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*' 'Pardon's the z.'ord to all: Whatever folly 
 men commit, he their shortcomings or their 
 vices zuhat they may, let tis exercise forbearance ; 
 remembering that when these faults appear in 
 others; it is our follies and vices that we behold. 
 They are the shortcomings of humanity, to which 
 we belong; whose faults, one and all, we share; 
 yes, even those very faults at which we now wax- 
 so indignant, merely because they have not yet 
 appeared in ouj'selves. They are faults that do 
 not lie on the surface. But they exist down there 
 in the depths of our nature; and should anything 
 call them forth, they will come and show them- 
 selves, just as we nozv see them in others. One 
 man, it is true, may have faults that are absent 
 in his fellow; and it is undeniable that the sum 
 total of had qualities is in some cases very large; 
 for the difference of individuality between man 
 and man passes all measure." — Schopenhauer, 
 
Prof, George B. Foster, University of Chicago: "A 
 stirring story, faithful to truth and helpful to a better 
 understanding and feeling." 
 
 W. N. C. Carlton, Esq., Librarian, Newberry Library, 
 Chicago (in a letter to the author): "I shall place 
 your book in the permanent collection of the Library 
 where present day and future students of the history 
 of your race will find it a most significant document." 
 
 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "From Superman to 
 Man is a vindication of the American Negro," 
 
 Hon. George W, Ellis, F, R. G, S, (eight years Secre- 
 tary of the U, S. Legation to Liberia, author of 
 "Negro Culture in West Africa," etc.): "From Super- 
 man to Man by J. A. Rogers is a significant ■contribu- 
 tion to interracial literature in more ways than one. 
 Its breadth of scholastic research, its selection and 
 concentration of matter are as amazing as its wealth 
 of information. The book is well written and the skill- 
 ful management of materials shows not only the au- 
 thor's mastery of his subject, but his knowledge of the 
 technique of the literary art. In the program of the 
 broadest education of the races and the promotion 
 of social concord and co-operation this volume should 
 be in every library and home of the country. In his 
 absorbing story we see the souls, of the white and 
 darker worlds groping and struggling toward the better 
 day of peace and good understanding between the 
 races. 
 
 New York Evening Post: "This porter, who had at- 
 tended Yale, had travelled extensively and spoke 
 several languages, had at his fingers' end the argu- 
 ments necessary to prove that his race was not a 
 whit inferior to the Caucasian." 
 
From Superman 
 
 TO 
 
 MAN 
 
 BY 
 
 J. A. ROGERS 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 With word of thanks to those, who, consciously or 
 unconsciously, have helped me in the production of 
 this volume, but especially to my friend, Hiram H. 
 Holland, a poet as yet unknown, but one who I 
 confidently predict, is destined to make an endur- 
 ing mark in American literature. 
 
 THE GOODSPEED PRESS 
 711 South Dearborn Street : ; ; Chicago, 111. 
 
Copyright, 1917, 
 By 
 
 J. A. Rogers, 
 
FIRST DAY. 
 
 "A moral, sensible and well-bred man 
 Will not affront me; and no other can." 
 
 — COWPER. 
 
 The limited was speeding to California over the snow- 
 blanketed prairies of Iowa. On car Bulwer, the passen- 
 gers had all retired, and Dixon, the porter, his duties 
 finished, sought the more comfortable warmth of the 
 smoker, where he intended to resume the reading of the 
 book he had brought with him — Finot's "Race Preju- 
 dice." 
 
 He had just found the passage, and begun to read 
 when a passenger rushed into the room. 
 
 "Is this Boone we are coming into, porter?" he de- 
 manded excitedly, and with a foreign accent, at the same 
 time peering anxiously out of the window at the twink- 
 ling lights of the town into which the train was rushing. 
 
 "No, sir," reassured Dixon, "we'll not be in Boone for 
 twenty minutes yet. This is Ames." 
 
 "Thank you," said the passenger, relieved, "the por- 
 ter on my car has gone to bed, and I feared I would 
 be carried beyond my destination." 
 
 He then started to leave, but when halfway, turned, 
 and asked, "May I ride in here with you and get off 
 when we get there?" 
 
 "Certainly, sir," welcomed Dixon, cordially, "make 
 yourself at home. Where are your grips?" 
 
 And dropping his book on the seat, Dixon went for 
 the grip. 
 
 When Dixon returned, the passenger was reading the 
 book. 
 
 "Thank you," he said, as Dixon placed his grip in a 
 corner. "Pardon me, but I see you have been reading 
 'Race Prejudice'?" 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 FROM MAN TO. .SUPERMAN 
 
 "Yes, sir, I find it very instructive." 
 "I have read it myself, but in French." 
 "I have read it in French, too!" 
 "Indeed, can you speak French?" 
 "Oui, Monsieur." 
 
 "Where did you learn it, in New Orleans?" asked the 
 passenger in French. 
 
 "I began it in college, and improved on it in France," 
 responded the porter in the same language. 
 
 "You have been in France? What part?" 
 
 "Bordeaux." 
 
 "Bordeaux? How long were you there?" 
 
 "Two years and a half." 
 
 "What were you doing, studying?" 
 
 "No sir, I was a Spanish correspondent for Simon and 
 Co., wine merchants." 
 
 "You speak Spanish, too, eh? What are you, Cu- 
 ban?" 
 
 "No, American, but I have visited Cuba. I learned 
 Spanish in the Philippines." 
 
 "I see you have travelled a great deal." 
 
 "Yes, somewhat. It seems to be just my luck. I re- 
 turned from the Philippines in time to get a position 
 as valet to a gentleman about to tour South America, 
 becoming six months later his private secretary. To- 
 gether we also visited the principal countries of the 
 world. The poor fellow died while we were in Bor- 
 deaux, and that accounts for my stay there." 
 
 "Didn't you like it in France?" 
 
 "Very much, indeed, but Simon and Co. failed on 
 account of the bad crops and I was thrown out of work. 
 As I had been longing to see my native land, I returned 
 home." 
 
 "I should think with your knowledge of French and 
 Spanish, you ought to be able to get a better job than 
 this." 
 
 "Well, I have never been able to get one and when 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 7 
 
 one has a family he must get the wherewithal to live 
 some way." 
 
 ''But have you tried to get something better?" 
 
 am trying continually. On my return from 
 Europe I advertised for a position as French and Span- 
 ish correspondent. I received a good many replies, but - 
 when my prospective employers saw me, they all made 
 various excuses. There was one though, who, declaring 
 he was broadminded, would have employed me, but his 
 offer was so small that I refused it on principle." 
 
 "Too bad for a man of your education. You said 
 that you went to college?" 
 
 *T spent a semester and a half at Yale, then the war 
 with Spain broke out and I enlisted." 
 
 They then went on to speak about railroad life, the 
 passenger telling Dixon about an incident that had oc- 
 cured that afternoon between the porter on his car and 
 a fussy passenger, and concluded by asking Dixon, if 
 he met many such persons. 
 
 "No," was his reply. "Nearly all the persons I meet 
 on the road are very pleasant. I am sure that if Bias of 
 Prilene had gained his knowledge of human nature on 
 a sleeping-car his verdict would have been altogether 
 different. I never knew before that there were so many 
 kind, agreeable persons until I had this position. One 
 meets a grouchy person at such rare intervals, that he 
 can afford to be liberal then. I can recall an incident 
 similar to the one you have just told me : One day while 
 waiting on a drawing-room passenger, I made a mistake. 
 This man who had got on the train with a grouch, hav- 
 ing previously wrangled with the train and the sleep- 
 ing-car conductors, at once began to abuse me vocifer- 
 ously in spite of my earnest apology. I took it all calm- 
 ly, at the same time racking my mind for some polite, 
 but effective retort. And as I noted the ludicrousness 
 of his ruffled features an inspiration came to me, whereby 
 I could bring his conduct effectively to his notice. In 
 
8 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 the room vv^as a full-length mirror, made into the state- 
 room door. Swinging this door around, I brought it 
 right in front of him, where he could get a full view 
 of his distorted features, at the same time saying with 
 good nature, ''See, sir, the mirror does you a strange 
 injustice today." The ridicule was too much for him. 
 He stopped immediately, then started to explode again 
 and apparently at a loss for words, sat down." 
 
