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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31301-h.zip b/31301-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad64ca2 --- /dev/null +++ b/31301-h.zip diff --git a/31301-h/31301-h.htm b/31301-h/31301-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b6517c --- /dev/null +++ b/31301-h/31301-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1076 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Comparative Study of the Negro Problem, by Charles C. Cook. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + + p.dropcap:first-letter{float: left; padding-right: 3px; font-size: 200%; line-height: 83%; width:auto;} + .caps {text-transform:uppercase;} + + a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Comparative Study of the Negro Problem, by +Charles C. Cook + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Comparative Study of the Negro Problem + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 4 + +Author: Charles C. Cook + +Release Date: February 17, 2010 [EBook #31301] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NEGRO PROBLEM *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h3>The American Negro Academy.</h3> +<h3>OCCASIONAL PAPERS No. 4.</h3> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h1>A Comparative Study</h1> +<h3>—OF THE—</h3> +<h1>NEGRO PROBLEM</h1> +<p> </p> +<h4>—BY—</h4> +<h3>Mr. Charles C. Cook.</h3> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>Price Fifteen Cents.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h4>WASHINGTON, D. C.<br />Published by the Academy<br />1899</h4> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2>A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small></h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Living</span> as we do in the midst of a people, which, if not of unmixed +English blood, is at least English in institutions, language and laws, +where can we better read our destiny than in the pages of English +history? “In our own hearts,” some will at once answer. But no, the +thread of our fate is, to-day, more in the hands of the American people +than in our own.</p> + +<p>The three nations, which have in modern times, most startled the world +by their progress, are England, the United States, and Japan. In the +early years of the seventeenth century, a part of the English people, +impatient of the restrictions of their time, founded upon this continent +a new and more rapidly progressive civilization than that which they +left behind them in their old homes. But this was no beginning, only an +acceleration of the movement, which had already placed England among the +foremost powers of the earth. To study the conditions attending upon the +entrance of the American people upon their path of progress, we must +follow the pilgrims back to and into their English homes. What, then, +does the history of the American people teach us? A simple lesson, still +more impressively told by the history of Japan: that time may become an +insignificant element in the making of a powerful nation. What it took +England ten centuries to accomplish, the United States has done in two +hundred, and Japan in thirty years. What mighty leavening agency has +been employed, what secret learned from nature’s workshop, that these +almost incredible results, should have been so quickly, yet beyond +question so well, won? The answer may be given in two words: England was +chiefly hand-made, the United States, and above all Japan, have been +made by machinery. Richly endowed with human genius, as with natural +resources, only time enough was needed to transplant modern political +institutions, and economic and industrial machinery, and to train +natives in their use, to enable Japan to raise herself, in one +generation, high in the scale of progressive nations.</p> + +<p>Thirty years ago, Japan stood hesitatingly upon the threshold of her +hermit’s cell, and considered whether she should go out and join the +throng of bustling Europeans. America, England and <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'Hollaud'">Holland</ins> had beaten +furiously at her doors, demanding her answer. At this fateful moment, +the daimio Okubu thus addressed the Mikado—“Since the middle Ages our +Emperor has lived behind a screen and has never trodden the earth. +Nothing of what went on outside his screen ever penetrated his sacred +ear; the imperial residence was profoundly secluded, and, naturally, +unlike the outer world. Not more than a few court nobles were allowed to +approach the throne, a practice most opposed to the principles of +Heaven. This vicious practice has been common in all ages. But now, let +pompous etiquette be done away with, and simplicity become our first +object. Kioto is in an-out-of-the way position, and is unfit to be the +seat of government! Let His Majesty take up his abode temporarily at +Ozaka, removing his capital hither, and thus cure one of the hundred +abuses which we inherit from past ages.”</p> + +<p>“The young Mikado, Mutsuhito, came <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>in person to the meetings of the +council of state, and before the daimios and court nobles, promised on +oath that a deliberative assembly should be formed; all measures be +decided by public opinion; the uncivilized customs of former times +should be broken through; and the impartiality and justice displayed in +the workings of nature, be adopted as a basis of action; and that +intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world, in +order to establish the foundations of empire.” “These words,” says the +translator, “seem an echo of the prophetic question of the Hebrew seer: +Can a nation be born at once.”</p> + +<p>In 1868 the quickly accomplished revolution occurred, which overthrew a +feudal aristocracy which had endured for nearly seven hundred years. At +its close, the Mikado emerged from the sacred seclusion, in which he had +been purposely kept, to take the reins of government and lead the half +unwilling nation into the ways of the western world. In a few years, +Japan had fitted herself out with a constitution, a bureau staff, an +army and navy, post office, railroad and telegraph facilities, customs +houses, a mint, docks, lighthouses, mills and factories, public schools, +colleges and schools of special instruction, newspapers, publishing +houses and a new literature written by Japanese students of European +life and history; Ambassadors and consuls were admitted to Japan and +sent to the other nations; scholars sought the western schools and +returned to put into practice western ideas; European ships established +commercial relations with the islands; and Christian missionaries +hurried into this promising new field. Japan, in thirty years had passed +from obscurity to fame, and no longer doomed to be the prey of other +nations, she had a voice in that great council, which decides the +destinies of mankind. By a not unnatural coincidence, she has been +attracted to that other island power, Great Britain, and it is to +England that her debt is greatest; for in political and economic +progress, England is the model of the world.</p> + +<p>About the middle of the fifth century, the Roman armies, after a +military occupation of Britain which lasted for four hundred years, +were recalled to Rome. That imperial city, fattened upon oriental +plunder, and intoxicated by hundreds of military triumphs, was now +falling amidst the ruins of her temples and theatres, before the +onslaughts of barbarian hordes. Meanwhile the same drama, though upon a +smaller scale, was being enacted in the deserted province. The Romanized +Britons, their vitals eaten out by the corrosive civilization which they +had adopted, were slaughtered like sheep on their borders, by the +uncivilized tribes, until in desperation, they invited North German +pirate chiefs to Britain to protect them. To protect them! What bitter +irony! By the end of the next century, bones and ashes were about all +there was left to protect, and England was peopled afresh by the +devastating hosts of her protectors.</p> + +<p>While in their native forests four centuries earlier, these Germans had +won the admiration of Tacitus by the simplicity of their manners and the +integrity of their lives. Lovers of freedom, they were loyal followers +of their leaders in battle: accustomed by the severity of their winters +to the greatest hardships, and hardened by lives of war into cruelty, +they were tender, almost reverential in their attitude toward women. +“They had no use for laws,” said Tacitus “their good customs sufficed.”</p> + +<p>During the century following their arrival in England, they glutted the +savage in them, with the sight of bleeding corpses and burning homes; +nor did they escape demoralization; for they turned their arms against +each other and fought for three hundred years for tribal supremacy, only +to fall before a Danish, and later, a Norman conqueror. In 871, 422 +years after the landing of Hengest, and 274 years after the coming of +Augustine the missionary, Alfred, the greatest of the Saxon kings, +ascended the throne. The intellectual condition of England at that time, +may be described in his own words, “When I began to reign I cannot +remember one south of Thames who could explain the service-book in +English,”—which is as much as to say that there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> was not one fairly +educated man in the richest and most progressive part of the island. For +more than three hundred years, the history of England is an almost +continuous record of anarchy and rapine.