A great bugaboo that is constantly harped upon by the professional Southerner and by the Ku Klux organizer is the cry of "social equality" likely to be forced upon the white people by the negro. This argument appeals to the ignorant white man, but the intelligent man knows that social equality between any races or people is a myth. There is no such thing as social equality between members of the white race. Social equality is a matter of opinion only, for while I might think that I am superior to a person, that same person might think that he is superior to me. Society is split into strata made up largely through community of interest, and congeniality of ideas and thoughts. The man whose sole thought in life is the accumulation of money regards only his own kind as his equal; the social butterfly skilled in the arts of polite society looks with horror upon the "impossible" person who is not; the scholar seeks solace and equality among people of brains; and the philosopher, looking at the whole human race with its follies and foibles, winks at his brother philosopher and laughs at all of them. When such a thing as equality exists between the members of the white race, then, and not until then, will it ever become necessary seriously to consider the matter of social equality between the white and black races. While I believe in the principles of a white man's country and a white man's government, I believe that the negro is as much entitled to his life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as I am, and that he should be afforded all the protection that the courts and laws of the country can give him. I have seen cases tried in the South where negroes have been convicted of crime on evidence which, if presented against a white man, would be thrown out of court. Such cases are, however, uncommon, as I believe the average officer of the law in the South is usually fair and square in his treatment of the negro race. The only way, in my judgment, that the race question will ever be successfully handled in the South, is by the promotion of better feeling among the high-class men of both races, and then have these men work on the lower classes. Let the leaders of the negro race take a strong stand in opposition to the vicious negro, whose crimes against women and children have done much toward placing the ban upon the negro as a whole; and let the leaders of the white race cast aside the demagogue and impress upon the lower-class white man that because his skin is white is no excuse for the exercise of brutality toward the negro. Let the proposition be sunk home that a white rough-neck, because his skin is white, has no warrant to ride roughshod over a decent and law-abiding negro because the latter's skin happens to be black.