 The two then began to exchange experiences of 
 French life, reverting soon after to the subject of the 
 book and its author. 
 
 "Finot has done a great service for humanity in the 
 production of this book," remarked the passenger, "and 
 he well merits the honor conferred on him — Officer of 
 the Legion of Honor." 
 
 "He is called one of the makers of modern France," 
 added Dixon. "Did you know that despite his French 
 name, he is a Pole?" 
 
 Then, espying the twinkling lights of the town, he 
 exclaimed, "Ah, here we are coming into Boone now." 
 
 When the train started again Dixon returned to the 
 smoker and resumed his reading. But too tired to con- 
 centrate his thoughts on the scientific matter he closed 
 the volume, placed it behind him in the hollow formed 
 by his back and the angle of the seat and began to 
 reflect on the passage he had just read : "The doctrine 
 of inequality is emphatically a science of white peoples, 
 it is they who have invented it." This recalled to him 
 some of the many falsities, current about his people. He 
 thought of how in nearly all the large libraries of the 
 United States in which he had been permitted to enter, 
 he had found books advancing all sorts of theories to 
 prove his people were inferior. Some of these theories 
 even denied them human origin. He went on to reflect on 
 the discussions he had heard on the cars and other 
 places from time to time, and of what he called, the heir- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 9 
 
 loom ideas that many persons had concernmg the differ- 
 ent varieties of the human race. These discussions he 
 went on to reflect had been the means of his acquiring 
 a fund of knowledge as he would note any opinion that 
 he thought incorrect and look it up in the works of the 
 standard authors. These facts once ascertained, he 
 would keep in the same notebook. But at this juncture 
 his thoughts were interrupted by the entrance of some- 
 one. Looking up, Dixon saw a man clad in pajamas, 
 overcoat, and with slippered feet, enter the room. 
 
 Now Dixon had taken special notice of this man for, 
 during the afternoon, he had been discussing the color 
 question with another passenger in the smoker. This 
 man, from what Dixon could gather, was a Southern leg- 
 islator who was on his way to California on business. 
 
 Dixon had had occasion to go into the room several 
 times. On one occasion he had heard this man say 
 vehemently, "The 'nigger' is a menace to our civiliza- 
 tion and should be kept down. I am opposed to educat- 
 ing him, for the educated 'nigger' is a misfit in the white 
 man's civilization. He is a caricature and no good can 
 result from his 'butting in' on our affairs. A\^ould to 
 God that none of the brood had ever set foot on the 
 shores of our country. That's the proper place for a 
 'nigger,' " he had remarked quite aloud, on seeing Dixon 
 engaged in wiping out the wash-bowls. 
 
 At another time he had heard the same speaker de- 
 liver himself of this opinion : "You may say what you 
 please, but I would never eat with a 'nigger.' I couldn't 
 stomach it. Nature has placed an insuperable barrier 
 between black and white that will ever prevent them 
 from living on the same social plane, at least so far as 
 the Anglo-Saxon is concerned. I have no hatred for 
 the black man, in fact I could have none, but he MUST 
 stay in his place." 
 
 "That's nothing else but racial antipathy," his oppo- 
 nent had objected. 
 
10 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 "Call it whatever you will," the other had said snappily, 
 "but there is an indefinable something within me that 
 tells me I am infinitely better than the best 'nigger' that 
 ever lived. The feeling is instinctive and I am not go- 
 ing to violate Nature." 
 
 Upon hearing this remark, Dixon had thought as fol- 
 lows : "My good man, how easily I could define that 
 'indefinable feeling' of which you speak. I notice from 
 your positive manner and impatience of contradiction 
 that you experience that indefinable feeling of superi- 
 ority not only toward the Negro, but toward all human 
 beings, and that feeling, you, yourself, would call in 
 any one else 'conceit.' " 
 
 Dixon had happened to be present at the close of 
 the discussion which was brought to an end by the an- 
 nouncement of dinner. The conversation had been a 
 rather heated one and closed with the following retort 
 by the anti-Negro passenger. You, too, had slavery in 
 •the North, but it didn't pay and so you gave it up. 
 Wasn't your pedantic and self-righteous Massachu- 
 setts, the first to legalize slavery? A matter of climate 
 that's all. Climes reversed, it would have been the 
 South that wanted abolition. It was a matter of busi- 
 ness with you, not sentiment. Those Northerners who 
 had an interest in slavery were bitterly opposed to abo- 
 lition. It is all very well for you to talk, but if you 
 Northerners had the same percentage of 'niggers' that 
 we have, you would sing a different tune. The bitterest 
 people against the 'nigger' are the Northerners, who have 
 come South. You, too, have race riots, lynching and seg- 
 regation. The only difference between the South and 
 the North is, that one is frank and the other hypocriti- 
 cal," and he had added in apparently sincere tones, "and 
 I hate hypocrisy." 
 
 In spite of this avowed enmity tovv^ard his people, 
 Dixon had felt no animosity toward the man. Here, he 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 11 
 
 had thought, was a conscience, evidently honest, but un- 
 educated. 
 
 Shortly afterwards an occupant of the smoker who 
 had evinced no interest in the discussion had met Dixon 
 in the passageway and prefacing his remarks with a few 
 terrible, but good-humored oaths, had said, "That fellow 
 is obsessed by the race problem. I met him yesterday 
 at the hotel, and he has talked of hardly anything else 
 since. This morning we were in the elevator, when a 
 well dressed Negro, who looked like a professional man, 
 came in, and at once he began to tell me so that all 
 could hear him, something about 'nigger' doctors in Ok- 
 lahoma. If he could only see how ridiculous he is mak- 
 ing himself, he'd shut up." 
 
 'T feel myself as good as he," he went on to say, "and 
 I have associated with colored people. We have a 
 colored porter in our office — Joe — and we think the world 
 of him. He doesn't like 'niggers' eh?" Then he had 
 added, laughingly, and with a knowing wink, nudging 
 Dixon in the ribs at the same time, 'T wager his in- 
 stinctive dislike, as he calls it, doesn't include both sexes 
 of your race. I know his kind well." 
 
 Dixon had felt like saying, "We must be patient with 
 the self-deluded," but he did not. He had simply thanked 
 the speaker for his kind sentiments then turned and 
 walked away. 
 
 All of this ran through the porter's mind when he 
 saw the pajama-clad passenger appear in the doorway. 
 The newcomer, on entering, walked up to the mirror, 
 where he looked at himself quizzically for a moment, 
 then he selected a chair and adjusting it to suit his fancy 
 made himself comfortable in it; next, he took a plain 
 and well-worn cigarette case from his pocket, selected a 
 cigarette, and began rummaging his pockets for a match, 
 all in apparent oblivion to the presence of Dixon at the 
 near end of the long, cushioned seat. But Dixon had 
 been quietly observing him and deftly presented a lighted 
 
12 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 match, at the same time, venturing to inquire in a re- 
 spectful and rather solicitous tone, "Can't sleep, sir?" 
 
 "No, George," came the reply in an amiable, but con- 
 descending tone, "I was awakened at the last stop and 
 can't go back to sleep. I never do very well the first 
 night anyway." 
 
 With this the passenger began to talk to Dixon 
 about the journey. They soon began to talk of more 
 personal matters. Into this part of the conversation the 
 passenger injected phrases such as "your race," "nig- 
 gers," and "coons." 
 
 From this, the passenger began to tell jokes about 
 chicken-stealing, razor-fights, and watermelon feasts. Of 
 such jokes he evidently had an abundant stock. Nearly 
 all of these Dixon had heard time and again. One was 
 the anecdote of a Negro head waiter in a Northern 
 hotel, who, when asked by a Southern guest if he was 
 the head "nigger," indignantly objected to the epithet, 
 but upon the visitor's informing him that it was his cus- 
 tom to give a large tip to the "head-nigger," this head- 
 waiter, so the story goes, effusively acknowledged that 
 he was the "head-nigger," saying, "Yassah, boss, I'se de 
 'head-nigger,' and ef you doan b'leeve me ask all dem 
 othah niggahs deh." 
 
