In view of all the facts that have been presented, it must be evident even to a child's comprehension that the political contest between the white and colored races at the South, instead of being a thing of the past has only just begun. The negro, instead of having been forever banished from national politics, has only just entered there as a potential and important factor. It matters not how complete may be his present exclusion from participation in public affairs, the time must come when the mere preponderance of numbers must overpower the prestige of superior intelligence, no matter how marked it may be. In five of the States this time cannot long be deferred. In three more it is almost certain to come within a quarter of a century.

Shall these forces be harmonized or continue in antagonism? Shall the outcome be peaceful or violent? What will our myriad-minded Cæsar decree?

A New Complication.

WE

E have dwelt upon the question of the mutual relations of the races at the South at considerable length, for several reasons: I. Because they are so little understood by the majority even of our most intelligent peo

ple.

2. Because of the almost universal prevalence of certain ideas in regard to them on which have been based erroneous conclusions.

3. Because a full apprehension of these facts is essential to produce that first condition of

ameliorative action-a conviction in the public mind of the pressing and instant necessity that something must be done.

We come now to consider an element of Southern life the study of which is at once depressing and hopeful-depressing in that it greatly complicates the dangers likely to arise out of the relations we have been considering, and hopeful because it offers the only reasonable and peaceful solution of the momentous problem which has yet been devised. This element is the prevailing illiteracy of the Southern people of both races the startling fact that these masses of population, which nature and a wonderful sequence of events have arrayed against each other in seemingly unavoidable antagonism, are likely to be precipitated into a conflict which for savage horror would have no parallel in history, by the folly and inconsiderate prejudice of vast bodies of the ignorant and reckless of both races. The following tables show the essential facts in regard to this matter.

By an examination of these tables it will be seen that the following astounding summary is only a simple statement of facts now four years old:

The North has thirty millions of population and a million and a half of illiterates.

The South has eighteen millions of population and five millions of illiterates.

Five and three-tenths per cent of the people of the North cannot read and write.

Thirty-six and a half per cent of the people of the South cannot read and write.

Fivc and two-tenths per cent of the white people of the North cannot read and write.

Nineteen per cent of the white people of the South cannot read and write.

Twenty-five per cent of the colored population of the North and seventy-three per cent of the colored population of the South cannot read and write.

In the Black Belt forty-eight and one-half per cent of the entire population cannot read and write, twenty-five per cent of the native whites and sev

enty-eight per cent of the colored population being illiterates.

In the same region seventeen per cent of the white adults and seventy-eight and one-half per cent of the colored adults cannot read and write. That

TABLE CC.

Illiterates, Ten Years Old and Upward, in the Northern States and Territories. Census of 1880.

Total.. 1,414,210 5.3 1,272,208 5.2 597,403 3.2 674,705 12.2 142,002 25.1