The New York herald., 1921-11-08
View of the White South.
President Hardlng's Speech and the
Future of the Negro.

To THE NEW York HERALD: In your
editorial article entitled "The President
at Birmingham" after referring to an
author writing In British review and
quoted by the President you continue :
This seems to say. and the President
in his able enlargement of the theme
seems to say. that democracy homo
geneous In the political and Industrial
sense but consisting Of imperishable
units forever distinct racially and So
cially is not an impossible conception Of
the Republics future. One path for
Americans Of every. color to travel when
they vote or study or work; separate
paths socially and raclally of absolute
divergence to the end Of the trail"
Is this possible Of attainment? Maybe
In India or in Egypt. whose peoples the
quoted writer undoubtedly had more
largely In view. but not In our cotton
States. where a black population is
found trained to its present state Of de-
velopment under circumstances and con-
ditions which are not found elsewhere.
Would the black mans development be
advanced, would it make for racial
peace and harmony, If he went to the
with the white man to vote, to study
and to work and In a separate path and
of absolute divergence seeking social
and racial advancement? The large ma
jority of those who know conditions in
the South best will answer no.
The so-called race question In the
South properly falls into two periods.
The second period commences with the
adoption in several of the cotton States
of constitutional amendments under
which only the morally fit negro can
secure and exercise the franchise. AS
regards the second period, In the State
of Alabama we note the outstanding
fact that with the elimination Of the
negro mass vote the relations between
the white man and the black man be-
gan to improve. The black man came
to know that he could not make laws
for the white man or be concerned in
the administration Of the law. He soon
became measurably more habituated to
regulated industry.
He and the white man realized also
the dependency on black labor on the
farm and In the city. Through self-im-
posed taxation the white people furnish
means to give the children of the negro
such a measure of school education as
is beneficial in their present state OF de-
velopment. With the rise of wages all
over the United States his wages rose
and he was taught the economic truth
that wages are regulated by supply and
demand. The claim heretofore so often
made that he was underpaid In the
South he saw refuted. In the last
twenty years the living conditions for
the black man have much improved: he
occupies better home than formerly. he
consumes better quality of food and
he dresses better. He Is esteemed more
by the white man for his desirable
qualities.
II is a fact that the South. till Presi-
dent Harding came to Birmingham, con-
sidered the race problem settled. To
the black man political, educational and
economic equality does not mean at all
what II means to President Harding
Equality at the ballot box would neces-
sariIy be followed by the sharing o: the
public offices by both races: the per-
forming OF jury duty by white men and
white women In the same jury box
with black men and black women.
When n population Is almost equally
divided in numbers between two race
social inequality never could be main
tanned with the enjoyment of political
equality in Its widest sense. In many
of the cotton States, and in very many
counties thereof, the negro equals oi
exceeds the white population. witt
negro mass voting we would find, fo'
instance. the administration Of the pub
lie schools, conceding the right Of th'
ma ajority to rule. in the hands of negroes
where they ere numerically In the ma