communities in which we live with two things; first, that we are unalterably opposed to mob law; secondly, that we are anxious to have Negro criminals punished, but in accordance with legal methods. Unfortunately and unjustly, the white man chooses to judge the whole Negro race by its bad, vicious, shiftless, unreliable members. He does not measure it by the multitude who have learned and who practice the common moralities of every day life. He does not take into account that there are thousands of black men and women among us who have made for themselves a place among the most orderly and the most industrious elements in their communities. For some reason it seems to suit the purpose of a great and powerful people with all of the machinery of publication and circulation under their control to expose to the world and to emphasize the faults of the Negro. It cannot be denied that the Negro has made remarkable progress along all lines of commendable endeavor since his emancipation. Yet he is but an infant, in the larger sense, in the industrial world. This is the most serious part of his problem, for he belongs almost exclusively to the laboring class. In the country he is the farm hand and in the city he is the domestic servant, for the most part, and common laborer. Except in the South he is rarely employed as a mechanic. The white men of the North have persistently and successfully kept him out of the trades. And worse than that they are driving him out of the menial occupations which are his very existence. This exclusion from domestic service the Negro cannot charge to prejudice on account of color. The truth is, competition is becoming so keen in other branches of employment that a good class of intelligent white men and women are forced into these humble walks of life for a livelihood. They put brains into the work which the Negro too often foolishly despises. They elevate it from unskilled to skilled labor. It is easy enough to forecast the result of such a situation. The employer will get the best labor possible for his money. He is not going to hire an incompetent man, when he can get a competent one at the same price. Once out of his usual occupations, there is nothing for the Negro to do. He becomes an idler subjected to all of the dangers and vices of his condition. Crime is sure to follow idleness. Unless the Negroes endeavor to excel in all branches of work in which they are employed they will be driven out of them, and no one can tell how far reaching will be the result. This matter is of vital interest, not only to the people themselves directly concerned, but also to the Negro tradesmen and Negro professional men who are dependent upon them for a living. The lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers and the men in business cannot escape the logic of the situation. In this practical age the laborer must in truth be worthy of his hire.