self-respect is done. And the irony of it all is that the Negro is expected to smile and be pleasant always. But he is going to stop smiling some of these days and settle down to serious thought. Already some of these smiling ones are like Hugo's Laughing Man, whose face of constant laughter hid a heart often full of bitterness."

Although Dixon could see that the other was getting more and more irritated, he continued: "Very often on these cars and in hotels, I have heard white men say scurrilous things of the Negro, altogether disregarding my presence. Especially do they delight in speaking, even boasting to me, of their amours with Negro women. And usually these are the ones who are most sensitive about the women of their own people. Chicken stealing, too, according to the jokesmiths, seems to be the principle diversion of a Negro. Very many white persons cannot imagine a Negro, however decent, as being anything else but a minstrel, and jokes like these are supposed to represent the depth of Negro character. These and other beliefs cause us to reflect not a little on this matter of superiority, for, since truth is the most superior thing in all the world, it is evident that we are superior to others only in proportion as we exceed them in living up to the truth."

The passenger got up excitedly. This lecturing, he thought, this presumption on the part of the Negro, was a little more than he could stand. He started for the doorway, but when half way changed his mind. No, it would never do for him, a white man, to run away and leave the Negro master of the field. He began pacing the room, reflecting in the meanwhile, his body swaying with the motion of the train. Why should he be angry? First, it was he who had invited the discussion, then the other, even though frank, had been respectful. Indeed, he was struck by the courteous bearing of the man. Second, this man was telling the truth. What was his reason for being angry at hearing the truth told? In the

analysis of this question many points between right and policy in the treatment of the Negro dawned upon him for the first time. The latter course he had begun to see was wrong. In this thoughtful vein, he reseated himself, lit another cigarette and relapsed into thought. After a few minutes, apparently as the result of his reflections, he demanded, as he flicked the ashes from his cigarette with his little finger, "Am I to infer, then, that prejudice against the Negro is a distinctively American trait?"

"No," responded Dixon, who during the interval had been studying the play of emotions on the countenance of the other. "Color prejudice, or rather color egotism, is not a distinctively American trait, as it exists to a considerable extent in the Dominion of South Africa, being especially keen in the old Boer Republics; in Canada, especially the northwestern portion; and to a mild extent in the West Indies-principally by the lighter-colored persons against the darker. Color egotism is, however, peculiarly American in this: there has never been one recorded case of lynching, not even in the Transvaal or Orange River Colony, where the dislike for the Negro is as great or greater than in the South; there are no segregation laws except in the places first mentioned; and in all British Colonies, again excepting the same two, all men are really equal before the law. In all of these countries intellect, in no matter whom, is respected, and the intellectual Negro suffers little discrimination. It must be remembered, too, that the Negro in the United States is far ahead of the South African Negro. The percentage of illiteracy in Natal among Negroes is about 90 per cent. The Negro in the United States, especially in the North, is, on the whole, ahead of the Negro everywhere else. In all of the countries I have mentioned, color prejudice is directed mostly against the ignorant Negro-a procedure none the less wrong. In the United States, on the other hand, very little discrimination is

made between good and bad, lettered and unlettered, between the esthete of the DuBois and Tanner class and the worthless Negro. Indeed, one might say the unlettered Negro, the 'Uncle Tom' kind, is more popular, he being most often idealized in white novels. From this, one might rightly argue that in the United States we have color jealousy, and not color prejudice; not contempt, but fear. Abroad I suffered no color discrimination-indeed, I often found it an asset-while in the United States I have it everywhere thrust at me that I am not of the fold. Even in remote Northern villages like Merrill, Wis., I have been hooted at or refused food. As I travel over the country my greatest difficulty is to have food served me. There are towns in the North where the most self-respecting Negro would not be permitted to reside. Yet we are American citizens. Our past is in the warp and woof of the republic. The Spartan was not more unflinchingly loyal to his country than we are; yet, in spite of it all, it is no exaggeration to say that even the but-yesterday-arrived descendants of those whom our forefathers fought to make this Republic possible, newly-arrived as they are, have virtually far more rights than we because of their more popular color. We antedated the Pilgrim Fathers by one year, and while their descendants constitute the social nobility of America, we are still in the discard. Indeed, although the Negro, class for class, thinks in pretty much the same channels and has pretty much the same habits as the whites, not to speak of his blood relationship, the tendency is to speak of all Negroes as if they had but recently arrived from Africa. I fear Baron d'Estournelles de Constant of the French Senate was right when he said in his recent book on the United States, "The Negro is a freedman, not a citizen.

"But the Negroes in these South American countries and in the West Indies belong to a higher type of Negro," retorted the passenger. "The most peaceful Negroes

were taken to those countries, while the most cannibalistic and the most warlike came to our shores."

"That statement, if true, I think would have no bearing on the case," said Dixon. "The Negro, in every part of the world, as I have noticed, is just what his treatment makes of him. In Brazil and the West Indies, I found the average Negro keenly conscious of his dignity as a man and a citizen. In the United States, where numbers are against him, and where he has to slink, as it were, through life, afraid to go into this or that place, wondering whether colored persons are served there, he is naturally timid. Yes, I candidly believe the American entertains more prejudice for the Negro than does any other nationality. Recently the head of one of the most famous educational institutions in the world was ejected from a sleeping-car solely on account of color. A similar incident would have happened in no other part of the world. Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., in his paper before the Races Congress, said that the Negro in the United States had encountered at every step of his progress 'the most formidable opposition that the forces of avarice, jealousy, hate, and fear have been able to command.' Whilst I have met white persons in this country who, despite their environment, are in every way as broadminded as white persons I have met in Europe or anywhere else, I have noticed North, South, East and West, but especially in the South, so general an exhibition of this prejudice, ofttimes from persons one would think above such petty conduct, that I have come to the unwilling conclusion that far more often than not, a white skin in America is the livery of servitude to the most stupid and exacting of all tyrants - Czar Prejudice. There are servitors of varying degrees from the fanatically devoted, as the lyncher, to the morally timid, those who will not notice Negro acquaintances in public places for fear of what others will think of them."

The passenger did not reply.

Dixon continued: "I doubt if one Caucasian in a million of those who do not like Negroes could give himself one honest reason for his attitude. Lord Brougham expresses their reason when he says: 'I never knew anyone to hate me but those whom I had served and him who had done me some great injustice.' Peoples from all over the world come to America in search of greater individual liberty and find it, too; yet, if the Negro, an original citizen of the Republic, ever wishes to know how it feels to be a real man, he will have to go to the country whence these peoples came. And what makes it harder to bear is that one hears so many absolute statements about liberty, democracy and unlimited opportunity for all. When I returned to the United States after being abroad for six years, I landed at a Southern port. There, debarred from the parks, libraries and public amusements, I felt mentally, in this land of freedom, how the murderer of King Humbert must have felt in his cell, the size of which did not permit him either to stand upright or to lie at full length."

"But," protested the passenger, "the South treats the Negro far better than the North. In the South nearly all the manual labor is given to the Negro. We have a large number of Negro mechanics in the South, while they are comparatively rare in the North. Negroes find ready employment in Southern factories, while they rarely, if ever, get into a Northern one. I know of one Southern factory that employs several hundred Negroes. Then the bulk of our unskilled labor is given to them. Janitors, porters, waiters and domestics, are all Negroes. In the North they are white men, mostly foreigners. We are also more sympathetic to the Negro. We know his failings and take them into account in judging him; in the North, he is held to the same standard of morality as the white man. The Negro knows he can always find a friend in us. Many have I helped, many have I saved from prison by my influence. The South does treat the