Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/864

 850 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

consideration, though the characteristics themselves are manifest in white, black, yellow, brown, and other variable tints of racial color. (Foreword, p. x.)

The writer, however, does not tell what these characteristics are until p. 105 is reached. From this it is quite evident that he is not writing about the American negro, but only the most degraded element of that race, and his book is as fair a characterization of the race as a detailed description of the slums and dens of vice of Chicago would be of the whole city.

It claims to be a "Critical Discussion," and yet it deals only in general terms. No reference is made to special studies, or specific observations. Where statistics are given, he acknowledges that they may be incorrect (p. 239). Though he makes frequent quotations concerning the race, he does not once name his authority. Though he has been a negro preacher himself, his wholesale charges against the negro church and ministry are not backed up by a single reference. Moreover, he steadily contradicts himself. In one place he says the race is lacking in provident forethought, and on the same page (75) he says that this generation of freedmen has accumulated nearly $700,000,000. Instead of presenting facts, he frequently uses such phrases as the following: "assuming our statement of facts," "we assume," "the fact is," "soberly speaking," "seriously speaking," "candidly" (see pp. 87, 83, 107).

One of these "assumptions" is: "[We assume] that the negro is still burdened with the mental and physical weakness of his heritage" (p. 107). No further proof is given, and so with most of his assumptions.

Although he claims (pp. xiv-xxi) to have been a preacher, teacher, lawyer, legislator, establisher of negro schools and churches, an exten- sive traveler among negroes, and a " student of political history and participant in civic functions for more than three decades," and though he has had an "intimate knowledge of negro religionists" "from his youth," and "the social side of negro life has been to him an open page " (p. xxi), he is nevertheless ignorant of any good thing about the race, for he says nothing good. In saying nothing has been done by the more fortunate class of negroes to help the plantation negro (p. 380), he misrepresents the facts. The Texas Farmers' Improvement Co., managed by R. L. Smith, a graduate of Atlanta University, has for its special business the improvement of the negro plantation worker, and in eleven years has obtained control of 50,000 acres of land (see Independent, August 30, 1900). The Tuskegee Farmers' Confer- ences, which originated with a negro, have become famous all over the country.