of an offensecalling for summary punishment, so a mob was formedto take him in charge. News of the determination tovisit violence upon the instructor reached Mr. Washington, and he went to the town with a view to calmingmatters. His efforts, however, were of no avail.

During the night a guard was stationed around theinstructor Mr. Washington himself doing guard duty.In some way the rumor got afloat that the instructorhad left, and the mob dispersed. It was suggested tothe instructor that it was perhaps better for him toleave, as finding him still there after the impressionhad gone out that he had left might bring about areaction against the school on the presumption that itwas a party to the deception. He was kept secretedupon the campus until ready to take his departure, andunder cover of the night he was driven across countryto a station some few miles away, where he boardedthe train and came to Nashville, Tennessee. It wasfrom the lips of this instructor himself that the writergot the account as here related.The instructor spoke feelingly of Mr. Washington,stating that he would ever remember his efforts tosave his life. Mr. Washington was powerless. Alabama is a repressionist State. Negroes have no voicein making and unmaking the administrators of the government. They may plead with the officials to performtheir sworn duty, but there looms before these officialsthe day of reckoning at the ballot-box; and, in theirvisions, seeing no Negroes present, they proceed to actor fail to act in a way to curry favor with the voters.How powerless is a voteless element even when buttressed by the walls of a Tuskegee !


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GEORGIA. During the reconstruction period thebetter class of southern white people of Georgia actedsomewhat differently to those in other States. Theyco-operated with the authorities in bringing order outof chaos, and as a result Georgia escaped the bad features of the reconstruction period complained of bythose States in which the repressionist sentiment wasmore rampant. For years Georgia refused to countenance any attempt to disfranchise voters in any mannerrepugnant to the Federal Constitution. As a result ofthis comparatively liberal atmosphere, Georgia Negroeswere forging to the front and were everywhere loudin their praise of their State whenever it was throwninto comparison with other States. It was contributing its quota of distinguished Negroes to the workof the uplift of the race : the Rev. J. W. E. Bowen,seriously considered for the Bishopric of the M. E.Church; the learned W. H. Crogman, president ofClark University; I. Garland Penn, director of theNegro Department of the Atlanta Exposition ; BishopsHenry M. Turner and J. W. Gaines, of the A. M.E. Church; Judson W. Lyons, ex-Register of theTreasury; the Rev. C. T. Walker, the most notedNegro Baptist preacher of his day; Professor JohnHope, president of Atlanta Baptist College ; ProfessorR. R. Wright, Sr., ex-paymaster in the army ; ProfessorW. E. B. DuBois, the spokesman of the culture of hisrace.

Here emerges the Hon. Hoke Smith, who wentinto retirement with the receding of the Clevelandwave in the South, and who now feels that a powerfulagency is needed to restore life to his political corpse.Theretofore generally regarded as a friend of theNegro, he turns demagogue, and preaches everywhere

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in the most violent language the doctrine of repression.And then comes Atlanta's bloody orgy !FLORIDA. There now resides in the city of NewYork a brilliant young Negro lawyer, formerly a member of the City Council of Jacksonville, Florida. Oneday as we sat in his New York office he bowed his headon his desk in a troubled manner, and spoke substantially as follows :"What are we going to do? You take my

State Florida. It is only in a few counties of thatState that we have jury trials. Negroes are haledbefore magistrates, who send them to the Stateprisons. In many counties there are no opportunities for appeal from the decisions of the magistrates. We have the convict-lease system there,and the State is paid a certain amount for eachprisoner. The convicts are often forced to work inthe turpentine swamps in water up to their necks.Often the poor fellows catch the malarial fever andbecome so sick that they are unfit for service. Asthe lessees of the convicts have to pay the State forthe services of these men so long as they are intheir charge alive, some of the poor fellows, whenseen to be unfit for further service, are beaten todeath that the lessees may be exempt from thefurther support of the sick. I have asked white menwho know of the abuses of the system to attack itin the State Legislature, but they have told methat it would simply mean their political ruin, withno good accomplished."The following account of conditions in the prison

life of Florida, which appears in the book entitled"Overshadowed," penned by the writer, is drawn fromthat periodical of high standing, The Missionary Review of the World :

