The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-06-14

'OAo " Jul o%dCt EldS. 1HOSt Oh
you who read the histories of the
States and nations, know tina i. these
histories frequent mention is made Of
negro homes" which the traveller
from England was asked to inspect in
every town in the South which boosted
a Tuskegean uplift movement. With
their pianos and plush chairs and bead
pOrtieres they had no air of places
lived in. They were pious shams and
the raveler saw that they were.
DR.. Archer attacks the miscegena-
ton aspect Of the question in it's vari-
Gus phases with courage, but also with
a comprehension Of the conditions sur
rounding and complicating it which
should diSarm any impulse to resent
ment on the part of the honest South
erner. 1t is obvious that he is con
WINGED of VIA the ableSt Southern
writer's on he subject-Mr. A. H
Stone, Mr.. Edgar Gardner Murphy,
and Mr.. w. B. Smith-have p~ostulated
as a basic fact-viz.. that the ultimate
conflict is between the negrO's anbi-
ton to be absorbed in the white race
and the white mans resolve to keep
the black blood out.
No fair man, least of all Mr.. Archer,
would quarrel with the negro's ambi-
ton. which from his standpoint is per
fectly reasonable. But the English
observer is as clear as any Southern
white man could be hat there is
nothing to be gained for the white by
absorbing an inferior or (if you
choose) backward race. The conpos-
ite3 if uplifted above the black. he
argues. would certainly be base
below the white. Mr.. Archer can find
in heart or brain no reason to blame
the South for her reluctance to be-
coming a brown or yellow South. and
no o,,f in fHa al
the negroid mixed populations Of Cen
trail and South America to show that
the world at large would gain by the
Southern whites loss. In short. the
surrender to another such mOngre
population Of a white mans country
ever though it nave in it a large num-
Der Of unassimilated blacks and tans
seems wholly bad.
Yet the presence of that mass of I'M
assiTnilated blacks and tans, the critic
feels, creates a condition not only full
of trouble and danger while it lasts,
but one which cannot persist 1ndef1-
nitely. Mr.. Archer is convinced that
the situation is acute in proportion as
the two populations are more nearly
equal in numbers, and that the pres
ent proportions in the South Will not
soon greatly change. He deplores the
shifts to which the white man is re-
duced to maintain his ~ascendancy not
less than the injustice and (from his
point of view ll-treatment which the
negro receives as the result Of a ten
sion in both races which leaves neither
quite sane.
With becoming modesty. then. Mr..
Archer touches upon remedies. Anal
eamation, so called, is as abhorrent to
him as to the white South. and he can
find no evidence that natural processes
are working toward that event-rather
many Indications to the contrary. lie
can only view as preposterous the plan
of returning the negro to an Africa
which European nations have already
partitioned among themselves. There
fore he suggest q negro state IN the
Union as the only remaining solution
the alternative to something like ex-
termination which a anne of passion
born of the ceaseless friction between
the irreconciliables might at any i'm
a.einab1e moment precipitate. This
event is too horrible for Mr.. Archer to
contemplate quite calmly even. as a
remote contingency. But ne Is 20"
honest to leave it out Of his calcutta
lions. You are to remember that he
made it his business in his tour of the
South to gather the testimony Of the
negroes rather than that Of the whites
the testimony of what he saw or
them not less than what he heard
from them. He talked to the white
men. too. and he appears 10 nav
read pretty much all that is worth
reading which white or black has
contributed to the printed literature o.
the subject. -.
His conclusion briefly is this. me
huge and monStrouS race question Is
the dragon which the next great amer,
lean statesman-he who is to staha
beside Washington and Lincoln and
keep the Bridge of Destlnv-HuSt
graDpie and conquer. Else the coun-
try and the world will be worse.
M Archer is not without faith thar
the American people will find the coar-
90. and the wisdom for the task.