The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-07

VIII, this IS an unaIteraDIe Ihct oI white psychology; or if alterable, not in one generation, nor yet in one cen tury. No doubt there is something good-humored and not unsynpathetic in the very ugliness (from the white point of view) of the negro. For that reason, among others. the two races can get on well enough If you give them showroom.
 But showroom Is just what the conditions of railway travelling pre- clude; wherefore I hold the system of separate cars legitimate measure of defense against constant discomfort. Had 1t not been adopted the South would have been a nation of saints. not of men. It is in the methods of its enforcement that they, sometimes show themselves not only human but in- human. .
 Remember that tho question is com plicated by the American's obstinate adherence to the constitutional fic- ton of equality. As there are no Classes" in the great American people. so there must be no first. second, or third class on thA American railways. or course. the theory remains a fiction on the railroad no less than in life. Every one travels first class, but those who can pay for 1t may travel in classes higher than first, called parlor cars. drawing room cars, and so forth. The only real validity of the fiction. 1t seems to me. lies in the unfortunate situation 1t creates with regard to the | negro. If our three classes Cor even two) were provided on every train. the mass of the negro population would | from sheer economic necessity travel third. It might or might not be neces- sary to provide separate cars on that level; but if 1t were. the discrimina- tion would not be greatly felt by the grade of black folks 1t would affect In the higher class cars there would be no reasonable need for discrimina- tion, for the number. of negroes using them would be few in comparison and personally unobjectionable. The es- sential showroom would seldom be lacking; conditions in the first. and second classes would be very much the same as they are at present in the North.
 It is the crowding, the swampine. the submerging of the white race by the black that, the South cannot | reasonably be expected to endure. and what realized on that day in. Missis- sippi was that such swamping would be an inevitable and everyday in- cident unless measures were taken to obviate 1t.
 Of all historic ironies this is surely the bitterest-that the republic found ed to demonstrate eighteenth century Ideals of human equality should have been fated to provide their most slar- ing reduction ad absurdum. This is far from an original observation. but there fs- another paradox in the case which is not so generally recognized It is that the most religious of modern peoples should all the time be fleeing in the face of the plainest dictates of Christianity.
 The South Is by long way the most simply and sincerely religious country that I ever was in. It Is not like Ire- land. . priest-ridden country; it is not like England. country in which the
 strength of religion lies in its social
 prestige: 1t is not like Scotland a
 country steeped in theology. But 1t is
 a country in which religion is a very
 large factor in life. and God Is very : real and personal. , In other countries men are apt to
 make a private matter of their re. ligion. in so far as it is not merely for mai, but the southerner wears his upon his sleeve. There is simple , sincerity in his appeal to religious , principle which l fave often fount } really touching. have often, too
 been reminded of that saving of m, . Pennsylvania friend.
 The South may be living in tn. . twentieth century, but has skipped tn, nineteenth"
 2 The Southerner goes to the Gospels : for his rule of life. and has never { heard of Nfetzsche: yet am who'll, unable to discover how the system O 9 race discriminations is reconcilabl, : with the fundamental precepts O
 Christianity. It Is far easier to fint in the Old Testament the tustificatio, |. of slavery than in the New Testamen S the Justification of the "jim-crow" ca, s the white and black school. and tn t white and black church.
 This Is not necessarily a condemna s tion of the Southerner's attitude; d. f not think that the color problem wa g foreseen in the New Testament
 Christianity is one thing, sociology an = other, and the Southerner's loRica y error perhaps lies in not keepins<t Eth a distinction clear But I am sure ther k are many sincere and earnest Chris . tians in the South-who will scarce h e at ease in heaven unless they enter fl d like Southern railway statior I through gateway marked "Fo V Whites"