</p> + +<p>Such conditions favor the strong, and, like the body of soldiers which, +while advancing over the smooth road, keeps its line unbroken, but when +obliged to cross a muddy, ploughed field, breaks up into a straggling +file, the commonwealth of ancient Germany, with its wonderful equality +and community, had so changed its form under pressure of the conditions +attending the conquest of the Britons, that monarchy and slavery, and +the accumulation by individuals of wealth and power, had, even before +the Norman invasion, become permanent features of the society. All had +possessed some share of power and wealth in the early time, and it +followed that the acquisition of them was little esteemed; but now these +gifts, when the Normans usurped them, grew to splendor in the eyes of +those from whose presence they were being ever farther and farther +withdrawn. The race for money and power had begun, and though the gaps +between the contestants widened, all pressed onwards: England had +entered upon her progressive stage. Now, after eight hundred years, +while the rich harvest is being reaped, let us look back at the sowers, +in the time of its sowing.</p> + +<p>England was, before the rise of Japan, the only island power, and to her +consequent isolation may be traced many important differences between +her development and that of the continental powers. Prominent among +these was an early consciousness of national existence, which gave some +purpose to three centuries of otherwise meaningless bloodshed.</p> + +<p>As the insulation of England was the most striking among the favorable +circumstances, so love of independence became the distinguishing feature +of the English character, belonging alike to the Saxon of the time of +Tacitus and the Englishman of to-day. The effect of this instinct has +been to invigorate all of the members of the society; and to it is due +the succession of glorious victories won by the English yeomanry over +the French army at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt; the ranks of the +English army being so far superior, individually, to the ranks of the +French, that superiority in the numbers of the French was unavailing.</p> + +<p>But, on the other hand, it was the same spirit which caused the Saxon +freeman to stay away from the tribal assembly for several days, in order +to show that he acknowledged no duty to obey: and this spirit, again +which spent the English by more than three hundred years of domestic +wars and left them helpless before sixty thousand Norman and French +invaders.</p> + +<p>The very different period of peace and prosperity, which followed upon +Norman tyranny, taught the English to distinguish between a just and an +exaggerated sense of the freedom to which each individual was entitled, +and in Burke’s attitude towards the French revolution, we have the +residuum of the struggle between Saxon independence and Norman +discipline.</p> + +<p>The church of England also expresses the English spirit of liberty. It +stands not for dissent, but for national self-control; it is an +independent, not a protestant church. To realize this, we must remember, +that the desire for separation from the church of Rome showed itself in +the eleventh century; and from then on continuously, until Henry VIII +slit the thin thread which bound England to Rome, the cause of +ecclesiastical and of civil liberty advanced side by side.</p> + +<p>It is a noteworthy characteristic of the Saxon, as described by +implication in the Germania of Tacitus, that, while he barely tolerated +a king, he cheerfully obeyed a captain, or war leader. When, therefore, +Angles and Saxons entered upon a period of conquest in England, which +lasted a hundred and fifty years, it became quite easy for the captain, +imperceptibly, and, to a certain extent involuntarily, to add to his +proper office that of law giver and administrator. In this way, +especially after the exchange of Saxon for Norman administrators, the +still rebellious Saxon freeman became hopelessly entangled in a network +of machinery, local and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> national, which kept him for many years an +obedient, unresisting subject.</p> + +<p>So, being deprived for centuries of any considerable weight in the +English counsels, the commoner turned his attention to the increasing of +his material well-being. In this he was favored by the stern +enforcement, by the Norman kings, of law and order, and an enduring +peace; for, though English soldiers have often fought on the continent, +it may be said with almost literal truth that not since the Norman +Conquest has English soil felt the footsteps of a foreign foe. For this +blessing, England is indebted to her insular position, which has also +pointed so unmistakably to her destiny as a sea-faring power, carrying +the world’s trade in her merchant ships and scattering colonies over +every continent.</p> + +<p>Summing up then, the conditions favoring English progress at its +beginning: we have a people, instinct with the love of freedom and +power, subjected to law by desire for victory in war, and kept obedient +by bewilderment of machinery. Forced to reconcile themselves to Norman +usurpation of all power in church and state, they devote themselves to +the acquisition of wealth, and, because of their insular position and +small territory, end in commercial supremacy and colonial expansion.</p> + +<p>The English people are, through their American descendants, our teachers +in everything, and their lessons we eagerly and unquestioningly learn +and practice. But we ought now, fairly and candidly to consider how far +we may realize with our dispositions and our circumstances, the +greatness which England has achieved. Could we colonize Cuba, our +environing conditions would be favorable to political and economic +development. Cuba is an island, fertile and, for commerce, almost ideal +in its situation. Or, can we not, remaining here, share in the +management of this splendid country, exercising the powers and +fulfilling the duties of government in those states where we are in the +majority, and influencing the government of other states where our +numbers are not so great? If either career is open to us, the study and +imitation of the English model will abundantly repay us. But do we +believe that it is so? No, we cannot hope that either path will be ours. +The white races have to-day the power and the determination to rule the +world.</p> + +<p>But, as if the first obstacle was not great enough, I must add another +which is even greater: we have not the disposition to follow England had +we the opportunity to do so.</p> + +<p>The modern state is the product of centuries of war. Its architectural +model is the mediaeval castle. From that school of discipline we have +been excluded for more than two hundred years. That we have not quite +forgotten our early lessons, our fidelity to our leaders in battle and +devotion to our cause, have put beyond question. It has been more than +once shown that there are men among us who can charge up a hill in the +face of a withering fire; but who among us is capable of jumping into +the air, and falling with both knees upon a fellow-student in a college +foot-ball game; or of using against a savage tribe, as England proposed +to do, the mutilating dum dum bullet, forbidden by the rules of +civilized warfare, but too expensive to throw away? Yet this is the +spirit of the conqueror, careful, patient, exact, merciless, cool. +One-third of a victory to-day belongs, it is said, to the treasury +office, one-third to the war office, and only the remaining third, to +the general and soldiers in the field.</p> + +<p>Since both opportunity and disposition, therefore, are wanting, which +would enable us to enter upon a political career, we must be content to +live here, a voiceless figure at the council-board of the American +nation. And yet, a mere element in the population (“Negroes and Indians +untaxed”) we will never consent to be.</p> + +<p>When de Toqueville wrote upon Democracy in America, he made the Negro +problem a part of the history of civilization, and it has continued to +increase in importance, as in difficulty, down to the present day. But +that it should be other than a problem for the whites had not been +thought of. How strange this seems to us, whose whole attention is +concentrated upon it from morning till night,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> from childhood to the +grave! We stand before it like Sisyphus before the great rock which he +rolled so laboriously and so vainly up that Tartarean hill.</p> + +<p>A few years ago, I had occasion to seek the advice of a distinguished +member of the Board of Trustees of Howard University upon a school +matter. After hearing a part of the tale of trouble, he said solemnly, +“It is very <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'unforlunate'">unfortunate</ins>, but still true that your people are not united, +you don’t act together.” Now, as it happened, it was otherwise in this +instance, and I hastened to say that all of the colored teachers were on +one side and the white teachers on the other. “Now that will never do,” +he replied quickly. “You must never allow a color line to be drawn.” He +spoke with such evident feeling that I realized that his last word was +said. We cannot exaggerate the importance of this fundamental dilemma. +If we hope to win in any contest, we must unite, but the unwisest thing +we can do, is to unite and win.