"Negro women are forced to labor side by sidewith men hardened in crime. With these samehardened criminals the small boys and girls, pres-

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ent in the convict camp for their first offenses, hadto labor. The Negro women were sometimes thevictims of outrages committed by their whitebosses. Illegitimate offspring born in prison weretaken possession of and doomed to perpetualslavery.Men, women and children slept together like aherd of cattle, as many as sixty being crowdedinto a room eighteen feet square with a ceilingseven feet high, there being no ventilation whatever. After a hard day's work the convicts had tocook their own food fat bacon and corn breadon small fires made on the ground. A downpourof rain would not induce the bosses to allow theconvicts to quit work and seek shelter. Slightoffenses were punished by brutal whippings, andone aged Negro, in the prison for stealing food fora starving family, was beaten until he died ; beatenbecause he expressed an opinion as to the decencyof the conduct of one white boss toward a Negrowoman, his niece, in the penitentiary as accessoryto his crime.Whenever showers of rain drenched the entirelot of convicts they did not have changing garments, but had to wear and even sleep in their wetclothing until they dried upon them. When thefew small houses were filled to their utmost capacities a tent was spread, and all fresh comers wereassigned to sleep beneath this on the bare ground.If some convict more adroit than his fellows madehis escape, the bloodhounds would soon be on histrail and ere long would have their fangs buriedin his quivering flesh.Filth abounded on every hand, vermin coveredeverything in the convict quarters, and sanitationwas a thing unheard of. Disease walked boldlyinto their midst and bade death mow down withhis scythe twenty out of each hundred, this beingthe proportion of those who died."MISSISSIPPI. The Hon. James K. Vardaman!

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NORTH CAROLINA. The Rev. Thomas Dix-on, Jr. !SOUTH CAROLINA. The Hon. Benjamin F.Tillman !TENNESSEE. The defiance on the part of a mobof an order of the Supreme Court of the United States,an occurrence without a parallel in the history of thenation.

VIRGINIA. Virginia, since the days of ThomasJefferson, has had a large number of influential whitepeople in love with the doctrine of human rights.Slavery was all but abolished by the State Legislaturein Jefferson's day. The institution was milder therethan in other portions of the South. Virginia was thelast State to join the seceders from the Union, and alsothe last to pass laws discriminating against Negro voters. Thanks to the hitherto favorable atmosphere, theVirginia Negroes have made marvelous progress. InRichmond there are more Negro merchants doing successful business than in any other city in the country.When a State law was passed some time since requiring all insurance companies to make deposits of $10,000each, five Negro companies were strong enough tomake the deposit. The most successful co-operativeeffort of the race The True Reformers' organizationoperates from the city of Richmond. There are fivesuccessful Negro banks operating there and fourweekly newspapers greet their readers each week. Inspite of the splendid showing being made by theNegroes, repression came. But the repressionists werenot sure of the State, and so, when the repressionistConstitutional Convention was through with its work,it dared not submit it to a vote of the people, adoptingthe expedient of proclaiming it. Now that repressionhas been resorted to, the relations between the racesare growing more strained and the conditions are getting worse. A recent visit of the writer to that Stateconvinced him that the evils that follow in the wakeof repression are heading Virginia-ward.

And thus the story runs.38


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Part II The Case Argued.TO BE EXPECTED.

But in all candor, does not the experience of history warn us to expect a harvest of evil under anysystem of government in which one set of men exercises arbitrary control over another?

Every drop of blood spilled in the French Revolution, every minie ball that whistled its way to thebreast of the opposing soldier in the war between theAmerican colonies and the mother country, is an argument against the subjection of one class of men toanother. The masses of Europe and the American Colonists could not endure their political submergenceeven when their rulers were tied to them by ties ofrace. They attested with their blood their unalterableconviction that their best interests demanded that theyhave a voice in the choice of the pilots that were toguide the ship of state.

