that a fairer division of profit is made with
the negro and should watch the prices charged him as well as
the interest charged him. We should see that the industries
offer and pay to him a full and fair wage for his labor which
will compare favorably with the wages offered in the East.
We should see to it that the police in our towns, cities and
counties cease making distinction between the negro and the
white man when the negro is not absolutely known to be a
criminal. When we do these things, we will keep our labor and
we need to keep it.

In connection with the discussion of the need of the South for the
negro, the duty of the South to the negro was pointed out. According
to the _Columbia_ (S.C.) _State_:[160]

If the southern white people would have the negroes remain,
they must treat the negroes justly. If they refuse to do so
their hope of keeping negro labor is in the unwillingness of
the North to treat them justly, and we fear that this hope is
more substantial than the North likes to admit. Justice ought
to be cultivated everywhere for its own sake. Surely common
sense will dictate to the South that it ought to forestall the
disruption of our industrial establishment by causing negroes
to understand that they are safe where they are.

The Macon _Telegraph_ said of negro labor: "If we lose it, we
go bankrupt." Yet this same paper only a few months before
was advocating the sending of 100,000 negroes into Mexico
to conquer the "mongrel breed," and at the same time rid the
South of that many worthless negroes.

The black man has no quarrel with the Mexican, but, on the
other hand, he certainly has a disagreement with conditions as
they affect him in the South, and, when he desires to improve
those conditions by getting away from them, he must be
checked. Plenty of "sound advice" is given him about staying
in the South among his friends and under the same old
conditions. The bugaboo of cold weather is put before him to
frighten him, of race antagonism and sundry other things, but
not one word about better treatment is suggested to lighten
the burden, no sane and reasonable remedy offered.

The black labor is the best labor the South can get, no
other would work long under the same conditions. It has
been faithful and loyal, but that loyalty can be undermined,