</p> + +<p>During the past forty years a great many people in western countries +have been deeply impressed by Darwin’s view of the animal and vegetable +worlds as the theatre of a struggle for existence in which the fittest +have survived; and have applied this doctrine unrestrictedly to the life +of man. A deep tinge of Darwinism seems to have spread itself over our +own discussions, and two schools are rising in our midst, one advocating +an active, the other a passive part in the struggle.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of the former policy, we are told to organize, and if need +be, to arm, in defense of our political and social rights; in the +pulpit, in the press and before the courts of law to defend ourselves; +and above all, to get money, for this is the key to the whole situation. +But nothing could be more unwise than willingly to match our strength +with that of the American people. It is vain to hope for a fair fight, +man against man. The whites will not fail to make use of every advantage +which they possess. The struggle will always be one between an armed +white man and an unarmed Negro; between a man on one hand, and a man +and a giant on the other, a giant made of store-houses, arsenals and +navies, railroads, organization, science and confidence. It is equally +idle to <i>demand</i> an impartial administration of the law. The English +common law is but a stepmother of justice; her own child is prosperity. +The Saxon came to England a pirate. He grew to be a merchant, often +returning, however, to his old trade. After turning merchant, he turned +lawyer, and the law administered in our courts of justice is but his +replication in his own case. But it is vainest of all to suppose that we +can <i>buy</i> our way into the respect and liking of the American people. +Somebody has been saying to us; Just let us own blocks of southern +railroad stock and who will bid us ride on a Jim Crow car? Who could it +have been, who offered us this advice? We should at least crown him king +of jesters and prince of wits. Is there anything in the English or +American past, to justify us in believing that they will part more +willingly with wealth than with power? Are we not shortsightedly +preparing for calamities far more destructive, and more enduring than +the political murders of the last thirty years? The black miners at +Virden could tell us something about the pursuit of wealth; and the Jews +about its social and political value after it has been acquired.</p> + +<p>But the worst result <i>to-day</i> of this kind of advice is that it is so +quickly taken up by rash and evil-minded men, who shout it from the +platform in its coarsest and most misleading form. After them follows +the newspaper vulture seizing upon what is worst in the speaker’s +address to scatter it in large headlines through thousands of homes.</p> + +<p>More numerous than these who bid us strike for our rights are the +counsellors of a pacific policy. Their aim is the same, survival, but +our part in the struggle must be, they say, a humble, or at least, an +inconspicuous one. We should stoop to conquer, one tells us; while +another, phrasing technically the same thought, says, we must march +along the path of least resistance.</p> + +<p>That the second thought is only the first in another dress scarcely +needs the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> proof which a few words will give. In order to determine in +advance, which of many paths will offer the least resistance, we must +know the nature of the body moving, and of the field through which the +body moves; and also the changes which both the body and the field +undergo during the passage; the problem being a somewhat different one +at any moment from what it was at the preceding moment. Still, the +variations would be comparatively few were not the body, our own chaotic +mass, and the field, which is, in this case, the American people, such +changeable factors. As it is, the determination of the path of least +resistance for our eight millions is a task which a college of +scientists could not hope to accomplish.</p> + +<p>The problem becomes very easy however, if we make two assumptions: the +first, that the colored people of this country are immeasurably meek, +patient and long-suffering; and the second, that the white people are +determined, right or wrong, to rule and have. These premises being +granted, it <i>seems</i> at least to follow, that the path of least +resistance for the colored people is one of submission. But there is a +difficulty, which at once confronts us: the unvarying meekness of the +Negro is denied by the very circumstance which brought out this +solution,—the race conflicts. This unquestionable fact, that “race +riots” do crop out in all parts of the South; and the equally +incontrovertible fact that men of character and influence encourage a +spirit of stubborn clinging to rights deemed inalienable, must be held +to justify us in raising the question: which path <i>is</i> the Negro +pursuing, that of submission, or that of resistance. It avails us +nothing to insist that the former is the way of life, the latter, of +extinction; the way of least resistance is, by no means, always, the way +of life. The drunkard follows the path of least resistance, when he +lifts the cup for the twelfth time to his lips; the moth follows the +path of least resistance when it flies into the candle flame. The path +of least resistance is the path, which, whether chosen by ourselves or +forced upon us; whether it lead to life, or to death; we have followed +and are about to follow.</p> + +<p>We come back then to the real thought, which is so clouded by that +technical expression. The cry goes up: A black man cannot stand up in +the South! Let him kneel down then, is the answer. It is our duty to +deal with this thought in its nakedness, and each of us answer for +himself, this question: Shall I kneel down?</p> + +<p>The issue brings our moral courage to the supreme test. The moral coward +is he who sacrifices what he believes to be the higher from fear, who +sacrifices his inner self to save his skin. If we hold our political +rights dear above all else, if we think our manhood involved, let us be +ready to give up wealth, comfort, and even life itself in their defense; +let us, if attacked at this last point defend our privileges, and, if +defeated turn our faces to the wall and die.</p> + +<p>But at such a crisis in our lives let us make no avoidable mistake; let +us not say that our self-respect is in peril, when we mean our pride. To +strike back, even in self-defence, is to turn our backs to the path +which Christ pointed out to us. To fight against almost insuperable +odds, as we must, can be justified only by a cause which we cannot +without degradation surrender, and can in no other way maintain. If we +give up our political rights for love of peace, and because our gentler +nature does not goad us on to return blow for blow, we forfeit none of +our self-respect; but if we give up this privilege for love of Christ, +that His law of love may become the law of the nations of the earth, we +have His promise of a glorious reward.</p> + +<p>But, after all, why should we consider which path we should follow, that +of resistance, or that of submission, before we know where we are going? +What is that survival, which we must fight for; what is this conquest, +which gilds ignoble stooping?</p> + +<p>In North Germany, where the climate is too severe for grain or grass to +flourish, there was nursed a race, which hunted in the forests, and +fished along the rocky coasts. In the fifth century, these men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> learned +that there were more beautiful parts of the earth. In less than fifteen +hundred years they have swept the Celts from England, the Indians from +North America, the Maoris from Australia. Will they continue their +devastating progress over the earth, never resting until they have +extinguished every other race? It may be so, but long before they have +dispersed the other inhabitants of the globe, they must themselves have +become scattered, divided, opposed. Already, the English language is +unintelligible in Germany, though Englishman and German are offshoots +from the same stock, the German of the North can hardly understand the +German of the South; Dutch and English vessels have fought desperately +at sea, in the past, and to-day, Dutch and English are face to face in +South Africa; England and America have fought two wars; the Northern and +Southern states of this country have fought one. As far back as we can +go the same condition reveals itself; Greece humiliates her sister +Persia, and falls before her more powerful sister, Rome: the barbarians +who sack Rome in the fifth century and the Romans themselves are of the +same Aryan stock: so are the English and Russians, who seem about to +grapple in a deadly struggle to-day. To assign a limit to this process +of selection seems as impossible in the future, as in the past. Yet it +may well be doubted whether, amidst the host of the fallen, there were +not many who were worthier than those who have survived.