For these Gentiles, though worshiping a Jew, have persecuted the Jews for seventeen centuries or more. I have found in my travels that these white Gentiles, as a whole, do not like the Jew and the darker races taken collectively; that is, in some parts of the world the Jew is disliked, as in nearly all of the European countries, while there is no antipathy against the Negro. Then in some places both Jews and the darker races are disliked, as in the United States. On the whole, I have found that the Christianity of the English-speaking Gentile does not work when it brings him in contact with the darker races in considerable numbers, as in South Africa, Australia and the United States. The religion of the Latin races, Roman Catholicism, is decidedly broader. Now to speak of the Christianity of the white Gentile in the United States. Here is a religion which declares that its Founder died to save all men, regardless of distinctiona religion which avers it is a great unifying force. Now here are two peoples of the same nationality, language, dress, ideals, not to speak of blood relationship, both worshiping this great unifying force, and expecting as a reward to go to the same place, and yet because of so slight a matter as complexion, these peoples cannot meet together in the same church. And why? For fear of what they call social equality! Can you think of anything more absurdly inconsistent? If they can't harmonize on earth, if they can't even live in the same block, or work in positions of equal importance, will they do so in heaven? White church! colored church! White God! Colored God, eh? What material for a satirist! Voltaire nearly laughed the Pope out of the Vatican for less than this. Quite recently in Florida, where white cannot teach black, three white women were arrested for endeavoring to instil into Negro children the love of that same God whom the good Christians of Florida habitually implore to send light to those whom they call the heathen. For the life of me, I can't understand the sen

timentality of those who, as a Negro writer says, 'will weep over Christ lynched 1900 years ago,' and yet accept as a matter of course the lynching of a Negro today; yea, even participate in it. Some morbid Negro haters, like Cole Blease, are never tired of spouting of Jesus and his love. To my thinking, men like Ingersoll or Tom Payne are worth many ship-loads of the average Christian."

"Then you do not advocate Christianity for the Negro?" asked the other.

"The real Christianity, yes. The usual Christianity of the white Gentile with its egotism and self-interest, no. From what I have seen in Africa, and read of as occurring in slavery times, I know that this brand of Christianity, as a whole, means no good to the darker races, and the sooner they see it the better. I do not mean to disparage the great work done by men like Livingston, Moffat and Dan Crawford, but these good men are usually followed by the dishonest trader with his whiskey, immorality, and disease, under the pretext of carrying the white man's burden, which, by the way, is composed largely of plunder. The white man must first be Christianized; until then the weaker varieties of the human race may expect very little from Christianity except to be plundered."

"But," objected the passenger, "Christianity has done a great deal for the Negro. Look what a solace it was to him during slavery times."

"And it was also the strongest argument used to keep him enslaved," rejoined Dixon. "I think the Negro has too much religious enthusiasm. Many Negro sects seem to have the haziest idea possible of Christianity. As I sometimes watch these people, howling and hullaballooing I cannot help thinking that any other form of emotion, religious or otherwise, would have produced the same effect, and that, so far as Jesus is concerned, any other rose by that name would smell as

sweet to them. The poor white mountaineers are also violently religious and immoral. The slogan of the Negro devotee is, "Take the world, but give me Jesus,' and the white man strikes an eager bargain with him. The religion of the Negro, as a whole, needs to be tempered by the philosophy of right living.

"Another thing: there are too many Negro preachers. Many of these are rascals, pure and simple, who have discovered an easy way to make money and to have all the women they want. In my opinion, one of the first steps toward a higher progress among my poeple should be the ejection of these parasites."

"You said you have been in Turkey. What do you think of Mohammedanism and the Negro?"

"From what I saw of it in Egypt, Turkey and other Moslem countries, I think that, despite its ethical inferiority, it is as liberal to its dark-skinned followers as Christianity is illiberal; in fact, any other form of religion is more liberal toward the Negro than the usual Christianity of the white Gentile. Next to Mohammed is a Negro, Bilal. Christianity-I speak almost entirely of the Anglo-Saxon brand-likes the Negro only when he is content to be a flunky. Islam, on the other hand, inspires him to be a man."

The passenger took up the newspaper and resumed his reading. After a while he inquired: "What do you think of politics and the Negro? What party do you think he ought to vote for?"

"I do not think," said Dixon, "that he owes allegiance to any party, since, however divided in creed, all have fundamentally the same ideas regarding him. These parties, you will remember, are made up of those individuals who discriminate against him singly. The Republican party is regarded as the traditional friend of the Negro, yet I think our progress is due to our own energy, to our being in the most prosperous of all countries, and to aid from individual whites, rather than to its effort on

our behalf. I have always considered the Republican party responsible for the major part of the hardships my people have experienced during the past fifty years, in that it did not make some practical provision to aid the freedman in gaining economic independence. On the whole, I think that the Republican party does more harm than good to the Negro from what I know of its methods in Negro districts. It is true that a few Negroes get positions, but it is at the moral expense of the others. Although this party makes a great show of love for the Negro around election time, agitating the color question most fearfully, it would gladly get rid of him if it could and transfer its attention to the South. The Republican party in this respect is like a man who is allied with a woman he considers below him in rank, and whose company he barely tolerates. Seeing another woman he much prefers, but who will have nothing to do with him while his connection with the other woman holds, he would glady get rid of the old love, but dares not, fearing the harm she could do him."

The passenger smiled approvingly. "And what about the Democratic party?" he asked, with some hesitation, after a few moments.

Dixon, out of courtesy for what he considered must be the political creed of the other, hesitated, but after a few moments of thought, decided to give his frank opinion.

He responded: "A more characteristic title for the so-called Democratic party would be Negrophobic party. Their attitude to us is just the opposite of what their name signifies. (Of course there are broad-minded men in both parties, with the Republican containing the great number.) In many parts of the South this socalled Democratic party is spectacular. It would appear that the successful candidate is he who can rave the most vociferously about the Negro. The Negro, inconsequential as they make him out to be, plays the most important part in the lives of these men. Despite all their

affectation of contempt for him they live chiefly for him, and after a lifetime of brooding on him they, themselves, have unconsciously become just as cantakerous as they imagine him to be. These men, even if they have a sense of justice, can never exercise it; they must act with the mob if they want to keep their jobs. Take Ben Killman, that blustering super-egotist. Let him or any of his ilk but declare a stand for justice to all American citizens, regardless of color, and it would mean their political death. Weininger's statement that the politician is a prostitute is at least true of a good many of this type.

"And the result of this policy is an abundant display of verbal pyrotechnics to please the mob. Take a statesman like Lardaman. His sole function in the Senate is like that of a firecracker at a fete-to make a noise, and the louder the noise the greater the cackling of the child-minds in the audience. These men have raved so continuously about the Negro, to the exclusion of everything else, that according to the law of cause and effect that part of their brain which is connected with the Negro must be hypertrophied from overuse, while the remainder be atrophied from disuse. I seriously believe that if the Negro were suddenly to be removed from the South, these statesmen, like victims of amnesia, would have to begin life again as infants. But, with all this, the so-called Democratic party possesses one admirable trait, which consciously or unconsciously has been more prominently developed than we find it in its great rival, the Republican party-that trait is frankness of expression. It does not like the Negro and says so."

"And what do you think of the Socialists," next asked the other.

"The Socialists appear to stand for unqualified fair play to the Negro, as witness articles in their papers. Yet it must be remembered, too, that theirs is a new party and needs support. I hope that I am not doing the Socialists an injustice, but I fear their party is like