he children of all primitive
races are very quick and apt up to a certain period in their lives,
excelling often children of civilized peoples, but that this disappears
when maturity is reached. Hence, the average teacher, not coming in
close contact with the mass of the people under normal surroundings,
gives, although sincerely, a very misleading picture of actual
conditions. A third class of informants were the tourists, and their
ability to get at the heart of the situation is obvious. There remain to
be mentioned the Negro teachers and school entrepreneurs. Naturally
these have presented such facts as they thought would serve to open the
purses of their hearers. Some have been honest, many more
unintentionally dishonest, and others deliberately deceitful. The
relative size of these classes it is unnecessary to attempt to
ascertain. They have talked and sung their way into the hearts of the
hearers as does the pitiful beggar on the street. The donor sees that
evidently something is needed, and gives with little, if any, careful
investigation as to the real needs of the case. The result of it all has
been that the testimony of those who knew far more than was possible for
any outsider, the southern whites, has gone unheeded, not to say that it
has been spurned as hostile and valueless. The blame, of course, is not
always on one side, and as will be shown later, there are many southern
whites who have as little to do with the Negro, and consequently know as
little about him, as the average New Yorker. This situation has been
most unfortunate for all concerned. It should not be forgotten that the
question of the progress of the Negro has far more direct meaning for
the southerner, and that he is far more deeply interested in it than is
his northern brother, the popular impression to the contrary
notwithstanding. It is unnecessary to seek explanations, but it is a
pleasure to recognize that there are many indications that a better day
is coming, and indications now point to a hearty co-operation in
educational efforts. There are many reasons for the change, and perhaps
the greatest of these is summed up in "Industrial Training."

The North is slowly learning that the Negro is not a dark-skinned
Yankee, and that thousands of generations in Africa have produced a
being very different from him whose ancestors lived an equal time in
Europe. In a word, we now see that slavery does not account for all the
differences between