The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-08-13

Inc tax levied on the blacks in Natal
IS not a property tax. bur A hut tax
a tax OF fourteen shillings SO 90
leNled on each hut, or home: and as
each nome ls supposed to shelter one
VIE. the polNgamous element Dan in
proportion 10 the number Of wives
ihey nave annexed.
u course, too. in view Of the fact
That the whites are ~full-fede4d citi-
@chS, while the blacks, undtr their
tribal organizations correspond some
what TO the Indians on Our American
reservations, the educational advan-
tages are by no means equal. For
the whites, ample schools are proyid-
Cd, but all the government can do for
the blacks is to grant subsidies for the
missionary schools that are working
among them.
! may pause Just here TO observe
mat about the most notable lessons l
learned on my trip around the world
was just this-that our southern ne
gro. SO far from being the oppressed,
abused and mistreated child of des-
tlny he is so often represented as be-
ing, is, in fact, the best-off colored
man on the face of the earth. Even
in slavery he had better food. cloth
ing and care than he had formerly
received in Africa, and today as the
lnherltoI of a part in the most ad-
Nanced civilization, and the most lib
eIal and r~ewardful industrial order
on earth-a civilization and a social
order built up by long ages Of suffer
ing and effort by the white man him
Self-he has a fairer chance for life.
liberty and the pursuit Of happiness"
than any other non-white race on the
globe. The Chinaman has made con
tributiOnS to civilization of the most
important kind: he had a literature
before our white ancestors had
emerged from barba risnl, and he has
q history covering thousands of years
of culture, achievement and orderly
government. Yet the c~hinanan's
country is ever menactd by famine.
and the average Cinnamon gets only
ten or fifteen cents q day for his bitte or
IL bors, whereas the negro in the South
without d history, a literature. a
civilization Of his own. or any distinc-
tive contribution to the white mans
ciNilizatiOn-EetS five to twenty times
as much as the Chinaman and has
nNe 10 twenty times as good q chance
FOR an education and for the adVan-
tages of mOdern civilization. Nor is
the contrast between white man and
yellow merely an one. The
negro in the South holds a more in
dependent position. is treated with
more respect as a man than his
brother day-1aborer in China or India.
In the East my servant called me
Master in the South my father,
whose own fathers ex-slaves called
him "MaSter,' was probably the last
one or u line to receive the deSiG-
nation. In the South, moreover. the
white man is at home. While the ne
SrOes constitute q foreign element, is
1t We're; yet nowhere in the South
! have [ ever seen negroes kicked about
by white men as | have seen China
men in their own homeland kicked
around, like dogs, by white foreign
cfs, angered at some stupidity such
as employers of negro servants in the
South would put up with as a matter
of course. No wonder Mr.. Evans,
speaking to a northern fellow passen-
ger, a day or two ago, declared that
the negro in America has Il better
chance than the working class in any
other country conclusion which [
believe Booker Washington himself
reached after a tour in which he in
V~estigated the living conditions Of
European abor.
All this, Of course, seems TO be get
ting away from South Africa. but this
letter is intended to be Of a mere Cos
Sipy sort, and his observation is Sug-
gested by what has just been said
abOut the difference in legislation for
whites and blacks in Mr.. Evans home
country.
What Interested me even more in
my conversation with him. however,
than his discussion of conditions in
South Africa, was his impressions OF
our own southern country based on
observations made in his recent tour
through DiXie-land. He is convinced
that in the South, as in South Africa,
only the separation Of the whites and
blacks can save us from Infinite
trouble. This belief has been held,
Of course, by many earnest students
in our own section. but too frequently
the zeal with which they have sup
ported their propaganda has blinded
them to the almost insurmountable
difficulties that stand in the way Of
its realization. Mr.. Evans. however
; does not deceive himself. y realize
T Of course" he said TO me. 'that nc
far-reaching plan for the immediate
separation of the races is prtcticahlt
; Nevertheless. if the people Of botf