The Booker T. Washington Papers, Vol.10, page 381, Aug. 1910, U. of Illinois Press

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AUGUST . 1910 is still friction, for the negro vote is restricted by many devices; but in business the negro has his store, his real-estate agency, his factory, his bank.'' Mr. Washington could not see his way to discuss any theories as to how the Southern negro might work out his own political salvation, and when asked what he thought about the colour problem in South Africa frankly admitted that he did not know enough about the conditions to express an opinion. ''It is very hard to generalise,'' he said, ''and impossible to do so upon insufficient data. But there is one thing I have no hesitation in saying, and that is that the same policy ought to be pursued . .. . ~ ., ~ ~ . towards the negro In South Africa as Is being pursued In our Southern States. The negro there has his weaknesses, and sometimes his vices, but you will find that, as a rule, he works. You hear a great deal about the lazy ones, but not about the workers, although nine-tenths of them are hard-working men. They work because their needs have increased by contact with the white men. The negro wants the same thing as the white man. Instead of stopping when he has enough money to buy a 'chew' of tobacco, he works five or six days in the week. The negro in South Africa is not going to improve his position as a labourer until his wants increase, and that will come only with education In the broad sense of the term. No man works unless he has an incentive.'' Returning to the position of the negro in the Southern States, Mr. Washington admitted that, strictly speaking, there was no social intermingling between the races and there was no marrying between them. But the relationship of individual white men and families to negroes retains something of its old protecting spirit. BLACK AND WHITE FRIENDSHIPS ''At many of the meetings I address.'' he said. ''the white People · . . r - -r - are present in almost as large numbers as the blacks, and although they know that I am there to advocate the education of the negro race, they, in many cases, pay the expenses of the meeting. There is hardly a white man who has not a negro friend, or a negro who has not a white friend, and it is a real, genuine friendship that exists between them. In the case of families whose ancestors once owned slaves, the descendants of these slaves find the old family takes a great interest in them, and frequently educates the chil381