[26]. “I lay it down as a fact which cannot successfully be challenged, that the relations between the white and negro races in every State in the Union have been, and are now, controlled by considerations ultimately governed by the factor of the relative numbers of the two.’—A. H. Stone: “The American Race Problem,” p. 57.
XI
CRIME-SLAVERY AND DEBT-SERFDOM[[27]]
Montgomery, the legislative capital of Alabama, has the air of a pleasant and prosperous country town, with spacious streets, for the most part well shaded with trees. Its dignified, unpretending State House—where the Confederate Government was organized in 1861, and where Jefferson Davis took the oath as President—is admirably situated at the top of a gradually sloping hill, and commands a fine view over the rich, pleasant country. The soil in this district (and, indeed, in many parts of Alabama and Georgia) is as red as that of South Devon, and has naturally imparted its tint to the swirling Alabama river, which, when I saw it, reminded me of the rivers through which Thomas the Rhymer rode in the old ballad:
“For a’ the blude that’s shed on earth
Rins through the springs o’ that countrie.”
I was much disappointed not to find at his Alabama home Mr. Edgar G. Murphy, whose book on “The Present South” proves him not only a humane and judicious thinker, but one of the most accomplished living writers of America. I take this opportunity of expressing my great indebtedness to his admirable work.
My most interesting experience in Montgomery was a long talk with an intelligent and prosperous negro tradesman, whom I shall call Mr. Albert Millard. |A Contented Negro.| Mr. Millard did not, on the whole, express serious dissatisfaction with the condition of his race in the neighbourhood, and was inclined to take a hopeful view of the situation in general. “It’s the low classes of both races,” said he, “that keep us down and keep friction up.”
“In labour matters,” he went on, “no galling colour-line is drawn. In the building trade, for example, there is a white union and a coloured union, with a superior council representing both races. On Labour Day they parade together until they come to a certain point. Then one body turns to the right and the other to the left, and they finish the celebration each in its own park.”
“I wonder,” I said, “whether that may not be a type and model in miniature for the general solution of the question.”