</p> + +<p>Forty years ago, Hallam, after reviewing the Middle Ages, was forced to +say: “We cannot from any past experience, indulge the pleasing vision of +a constant and parallel relation between the moral and intellectual +energies, the virtues and civilization of mankind.” And to-day, it is an +almost accepted view, that the least difference between the savage and +the civilized man is the difference in morality. It follows that +morality has played no conspicuous part in the process of selection; +that the extermination of others does little or nothing to improve the +character of those who survived; and finally, since Japan has put on +European civilization as easily as a Japanese can put on a suit of +English clothes, that civilization is a varnish, spread over the +material beneath. That this is the real belief of nearly every one of +us, and has always been so, our judgment of the conduct of individuals +proves. Do we go about the streets giving prizes to octogenarians, or +put down to wickedness the early death of a child? Why then, should we +otherwise regard long life in a whole people? Do we applaud the superior +strength or cunning of Cain, or pretend that the discovery of gun-powder +strengthened the arm of the <i>good</i>? No, neither loyalty, nor victory is +the true test;—it is by their fruits that God will know them.</p> + +<p>Let us, then, throw away this narrow, self-justifying doctrine of the +survival of the fittest, and follow instead the noble counsel of +Milton:—</p> + +<p class="poem">Nor love thy life, nor hate, but what thou liv’st, live well.<br /> +How long or short permit to heaven.</p> + +<p>Let us find our model less in the conquering Saxon and more in the dying +Saviour. Christ died that we may live; and for the same purpose all +created life has passed away. Let us so live that when the last man goes +from the earth, he will, no matter what his race or color, owe a part of +the good there is in him, of the hope there is for him, to our +influence. Our life cannot be too brief for this influence to be +exerted; and when God shall look over his flocks to praise the worthy, +it is the witness of His Son that his first loving welcome will be for +the least and lowliest.</p> + +<p>But we have so little faith to-day, that I hardly doubt that there is +chiming in the ears of many in this audience the refrain:—“This is all +sentiment and doesn’t help us to deal with hard facts.” We ought, +however, to hesitate, I think, before consigning this view to the +babies’ limbs. It may be after all that the Sermon on the Mount was not +pure eccentricity, nor Christ a Don Quixote. Of the two counsels, ‘Get +religion,’ and ‘Get money,’ there is yet something to be said in support +of the former. Carlyle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> fairly exculpates the nobility of Scotland for +their cold treatment of the poet, Burns. “Had they not,” he asks, “their +game to preserve; their borough interests to strengthen, dinners to eat +and give?... Let us pity and forgive them. The game they preserved and +shot, the dinners they ate and gave, the borough interests they +strengthened, the little Babylons they severally builded by the glory of +their might are all melted, or melting back into the primeval chaos, as +man’s merely selfish endeavors are bound to do.”</p> + +<p>And after all, who are the poor? Let history answer! Is thrift taxed, +which seems able to bear, or prodigality, which spares nothing? Do we +tax clear-headed temperance, or the wretched drunkard, whose starving +wife and babes, by reason of the penny of internal revenue, lose one +more crust of bread? Upon whose shoulders falls the lash of scorn and +punishment? Upon those of the able man, who never tries to do his best, +or upon the ill-born, ill-bred creature’s only, whose best is so little +above society’s arbitrary passing mark, that to slip at all is to fall +below it? I have often thought that in the words, “The poor always ye +have with you,” is contained, far from a curse, the greatest pledge of +the world’s salvation; for except that hunger, cold, sorrow and disease +walk among us, the bond of sympathy which binds us to our fellow-man +slackens, and the heart grows dead and cold.</p> + +<p>One night during the long period of hardship which the missionaries +experienced in the conversion of England, a snow-storm drove Cuthbert’s +boat on the coast of Fife. “The snow closes the road along the shore, +mourned his comrades, the storm bars our way over sea.” “There is still +the pathway of heaven that lies open,” said Cuthbert. It is even so with +us. Can we regret it? Surely the problem is greatly simplified. While +our minds are fixed upon survival, no path is clear, and we weary +ourselves walking along roads which either lead nowhere at all, or bring +us back to our starting point. But, with only right living in view, +there is no mistaking the way; for there has always been a straight +road ahead of us, which we could follow if we would. It is hard to keep +plodding along the narrow path, when fields of wealth and power stretch +away on either side, but, happily for us, these are about all fenced in, +even the great Sahara desert is fenced in. We cannot be tyrants if we +would, nor can we despoil our fellows for they are as poor as we. Our +road is made smooth before us. God has not led us into temptation. We +ought then to come nearer than other peoples to a Christian life, to +that better community, where one half of the world is not happy while +the other half is miserable.</p> + +<p>Of the little guidance which is needed, a part we may get from others, a + +part from ourselves. From the English, <i>before</i> their entrance upon +their progressive stage, we may learn the importance of two bonds, that +of the family, and that of the neighborhood. National, state, even +municipal organization is denied us. The village is the highest unit of +population in which we may hope to develop our political instincts. The +village gave birth to literature, manners and customs; as indeed it did +to all institutions, political and social; for, let us not forget, that +for centuries, the western European peoples, so powerful to-day, had, +except in time of war, no other life than that of villagers. Deeper yet +in our nature the family has its source. To it we owe our earliest +expressions of chivalry, care and protection; of obedience, loyalty, +devotion, faith.</p> + +<p>The basis upon which the historic monogamous family rests is reverence +for parents and respect for women: the basis upon which the village +community rests is the common ownership of land;—and it is in just +those great countries of Europe, where common ownership of land longest +prevailed, namely, in Russia and Germany, that great cities are fewest +and the inequality of wealth, least. In such village communities we +would be strong enough to resist single handed aggression, yet too weak +to warrant persecution; rich enough to escape the degradation of +unending toil, though not rich enough to arouse in our oppressors the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +spirit of avarice. He who seeks to maintain himself in his social +privileges and political rights must have in reserve abundant means of +subsistence, and beyond this, rugged manhood. If he is going to defend +himself in the possession of anything which another covets, he must be +prepared to fight down the whole decline from civilization to savagery.</p> + +<p>Not only would the village community furnish us with centres of +resistance to oppression, but what is of greater importance, with +custom, and tradition, that understanding among men and between +generations which is stronger than law. It is the peculiar weakness of +our efforts at organization, that they proceed from the minds and wills +of a few individuals, and not from any popular demand, and until our +many society constitutions, in part at least, codify existing customs, +it is like making ropes of sands to expect our organizations to endure, +or our articles to bind.</p> + +<p>In the cities, where so many of us now live, the village community is no +longer available, and the replacing of it is one of the serious tasks +before us. Men who will help to solve this and other like problems are +desperately needed. Without armies and without government as we are, +leaders, whether statesmen diplomats, politicians or orators, we can +well depense with; without national life of any sort, national +organizations to control our political, social, religious, literary or +scientific affairs may easily be spared. But quiet, earnest, trained +workers, who will help to improve our family life, and bring into +communion even small groups of families, are destined to be the pioneers +of our civilization.</p> + +<p>To confer any lasting benefit upon our people, however, patient +deliberation and foresight are needed. I appeal to our unselfish men +and women no longer to limit their discussions to the events which this +month or year brings forth. The present is always a bad time for +consideration. What hunter can <i>aim</i> his gun at a bird which rises from +beneath his feet? Will he not rather fire at a bird which is coming or +going? We are gathered here tonight as amateur historians and prophets, +to review the past and lay plans for the future. But let me quickly +relieve myself of the charge of encouraging rash projects or empty +theories. I am proposing no vast schemes; I believe it useless to do so. +We move through life, with our backs toward, to the engine, and see all +that we see after it has passed. The reason, the imagination, with their +creative powers, picture for themselves the world that lies before, but +so swift and so unremitting is our progress, that the new revelations +constantly pouring in alter the premises before a conclusion can be +reached. Only the most gifted geniuses can draw in the vaguest outline a +picture of the future which the flight of time will prove to be true. +For the most part, our spiders’ webs of theory are remorselessly cut +down by the scythe of time. It is good to investigate sociological +problems, and devise means for guiding our course safely through perils, +but in our moments of pride, we would do wisely to reflect, that it is +as though we were playing at chess with God as our adversary. All +efforts to improve our state are bountiful, which are made after prayer, +but other plans than those conceived in a spirit of humility and +obedience to God’s law are, when we are mindful of His jealousy, at once +foolish and terrible.