From these figures Prof. Gilliam draws the following conclusions:

The white population, increasing at the rate of twenty per cent in ten years, or two per cent per annum, doubles itself every thirty-five years. The black, increasing at the rate of thirty-five per cent in ten years, or three and a half per cent per annum, doubles itself in twenty years. Hence we find :

Whites in United States in 1880 (in round numbers) 42,000,000

It is not necessary that the conclusions of Prof. Gilliam in regard to the future of the African race should be accepted as specifically true. These prognostications do not need to be expressly fulfilled in order to convince any thoughtful mind

that the problem of the African in the United States, instead of being a question that concerns the past alone, is really the most vital and important of all the questions that can possibly occupy the national attention for the present and the future. The tables on which he based his estimates, embracing as they do the whole population of the United States, indicate a numerical predominance of the colored race in all the Southern States a hundred years hence.

The tables which we have given showing the operation of the rate of increase in the colored race upon separate groups of Southern States indicates a still more startling fact; to wit, that in the year 1900, or sixteen years hence, each of the States lying between Maryland and Texas will have a colored majority within its borders; and we shall have eight minor republics of the Union in which either the colored race will rule or a majority will be disfranchised!

Let those who think the Nation has no interest in the matter ponder this fact very seriously.

THE

question must be to ascertain whether there are any causes which are likely to affect the continuance of this disproportionate rate of increase of the races, so as to sensibly modify its normal results. Such influences may be of three classes:

I. Natural or social forces, tending to enhance

or diminish the reproductive energy of either race so as to affect their present relative growth.

II. Any movement of population from without that shall tend sensibly to increase the numerical strength of either race without af fecting in like manner the other.

III.-Any migratory movement appreciably affecting either race within the States under consideration, and not sensibly affecting the other.

The first of these classes has already been indirectly considered. With regard to it the following propositions may be safely formulated: I. There is no reasonable prospect of any known or probably conceivable significant change in the manner of life, occupation, external surroundings, or position in the social scale, as compared with the colored race, at all likely to enhance the reproductive energy of the white race in those States, and thereby diminish the present disproportionate rate of growth.

2. On the other hand, all the natural and sociological influences that now exist or are likely to occur favor very distinctly and potently the enhancement of the rate of increase of the colored race. The most noteworthy of these influences are the following:

(a) The fact that the colored population must ever remain a distinct and alien body, so far as the whites of the South are concerned, condemns them to remain, certainly for many generations, the laboring class. They cannot rise above this rank at least during the

next hundred years.

They are safe, therefore, from the enervating influences of luxury and fashion. Labor, chiefly agricultural, the open air, plain but nutritious food, confortable clothing, sufficient shelter, and a climate exactly suited to their wants, constitute conditions which cannot fail to act favorably on the natural reproductive energy of the race. (b)—Freedom of life and a slow but constant im

provement in their surroundings, greater ease and comfort, and the inspiration of opportunity, will more and more tend to lessen the death-rate, prolong life, and increase the numerical disproportion in favor of the colored race.

(c)—Increasing intelligence, the power of self-sup

port, and the knowledge and capacity to exercise thrift and care in the support of families will continue to improve the advantages which already predominate in favor of the blacks.

The second of the above-named classes of modifying surroundings (II) demands a more careful