WHITES AND BLACKS OR THE QUESTION SETTLED 49

CHAPTER VII. OUR CHRISTIAN DUTY

Now in God's name let steps be taken to unite the good men of both races, and let these say to the lawless and unthoughtful that peace shall prevail.

Adopt a course which will assure the dark child of this section that friendly feeling for him is on the increase. Do not let him think the opposite.

Remember Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and the greatest of all, New York, are debatable ground, with the Negro divided.

If you would benefit by the division, let them see that you are indeed caring for the life and property of their black brothers, and that division will speedily come.

You gentlemen know if the Negro did not vote in the national elections, you would win the fight from the Republicans easily.

Seeing that this is true, the only thing that you need to do is to command a cessation of hostilities by the few among your race, who are engaged in such work, and show the Negroes North that you are caring for all the beneficial and material interests of the Negroes South, and a glorious era will dawn upon you.

While our schools, our cars and waiting rooms at depots are separate, they should be made equal in facilities and accommodation. At least this ought to be done, or the companies, in consideration of the difference in accommodation, should make a reduction in the fare when selling tickets to colored people.

I am not surprised that there are separate cars for the two races in this State; for I must admit that each time I have been on the cars in the South, a majority of the colored persons in the colored folk's car appeared to have diligently searched out their most dirty clothes in which to travel.

This ought not to be. It is just as much an affliction on the best colored people to have to ride with such unsightly dressed mortals as it is to your race. These railroad hands, going to their work covered with abominable garments, should still have another car.

Let us all ask the Giver of every good gift to keep the two races of this section friendly to each other; to keep them disposed to give unto each other full justice in every particular.

Grave and heavy are the responsibilities of both races, holding the relation of interdependence, so far as employer and employee are concerned.

Do not let bad men influence the one race or the other to do wrong, but let the good men in both races get together. There are a great many things which both races can afford to grant to each other without in any way endangering the race relation, the race purity, or the race wholeness of either.

Agree to make these concessions which will mark both races as being equal to the work given them to do. Do not think that hunger for a few offices, which Republicans refuse to give colored men, will be sufficient to divide them politically, in the face of the perpetration of unwarranted acts of violence in this section.

The colored man, I believe, will divide when acts prove, in every part of our beautiful Southland, that there is actually no difference in the treatment meted out to citizens in the operation of the laws on account of color.