ew relations of the two races.
It is a question which must be faced calmly, quietly, dispassionately;
and the time has now come to rise above party, above race, above
colour, above sectionalism, into the region of duty of man to man, of
American to American, of Christian to Christian.

I remember not long ago, when about five hundred coloured people
sailed from the port of Savannah bound for Liberia, that the news was
flashed all over the country, "The Negro has made up his mind to
return to his own country," and that, "in this was the solution of the
race problem in the South." But these short-sighted people forgot the
fact that before breakfast that morning about five hundred more Negro
children were born in the South alone.

And then, once in a while, somebody is so bold as to predict that the
Negro will be absorbed by the white race. Let us look at this phase of
the question for a moment. It is a fact that, if a person is known to
have one per cent. of African blood in his veins, he ceases to be a
white man. The ninety-nine per cent. of Caucasian blood does not weigh
by the side of the one per cent. of African blood. The white blood
counts for nothing. The person is a Negro every time. So it will be a
very difficult task for the white man to absorb the Negro.

Somebody else conceived the idea of colonising the coloured people, of
getting territory where nobody lived, putting the coloured people
there, and letting them be a nation all by themselves. There are two
objections to that. First, you would have to build one wall to keep
the coloured people in, and another wall to keep the white people
out. If you were to build ten walls around Africa to-day you could not
keep the white people out, especially as long as there was a hope of
finding gold there.

I have always had the highest respect for those of our race who, in
trying to find a solution for our Southern problem, advised a return
of the race to Africa, and because of my respect for those who have
thus advised, especially Bishop Henry M. Turner, I have tried to make
a careful and unbiassed study of the question, during a recent sojourn
in Europe, to see what opportunities presented themselves in Africa
for self-development and self-government.

I am free to say that I see no way out of the Negro's present
condition in the South by returning to Africa. Aside from other
insurmountable obstacles, there is no place in Africa for him to go
where his condition