One influence at present growing rapidly will have its profound effect on the separation laws. Though a tendency exists toward local segregation of Negroes to which I have already referred, there is also a counter-tendency toward a scattering of Negroes throughout the entire country. The white population in the South, now 20,000,000 against 9,000,000 Negroes, is increasing much more rapidly than the Negro population. The death-rate of Negroes is exceedingly high; and the sharper the conditions of competition with white workers, the greater will probably be the limitation of increase of the more inefficient Negro population. As for the predictions of "amalgamation," "a mongrel people," "black domination," and other bogies of prophecy, we must not, as I see it, give them any weight whatsoever. We cannot regulate our short lives by the fear of something far in the future which will probably never happen at all. All we can do is to be right at this moment and let the future take care of itself; it will anyway. There is no other sane method of procedure. Much as we may desire it, the future arrangement of this universe is not in our hands. As to the matter of "superiority" or "inferiority," it is not a subject of argument at all; nor can we keep or attain "superiority" by laws or colour lines, or in any other way, except by being superior. If we are right, absolutely right, in the eternal principles, we can rest in peace that the matter of our superiority will take care of itself. _The Real Solution of the Negro Problem_ I remember asking a wise Southern man I met what, in his opinion, was the chief factor in the solution of the Negro problem. "Time," he said, "and patience." But time must be occupied with discipline and education--more and more education, not less education, education that will teach first of all the dignity of service not only for Negroes but for white men. The white man, South and North, needs it quite as much as the coloured man. And this is exactly the programme of the new Southern statesmanship of which I spoke in a former chapter. These wise Southerners have resolved to forget the discouragements and complexities of the Negro problem, forget even their disagreements, and go to work on present problems: the development of education and industry. Whether we like it or not the whole nation (indeed, the whole world) is tied by unbreakable bonds to its Negroes, its Chinamen, its slum-dwellers, its thieves, its murderers, its prostitutes. We cannot elevate ourselves by driving them back either with hatred or violence or neglect; but only by bringing them forward: by service.