 The narrator was laughing immoderately, and Dixon, 
 feeling what was expected of him, laughed heartily, too. 
 Had the entertainer been a mind reader, however, he 
 would not have been flattered by his prowess as a 
 comedian, since it was his conduct, and not his wit, that 
 had furnished the other's mirth. 
 
 While the passenger was still laughing the train be- 
 gan to slow down, and Dixon, asking to be excused, slid 
 to the other end of the seat, thus exposing the book he 
 had placed behind him. The passenger saw the volume 
 and his humor was at once changed to curiosity. The 
 book stood end up on the seat and he could discern from 
 its size and binding that it was a volume that might 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 13 
 
 contain serious thought. He had somehow felt that this 
 Negro was above the ordinary. A certain forced quality 
 in the timbre of Dixon's laughter, as also a merry twinkle 
 in his eye, had made him feel just a bit uncomfortable, 
 and now he wanted to verify his suspicion. His curi- 
 osity getting the better of him, he reached over to take 
 the volume, but, at that same instant, Dixon's slipping 
 up again to his former seat, caused him to change his 
 mind. Yet he determined to find out, and with an air 
 of assumed indifference, and a condescending smile he 
 demanded : 
 
 ''Your book, George?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "What is it about?" 
 
 "Oh, only a scientific work," said the other, care- 
 lessly, not wishing to broach the subject of racial differ- 
 ences that the title of the book suggested. 
 
 Dixon's very evident desire to evade a direct 
 answer seemed to sharpen the other's curiosity, for he 
 suggested oft'-handedly, but with ill-concealed eagerness, 
 "Pretty deep stuff, eh?" Then in the same manner, he 
 inquired, "Who's the author?" 
 
 Dixon noted his curiosity, and deciding to gratify it, 
 handed him the book, which he took with feigned indif- 
 ference. He opened it near the beginning, and, moisten- 
 ing his fore-finger, began turning over the leaves. Now 
 and then he would stop to read a marked passage, each 
 time muttering half-audibly, "Nonsense, ridiculous!" 
 
 After glancing through the book the passenger turned 
 back to the frontispiece in a search for the author's 
 name. When he found it, he blurted out Avith ill-con- 
 cealed disgust, "Just as I thought ! Written by 
 a Frenchman," then, before he could recollect to whom 
 he was talking — so full Avas he of what he regarded the 
 absurdity of Finot's view — he again blurted out, "Do 
 you believe all these impossible vicAvs about the equality 
 of the races?" 
 
14 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Now Dixon's policy was to carefully avoid any topic 
 that would be likely to produce a difference of opinion 
 with a passenger, provided that the avoidance did not 
 entail any sacrifice of his self-respect. In this instance, 
 he regarded his questioner as one to be humored, rather 
 than vexed, for just then the following remark, made by 
 this same man that afternoon, recurred to him. 
 
 "The Jew, the Frenchman, the Dago and the 
 Spaniards are all 'niggers' to a greater or less extent. 
 The only white people are the Anglo-Saxons, Teutons 
 and Scandinavians." This, Dixon surmised, had ac- 
 counted for the remark the other had made about the 
 author's adopted nationality, and it amused him. 
 
 Dixon pondered his question for a few moments, then 
 there occurred to him a method by which he could retain 
 his own opinion, even while in apparent accord with the 
 views of the other. He responded accordingly: 
 
 "No sir, I do not believe in the equality of races. As 
 you say, it is impossible." 
 
 The passenger looked up from the book as if he had 
 not been expecting a response, but seemingly pleased 
 with Dixon's acquiescence continued. 
 
 "Writers of this type don't know what they are talk- 
 ing about. They write from mere theory. If they had 
 to live among 'niggers,' they would sing an entirely dif- 
 ferent tune." 
 
 Dixon felt that he ought not to let this remark go 
 unchallenged. He protested courteously: "Yet, sir, M. 
 Finot has admirably proved his arguments. I am sure 
 if you were to read his book you would agree with him, 
 too." 
 
 "Didn't you just say you differed with the views in 
 this book?" questioned the other sharply. 
 
 "I fear you misunderstood me, sir." 
 
 "Didn't you say you did not believe in the equality 
 of races?" 
 
 "Yes, sin" 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 15 
 
 "Then, why?" 
 
 ''Because as vou said, sir, it is impossible." 
 "Why? Why?" 
 
 "Because there is but one race — the human race." 
 
 The passenger did not respond. Although angry at 
 the manner in which Dixon received and responded to 
 his question, he stopped to ponder the situation in which 
 his unwitting question had placed him. As he had con- 
 fessed, he did not like educated Xegroes, and had had 
 no intention of engaging in a controversy with one. His 
 respect and his aversion for this man increased with 
 a bound. Xow he was weighing the respective merits 
 of the two poi-oible courses — silence and response. If 
 he remained silent, this Xegro might think he had 
 silenced him, while to respond would be to engage in 
 an argument, thus treating the Negro as an equal. After 
 weighing the matter for somie time he decided that, of 
 the two courses, silence was the less compatible with his 
 racial dignity, and with much condescension, his stiff 
 voice and haughty manner in marked contrast to his 
 jollity of a few minutes past, he demanded: 
 
 "'You say there is only one race. AMiat do you call 
 yourself?" 
 
 "An American citizen," replied the other, com- 
 posedly." 
 
 "Perhaps you have never heard the word 'nigger'?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," came the reply in the same quiet voice. 
 
 "Then, do you believe the 'nigger' is the equal of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race?" 
 
 "I have read many books on anthropology, sir, but I 
 have not seen mention of either a 'nigger' race or an 
 Anglo-Saxon one." 
 
 "'Very well, do you believe your race — the black race 
 — is the equal of the Caucasian?" 
 
 Dixon stopped to weigh the wisdom of his answering. 
 What good would it do to talk with a man seeming 
 so rooted in his prejudices? Then a simile came to him. 
 
16 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 On a visit to the Bureau of Standards at Washington, 
 D. C, he had seen the effect of the pressure of a single 
 finger upon a supported bar of steel three inches thick. 
 The slight strain had caused the steel to yield one- 
 twenty-thousandth part of an inch, as the delicate ap- 
 paratus, the interferometer, had registered. Since every 
 action, he went on to reason, causes a reaction, and truth, 
 with the impulse of the cosmos behind it, is irresistible, 
 surely if he advanced his views in a kindly spirit, he must 
 modify the error in this man. But still he hesitated. 
 Suddenly he recalled that this man was a legislator. 
 Here was one of those, who, above all others, ought to 
 know the truth. This thought decided his course. He 
 would answer to the point, resolving at the same time 
 to restrict any conversation that might ensue to the 
 topic of the human race as a whole and to steer clear of 
 the color question in the United States. He responded 
 with soft courtesy: 
 
 *T have found, sir, that any division of humanity 
 according to physique can never have but a merely nom- 
 inal value, for differences in physiques are caused by 
 climatic conditions, and are subject to a rechange by 
 them. For instance, scientists who have made a study 
 of this question tell us that the Negro and the Yankee 
 are both approaching the Red Indian type. Pigmented 
 humanity becomes lighter in the temperate zone, while 
 unpigmented humanity becomes brown in the tropics. 
 One summer's exposure at a bathing beach is enough to 
 make a life-saver darker than many Indians. The true 
 skin of all human beings is of the same color. Then 
 it is possible by the blending of human varieties to 
 produce innumerable other varieties, each one capable of 
 producing and continuing itself. Again, anthropologists 
 have never been able to classify human varieties. Hux- 
 ley, as you know, named 2, Blumenbach 5, Burke 63, 
 while others, desiring greater accuracy, have named 
 hundreds. Since these classifications are so vague and 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 17 
 
 changeable, it is evident, then, that any classification of 
 humanity, whether by color of skin, hair or facial con- 
 tour, to be other than purely nominal, must be one of 
 mentality. And to classify humanity by intellect, would 
 be, as you know, an impossible task. Nature, so far as 
 we know, made onl}^ the individual. This idea has been 
 ably expressed by Lamarck, who, in speaking of the 
 human race; says, 'Classifications are artificial, for na- 
 ture has created neither classes, nor orders, nor families, 
 nor kinds, nor permanent species, but only individuals.' " 
 
 The passenger handed back the book to Dixon. "But, 
 you have not answered my question yet," he insisted, 
 "I asked, do you believe the black race will ever attain 
 the intellectual standard of the Caucasian?" 
 
