The Washington herald., 1911-09-05
CHAPTER XXVIII-Continued.

| "Ah, you have courage TO be direct.
In answer. l must say that we would
like to ask regarding a few things which
seem to he within your own knowledge.
You, of course. are not unaware of the
popular discomfort which exists on this
or the other side of the great political
question in America to-day. We are
advised that you yourself have been a
! traveller in our Western districts; and il
seemed to us likely that you might be
possessed of information regarding mat
ters there Of which We get only more
interested. more purely partisan, re-
ports
That is not impossible" was her
guarded reply 1T is true, have talked
with some in that part of the coun-
| try"
You were witness OF the anxiety Of
our attempt to keep war and the talk
| Of IL far in the baCkgrOund-Our desire
TO preserve the present state of peace. -
"Assuredly. But, SirS. YOU will for
give mel do not believe peace will last.
/ l thought so, until this very day. In
my belief. now. there will be war. II
cannot be averted.'
We are glad to hear the belief Of
all, on all sides" was the courteous re-
joinder We ourselves hope the COM
haps you as well as others hold 10 the
so-called doctrine of the higher law?'
Perhaps you found Your politics in ROus-
seau's Nouvelle Heloise,' rather than in
the more sober words of our own Con-
stitution?' His eyes were quizziCal, yet
not unHind.
Certain doctrines seem to endure"
was her stout answer. kindling. I am
but a woman. yet l take it that any
thing that / can say will have no value
unless 1t shall be sincere. To me, this
calm is something which cannot en-
dure"
There at least do not lack others
who are of that belief But why?''
They told me in the West that the
South has over three million slaves. They
told me that the labor of more than seven
million persons, black and white. is con-
trolled by less than a third of a million
men: and of all that third of a million,
less than eight thousand practically rep
resent the owners OF these blacks, who
do not vote. Gentlemen l have been
interested in the cause of democracy in
Europe-I do not deny it-yet it seems
TO me an oligarchy and not a democracy
which exists in the American South.
The conflict between an oligarChy and a
natural democracy II ages old. 1t does
not die. II seems 10 me that there is
the end of all compromise-in the re-
newed struggle of gnen, all over the
world, to set up an actual government
OF their own-not an oligarchy, not a
monarchy, not OF property and wealth.
but of actual democracy. 1t must come,
here, some day."
'Tt is unusual. my dear lady. to find
one of your sex disposed to philosophy
so deep and clear as your own. You
please us. VIII you 20 onT
"Sir, your courtesy gives me additional
courage" was her answer. You have
asked me for my behefs-and / do not
deny that ! have some Of my own. some
/ ha re sought to put in practice. To me,
another phase of this question lies in
something which the South itself seems
not to have remembered. The South
figures that the cost of a laboring man.
a slave, is perhaps a thousand or fifteen
hundred dollars. The South pays the
cost of rearing that man. Any nation
PAYS the cost Of bringing up a human
being. Yet, within this, very year. Eu-
rope has sent into the North and into
the West a third Of a million of men
already reared, already paid for. Sir,
YOU ask me what will be the result of
this discomfort, the result of this COM
promise. 1t seems to me plainly written
in those two facts-industriaL not po-
litical facts. The finality' Of this COM
promise. its nnal issue, will be estab-
lished by conditions with which laws or
their enforcement have little to do. Yet
statesmen try TO solve such a question
by politics. ! myself at one time thought
It could endure-but only II all the
blacks were bought. paid for, and de-