“I realize that our soldiers have learned new habits of self-respect and cleanliness.”[399] That is a short sentence, but it contains much. Here is another which indicates that the Negro will not only learn much from the Northern and Western white man; but also teach him a bit. It is not very sweetly expressed, but it is well worth pondering for all that: “There is one trait, and I might say only one, that I take off my hat to the southern ‘Cracker’ for, and that is his respect and high regard for women. While he hasn’t much for the other fellow’s (the Negro’s) wives and daughters, yet he respects his own. We must set a good example for him and respect all women, regardless of race, color or creed. Then you will win the admiration of all civilized people. Men who do not respect and honor their women are not worthy of citizenship.”[400] Only one trait, but what an important one! FOOTNOTES: [369] Harding’s Speech at Birmingham, _News and Courier_, Oct. 27, 1921. [370] Ibid. [371] Ibid. [372] Ibid. [373] _News and Courier_, Editorial, October 27, 1921. [374] The New Republic, November 9, 1921. [375] DuBois, The New Republic, December 7, 1921. [376] Ibid. [377] Ibid. [378] Ibid. [379] Ibid. [380] The Crisis, December, 1921, p. 53. [381] Ibid. p. 55. [382] Ibid. p. 64. [383] Asmis, The Living Age, February 4, 1922, p. 261. [384] Ibid. p. 262. [385] Ibid. [386] Jameson, Calhoun’s Correspondence, p. 368. [387] Stephenson, Lincoln, p. 32. [388] Ibid. p. 35. [389] Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Times, p. 207. [390] Bassett, Andrew Jackson, Vol. II p. 547. [391] Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain, p. 20. [392] Munford, Virginia’s Attitude, Slavery and Secession, p. 173. [393] Negro in Chicago, p. 8. [394] Ibid. p. 121. [395] Ibid. p. 92. [396] Ibid. p. 105. [397] The New Republic, February 14, 1923. [398] Negro in Chicago, p. XXIII. [399] Ibid. p. 193. [400] Ibid. p. 306. CHAPTER XVII Passing from the report of the Negro riot in Chicago, of 1919 to the Negro Year Book for the same date, we find therein the assertion, that the aggregate wealth of the 10,300,000 Negroes in the United States, at that date, was estimated at $1,100,000,000. Whatever the wealth or progress of the Negroes in the United States is asserted to be, at any time, it is customary to allude to it, as that much in excess of nothing at the time of Emancipation. The Negro writers in particular are prone to claim this. This has been, in some degree, shown in this study to be incorrect; but it may be well to go a little further into the matter. In the year 1860 the 4,441,800 colored persons in the United States consisted of 488,070 free persons of color and 3,953,730 Negro and mulatto slaves. The 488,070 free persons of color were about evenly divided between the Northern and the Southern States. They possessed property. What was the probable value of their holdings?