</p> + +<p class="right">CHARLES C. COOK.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><b>Footnote:</b></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> A study of the conditions attending upon the entrance of England and +of Japan upon their progressive stage, as a part of the problem of determining the point of equilibrium between the white and colored people of America.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Comparative Study of the Negro +Problem, by Charles C. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Comparative Study of the Negro Problem + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 4 + +Author: Charles C. Cook + +Release Date: February 17, 2010 [EBook #31301] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NEGRO PROBLEM *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy. + + OCCASIONAL PAPERS No. 4. + + + A Comparative Study + --OF THE-- + NEGRO PROBLEM + + --BY-- + Mr. Charles C. Cook. + + + Price Fifteen Cents. + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + Published by the Academy + 1899 + + + + +A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM[1] + + +Living as we do in the midst of a people, which, if not of unmixed +English blood, is at least English in institutions, language and laws, +where can we better read our destiny than in the pages of English +history? "In our own hearts," some will at once answer. But no, the +thread of our fate is, to-day, more in the hands of the American people +than in our own. + +The three nations, which have in modern times, most startled the world +by their progress, are England, the United States, and Japan. In the +early years of the seventeenth century, a part of the English people, +impatient of the restrictions of their time, founded upon this continent +a new and more rapidly progressive civilization than that which they +left behind them in their old homes. But this was no beginning, only an +acceleration of the movement, which had already placed England among the +foremost powers of the earth. To study the conditions attending upon the +entrance of the American people upon their path of progress, we must +follow the pilgrims back to and into their English homes. What, then, +does the history of the American people teach us? A simple lesson, still +more impressively told by the history of Japan: that time may become an +insignificant element in the making of a powerful nation. What it took +England ten centuries to accomplish, the United States has done in two +hundred, and Japan in thirty years. What mighty leavening agency has +been employed, what secret learned from nature's workshop, that these +almost incredible results, should have been so quickly, yet beyond +question so well, won? The answer may be given in two words: England was +chiefly hand-made, the United States, and above all Japan, have been +made by machinery. Richly endowed with human genius, as with natural +resources, only time enough was needed to transplant modern political +institutions, and economic and industrial machinery, and to train +natives in their use, to enable Japan to raise herself, in one +generation, high in the scale of progressive nations. + +Thirty years ago, Japan stood hesitatingly upon the threshold of her +hermit's cell, and considered whether she should go out and join the +throng of bustling Europeans. America, England and Holland had beaten +furiously at her doors, demanding her answer. At this fateful moment, +the daimio Okubu thus addressed the Mikado--"Since the middle Ages our +Emperor has lived behind a screen and has never trodden the earth. +Nothing of what went on outside his screen ever penetrated his sacred +ear; the imperial residence was profoundly secluded, and, naturally, +unlike the outer world. Not more than a few court nobles were allowed to +approach the throne, a practice most opposed to the principles of +Heaven. This vicious practice has been common in all ages. But now, let +pompous etiquette be done away with, and simplicity become our first +object. Kioto is in an-out-of-the way position, and is unfit to be the +seat of government! Let His Majesty take up his abode temporarily at +Ozaka, removing his capital hither, and thus cure one of the hundred +abuses which we inherit from past ages." + +"The young Mikado, Mutsuhito, came in person to the meetings of the +council of state, and before the daimios and court nobles, promised on +oath that a deliberative assembly should be formed; all measures be +decided by public opinion; the uncivilized customs of former times +should be broken through; and the impartiality and justice displayed in +the workings of nature, be adopted as a basis of action; and that +intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world, in +order to establish the foundations of empire." "These words," says the +translator, "seem an echo of the prophetic question of the Hebrew seer: +Can a nation be born at once." + +In 1868 the quickly accomplished revolution occurred, which overthrew a +feudal aristocracy which had endured for nearly seven hundred years. At +its close, the Mikado emerged from the sacred seclusion, in which he had +been purposely kept, to take the reins of government and lead the half +unwilling nation into the ways of the western world. In a few years, +Japan had fitted herself out with a constitution, a bureau staff, an +army and navy, post office, railroad and telegraph facilities, customs +houses, a mint, docks, lighthouses, mills and factories, public schools, +colleges and schools of special instruction, newspapers, publishing +houses and a new literature written by Japanese students of European +life and history; Ambassadors and consuls were admitted to Japan and +sent to the other nations; scholars sought the western schools and +returned to put into practice western ideas; European ships established +commercial relations with the islands; and Christian missionaries +hurried into this promising new field. Japan, in thirty years had passed +from obscurity to fame, and no longer doomed to be the prey of other +nations, she had a voice in that great council, which decides the +destinies of mankind. By a not unnatural coincidence, she has been +attracted to that other island power, Great Britain, and it is to +England that her debt is greatest; for in political and economic +progress, England is the model of the world. + +About the middle of the fifth century, the Roman armies, after a +military occupation of Britain which lasted for four hundred years, +were recalled to Rome. That imperial city, fattened upon oriental +plunder, and intoxicated by hundreds of military triumphs, was now +falling amidst the ruins of her temples and theatres, before the +onslaughts of barbarian hordes. Meanwhile the same drama, though upon a +smaller scale, was being enacted in the deserted province. The Romanized +Britons, their vitals eaten out by the corrosive civilization which they +had adopted, were slaughtered like sheep on their borders, by the +uncivilized tribes, until in desperation, they invited North German +pirate chiefs to Britain to protect them. To protect them! What bitter +irony! By the end of the next century, bones and ashes were about all +there was left to protect, and England was peopled afresh by the +devastating hosts of her protectors. + +While in their native forests four centuries earlier, these Germans had +won the admiration of Tacitus by the simplicity of their manners and the +integrity of their lives. Lovers of freedom, they were loyal followers +of their leaders in battle: accustomed by the severity of their winters +to the greatest hardships, and hardened by lives of war into cruelty, +they were tender, almost reverential in their attitude toward women. +"They had no use for laws," said Tacitus "their good customs sufficed." + +During the century following their arrival in England, they glutted the +savage in them, with the sight of bleeding corpses and burning homes; +nor did they escape demoralization; for they turned their arms against +each other and fought for three hundred years for tribal supremacy, only +to fall before a Danish, and later, a Norman conqueror. In 871, 422 +years after the landing of Hengest, and 274 years after the coming of +Augustine the missionary, Alfred, the greatest of the Saxon kings, +ascended the throne. The intellectual condition of England at that time, +may be described in his own words, "When I began to reign I cannot +remember one south of Thames who could explain the service-book in +English,"--which is as much as to say that there was not one fairly +educated man in the richest and most progressive part of the island. For +more than three hundred years, the history of England is an almost +continuous record of anarchy and rapine. + +Such conditions favor the strong, and, like the body of soldiers which, +while advancing over the smooth road, keeps its line unbroken, but when +obliged to cross a muddy, ploughed field, breaks up into a straggling +file, the commonwealth of ancient Germany, with its wonderful equality +and community, had so