If members of a common household racially foundthemselves unable to trust their destinies to the simplegoodness of heart of their rulers, and felt that theymust unyieldingly insist that the rulers be responsibleto the ruled, how much less is it to be expected thatofficials separated by social and racial ties from a largepart of their constituency will have due regard for theseparated ones if the separated ones have no means ofrewarding faithfulness, rebuking neglect and overthrowing a regime when it becomes guilty of oppression.

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Nature has planted in man the spirit of self-interest that he may have the inclination to expend theenergy to propel himself through life. She has alsoplanted in the other man the desire, and has equippedhim more or less with the ability, to defend himself.While the hand is made so it can open and grasp, it isalso so constructed that it can double and strike. Thefatal, the absolutely incurable, defect in the system ofrepression is that it gives full sway to the instinct ofself-interest on the one hand and on the other deniesall facilities for resisting encroachments.

Let the spirit of self-interest found in humannature continue in full force and withdraw all powerof self-defense and there will as certainly be encroachments as that a rock hurled over a precipice will descend to the bottom of the gorge.THE LARGER RESULTS.

Let us now consider some of the larger results thatflow from the conditions begotten by a system of repression.The failure of the Courts to administer justice, theunfeeling and often cruel handling of criminals, the barbarous excesses of mobs which show that their hostility is directed not only against the victim's crime, buthis color as well these things ripen the hearts of menfor evil and thus multiply criminals. When the prisondoor opens and the wronged and brutalized felon stepsforth, he is more an enemy to society than ever, and itis hardly to be wondered at that this State-made beastdoes beastly deeds that excite the horror of the entiresocial body. When the public turns out to dancearound the victim as he writhes in the flames, and tofight for his ashes as souvenirs of the event, how littledoes it dream that a careful sociological investigation

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would more than likely trace the parentage of this degenerate to the social order, and could point to a hugenest on which the social order sits in unreasoningmood, hatching out others and yet others.The North and the West are at present projectedupon a higher economic scale than the South. This factis fast percolating the South, and there is a decideddrift of the Negro population away from portions ofthe South. Among those who come are to be foundthis criminal class nurtured in a debasing environmentand made ready for the slum life of northern cities.This criminal element coming to the North has itseffect in reducing the general average of the northernNegro and in altering materially the good opinionhitherto entertained for the race.

In the course of an article touching the coming ofNegroes to the North, the New York Press assertedthat the West Indian Negroes were winning markedfavor as compared with the Negroes from the South, somuch so that persons advertising for colored servantsusually added "West Indians preferred." The Nashville American, in the course of its comment on thePress editorial, remarked :

"There is some satisfaction in hearing suchcomplaints from the North, from whence havecome, for forty years, ignorant criticism of southern whites and impertinent advice as to how theyshould treat the Negro."The writer has taken pains to sound such WestIndians as he has met with regard to the treatment

received at the hands of their government. Withoutexception the praise of their government has been unqualified. How different has been the note of theNegro from the South ! If, with the Nashville American, the South should gloat over the fact that it is

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pouring a less acceptable and more vicious type ofNegro into the North than the West Indies, it butglories in its own shame.

In this connection it is pertinent to quote the remarks of Prof. Collins, Bishop of Gibraltar, who, aftera visit to Jamaica, wrote as follows concerning the relations of the race in that island :

"As regards political privileges in this island,the colored and black man stand on the same platform as the white. * * *"Again :

"Inter-racial feeling is scarcely perceptible ; allclasses live together harmoniously; there are fewinstances of revolting against legally constitutedauthority ; justice is meted out evenhandedly to theblack as to the white. The fact is significant to onewho has studied the complexities of the Negroquestion in America, that in this island there is noton record a case where a white woman has beenmolested. Visitors can roam at will all over thecolony without losing the feeling of perfect security."

THE ASPIRING NEGRO.The conditions in the South are not without theireffects upon the better and more prosperous elementof Negroes. The Negro is beyond all doubt and of necessity a student of American civilization. Upon themore thoughtful element of the race there has dawneda full conception of the meaning of liberty, of freedom,of equality. An ineradicable passion exists within thebosom of the Negro to stand before the law the undisputed peer of his fellows. Any denial of this right iscalculated to breed soreness, discontent, brooding andscheming in his heart. This restlessness is not susceptible of being allayed, so a solution of the problem can-

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not be looked for along this line, for be it rememberedthat the stream of literature necessary to hold the greatmillions of America true to the ideals of the fatherswould of itself keep the fires alive in the Negro bosomwere he otherwise disposed to go to sleep. The impregnating air of America will be sure to do its work.Right clearly did the slave owner perceive that it wasnecessary to keep the Negro in ignorance if he was tobe easily kept in slavery.

