The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-14
AS BRITISH lei
RACE PROBLEM
Review of Volume of William
Archer, the Eminent Dramatic
Critic Who Visited the
South

Mr. william Archer. the eminent
pritish dramatic critic, has recently
added a volume to the growing bibli-
ography of the race problem. His
work in the result of his observations
and studies while on a trip through
the South. Mr. Archer has dedicated
his book to Mr.. H. G. Wells, who,
after a superficial glance at the ace
problem. could do no better" says
the New York Times Saturday Re-
view" than label the irrepressible
and obsessing race question in Amer
lea a mere phantasm of the emotions
of a cult Mr.. Archer. ia the same
case. assumes at once and on the face
of it that emotions felt with absolute
unanimity Tin greater or less degree)
by some twenty millions Of southern
white people must have at their root
something very different from sheer
unreason.'" Continuing it's interest
ing review of his book, the Times Re-
view says:
This book is so fair and illuminat-
ing. so aluabie a contribution of san
ity to a discussion in which sanity is
sadly needed, that honest and thought
full citizens on both sides of Mason
and DixOn's line-skeptical as They
must be Of travellers tales on this
SuhjeCt-Ought to make a point of
reading it.
Exposed to close contact with the
conditions which twenty million south
ern whites nave to face every day of
their lives. it is. Is Mr.. Archer him
self says. his Impressions, and the
feelings evoked in him by that con-
tact. which count more than any ar
gued conclusions. For these record
the natural reaction in the case of a
white man with his native race in
stincts, but without any Of the preju-
dices with regard to the neg as a
negro which are peculilr to the south
eTner. Mr.. Archer can, without insu-
perable repugnance. sit at table with
an educated black or colored citizen.
and meeting Principal Washington Or
Professor Du Bots man to man, with
out fatal intrusion of race conscious
ness, elicit their views as no Southern
man could, weigh the value of their
evidence, the quality of the
men, perhaps, as few southernerS, with
the best will in the world, could bring
themselves to dO-since they must
always judg e both as negroes first and
as men only s~ecOndarily. Such is the
instinct which generations of living
alongside negroes in mass has estab-
lished. To that instinct the gulf is
fixed and mentally i'm passable.
It is to be observed hat Mr.. Archer
from his level viewpoint finds Princi-
pal Washington essentially a negro.
and Professor Du Bots hardly a negro
at all. though the mixture of blood in
both is about the same. To the south
ern man. with the special knowledge
OF the racial characteristics bred in
him by familiarity with the black folk
about him from his youth up. the
strain of rhapsody and hysteria in
Professor Du Bots is utterly negroid-
eloquent of the camp-meeting and the
wild and savage African religious orgy
OF which the camp-meeting is the
me- / nCoa n Il Mt ~ o
he finds in the wise, Caucasian-seem-
ing moderation of Principal Washing
Ton an u~nmistakable strain of a type
OF negro shreWdneSS (nearly related
10 %cunning) highly developed in GER
tam impressive and tactful upper
mouse servants before the war and
since.
Unprejudiced as he is in these en-
counters and others with the better
StaSS OF ColOred men in Louisville,
memphis. New Orleans, Tuskegee, At
idnta, Hampton. and elsewhere, Mr..
Archer. after exposure to travel cOndi-
uons on way trains in Tennessee and
miSSlSsippl, does not hesitate to de-
c!are that the jim Crow car (the name
OF which, nevertheless. he d~eprecates
dS insulting) is a necessity. HAD it
not been adopted" he writes, "the
oooth would have been a nation of
SAINTS. not of men" What he says
at luiS point IS worth quoting
In full:
1t Is not desirable that the two
races should be intermingled at
tioSe quarters in the enforced in
tlmacy of a railway journey. The
pvfl"anent difficulty, underlying
on '~fnpermanent mes hat time.
eoucation. Christian charity. and
Sodp and water may remove is
mat OF sheer u~nlikeness. Instincts
,ooted through untold centuries
.tdo the White man to associate
ueilness and a certain tinge Of an
li"ailsm with negro physiognomy
anu physique- Call it illusion.
pIeJudlce. or what you will, it is
an unalterable fact of white psy-
Choi"gy: or, IL alterable, not in q
seheration nor yet in a century.
10. whether this sheer unlike
mraS IS lnferiority in the lack race
~ merely divergence. Mr.. Archer says
~ "ha1ever opinion NAV be held by
httS the nePrO'S own ia6pmaDt on