changed its form under pressure of the conditions +attending the conquest of the Britons, that monarchy and slavery, and +the accumulation by individuals of wealth and power, had, even before +the Norman invasion, become permanent features of the society. All had +possessed some share of power and wealth in the early time, and it +followed that the acquisition of them was little esteemed; but now these +gifts, when the Normans usurped them, grew to splendor in the eyes of +those from whose presence they were being ever farther and farther +withdrawn. The race for money and power had begun, and though the gaps +between the contestants widened, all pressed onwards: England had +entered upon her progressive stage. Now, after eight hundred years, +while the rich harvest is being reaped, let us look back at the sowers, +in the time of its sowing. + +England was, before the rise of Japan, the only island power, and to her +consequent isolation may be traced many important differences between +her development and that of the continental powers. Prominent among +these was an early consciousness of national existence, which gave some +purpose to three centuries of otherwise meaningless bloodshed. + +As the insulation of England was the most striking among the favorable +circumstances, so love of independence became the distinguishing feature +of the English character, belonging alike to the Saxon of the time of +Tacitus and the Englishman of to-day. The effect of this instinct has +been to invigorate all of the members of the society; and to it is due +the succession of glorious victories won by the English yeomanry over +the French army at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt; the ranks of the +English army being so far superior, individually, to the ranks of the +French, that superiority in the numbers of the French was unavailing. + +But, on the other hand, it was the same spirit which caused the Saxon +freeman to stay away from the tribal assembly for several days, in order +to show that he acknowledged no duty to obey: and this spirit, again +which spent the English by more than three hundred years of domestic +wars and left them helpless before sixty thousand Norman and French +invaders. + +The very different period of peace and prosperity, which followed upon +Norman tyranny, taught the English to distinguish between a just and an +exaggerated sense of the freedom to which each individual was entitled, +and in Burke's attitude towards the French revolution, we have the +residuum of the struggle between Saxon independence and Norman discipline. + +The church of England also expresses the English spirit of liberty. It +stands not for dissent, but for national self-control; it is an +independent, not a protestant church. To realize this, we must remember, +that the desire for separation from the church of Rome showed itself in +the eleventh century; and from then on continuously, until Henry VIII +slit the thin thread which bound England to Rome, the cause of +ecclesiastical and of civil liberty advanced side by side. + +It is a noteworthy characteristic of the Saxon, as described by +implication in the Germania of Tacitus, that, while he barely tolerated +a king, he cheerfully obeyed a captain, or war leader. When, therefore, +Angles and Saxons entered upon a period of conquest in England, which +lasted a hundred and fifty years, it became quite easy for the captain, +imperceptibly, and, to a certain extent involuntarily, to add to his +proper office that of law giver and administrator. In this way, +especially after the exchange of Saxon for Norman administrators, the +still rebellious Saxon freeman became hopelessly entangled in a network +of machinery, local and national, which kept him for many years an +obedient, unresisting subject. + +So, being deprived for centuries of any considerable weight in the +English counsels, the commoner turned his attention to the increasing of +his material well-being. In this he was favored by the stern +enforcement, by the Norman kings, of law and order, and an enduring +peace; for, though English soldiers have often fought on the continent, +it may be said with almost literal truth that not since the Norman +Conquest has English soil felt the footsteps of a foreign foe. For this +blessing, England is indebted to her insular position, which has also +pointed so unmistakably to her destiny as a sea-faring power, carrying +the world's trade in her merchant ships and scattering colonies over +every continent. + +Summing up then, the conditions favoring English progress at its +beginning: we have a people, instinct with the love of freedom and +power, subjected to law by desire for victory in war, and kept obedient +by bewilderment of machinery. Forced to reconcile themselves to Norman +usurpation of all power in church and state, they devote themselves to +the acquisition of wealth, and, because of their insular position and +small territory, end in commercial supremacy and colonial expansion. + +The English people are, through their American descendants, our teachers +in everything, and their lessons we eagerly and unquestioningly learn +and practice. But we ought now, fairly and candidly to consider how far +we may realize with our dispositions and our circumstances, the +greatness which England has achieved. Could we colonize Cuba, our +environing conditions would be favorable to political and economic +development. Cuba is an island, fertile and, for commerce, almost ideal +in its situation. Or, can we not, remaining here, share in the +management of this splendid country, exercising the powers and +fulfilling the duties of government in those states where we are in the +majority, and influencing the government of other states where our +numbers are not so great? If either career is open to us, the study and +imitation of the English model will abundantly repay us. But do we +believe that it is so? No, we cannot hope that either path will be ours. +The white races have to-day the power and the determination to rule the +world. + +But, as if the first obstacle was not great enough, I must add another +which is even greater: we have not the disposition to follow England had +we the opportunity to do so. + +The modern state is the product of centuries of war. Its architectural +model is the mediaeval castle. From that school of discipline we have +been excluded for more than two hundred years. That we have not quite +forgotten our early lessons, our fidelity to our leaders in battle and +devotion to our cause, have put beyond question. It has been more than +once shown that there are men among us who can charge up a hill in the +face of a withering fire; but who among us is capable of jumping into +the air, and falling with both knees upon a fellow-student in a college +foot-ball game; or of using against a savage tribe, as England proposed +to do, the mutilating dum dum bullet, forbidden by the rules of +civilized warfare, but too expensive to throw away? Yet this is the +spirit of the conqueror, careful, patient, exact, merciless, cool. +One-third of a victory to-day belongs, it is said, to the treasury +office, one-third to the war office, and only the remaining third, to +the general and soldiers in the field. + +Since both opportunity and disposition, therefore, are wanting, which +would enable us to enter upon a political career, we must be content to +live here, a voiceless figure at the council-board of the American +nation. And yet, a mere element in the population ("Negroes and Indians +untaxed") we will never consent to be. + +When de Toqueville wrote upon Democracy in America, he made the Negro +problem a part of the history of civilization, and it has continued to +increase in importance, as in difficulty, down to the present day. But +that it should be other than a problem for the whites had not been +thought of. How strange this seems to us, whose whole attention is +concentrated upon it from morning till night, from childhood to the +grave! We stand before it like Sisyphus before the great rock which he +rolled so laboriously and so vainly up that Tartarean hill. + +A few years ago, I had occasion to seek the advice of a distinguished +member of the Board of Trustees of Howard University upon a school +matter. After hearing a part of the tale of trouble, he said solemnly, +"It is very unfortunate, but still true that your people are not united, +you don't act together." Now, as it happened, it was otherwise in this +instance, and I hastened to say that all of the colored teachers were on +one side and the white teachers on the other. "Now that will never do," +he replied quickly. "You must never allow a color line to be drawn." He +spoke with such evident feeling that I realized that his last word was +said. We cannot exaggerate the importance of this fundamental dilemma. +If we hope to win in any contest, we must unite, but the unwisest thing +we can do, is to unite and win. + +During the past forty years a great many people in western countries +have been deeply impressed by Darwin's view of the animal and vegetable +worlds as the theatre of a struggle for existence in which the fittest +have survived; and have applied this doctrine unrestrictedly to the life +of man. A deep tinge of Darwinism seems to have spread itself over our +own discussions, and two schools are rising in our midst, one advocating +an active, the other a passive part in the struggle. + +In pursuance of the former policy, we are told to organize, and if need +be, to arm, in defense of our political and social rights; in the +pulpit, in the press and before the courts