Granted, then, this perpetual discontent attendantupon a policy of repression, let us trace its influence.It calls to the frontier, to deal with external complications, soul forces that would under normal conditionsbe directed toward internal improvement. The work ofuplift is going on, it is true, but by no means at the ratethat it could advance if the soul forces of the racewere relieved from frontier duty, from a weary distracted vigil of the ever-present menace.

If ever a people stood in need of internal work, itis the Negro race. It has just emerged from slavery,which was itself entered from barbarism. It is turnedloose in all this maze of American civilization to find itsway. It stands with the censorious eyes of the worldupon it. Indeed, every available influence is needed inthe internal work. At this needy, this crucial hour, thestrength of the race is divided, its genius is summonedto deal with the external. The sermons from the pulpit become sociological discourses, the churches themselves become, as Mr. DuBois puts it, socio-religiousinstitutions ; ministerial meetings and conferences oftenallow civic questions to monopolize their time. Thusforces that under normal conditions would be directedtoward the spiritual uplift of the race are diverted inthe direction indicated.

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BROAD ROAD TO DEPTHS BUT NOT TOHEIGHTS.

There are arguments embedded in the very fact ofcommunal life itself that testify to the danger of repression. Communal life has within itself doubly quickening power for both good and evil. If from our citieshave sprung the marvels of civilization, it must also beremembered that in the cities have developed forms ofvice of a depth and ingenuity unparalleled. No community can strike a proper balance between good andevil where the communal influence for evil is allowed tobe exploited to its full extent, while the influence forstimulation to good is restrained.The added temptations and opportunities thatcome as a result of man's gregariousness are counterbalanced in the normal civilized community by the rewards of various kinds that the group life offers thosewho serve it, rewards such as offices of emolument,posts of honor, mention in history and so forth.

*"A11 history shows that a race stands in need ofgreat men, in need of the contribution of their superiorpowers, and the inspiration that their names will carryfrom generation to generation.

Grappling with the affairs of state affords uniqueopportunities for growth, while the honor of havingserved the state operates as a magnifying glass enlarging the inspirational force of individuals so honored.Thus a race having the privilege of committing greattrusts to its members draws as a dividend men of enlarged powers and names which will inspire. Theseinfluences, reapplied to the needs of the state, servemightily to pull the people forward."* The Hindered Hand.

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To all these rewards from organized society theNegro is almost a total stranger. Barring the fact thatNegroes are employed by the State to teach Negroes inthe public schools, practically the only badges of distinction offered the Negroes of their several States arethe picks around their ankles when in the chain gangsand striped suits when in the State prison.

In the penitentiary of Tennessee a system of rewards was somewhat recently instituted, and the prisoners that behaved better than the others were to begiven a slightly different order of clothing. If in all theborders of Tennessee the State makes any other effortto appeal to the element of hope for promotion to befound in the bosom of Negroes, in common with allother men, it has escaped the writer's notice. It wasevidently the original intention of our present Presidentto place a Negro in some conspicuous office in everysouthern State to serve as a sort of rainbow of promiseto his race, to the end that all might be inspired.But the repressionist South would not have it so.With the Negroes caught in the inevitable swirl ofcommunal life and denied the sustaining influencesthat help others to put evil behind them, it ought notto occassion surprise if degeneracy here and thereappears.