 'Tntellect, whether of civilized or uncivilized human- 
 ity, as you know% sir, is elastic in quality, that is, the 
 savage when transplanted to civilization not only be- 
 comes civilized, but sometimes excels some of those 
 whose ancestors have had centuries of culture, and the 
 child of civilized man when isolated among savages be- 
 comes a savage. W^e would find that the difference be- 
 tween a people who had acquired say three or four gen- 
 erations of beneficent culture, and another who had been 
 long civilized Avould be about the same as would exist 
 between the individuals in the long civilized group, that 
 is, the usual human dift'erences would exist. To be accu- 
 rate we would have to appraise each individual sep- 
 arately. Any comparisons between the groups would be 
 only approximate." 
 
 "But," reiterated the other, sarcastically, "you have 
 not answered my question; do you believe the black man 
 will ever attain the high intellectual standard of the 
 Caucasian?" 
 
 "For the most authoritative answer," responded 
 Dixon, in the calm voice of the disciplined thinker, "we 
 must look to Science. If you don't mind, sir, I will 
 
18 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 give you some quotations from scientists of acknowl- 
 edged authority, all of them being Caucasian." 
 
 Dixon took his note book from his vest pocket. He 
 searched some time for the desired passage, and finding 
 it, began : "Gustav Spiller, organizer of the Universal 
 Races Congress, held in London in 1911, after weigh- 
 ing this question of the inferiority and superiority of 
 peoples, says, 'We are then under the necessity of con- 
 cluding that an impartial investigator would be inclined 
 to look upon the various important peoples of the world 
 as to all intents and purposes essentially equal in intel- 
 lect, enterprise, morality and physique.' " 
 
 Dixon found another passage and commented : 
 "Finot, whose findings ought to be regarded as more 
 valuable than the expressions of those who base their 
 arguments on sentiment or on Hebrew mythology, says, 
 'All peoples may attain this distant frontier which the 
 brains of the whites have reached.' He also says, 'The 
 conclusion, therefore, forces itself upon us that there are 
 no inferior races and superior races, but only races and 
 peoples living outside or within the influence of culture. 
 
 " 'The appearance of civilization and its evolution 
 among certain white peoples and within a certain geo- 
 graphical latitude is only the effect of circumstance.' 
 
 "Zamenhof, the inventor of Esperanto, in his paper 
 before the Universal Races Congress, says: 'Give the 
 Africans, without any mingling of rancor or oppression, a 
 high and humane civilization, and you will find their 
 mental level will not differ from ours. Abolish the whole 
 of our civilization and our minds will sink to the level 
 of an African cannibal. It is not a difference of men- 
 tality in the race, but a difference of instruction.' " 
 
 Dixon closed his note book and said, "The savage 
 varieties of mankind are the equal of the civilized varie- 
 ties in this : there is latent within them the same possi- 
 bilities for development. The more developed peoples 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 19 
 
 have also the germ of decay more or less actively at 
 work within them." 
 
 The passenger had been awaiting his turn with impa- 
 tience. Now drawing up his overcoat over his pajama- 
 clad knees, and raising his voice in indignation, appar- 
 ently forgetting all previous qualms of lowered racial 
 pride, he flung at Dixon, "That's all nonsense. It is 
 not true of the Negro, for while the white, red and yellow 
 races have, or have had, civilizations of their own, the 
 black has had none. All he has ever accomplished has 
 been when driven by the whites. Indigenous to a 
 continent of the greatest natural resources he has all 
 these ages produced absolutely nothing. Geographical 
 position has had absolutely nothing to do with it, or we 
 would not have had Aztec civilization. Tell me, has the 
 Negro race ever produced a Julius Caesar, a Shake- 
 speare, a Montezuma, a Buddha, or a Confucius? The 
 Negro and all the Negroid races are inherently inferior. 
 It is idiocy to say the Negro is the equal of the Cau- 
 casian. God Almighty made black to serve white. He 
 has placed an everlasting curse on all the sons of Ham 
 and the black man shall always serve the white." And 
 his face flushed with excitement. 
 
 Dixon was apparently unmoved. He responded with 
 charming courtesy, his Vv^ell-modulated voice and even 
 tones in sharp contrast to the bluster and hysteria of 
 the other, /'The belief that the history of the Negro 
 began with his slavery in the New World, while popular, 
 is erroneous. The black man, like the Aztec, was civil- 
 ized when the dominant branches of the Caucasian vari- 
 ety were savages. Herodotus, the Father of History, 
 distinctly mentions the black skins and woolly hair of 
 the Ethiopians who once ruled Egypt, the cradle of civil- 
 ization. M. C. Volney, the explorer, says, 'The ancient 
 Egyptians were real Negroes of the same species with 
 the present natives of Africa.' A glance at the Sphinx 
 or other Egyptian statuary will confirm these statements. 
 
20 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 When I saw the statute of Amenemphet III, I was imme- 
 diately struck by the facial resemblance to a well-known 
 Negro pugilist. By the light of modern research it does 
 appear as if white-skinned humanity derived its civiliza- 
 tion from the black-skinned variety. Volney says: 'To 
 the race of Negroes . . . the object of our extreme 
 contempt, we owe our arts, sciences and even the very 
 use of speech. . . . And with reference to the pro- 
 duction of great men by the Negro " 
 
 The passenger, who had been fidgeting in his chair, 
 now interrupted testily: "But what about the Negro's 
 debased condition in the scale of civilization? Look at 
 the millions of Negroes in Africa little better than 
 gorillas ! They are still selling their own flesh and blood, 
 eating human flesh and carrying on their horrible voo- 
 doo ! All of the white race is civilized and all the other 
 races, to some extent. Consider the traditions of the 
 white man and all it means ! Look at the vast incompre- 
 hensible achievements of the white man, the railroads, 
 the busy cities, the magnificent edifices, the wireless tele- 
 graph, — yes, consider all the marvels of science. What 
 has the white man not done? Lie has weighed the atom 
 and the star with perfect accuracy. He has probed the 
 uttermost recesses of infinity and fathomed the darkest 
 mysteries of the ocean ; he has challenged the lightning 
 for speed and equalled it ; he has competed with the eagle 
 in the air, and outstripped him; has rivalled the fish in 
 his native element. In fact, there is not one single oppos- 
 ing force in Nature that he has not bent to his adamant 
 will. He has often excelled even the excellence of Nature. 
 Consider, too, the philosophies, the religions, the ennob- 
 ling works of art and of literature. Has the Negro any- 
 thing to compare? Has he ever evolved anything else 
 but a voodoo worship? Has he anything at all to boast 
 of? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! And yet in the face 
 of all of these overwhelming facts, things patent to even 
 the most ignorant, you tell me the Negro is the equal of 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 21 
 
 the breed of supermen — wonder-men — I represent. Really 
 this childlike credulity of yours reaches the acme of 
 absurdity. More than ever do I perceive a Negro is 
 incapable of reasoning." 
 
 And he caught for breath as he lolled back in the 
 chair, while a supreme smile of satisfaction lit up his 
 features. 
 