of law to defend ourselves; +and above all, to get money, for this is the key to the whole situation. +But nothing could be more unwise than willingly to match our strength +with that of the American people. It is vain to hope for a fair fight, +man against man. The whites will not fail to make use of every advantage +which they possess. The struggle will always be one between an armed +white man and an unarmed Negro; between a man on one hand, and a man +and a giant on the other, a giant made of store-houses, arsenals and +navies, railroads, organization, science and confidence. It is equally +idle to _demand_ an impartial administration of the law. The English +common law is but a stepmother of justice; her own child is prosperity. +The Saxon came to England a pirate. He grew to be a merchant, often +returning, however, to his old trade. After turning merchant, he turned +lawyer, and the law administered in our courts of justice is but his +replication in his own case. But it is vainest of all to suppose that we +can _buy_ our way into the respect and liking of the American people. +Somebody has been saying to us; Just let us own blocks of southern +railroad stock and who will bid us ride on a Jim Crow car? Who could it +have been, who offered us this advice? We should at least crown him king +of jesters and prince of wits. Is there anything in the English or +American past, to justify us in believing that they will part more +willingly with wealth than with power? Are we not shortsightedly +preparing for calamities far more destructive, and more enduring than +the political murders of the last thirty years? The black miners at +Virden could tell us something about the pursuit of wealth; and the Jews +about its social and political value after it has been acquired. + +But the worst result _to-day_ of this kind of advice is that it is so +quickly taken up by rash and evil-minded men, who shout it from the +platform in its coarsest and most misleading form. After them follows +the newspaper vulture seizing upon what is worst in the speaker's +address to scatter it in large headlines through thousands of homes. + +More numerous than these who bid us strike for our rights are the +counsellors of a pacific policy. Their aim is the same, survival, but +our part in the struggle must be, they say, a humble, or at least, an +inconspicuous one. We should stoop to conquer, one tells us; while +another, phrasing technically the same thought, says, we must march +along the path of least resistance. + +That the second thought is only the first in another dress scarcely +needs the proof which a few words will give. In order to determine in +advance, which of many paths will offer the least resistance, we must +know the nature of the body moving, and of the field through which the +body moves; and also the changes which both the body and the field +undergo during the passage; the problem being a somewhat different one +at any moment from what it was at the preceding moment. Still, the +variations would be comparatively few were not the body, our own chaotic +mass, and the field, which is, in this case, the American people, such +changeable factors. As it is, the determination of the path of least +resistance for our eight millions is a task which a college of +scientists could not hope to accomplish. + +The problem becomes very easy however, if we make two assumptions: the +first, that the colored people of this country are immeasurably meek, +patient and long-suffering; and the second, that the white people are +determined, right or wrong, to rule and have. These premises being +granted, it _seems_ at least to follow, that the path of least +resistance for the colored people is one of submission. But there is a +difficulty, which at once confronts us: the unvarying meekness of the +Negro is denied by the very circumstance which brought out this +solution,--the race conflicts. This unquestionable fact, that "race +riots" do crop out in all parts of the South; and the equally +incontrovertible fact that men of character and influence encourage a +spirit of stubborn clinging to rights deemed inalienable, must be held +to justify us in raising the question: which path _is_ the Negro +pursuing, that of submission, or that of resistance. It avails us +nothing to insist that the former is the way of life, the latter, of +extinction; the way of least resistance is, by no means, always, the way +of life. The drunkard follows the path of least resistance, when he +lifts the cup for the twelfth time to his lips; the moth follows the +path of least resistance when it flies into the candle flame. The path +of least resistance is the path, which, whether chosen by ourselves or +forced upon us; whether it lead to life, or to death; we have followed +and are about to follow. + +We come back then to the real thought, which is so clouded by that +technical expression. The cry goes up: A black man cannot stand up in +the South! Let him kneel down then, is the answer. It is our duty to +deal with this thought in its nakedness, and each of us answer for +himself, this question: Shall I kneel down? + +The issue brings our moral courage to the supreme test. The moral coward +is he who sacrifices what he believes to be the higher from fear, who +sacrifices his inner self to save his skin. If we hold our political +rights dear above all else, if we think our manhood involved, let us be +ready to give up wealth, comfort, and even life itself in their defense; +let us, if attacked at this last point defend our privileges, and, if +defeated turn our faces to the wall and die. + +But at such a crisis in our lives let us make no avoidable mistake; let +us not say that our self-respect is in peril, when we mean our pride. To +strike back, even in self-defence, is to turn our backs to the path +which Christ pointed out to us. To fight against almost insuperable +odds, as we must, can be justified only by a cause which we cannot +without degradation surrender, and can in no other way maintain. If we +give up our political rights for love of peace, and because our gentler +nature does not goad us on to return blow for blow, we forfeit none of +our self-respect; but if we give up this privilege for love of Christ, +that His law of love may become the law of the nations of the earth, we +have His promise of a glorious reward. + +But, after all, why should we consider which path we should follow, that +of resistance, or that of submission, before we know where we are going? +What is that survival, which we must fight for; what is this conquest, +which gilds ignoble stooping? + +In North Germany, where the climate is too severe for grain or grass to +flourish, there was nursed a race, which hunted in the forests, and +fished along the rocky coasts. In the fifth century, these men learned +that there were more beautiful parts of the earth. In less than fifteen +hundred years they have swept the Celts from England, the Indians from +North America, the Maoris from Australia. Will they continue their +devastating progress over the earth, never resting until they have +extinguished every other race? It may be so, but long before they have +dispersed the other inhabitants of the globe, they must themselves have +become scattered, divided, opposed. Already, the English language is +unintelligible in Germany, though Englishman and German are offshoots +from the same stock, the German of the North can hardly understand the +German of the South; Dutch and English vessels have fought desperately +at sea, in the past, and to-day, Dutch and English are face to face in +South Africa; England and America have fought two wars; the Northern and +Southern states of this country have fought one. As far back as we can +go the same condition reveals itself; Greece humiliates her sister +Persia, and falls before her more powerful sister, Rome: the barbarians +who sack Rome in the fifth century and the Romans themselves are of the +same Aryan stock: so are the English and Russians, who seem about to +grapple in a deadly struggle to-day. To assign a limit to this process +of selection seems as impossible in the future, as in the past. Yet it +may well be doubted whether, amidst the host of the fallen, there were +not many who were worthier than those who have survived. + +Forty years ago, Hallam, after reviewing the Middle Ages, was forced to +say: "We cannot from any past experience, indulge the pleasing vision of +a constant and parallel relation between the moral and intellectual +energies, the virtues and civilization of mankind." And to-day, it is an +almost accepted view, that the least difference between the savage and +the civilized man is the difference in morality. It follows that +morality has played no conspicuous part in the process of selection; +that the extermination of others does little or nothing to improve the +character of those who survived; and finally, since Japan has put on +European civilization as easily as a Japanese can put on a suit of +English clothes, that civilization is a varnish, spread over the +material beneath. That this is the real belief of nearly every one of +us, and has always been so, our judgment of the conduct of individuals +proves. Do we go about the streets giving prizes to octogenarians, or +put down to wickedness the early death of a child? Why then, should we +otherwise regard long life in a whole people? Do we applaud the superior +strength or cunning of Cain, or pretend that the discovery of gun-powder +strengthened the arm of the _good_? No, neither loyalty, nor victory is +the true test;--it is by their fruits that God will