THE WHITE SOUTH AFFECTED.But the evils of the system of repression are by no

means confined to the ranks of the Negroes. In manyways, the white people of the country are gravelyaffected. The Negro exodus from the South and fromthe rural districts of that section to the cities thereofhas come at a time when that section is all the more inneed of helpers for the prosperous times that are uponit. Lacking such immigration as has enabled the North

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to take care of its booms, the South is clutching desperately after its Negro population which is inadequate forits demands. Hence the cry for vagrancy laws and theresort to peonage camps. The widespread lack of labor,due to the restlessness of the Negro and the boom conditions in the South, is the economic factor that is backof the present acute situation in the South. The well-to-do among the whites are more or less vexed becauseof their inability to get the labor to develop theirresources. Fertile fields untilled, bounteous harvestsungathered, possibilities of wealth abounding on everyhand unexploited, are the factors that are contriving tomake the South the modern Tantalus.DESTROYING THE SENTIMENT OF JUSTICE.

But the effects of the treatment of the submergedelement are by no means confined to the material thingsof the South. They have their reflex influence upon thevery heart and core of southern life in its entirety. Thelifting of the bandages from the eyes of justice so thatshe may see the color of the prisoner at the bar, and herimmoral handling of the scales when the prisoner is aNegro, has had a tendency to pervert her sensitive soulso that she has lost the art of dispensing evenhandedjustice as between white people. Taught to regard thetaking of human life as a slight affair when the life of aNegro was involved, the result has been the cheapening of the estimate of all human life, until the manwith a smoking pistol with a dead victim before him haspractically become the hero of the hour. Says theCharleston (S. C.) News and Courier:

"In South Carolina, as we have noted, thesafest crime is the crime of taking human life. Theconditions are the same in almost every southernState. Murder and violence are the distinguishing


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With each repressionist community choosing itsmost narrow spirit, its best hater of the Negro, as aleader ; with these best haters choosing the best of thebest as their leader, it can readily be seen what thepinnacle of repressionist leadership must of necessity be.

* "The administration of the government, then,inevitably falls into the hands of the less refined,and a contemned race of an alien blood is handedover to them to be governed absolutely. As mightbe expected under a system that picks its rougherspirits for rulership, the governing force is oftenworse in its attitude toward Negroes than are thegreat body of the whites. Instead, therefore, of thegovernment being the guide, piloting the peopleto broader conceptions, the governing power oftensets in motion brutalizing tendencies that eventually sweep down and affect the people."Local sentiment has been invoked to hold incheck the wrathful outpourings of United StatesSenators, Legislatures have held in check rampantGovernors, and cities have cried out against theacts of Legislatures imposing repressive measuresnot warranted by local conditions things thatsignify that repression sends to the front menwhose tendency is to lower rather than advancecivilization."The presidential campaign of 1904 was conducted

in the State of Tennessee with Negro repression as thedominant note.The following comments from Democratic news

papers concerning Democratic legislators chosen during this campaign speak for themselves :

"There were many men in the last Legislatureupon whose faces the mark of incompetency orworse was as plain as the noonday sun." TheNashville American.

* The Hindered Hand.48


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"It would be better for Tennessee to groanon under present laws and let the Legislaturemeet no more in ten years if it were possible underthe Constitution." Lebanon Banner."Mediocrity was in the saddle, and picayunishpartisan politics held the center of the boards."Franklin Review-Appeal."The Legislature has adjourned. Many praisesunto the 'Great I Am/" Murfreesboro News-Banner."Throwing bricks at the Legislature is a favor

ite pastime, but really a brick is hardly big enoughfor the purpose." Franklin County Truth."In our opinion the present Legislature will godown in history as the most incompetent body oflawmakers that ever sat in the capitol of Tennessee." Tullahoma Guardian."The Tennessee Legislature has adjournedand perhaps done less to commend itself than anyof its predecessors." Obion Democrat."The people elect the legislators and thepeople are responsible for the character of menthey elect and send to Nashville to make and unmake laws. We know the Legislature was bad,even miserable, but the members got their commission from the people." Gallatin News."The weekly press of the State is almostunanimous in its condemnation of the late Legislature. * * * As we have said before, the general littleness of the body, its petty conduct inmany instances, its trades and combinations, theautocratic methods of self-seeking members, thequarrels, the cheap declamations and intemperateand undignified and unwarrantable public denunciations by members who should have shown a better sense of dignity and decency, the dishonesty injuggling with bills, the unreliability of promisesthe general record and conduct of the body markedit as unworthy of the State or the approval of thepeople. What man of established reputation wouldcare to be known as a member of such a Legisla-