 Dixon, v\^ho had been listening patiently, was seem- 
 ingly unaffected, for he responded composedly : "The 
 white man's civilization is only a continuation of that 
 which was passed on to him by the Negro, who has sim- 
 ply retrogressed. 'Civilizations,' as Spiller has pointed 
 out, 'are meteoric, bursting out of obscurity only to 
 plunge back again,' Macedonia, for example. In our own 
 day, we have seen the decline of Azt@c and Inca civiliza- 
 tions. Of the early history of man we know nothing 
 definite. Prior even to paleolithic man there might have 
 been civilizations excelling our own. In the heart of 
 Africa, explorers may yet unearth marks of some extinct 
 Negro civilization in a manner similar to the case of 
 Assyria. For instance, the Chicago Evening Post of Oct. 
 11, 1916, speaking editorially of the recent discoveries 
 made in Egypt by Dr. Reisner of Harvard, says, 'To his 
 amazement he found even greater treasures of the Ethio- 
 pian past. Fragment after fragment was unearthed, until 
 at last he had reconstructed effigies of no less than ten 
 monarchs of the forgotten Negro empire.' Moreover, 
 there has been a high form of modern civilization, as in 
 Timbuctoo and Abyssinia, in which Negroes have par- 
 ticipated largely; then, there have been such purely 
 Negro civilizations as that of Uganda and Songhoi, which 
 were of high rank. Boas says in his 'Mind of Primitive 
 Man' (here Dixon took out his note book), 'A survey of 
 African tribes exhibits to our view cultural achievements 
 of no mean order. All the different kinds of activities 
 that we consider desirable in the citizens of our country 
 may be found in aboriginal Africa.' " 
 
22 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 The passenger did not reply. He had narrowed his 
 eyes, which, like two slits, were peering at Dixon pierc- 
 ingly. The latter, after a brief pause, returning his gaze, 
 continued undauntedly: "Spiller also says, 'The status 
 of a race at any particular moment of time offers no 
 index to its inherent capacities.' How true has this been 
 of Britons, Picts and Scots, and Huns. Nineteen hun- 
 dred and seventy-one years ago England was inhabited 
 by savages, who stained themselves with woad, offered 
 human sacrifices, and even practiced cannibalism, in 
 some parts of the island. Nor is culture a guarantee 
 from decay, or Greece would not have decayed. You 
 may be sure the Roman had the same contempt for the 
 savages of the North who finally conquered him and 
 almost obliterated his civilization, as have the self-styled 
 superior peoples of today for the less developed ones. 
 But these undeveloped peoples should not be despised. 
 Nature, it appears, does not intend to have the whole 
 world civilized at the same time. Even as a thrifty 
 housewife retains a balance in the bank to meet emer- 
 gencies, so Nature retains these undeveloped varieties as 
 a reserve fund to pay the toll which civilization always 
 exacts. Finot says that many biologists regard the Cau- 
 casian as having arrived at the limit of his evolution, and 
 that he can go no higher without danger to his over- 
 developed brain. Undeveloped peoples, then, sir, are 
 simply Nature's bank account." 
 
 The passenger readjusted his slippers and went over 
 to the water cooler for a drink. He did not like to 
 argue in this abstract vein. Dixon's quiet assurance 
 and well-bred air, too, surprised him, and made him 
 unconsciously admit to himself that here was a Negro 
 different from his concept of that race, and not much dif- 
 ferent from himself after all. Yet his racial pride would 
 not permit him to be outwitted by one whom he regarded 
 as an inferior in spite of that ''inferior's" apparent intel- 
 ligence. He would try the tactics best known to him — 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 23 
 
 one that he had more than once used successfully with 
 Negroes. He would outface his opponent, awe him, as 
 it were, by his racial prestige. With this determination 
 he returned to his seat and calmly seated himself. After 
 a few leisurely puits of a freshly-lighted cigarette he 
 turned to Dixon, who had not moved, and in pretty 
 much the same tone that a bullying lawyer would use to 
 a tim.id witness, at the same time shaking an extended 
 forefinger and glaring from under knitted eyebrows, he 
 demanded : 
 
 "Do you mean to tell me that you really believe 
 the Negro is the equal of the white man? That you 
 think you are as good as a white man? Come on now, 
 none of your theories." 
 
 Dixon appeared far from being intimidated. Indeed, 
 he was secretly amused. Carefully repressing his mirth, 
 he asked with sprightly ingenuousness : 
 
 'Tn what particular, sir?" 
 
 The passenger, it appears, had not foreseen an analy- 
 sis of his question, for he stammered : 
 
 "Oh, you know very well what I mean. I mean — 
 well — well — do you feel you are the equal of a white 
 man?" 
 
 "Your question has answered itself," responded 
 Dixon. 
 
 "In what way?" 
 
 "Well, sir, if I could tell how a white man feels, which 
 I would have to do to make the comparison, then it 
 would mean that I, a Negro, have the same feelings as a 
 v/hite man." 
 
 No response. Silence, except for the rumbling of the 
 train. After a short pause Dixon continued, "Since, — 
 as your question implies, — I must use the good in me 
 as a standard by which to measure the good in a white 
 man, I believe that any white man, who, like myself, is 
 endeavoring to do the riglit thing, is as good a man as 
 I. And more, sir," he added in a tone of gentle remon- 
 
24 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 stration. "Your question has been most uncompliment- 
 ary to yourself, for, in asking me whether I consider 
 myself as good as a white man, you are assuming 
 that all white men, irrespective of reputation, are alike." 
 
 The passenger appeared still more confused. But he 
 was determined not to be beaten. Returning to the 
 charge, he began in an irritable and domineering tone: 
 "You said you were born in Alabama?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Your father was a slave, wasn't he?" 
 
 "My grandmother, sir," corrected Dixon frankly. 
 
 "Well, what I want to get at is this : do you, the 
 descendant of a slave, consider yourself the social equal 
 of the white man, who has always been free, and who 
 owned your people as chattel?" And he finished 
 austerely, "Come on, now, no more beating around the 
 bush." 
 
 Dixon decided to accept his meaning. In a tone that 
 implied a perfect mutual understanding, he began : "Of 
 course, sir, this is a matter that deeply concerns our 
 country and humanity, and so I feel that we two can 
 speak on it calmly and without any ill feeling." Then 
 in a polite and convincing tone, he explained, "Reared, 
 as I was, in a part of the South where a white skin is 
 deified and a black one vilified, candidly, in my child- 
 hood, I did believe that there was something about the 
 white man that made him superior to me, but, fortunately 
 for me, I have travelled and read considerably. I once 
 worked for one Mr. Simpson, a lecturer, and while with 
 him I visited the principal countries of the world. In 
 one English town, where I lived six months, I didn't see 
 a dark face. Living thus exclusively among whites I 
 observed that, except for differences due entirely to 
 environment, my people were essentially the same as the 
 whites. Indeed, what struck me most in my travels was 
 the universality of human nature. European-reared 
 Negroes possessed, so far as I could discern, the same 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 25 
 
 temperament, class for class, as the whites. Then my 
 position on these cars has given me a rare opportunity 
 for continued observation. I have met white persons in 
 all kinds of relationships, and if there is any inherent 
 difference between Xegro and Caucasian, I have failed 
 to find it, after sixteen years of rather careful observa- 
 tion. It is needless to say that my ideas of a superiority 
 based on lack of pigment or texture of hair evaporated 
 long ago." 
 
 This reply seemed to nettle the passenger still more, 
 for he demanded with increased irritation, '''But what 
 about slavery? The Negro has been a slave since the 
 dawn of history. Consult any dictionary of synonyms, 
 and you will see the term 'Negro' is S3'nonymous with 
 'slave.' A black skin has ever been a livery of servitude. 
 Isn't this world-old slavery a sign of the Negro's hope- 
 less inferiority? ^ly father owned hundreds of slaves." 
 
 Dixon noticed the passenger's increased agita- 
 tion and determined to be calmer than ever, replied 
 with a blandness that exasperated the other still more: 
 "Strange as it may sound, sir, the Caucasian has never 
 been really free. The vast majority of its members are, 
 today, industrially, the serfs, and mentally, the slaves, 
 of the few. But, if we accept the term literally, all or 
 nearly all branches of the white variety of mankind have 
 been slaves that could be bought and sold. Britons were 
 slaves to the Romans. Cicero, writing to his friend, 
 Atticus, said, 'The stupidest and ugliest slaA^es come from 
 Britain.^ Palgrave, the English historian, says of the 
 Anglo-Saxon period, 'The Theowe was entirely the prop- 
 erty of his master, body as Avell as labor; like the Negro, 
 he was part of the live stock, ranking in use and value 
 with the beasts of the plough.' Villeinage persisted in 
 England until the nineteenth century. Certain classes 
 of Anglo-Saxon slaves were not even permitted to buy 
 their freedom, since it w^as contended that their all was 
 the property of their masters. Serfdom was not abol- 
 
26 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 ished in Prussia until 1807, and in Austria until 1848. 
 Even here in America white persons were slaves. There 
 were Irish slaves in New England." 
 
