The Denver star., 1915-10-30
OBSERVATIONS ON
RACIAL PROGRESS
Recent Facts and Figures
Show Steady Advance.
HEALTHY GROWTH IN SOUTH

Comprehensive Survey of the Moral
and Economic Condition of the COL
ersd People Given In Social Study
Reports = Work Of Churches and
Schools Seems to Be Weakest Point.
New iork.-In discussing editorially
the moral and economic progress of the
| colored people in a recent issue the
New York Evening Post IN part says:
| There is but one means of determin-
ing the degree in which the Negro is
advancing in morals and manners. The
census, tax lists and schools record
progress in economic and educational
directions. Nothing but the observa-
tiOn Of skilled inquirers can register
conditions as to home life. How many
white people in Atlanta have actually
been inside the homes of prosperous,
educated colored persons? How many
have sat over the fire of one room
cabin: Few southern whites teach
Negroes, attend Negro church services
Or penetrate into Negro society.
Only in recent years has there been a
marked increase in the number of So
cial studies of the Negro. Vanderbilt
| university has published several mono
graphs; DR.. Du Bois has directed re-
searches in city and country; DIR. Odum
| Of the University Of Mississippi has
compiled one Of great value, while the
new Phelps Stokes fund at the Univer-
sity Of Georgia supports a fellow who
Is to give his time to study of the Ne
| gro question.
But the chief work has been that of
Atlanta university, which eighteen
years ago issued its first volume and
has undertaken series of decennial
studies initiated in 1903 with COM
| prehensive survey of Morals and Man
ners Among American Negroes" The
second. with a resume of the decades
progress. has been recently published.
The method was favorable 70 broad
rather than to specific conclusions. Ter
| questions were sent out to over 1000
trustworthy people in all parts of the
country. physicians, ministers and
teachers forming the majority.
From Georgia came forty answers.
Only four Of these reported slipping
back or stagnation and fifteen a mark
| ed Improvement. From North Carolina
but one of twenty answers was unfa-
rorible. The Negroes runs a typical
! comment. have more money. more
! property. live in better houses, their
/ opportunities along all lines are bet
| ter and their moral response to this
stimulus is evident. In Alabama forty
| three answers bear some such tenor as
/ greatly improved 80 per cent bet
/ ter or "as much difference as between
day and night" and but four are unfa-
vorable
/ For Florida alone are as many as
one-f1fth of the replies discouraging.
| The candor of the writer's Is evident in
| the Tennessee admission that. better
as Affairs are now than they We're in
/ former years, they are bad enough
still" and the Alabama opinion that
these people would be in worse con-
I dition than the heather if there was no
enhancement in their condition" The
optimiSm. too. traces moral to economic
adv ance.
The census reports have told us that
in 1910 there We're several thousands
more of Negro farm owners than in
] 1909 and that "a per cent more Ne
groes owned their homes. The detailed
PORTIONS of the report constantly speak
Of the favorable reaction of greater
economic independence upon home life.
4 upou the rearin. of children and upon
the developing sense of responsibility.
the cultivation and exhibition of racial
ani personal PRIDE
Yet the report declares that the
church and school. while making prog
ress. are not keeping pace with the eco
nornic advance. In Alabama nine out
of seventeen answers are to the effect
that the church lis asleep is doing
nothing for the ccIored citizens gener-
ully."
complaint thrice repeated from
Georgia and echoed elsewhere is that
the ministers have the idea that their
only mission In life outside of making
ioud noise is to raise money for
themselves" Northern replies are to
the same effect. one Of two Kansas cor
RESPONDENTS stating that church lead.
crS are selfish. money getting is their
chief interest" and the other that
~ ere Ia great field for constructive
work by each church.
Sestdes pastoral Incompetence. the
competition between debt ridden
churches that should have coalesccd
long ago Is touched upon. There are
nearly 10000 church organizations in
the south, vet but handful attempt
the applied religion for which there Is
So enormous field. The growing
wealth of the Negroes should III time
produce many ministers trained to
keep their parishioners from criminal
paths and instruct them IN industry.
ernsst Crosby on the Lsopard's Spots.
Commenting on the spirit and aim of