Page:From servitude to service; (IA fromservitudetos00ogde).pdf/12

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Introduction

difference of many, the languid interest of some, and the active earnestness of a small righteous remnant remain.

In many localities there appears a settled determination to let the Negro take care of himself under conditions as they have come to exist. It is not exceptional for descendants of abolitionists to say, "Our fathers wrought for and secured the freedom of the Negro, and now that he is free let him work out his own salvation—we have no farther duty in the matter."

But the question will not down. The Negro supplies a stock asset in politics, literature, and daily news. The interests of each naturally lead to inaccuracy and exaggeration. These expressions inevitably produce opposing expressions equally unreliable. And so, when types and talk are abundant and misleading, sanity and intelligence are much to be desired.

It is clear to all reasonable minds that the worst about the Negro is widely exploited. The coming in large numbers of the least desirable Negroes to the northern cities presents a forbidding front that gives shallow foundation to much unkind opinion.

The tendency in both North and South to dismiss the whole question to the limbo of indifference, or worse, by a judgment founded upon partial information drawn from the least favorable conditions, is a misfortune of the entire case.

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