At Coffeeville, where Mr. Clark talked somewhat to this effect, an old man who sat in front suddenly jumped up and said: "That's the truth! Bully for you; bully for you!" In his talk with me, Mr. Clark said other significant things: "Our people have treated the Negroes as helpless children all their days. The Negro has not been encouraged to develop even the capacities he has. He must be made to use his own brains, not ours; put him on his responsibility and he will become more efficient. A Negro came to me not long ago complaining that the farmer for whom he worked would not give him an itemised account of his charges at the store. I met the planter and asked him about it. He said to me: "'The black nigger! What does he know about it? He can't read it.' "'But he is entitled to it, isn't he?' I asked him--and the Negro got it. "The credit system has been the ruin of many Negroes. It keeps them in hopeless debt and it encourages the planter to exploit them. That's the truth. My plan is to put the Negro on a strict cash basis; give him an idea of what money is by letting him use it. Three years ago I started it on my plantation. A Negro would come to me and say: 'Boss, I want a pair of shoes.' 'All right,' I'd say. 'I'll pay you spot cash every night and you can buy your own shoes.' In the same way I made up my mind that we must stop paying Negroes' fines when they got into trouble. I know planters who expect regularly every Monday to come into court and pay out about so many Negroes. It encourages the Negroes to do things they would not think of doing if they knew they would be regularly punished. I've quit paying fines; my Negroes, if they get into trouble, have got to recognise their own responsibility for it and take what follows. That's the only way to make men of them. "What we need in the South is intelligent labour, more efficient labour. I believe in the education of the Negro. Industrial training is needed, not only for the Negro, but for the whites as well. The white people down here have simply got to take the Negro and make a man of him; in the long run it will make him more valuable to us." _PART TWO_ THE NEGRO IN THE NORTH CHAPTER VI FOLLOWING THE COLOUR LINE IN THE NORTH Having followed the colour line in the South, it is of extraordinary interest and significance to learn how the Negro fares in the North. Is he treated better or worse? Is Boston a more favourable location for him than Atlanta or New Orleans? A comparison of the "Southern attitude" and the "Northern attitude" throws a flood of light upon the Negro as a national problem in this country.