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ture as the one recently adjourned?" The Nashville American.As has been noted elsewhere, the repressionistleader, evolved by the repressionist system of South

Carolina, is the Hon. Benjamin F. Tillman. As to how,in one particular at least, this leadership has affectedthe life of the people of that State apart from the racequestion, may be inferred from the following commentin the Charleston News and Courier concerning thepassing of the State Dispensary, an institution whichMr. Tillman's influence had imposed upon the State :"The State Dispensary, with all its corruptionand knavery and outlawry, and its brutal domination of the political affairs of the State, will no

longer menace the public peace. For thirteenyears it has been the controlling influence in SouthCarolina, and brought only shame and disgrace tothe State. Its course from beginning to end hasbeen stained with blood. Corruption has stalkedin its shadow; fortunes have been made in itscredit; reputations have been destroyed in itsservice; education has been dishonored by itstainted revenues ; the people of self-respecting communities have been denied the right of local self-government because they would not touch the unclean thing ; courts have been overthrown in orderthat the constitutionality of the institution mightbe established, and small men have been elevatedto places of distinction in the public service because of their 'loyalty' to the whisky machine. Atlast the people of the State realized the characterof the business and rendered their verdict againstit. Not even the wonderful hold of Senator Tillman upon the confidence of the people could savehis pet scheme from destruction, and in its failurehe is condemned. There is no way by which thedead who were sacrificed to the dispensary can bebrought back to life, no restitution that can bemade for the outrages committed upon the rights

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of citizens, no legislation that will restore the reputations that have been lost in the State whiskybusiness ; the written record will remain."A leadership conceived in the womb of race hatred

cannot be limited in its activities to the one questionthat gave it birth, and, running amuck, is liable to injure in matters far removed from the one issue.

CHEAPENED POLITICAL LIFE.To one who has the welfare of the white Southgenuinely at heart, it is sickening to note how repres

sion immeasurably cheapens the whole political life ofthat section, denies to the masses the real food forthought given elsewhere during canvasses.To visit the North and West in the time of thetremendous intellectual ferment incident to a heatedcampaign, and then drift southward to witness thepetty personal issues upon which campaigns are sooften waged, brings a feeling of pity for the South. Inthe city of Nashville the writer has known the timewhen such pleas as the following were made by candidates for office : "I am a lame man ;" "I was the first tointroduce the Jim-Crow Car Bill ;" "I want the office because I need the money." A candidate for re-election tothe Governorship of the State, whose earlier publicrecord had been attacked, closed an ardent appeal tothe voters to return him to the office that he mightstand vindicated in the eyes of his wife and children.

MUST FIND FAULT.Again the moral sense of the world is and will

continue to be opposed to the holding of a people backbecause of their color or race. Any section of theworld that practices this will find itself out of tune withthe enlightened sections of the human family.


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In an effort to establish a comity between itselfand the outer world, a repressionist section will seek toshow just cause for its action. Where the simple argument of color fails to justify, other means will besought. This puts a repressionist people on a searchfor defects. Pitiable indeed is that section that growsto believe that its esteem in the world will depend uponthe amount of carrion it finds in its neighbor's backyard. The suppression of the good, the magnifying ofthe evil, the ready coining of vague suspicion into fact,are the inevitable consequences of such a policy.The committee appointed by the business interestsof Atlanta to investigate the Atlanta riot gave voice tothe following sentiment: "If half the publicity weregiven to those (Negroes) who are trying to do rightthat is given to the crimes of the few, our people andthe world would view them in a different light." Butthe course complained of is an integral part of a systemof repression.The better element of the white South spews theRev. Thomas Dixon, Jr., and his grossly misleadingproductions, out of its mouth, but his adroit groupingsof half-truths which make abominable untruths are butthe legitimate fruit of a system of repression, a systemrepugnant to the moral sense of civilization. It is acase of a father committing a crime, a son committingperjury to shield the father and the father chastisingthe boy for his sin.THE NATION.

