"The two elements thus far mentioned, the half-friends of the
capitalist class and the rancorous industrial rivals of the
Negro, are opposed to each other on the question of the Negro's
leaving the South, the former opposing and the latter favoring
his elimination, but they are one in insisting that the Negro
must be restricted in his aspirations. The question has another
complication and a third element is to be reckoned with.

"There is a vein of idealism running through our country that
would hold the American people to the thought that the United
States has a world wide mission. It is the dream of this class
that shackles, whether physical, political or spiritual, shall
fall from every man the world around.

"This class says to the capitalist class of the South: 'Our
ideals will suffer if we permit you to have political serfs,
however well fed they may be.' To the class that would oppress
the Negro it says, 'The patient suffering and material service
of him whom you buffet entitles him in his own right to a home
in this country, and here of all places justice shall be his
portion.' This class has opened Northern institutions to them,
and training has produced a large and aggressive army of able
young Negroes enraptured with the expressed ideals of the
republic.

"When it is sought by idealists to make the position of the
American Negro square with the constitution, the capitalist
class of the South, which fancies that it sees the sudden loss
of the foil, and the rivals of the Negro in the labor world
combine to oppose the programme looking to the political uplift
of the Negro. As the Negro in the groove ('in his place') has
the self-interest of the capitalist class on his side, while,
aspiring to be as others are, he finds his erstwhile friends
and chronic enemies forming a cordon to prevent his rise, it
has been suggested that political advancement be made a
secondary consideration.

"In view of the powerful forces which we find arrayed against a
programme looking to the political advancement of the Negro we
can understand the desire of the American people that it be
made clear that the political needs of the Negro are vital to
the improvement of present conditions. We shall therefore
proceed to show how intimately the po