The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1922-03-25
BOOK CHAT-By MARY
WHITE OVNGTON
By Stephen Graham. Published by
The Macmillan Co, New York.
Price 500. Postage 10 Cents

esting the Negro question in the Unit
ed States IS to the English. They
want to learn about il, they come
over here and write about it. No one
OF them has written so keen a book
as Fannie Kemble's Two Years on
Georgian Plantation" published
nearly hundred years ago Fannie
kemble, the actress, married a slave
holder and came from free England to
enslaved Georgia. She could not
stand it and from the frank way in
which she wrote / imagine the white
South could not stand her. Stephen
Graham has no such intimate knowl-
edge as Fannie Kemble possessed.
but he did his best while in America
to see conditions as they really exist,
and his many years OF travel among
other peoples-he has written a num-
Der of books on Russia-make him a
wise and well-balanced observer.
Some of the readers of Book Chat
doubtless met him when he was col
lecting material for The Soul of
John Brown" a striking-Iooking man
with reddish hair worn a trife long
and a gentle though strong face. Re
igious in the best sense of the word,
he believes that "only Christianity
can save color" But there is some
thing of the militant Christian about
him when he tells us that there is
such a thing as the wrath of God,
and it is not incompatible with Divine
Fatherhood and all merciful Provi-
dence." John Brown is his hero and
he ends his book by saying: John
Brown himself if he should re-appear
would not be sweetened by what he
saw happening in the world. His
soul goes marching on, but it is still
the soul of vengeance and wrath"
To prepare for the writing of this
book Stephen Graham spent some
time in New York-we at the N. A.
A. c. p were fortunate in being able
to give him material-and then start
ed in his travels He went into seven
southern states. He saw the indus
tries at Newport News. talked with
black rivitters and clippers, and, to
quote his own words, went up the
James River to jamestown and on to
Richmond, the fine capital of the old
Dominion. / travelled to Lynchburg
and its tobacco industries, went from
thence to sober Knoxville, investi-
eating the race riot there and the at
titude of Tennessee. From Knox
vile went to Chattanooga and Birm-
ingham, in each of which great steel
centers l met the leading Negroes and
investigated conditions. l was at At
lanta and walked across Georgia to
the sea, following Sherman. A three
hundred mile walk through the cotton
fields and forests of Georgia. From
Savannah went to Brunswick and
Jacksonville, thence to Pensacola and
on from Florida to New Orleans and
the Gulf plantations. / journeyed up
the Mississippi on a river steamer.
stayed at the Negro city of Mound
Bayou, was at Vicksburg and Green
vile and Memphis and then rel aired
once more to the contrasting North"
The most picturesque part of the
trip, was the tramp through Georgia
No one else used the road for walk
ing, and Mr.. Graham was accounted
passing strange But his ready spirit
of good fellowship won confidence and
he found out much concerning Sher-
mans march from the oldest inhabi-
tants and much regarding the Georgia
of today from his own observations.
His summing up is not hattering.
Rural Georgia is not very much bet
ter today than it was in slavery days"
In the cities he met leading men
of the colored race, men who must be
interesting to read what he wrote.
He is generous in his estimates of the
black man, kindly but with sense of
humor. The further South he drops
the more he sees the Negro neglected,
his opportunities lessened. He is
shocked that library, bearing Carne-
gie's name, admits no colored reader.
The lack of public schooling amazes
him. He did not visit Hampton
though he was as near it as Norfolk,
not because he doubted its good work,
but because he wanted to found his
impressions on the poorer schools, on
what was usual not what was ocea-
sional. 1t is this spirit that makes
his book so different from that OF
Archer or Maurice Evans; he was not
hoodwinked by the sight Of philan-
thropy.
While kindly toward the Negro he
is upsparing IN his condemnation OF
the white southerner, yet he recog-
nizes that he exists inevitably, the
sure result of slavery. "You can elias
sify all faces into those who say
please and those who do not, and the
children of the slave owners are most
~ in the second category Unquah-
fed mastership; indifference to dirt
and misery IN the servants class; cal
L q 49,