 "Irish slaves in New England?" echoed the other in 
 scornful surprise. 
 
 "Yes," resumed Dixon, "Irish men and women were 
 slaves in New England, being sold like black slaves and 
 treated not a whit better. . . . Many of the most socially 
 prominent in America have slave ancestors ; for instance, 
 according to Professor Cigrand, Grover Cleveland's 
 great-grandfather, Richard Falley, was an Irish slave in 
 Connecticut. There were also white slaves in Virginia. 
 Black and white slaves used to work together in the 
 fields in Barbadoes. Indeed, it would be quite possible 
 to find white persons living in this country who were 
 born in a condition just one remove from actual slavery, 
 such having come from Russia, where serfdom was abol- 
 ished in 1863. Hence you see, sir, the white man has no 
 special advantage over the black in the matter of slav- 
 ery." Dixon paused a moment, then added : "But I 
 should think that the stigma attached to slavery would 
 be more justly placed on the descendants of slaveholders 
 than on the offspring of slaves. Is it not the kidnapper, 
 and not the kidnapped, who is the odious one? With all 
 deference to your parentage, my opinion is that slave- 
 holders were parasites of the most vicious kind." 
 
 The passenger seemed much perturbed. He arose, 
 paced the smoker twice, then resumed his seat. After 
 a few moments of reflection he insisted : 
 
 "But the Negro, himself, acknowledges his racial infe- 
 riority. Just look how he bleaches his skin, straightens 
 his hair, and uses other devices to appear like the white 
 man! Isn't that a sign of inferiority? Imitation is 
 acknowledgment of superiority. Do you see any other 
 race thus imitating the looks of the white man? I can't 
 imagine a more comical sight than a Negro dandy with 
 his hair all ironed out until it looks like the quills upon 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 27 
 
 the fretful porcupine. Imagine a Avhite man darkening 
 himself to look like a Negro !" Then he added, sneer- 
 ingly, ''The Negro is ashamed of himself. If he believes 
 himself the equal of the white man, his actions certainly 
 do not show it." 
 
 Dixon started. He had never looked at this matter 
 in this light before,, so he pondered his reply. 
 
 The passenger noted his silence with a smile of sat- 
 isfaction. 
 
 Dixon now found his response. 
 
 "Yes, these Negroes who 'doctor' themselves to ap- 
 pear white would appear to acknowledge inferiority. I 
 have always held that one's hair or color of skin is as 
 perfect as nature can make them, so perfect that to tam- 
 per with either is the surest Avay of spoiling them even- 
 tually." 
 
 "So much the worse for him, then," retorted the pass- 
 enger, sarcastically, "that he should try to ape a race 
 below him. He is just inferior, that's all, and the best 
 proof is that he acknowledges it himself. V\Tien a man 
 acknowledges his faults, don't you believe him?" 
 
 "Indeed, sir," retorted Dixon, "'it is clearly the fault 
 of the average white that these so-called Negroes should 
 try to be other than they are. In a country where a 
 drop of Negro blood, more or less visible, and a 'kink,' 
 more or less pronounced, in the hair, may altogether 
 change the current of one's life, what can you expect?" 
 
 Dixon paused an instant, then continued: "I will 
 give you an instance. Two brothers, intimately known 
 to me, arrived in New York from abroad. The hair of 
 one brother did not indicate Ne^ro extraction, that of 
 the other did. The silky-haired one obtained a position 
 commensurate with his ability. Incidentally, he went 
 South and married a white woman. The other, the bet- 
 ter educated and more gentlemanly of the two, too 
 manly for subterfuge, after fruitless endeavor, had to 
 
28 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 take a porter's job. He finally went back home in dis- 
 gust.'' 
 
 Dixon added reflectively, "Also do not forget that if 
 certain Negroes iron their curly hair, to make it straight, 
 certain whites also iron their straight hair to make it 
 curly. The whites, also, by bleaching their complexion 
 and hair, wearing false hair, and the like, make a false 
 show too." 
 
 The passenger shifted in his seat uncomfortably. 
 After a few moments he responded, a shade less con- 
 fidently and somewhat more quietly, "What about this, 
 then : the Negro shows no originality, not even so far 
 as contemptuous epithets are concerned. The white man 
 calls the Negro 'nigger' and yet the Negro accepts it 
 even to the length of calling himself so. Fancy a white 
 man calling himself by a name given to him by Negroes ! 
 The Negro is a mimic. He has the same amount of rea- 
 soning power as a poll parrot." 
 
 "I am sorry to say, sir," admitted Dixon, "that a 
 great number of uneducated Negroes, also a goodly num- 
 ber of those with mere book-learning, do act in a manner 
 to warrant your statement. The habit that far too many 
 Negroes have of applying to themselves those objection- 
 able epithets bestowed upon them by their white con- 
 temners can not be too strongly condemned. And yet 
 the surest way of nullifying a nickname is to call your- 
 self by it. Anyway, I have been to South America and 
 the Negroes there would never think of addressing them- 
 selves thus. Indeed, even a full-blooded Brazilian Negro 
 feels insulted if called a Negro. He wishes to be known 
 solely by his national patronymic." 
 
 "Well, how can you account for that?" demanded the 
 passenger, curiously, off his guard for the moment. 
 
 "In Brazil," explained Dixon, "where slavery existed 
 as late as 1888, the Negro is taught not only to regard 
 himself the equal of the white man, but he is given an 
 opportunity to prove it. There is no walk of Brazilian 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO 21 AN 
 
 29 
 
 life, official or unofficial, where he is not welcome and to 
 which he has not aspired. I have been credibly informed 
 that more than one Brazilian president has had Negro 
 blood in his veins. In the United States, on the other 
 hand, it does appear as if everything possible is done to 
 humble the so-called Xegro — to suppress his self-respect. 
 There ought to be small wonder, then, if many Xegroes 
 do not show sufficient manly dignity, and many others, 
 without weighing the purport, try to appear white, an 
 act Avhich, after all, is just about as much an admission 
 of inferiority as when a white man blisters himself in 
 the sun in an endeavor to appear, no doubt, like the 
 bronzed heroes of the story books." 
 
 The passenger did not respond. He appeared to be 
 busily engaged in studying the inlaid woodwork. Dixon 
 then added with assumed gravity : 
 
 'T must concede, however, sir, that the average Negro 
 acknowledges his inferiority tacitly and often b}^ speech." 
 
 The passenger straightened up instantly. He smiled 
 triumphantly, and replied with an air of finality, "'Well, 
 that settles the argument. I knew you would finally 
 come to the truth." 
 
 ''But, in this instance," Dixon queried, archly, ''might 
 not an acknowledgment of inferiority prove a certain 
 superiority?" 
 
 "Inferiority proving superiority? What are you say- 
 ing, anyway?" 
 
 "Doesn't the case of the sexes explain this seeming 
 paradox? The average male human, as you will admit, 
 is egotistic. The more that woman, the weaker, humors 
 this trait, the better she serves her OAvn interest; simi- 
 larly, the average white man's weak point is his color 
 egotism, and the more the Negro humors this failing, the 
 more he serves his own interest. The greater the self- 
 interest of woman the more credulous she is to tales of 
 masculine prowess ; the greater the self-interest of the 
 Negro the more he flatters the white man's egotism. 
 
30 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Now, sir, which is cleverer, the fooled or the one who 
 fools?" 
 
 The other did not reply. 
 
 Dixon continued : 'T'U give you an illustration. A 
 friend of mine, a doctor, told me he was one day in a bar- 
 room in Chicago when a man whom he instantly recog- 
 nized as a Southerner, by his dress and manner, entered. 
 Lounging in a corner was a Negro, one of those human 
 beings who elect to live by their wits. No sooner had 
 the Southerner ordered his drink that the Negro walked 
 up and, looking at him admiringly, effused, 'What a 
 pretty white man ! Say, boss, yo' is from Missourah, 
 ain't yo'?' 
 
 " *Yes,' confirmed the other, much flattered at this 
 open admiration, 'and wheh ah yo' from?' 
 