know them. + +Let us, then, throw away this narrow, self-justifying doctrine of the +survival of the fittest, and follow instead the noble counsel of +Milton:-- + + Nor love thy life, nor hate, but what thou liv'st, live well. + How long or short permit to heaven. + +Let us find our model less in the conquering Saxon and more in the dying +Saviour. Christ died that we may live; and for the same purpose all +created life has passed away. Let us so live that when the last man goes +from the earth, he will, no matter what his race or color, owe a part of +the good there is in him, of the hope there is for him, to our +influence. Our life cannot be too brief for this influence to be +exerted; and when God shall look over his flocks to praise the worthy, +it is the witness of His Son that his first loving welcome will be for +the least and lowliest. + +But we have so little faith to-day, that I hardly doubt that there is +chiming in the ears of many in this audience the refrain:--"This is all +sentiment and doesn't help us to deal with hard facts." We ought, +however, to hesitate, I think, before consigning this view to the +babies' limbs. It may be after all that the Sermon on the Mount was not +pure eccentricity, nor Christ a Don Quixote. Of the two counsels, 'Get +religion,' and 'Get money,' there is yet something to be said in support +of the former. Carlyle fairly exculpates the nobility of Scotland for +their cold treatment of the poet, Burns. "Had they not," he asks, "their +game to preserve; their borough interests to strengthen, dinners to eat +and give?... Let us pity and forgive them. The game they preserved and +shot, the dinners they ate and gave, the borough interests they +strengthened, the little Babylons they severally builded by the glory of +their might are all melted, or melting back into the primeval chaos, as +man's merely selfish endeavors are bound to do." + +And after all, who are the poor? Let history answer! Is thrift taxed, +which seems able to bear, or prodigality, which spares nothing? Do we +tax clear-headed temperance, or the wretched drunkard, whose starving +wife and babes, by reason of the penny of internal revenue, lose one +more crust of bread? Upon whose shoulders falls the lash of scorn and +punishment? Upon those of the able man, who never tries to do his best, +or upon the ill-born, ill-bred creature's only, whose best is so little +above society's arbitrary passing mark, that to slip at all is to fall +below it? I have often thought that in the words, "The poor always ye +have with you," is contained, far from a curse, the greatest pledge of +the world's salvation; for except that hunger, cold, sorrow and disease +walk among us, the bond of sympathy which binds us to our fellow-man +slackens, and the heart grows dead and cold. + +One night during the long period of hardship which the missionaries +experienced in the conversion of England, a snow-storm drove Cuthbert's +boat on the coast of Fife. "The snow closes the road along the shore, +mourned his comrades, the storm bars our way over sea." "There is still +the pathway of heaven that lies open," said Cuthbert. It is even so with +us. Can we regret it? Surely the problem is greatly simplified. While +our minds are fixed upon survival, no path is clear, and we weary +ourselves walking along roads which either lead nowhere at all, or bring +us back to our starting point. But, with only right living in view, +there is no mistaking the way; for there has always been a straight +road ahead of us, which we could follow if we would. It is hard to keep +plodding along the narrow path, when fields of wealth and power stretch +away on either side, but, happily for us, these are about all fenced in, +even the great Sahara desert is fenced in. We cannot be tyrants if we +would, nor can we despoil our fellows for they are as poor as we. Our +road is made smooth before us. God has not led us into temptation. We +ought then to come nearer than other peoples to a Christian life, to +that better community, where one half of the world is not happy while +the other half is miserable. + +Of the little guidance which is needed, a part we may get from others, a +part from ourselves. From the English, _before_ their entrance upon +their progressive stage, we may learn the importance of two bonds, that +of the family, and that of the neighborhood. National, state, even +municipal organization is denied us. The village is the highest unit of +population in which we may hope to develop our political instincts. The +village gave birth to literature, manners and customs; as indeed it did +to all institutions, political and social; for, let us not forget, that +for centuries, the western European peoples, so powerful to-day, had, +except in time of war, no other life than that of villagers. Deeper yet +in our nature the family has its source. To it we owe our earliest +expressions of chivalry, care and protection; of obedience, loyalty, +devotion, faith. + +The basis upon which the historic monogamous family rests is reverence +for parents and respect for women: the basis upon which the village +community rests is the common ownership of land;--and it is in just +those great countries of Europe, where common ownership of land longest +prevailed, namely, in Russia and Germany, that great cities are fewest +and the inequality of wealth, least. In such village communities we +would be strong enough to resist single handed aggression, yet too weak +to warrant persecution; rich enough to escape the degradation of +unending toil, though not rich enough to arouse in our oppressors the +spirit of avarice. He who seeks to maintain himself in his social +privileges and political rights must have in reserve abundant means of +subsistence, and beyond this, rugged manhood. If he is going to defend +himself in the possession of anything which another covets, he must be +prepared to fight down the whole decline from civilization to savagery. + +Not only would the village community furnish us with centres of +resistance to oppression, but what is of greater importance, with +custom, and tradition, that understanding among men and between +generations which is stronger than law. It is the peculiar weakness of +our efforts at organization, that they proceed from the minds and wills +of a few individuals, and not from any popular demand, and until our +many society constitutions, in part at least, codify existing customs, +it is like making ropes of sands to expect our organizations to endure, +or our articles to bind. + +In the cities, where so many of us now live, the village community is no +longer available, and the replacing of it is one of the serious tasks +before us. Men who will help to solve this and other like problems are +desperately needed. Without armies and without government as we are, +leaders, whether statesmen diplomats, politicians or orators, we can +well depense with; without national life of any sort, national +organizations to control our political, social, religious, literary or +scientific affairs may easily be spared. But quiet, earnest, trained +workers, who will help to improve our family life, and bring into +communion even small groups of families, are destined to be the pioneers +of our civilization. + +To confer any lasting benefit upon our people, however, patient +deliberation and foresight are needed. I appeal to our unselfish men +and women no longer to limit their discussions to the events which this +month or year brings forth. The present is always a bad time for +consideration. What hunter can _aim_ his gun at a bird which rises from +beneath his feet? Will he not rather fire at a bird which is coming or +going? We are gathered here tonight as amateur historians and prophets, +to review the past and lay plans for the future. But let me quickly +relieve myself of the charge of encouraging rash projects or empty +theories. I am proposing no vast schemes; I believe it useless to do so. +We move through life, with our backs toward, to the engine, and see all +that we see after it has passed. The reason, the imagination, with their +creative powers, picture for themselves the world that lies before, but +so swift and so unremitting is our progress, that the new revelations +constantly pouring in alter the premises before a conclusion can be +reached. Only the most gifted geniuses can draw in the vaguest outline a +picture of the future which the flight of time will prove to be true. +For the most part, our spiders' webs of theory are remorselessly cut +down by the scythe of time. It is good to investigate sociological +problems, and devise means for guiding our course safely through perils, +but in our moments of pride, we would do wisely to reflect, that it is +as though we were playing at chess with God as our adversary. All +efforts to improve our state are bountiful, which are made after prayer, +but other plans than those conceived in a spirit of humility and +obedience to God's law are, when we are mindful of His jealousy, at once +foolish and terrible. + +CHARLES C. COOK. + + + + +Footnote: + +[1] A study of the conditions attending upon the entrance of England and +of Japan upon their progressive stage, as a part of the problem of +determining the point of equilibrium between the white and colored +people of America. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "Hollaud" corrected to "Holland" (page 3) + "unforlunate" corrected to "unfortunate" (page 7) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Comparative Study of the Negro +Problem, by Charles C. 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