Nor can the rest of the nation escape the blightof repression. The money of the North is finding itsway to the South in constantly increasing quantities.In the upheavals and the disorganization inevitablyattendant upon the slow strangling of a voiceless

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people, hoarded wealth will vanish as if into a bottomless sea. The wealth of the North should learn fromAtlanta that no money is safely invested where repression and all its train of attendant evils abide or aredue at any moment.But the damage to the rest of the nation is spiritualas well as material.

The North, having fought out within its bordersmany of mankind's gravest problems, having determined upon the quest of right, it matters not in whatnooks and corners the customs of the ages have sequestered it, most worthily covets the honor of a seat at thecouncil table of the Board of Directors of the World,But how can Columbia flay the Russian murderer of theJew and ignore the squirming victim of repression inthe South and yet feel in her heart that she is all thatshe ought to be?On the one hand her consciousness of an awfulwrong at home will make her timid, while on theother, if duly outspoken, she will have her prestige impaired by having attention called to the glass house inwhich she abides. Thus is she halted in her worldduties. Have not the oppressed of all the earth anequity in our republic ; and do we not owe to the submerged everywhere at least an untarnished name? Butthis tarnished name is the inevitable fruitage of thesystem of repression.

Again, let it be branded upon the mind of thisnation that ours is a democratic form of government;that all elements of the voting population contribute their quota of strength to the governing force;that whatever leadership is tossed up by the systemof repression must be accepted by the nation; thatthis repressionist output, representing not the ad-

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vancement of the people, but the left-over relics of themore savage days of man, will have a voice in the guidance of this nation, that this ill-gotten strength is sufficiently great to form a union with other disaffectedelements that can endanger the welfare of the nationand even the peace of the world. It is not a very farcry from making speeches blistering the Negroes tothe giving forth of rabid utterances in the halls ofCongress that needlessly irritate the potential leader ofthe colored world, the Empire of Japan. Schooled inthe art of ignoring the sensibilities of Negroes, repres-sionist statesmanship is prepared for a like pastime on alarger scale regardless of the cost.The steamship, the cable, the printing press, thenews-gathering agencies, the mad quest of riches, theexigencies of commerce are conspiring to link all racesof men together as never before in all the world's history. Repression furnishes but sorry help for this neworder of things in which men of many races mustwork side by side, each worker having due regard forthe sensibilities of his fellows.

THE ONE SOLUTION.No ; repression will not do. He is no true friend to

the South, to the nation, nor to the world who wouldhave the South journey over repression's highway, forthat is assuredly a highway of skulls and leads directlyto the land of wreckage, of national shame.

Is it wise to spurn the work of souls sobered anddeepened by an insight almost divine that comes withthe world's great crises? Standing at the end of acentury of bitter controversy that had culminated in thehorrors of civil strife, in full view of the fresh-madegraves gripping forever so many of the loyal sons ofboth sections, with bowed head the nation said by the

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adoption of the fifteenth amendment: We who wouldnot commit our welfare unreservedly to King George,though bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh ; we whocould not endure a system that yielded a slave to theunbridled passion of a possible Legree ; we, the chastened by the fire and the sword of the God of Hosts,will now see to it that all beneath the Stars and Stripesshall be equal before the law, each armed with a common sword the ballot with which to ward off theencroachments of the unjust spirit and to work out onour shores, in amity and in righteousness, the questionof the whole duty of man.

Right clearly did the new nation builders see thevery touchstone of the future life of the Republic whenthey decreed that the Constitution should at last keepstep with the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all men are created equal and endowedwith certain inalienable rights, among which are life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This is the onesolution of the political phase of the question of therelation of the races.

A PLAN OF ACTION.There may be those of our readers ready to concede the truthfulness of the record herein presented;ready to admit the logic of the deductions drawn;ready to cry out against our nation's accepting repression as its fixed policy, who are nevertheless puzzledas to the best means of bringing about the desired result. With all due deference to the magnitude of thetask, the writer begs to submit the following suggestions :

i. As occasion arises, let the exponents of publicsentiment in the country at large, the pulpit, the press,the platforms of political parties, set forth in calm but

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sutton elbert griggs--the one great question--a study of southern conditions at close range (1907)

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