 " 'Ah, boss, how can yo' ask me dat?' said the Negro 
 in mock indignation, eagerly eyeing the white man's 
 glass. Then he wheedled, 'Say, boss, I'll have a "gin an' 
 rass," too' (raspberry wine and gin, a favorite drink 
 among" certain classes in Missouri). The Negro had the 
 drink, and the white man in paying pulled out a large 
 roll of bills. The sight of so much money fired the 
 Negro's eloquence. He redoubled his flatteries, telling 
 his host how the Northern 'niggers' were 'biggity' and 
 how they thought themselves as good as white folks, and 
 when he had his victim flattered to the seventh heaven of 
 delight, he sprang a hard luck story. The result was 
 several more 'gin-rasses' and a dollar." 
 
 Dixon related the incident in a breezy manner, but 
 the passenger failed to see any humor in it. 
 
 "From what you say," he objected coldly, "the white 
 man must have been very ignorant. And then might 
 not a Negro permit himself to be thus similarly flattered 
 by a white man?" 
 
 "Possibly. But this story, and similar ones I could 
 tell you, prove that acknowledgment of inferiority 
 pften means self-interest. The case of Booker T. Wash- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 31 
 
 ington, however, provides a better example. Washing- 
 ton got along Avell in the South because he knew just 
 how to tickle the color vanity of the whites. Had he 
 shown the independent spirit of DuBois, he would not 
 have done so well in the South. But I am opposed to 
 this policy of trying to gain by subterfuge or blandish- 
 ment, that which is one's divine right." 
 
 Silence for a few moments. The passenger appeared 
 to be thinking deeply. Then he asked, "But how are 
 you going to account for this? The Negro thinks him- 
 self superior to other Negroes in proportion to his 
 amount of Caucasian blood. Isn't that an instinctive 
 acknowledgment of inferiority?" 
 
 'Tt is true," conceded Dixon, ''that many lighter- 
 skinned Negroes do look down on their darker brothers. 
 Many others shun them, too, from economic necessity; 
 that is, they can earn more by passing for w^hite. But, 
 in the first instance, can't w^e find a similar thing amongst 
 the whites? Mark you, I am not defending this inexcus- 
 able ignorance among so-called Negroes. I have ahvays 
 held that the man who protests against a thing should be 
 the last man to practice it. In United States a premium 
 is set upon Caucasian blood (of course, I use the term fig- 
 uratively), hence, some mixed bloods believe themselves 
 of superior mold. In the United States, for the lack of 
 a nobility, a premium is also set upon ]\Iayflower descent, 
 and many persons so descended pride themselves upon 
 their superiority due to ancestry — blue-bloods, F. F. V.'s 
 yea, even from the dark-skinned Pocahontas. And the 
 analogy we might draw from Europe and her nobility is 
 too evident to need further comment. Then it must be 
 remembered that there is considerable rivalry between 
 the brunettes and the blondes. I have often heard rather 
 heated arguments between white women of these types 
 as to their respective merits. Blondes, having the lesser 
 amount of pigment, are deemed the more virtuous, which, 
 
32 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 perhaps, accounts for the larger number of chemical 
 blondes among the whites. 
 
 "But those among us who have an infusion of Cau- 
 casian blood have nothing to boast of since such are in 
 the position of children who have been abandoned by 
 one of their parents. Then, too, whenever such are dis- 
 covered among the whites they are nearly always uncere- 
 moniously thrust out. In my opinion the Negro who 
 plumes himself upon his white descent simply does not 
 think." 
 
 The bell had begun to ring just as Dixon was finish- 
 ing; and he went in to answer the call. He was very 
 glad of the interruption and remained away, hoping 
 thereby to break off the argument. But the traveller, it 
 appears, had no such intention, for, when Dixon, ten 
 minutes later, had occasion to re-enter the room, he was 
 immediately assailed with: 
 
 ''There is another important point of Negro inferior- 
 ity. The features of the Caucasian are more pleasing, 
 not only to the Caucasian, but to the Negroes, judging 
 from their own comments. No one would ever think of 
 comparing the physiognomy of a Negro with that of an 
 Adonis or an Aphrodite. The white man's native sense 
 of beauty will never permit him to modify his ideals of 
 beauty." He paused, then added with conviction : "The 
 Negro's physiognomy will ever make him unpleasing to 
 the white man." 
 
 Dixon thought of telling him that this matter of 
 physiognomy was the cause of all the trouble, but replied, 
 instead: "The features of the Caucasian are, as a rule, 
 more pleasing only to his own eye, for each human vari- 
 ety, except when imbued with the thoughts of another 
 people, as the Negro in the New World, considers its 
 facial casts the standard. Darwin, in his 'Descent of 
 Man,' says that when the Negro boys on the eastern 
 coast of Africa saw Burton, the explorer, they cried out, 
 'Look at the white man! Does he not look like a white 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 33 
 
 ape?' Winwood Reade said that the Negroes on the 
 Western coast admired a very black skin more than one 
 of a lighter tint. Agbebi, a A\'est African scientist, says, 
 in his paper before the Races Congress (here Dixon con- 
 sulted his note book) : 'The unsophisticated African 
 entertains an aversion to white people, and when on acci- 
 dentally or unexpectedly meeting a white man, he turns 
 or takes to his heels, it is because he feels that he has 
 come upon some unusual or unearthly creature, some 
 hobgoblin or ghost or sprite, and that an aquiline nose, 
 scant lips and cat-like eyes afflict him/ 
 
 ''Dan Crawford, the famous African missionary, tells 
 of an instance where a number of Negresses in Central 
 Africa, on seeing a white man for the first time, nearly 
 broke down a doorway in their frantic haste to escape. 
 The Yoruba word for white man is not complimentar}^ 
 It means 'peeled man.' Stanley, the explorer, said that 
 when he returned from the wilds of Africa, accustomed 
 to the rich brown of the African, he found the complex- 
 ions of Europeans ghastly." 
 
 The brakeman, passing by, peered into the room, but 
 only greeted Dixon and went on. 
 
 When he was gone Dixon continued: "Oriental ideas 
 of beauty are also different from ours. The Japanese do 
 not like the noses and eyes of the Caucasian, which hap- 
 pen to be the very parts of Japanese physiognomy the 
 Caucasian likes least. Xow, as \"on Luschan asks, 'AA'hich 
 of these races is right, since both are highly artistic?'" 
 
 "But," protested the passenger, rather lamely, "since 
 the white race is the superi — most developed one — its 
 standard of beauty ought to be accepted as the universal 
 one." 
 
 Dixon noted with satisfaction the other's hesitption 
 at the word "superior." He responded : 
 
 "Environment is largely responsible for facial con- 
 tour. Peoples subjected to the beneficial influences of 
 Science and Art have, according to the standard of civil- 
 
34 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 ized man, more refined features and are consequently 
 more beautiful than savages. 
 
 "But facial beauty is only one side of the story. Venus 
 and Apollo, as you will remember, are as famous for 
 their beauty of bodily outline as for their facial contour, 
 perhaps more so. And in a matter of bodily beauty cer- 
 tain savage tribes easily excel the white man. The 
 Zulu, a black people, are the successors of the ancient 
 Greeks in beauty of physique. J. H. Balmer, explorer 
 and lecturer, says : ''The Zulus are the physical supe- 
 riors of other races. A male Zulu has the strength, 
 endurance and body of a prize fighter in the pink of 
 condition. Their shoulders are broad, their chests deep, 
 their waists slim. Their women are the strongest females 
 propagated." 
 
 ''But here in America," resumed Dixon, "it is not a 
 matter of facial contour or physique. It is rather a ques- 
 tion, sometimes of color, sometimes of texture of hair, 
 sometimes both, since there are many Negroes who pos- 
 sess the regular profile of the conventional Caucasian, 
 whilst there are many Caucasians who, but for color and 
 hair, might be representatives of any other human vari- 
 ety, except the true Mongolian. I have remarked many 
 Swedish and Irish persons with negroid features. Then, 
 too, the beauty of colored women commands considera- 
 tion. In all those parts of the British Empire where 
 black and white live, those women who have what is 
 known as a touch of the tar-brush easily excel the aver- 
 age white woman in point of beauty and grace of expres- 
 sion. The white women of these countries are mostly 
 English, and the Englishwoman, generally speaking, is 
 not considered beautiful. And even here in America 
 where the blending of the various peoples and the supe- 
 rior economic conditions have combined to produce 
 types, perhaps of world-excelling beauty, certain types 
 of colored women are the peers of any. The bewitching 
 languor of form and voice, the placid depth of the soft, 
 
FROM SUPERTAX TO MAX 
 
 35 
 
 sparkling eye, and flaAvless texture of skin, combine with 
 a disposition of artless amiability to make a charm 
 that must move the hearts of all who venture to behold 
 her. But I consider this question of facial beauty 
 a wearisome one. The ultimate question must be one of 
 the mental and moral worth of the individual. 2\Ieas- 
 ured by the Greek standard of facial contour, Soc- 
 rates, Herbert Spencer, and Darwin were very ugly, 
 and yet the services they rendered to humanity are almost 
 inestimable. Whilst ideas of beauty are purely individual, 
 the standard of nobility of soul is universal. Character, 
 then, should be the standard by which to judge human 
 beings. After all, man is not like cattle which we rear 
 for appearance sake. I think that any face lit up by 
 right living and high ideals is beautiful regardless of 
 contour." 
 
 The passenger seemed agitated. He got up and again 
 paced the room. After a few turns he sat down and 
 drew deep inhalations from his cigarette, blowing out 
 the smoke very slowly. He was marshalling in his mind 
 all the many points regarding Negro inferiority. Sud- 
 denly, as if struck by an inspiration, he said, triumph- 
 antly, 'T can positively prove the Negro is inherently 
 inferior. The Jews were slaves for four hundred and 
 thirty years, one hundred and eighty years longer than 
 were the Negroes in America. Did they emerge in the 
 debased condition of the Negro? Why? You also said 
 the Irish were slaves in New England, didn't you? Well, 
 today these former slaves dominate the United States 
 politically. Here's where the inferiority com.es in. There 
 are ten millions of Negroes in the United States — a 
 greater number than the population of Canada, greater 
 than the combined population of Holland and Switzer- 
 land — and yet there is not a single Negro in any posi- 
 tion of political im.portance in this country. A few, it 
 is true, hold federal positions — mostly unimportant, how- 
 
36 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 ever. If the Negro were not an inferior would he allow 
 himself to be thus outclassed?" 
 
 "That isn't due to inferiority of human variety, but 
 to inferiority of numbers." 
 
 "To inter-racial jealousy, you mean ; the surest sign 
 of a consciousness of inferiority among any people. Race 
 prejudice only hurts those who have a consciousness of 
 their racial inferiority. The Negro can't trust himself. 
 He hates to associate with his own people." 
 
 "With regard to this matter of unity among my peo- 
 ple," responded Dixon, "the first point to be considered 
 is: shall we have Negroes or shall we have Americans? 
 We can't have both. The closer certain nationalities 
 in our population get together the further they drift from 
 what ought to be the predominating idea — the general 
 welfare of the State. I think that the aim of the so-called 
 Negro should be national, not segregated unity, provided, 
 of course, that the white man will permit him. Why 
 should a certain class of citizens band themselves in a 
 separate camp, patronizing only themselves, working 
 only among themselves, and so on? Let us suppose that 
 the Negroes, the Jews, the Irish, the Mayflower descend- 
 ants, and so on, form themselves into their respective 
 camps, patronizing only themselves. Wouldn't it make 
 for narrowness, not to say national disharmony? None 
 of the nationalities that come here are forced to segre- 
 gate themselves — indeed, they are upbraided when they 
 do so, as listen to the fuss about the German-American. 
 Another point : a too close Negro unity makes for segre- 
 gation. And with regard to Negroes not acting more in 
 unity, the truth is you can never get any group of human 
 beings to think alike, not even to act alike, even when 
 their most vital interests are concerned. Didn't the 
 Welsh colliers strike, and the English labor unions ham- 
 per the government just when unity was most needed? 
 Again, in California a great racket is made about the Jap- 
 anese, yet isn't it the whites who are their main sup- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Z7 
 
 port? The Gentile has complained for centuries about 
 the JcAV, yet doesn't he go on dealing- with him just che 
 same? And there are even those Negroes who defend 
 the Caucasian in his treatment of their people. Among 
 my people I notice that those who preach what they call 
 racial unity do not practice it when it affects their pock- 
 ets. Just as long as the so-called Negro has the same 
 ideals and ideas as the Avhites, is as easily pacified, and 
 remxains as credulous as he is, I do not think that he 
 will be more united than at present. On the other hand, 
 I think there are three reasons Avhy the Negro should 
 spend his money among his own people ; first, a matter 
 of personal pride, for the majority of the white persons 
 whom he patronizes really despise him in their hearts ; 
 second, his is a struggling people, and needs support; 
 and third, since he is forced to work for the whites for 
 smaller than the usual wage, he should not spend it Avith 
 them at the normal rate. Moreover, you must not for- 
 get that the principal supporters of Negro business are 
 Negroes." 
 
 The passenger drew his overcoat closer around him- 
 self. 
 
 Dixon noticed his motion, and inquired if he were 
 cold. 
 
 "Somewhat," Avas the response. 
 
 Dixon reached under his seat and turned on the 
 steam. 
 
 A few minutes later when the steam was crackling 
 in the pipes the passenger remarked : 
 
 "The Negro is a whiner. He is always whining, whin- 
 ing for his rights. The Negro would do better by not 
 protesting so much." 
 
 "Sir," responded Dixon, "it's very evident that since 
 the Negro's disparity in numbers and wealth makes it 
 impossible for him to fight for his rights protest is his 
 only weapon." 
 
38 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 "But, he loses valuable time in protesting. Time that 
 could be employed in bettering himself." 
 
 "Here's at least one instance," retorted Dixon, "in 
 which silence would give consent. If the Negro said 
 nothing it would be taken for granted that he is content. 
 I consider it the duty of those who see injustice to pro- 
 test against it. Did not Christ denounce the hypocrisy 
 of the Pharisees with all the might of His soul? Did 
 not the colonists protest against the tyranny of King 
 George in spite of the time it would consume? When 
 the Jews were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem on their 
 return from Babylonian captivity did they not build, 
 sword in one hand, and trowel in the other? Then con- 
 sider this : at school the spirit of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence is instilled into our minds. We are taught to 
 admire the indomitable spirit of men like Julius Caesar, 
 William Tell, Patrick Henry and Washington, in short, 
 the noblest ideals of the white man are impressed upon 
 us, and then we are expected to live craven-hearted, sub- 
 mitting tamely to insult and to a gross deprivation of our 
 rights as citizens. Has taxation without representation 
 ceased to be tyranny? But this objection to our protest- 
 ing is a hopeful sign. It shows that conscience is at 
 work." 
 
 Dixon reflected an instant, then continued : "A similar 
 number of whites would undoubtedly take more active 
 measures to gain their rights, but the Negro, not much 
 educated and without efficient organization, is helpless 
 and has to plead for that which he might demand were 
 he united. He represents not less than one-ninth of the 
 total population, yet, as you say, there is not a single one 
 in the higher councils of the nation. The truth is that 
 he lacks that spirit of give and take so often found among 
 oppressed peoples — as the Bohemians, for example." 
 
 "And then all the other nationalities get ahead of the 
 Negro," commented the passenger. "Look at the Ital- 
 ian, the Polack and all the others." 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 39 
 
 "Your analogy is not fair," protested Dixon. 
 "Can't see why." 
 
 "These peoples are all white," explained Dixon, "and, 
 however hard the first generation may experience it,, the 
 second one or so blends with the rest of the whites. The 
 Negro, however, is always regarded as a separate entity. 
 Another point, sir ; the immigrant not only gets ahead of 
 the Xegro, but of the native whites. Just look at the 
 signs along any business street or in a business directory 
 and see how very few real American names you will see ! 
 Indeed, the most American group of whites are the least 
 progressive of all the groups that make up our cosmo- 
 politan population. I speak more directly of the poor 
 white mountaineers. Albert Bushnell Hart, speaking of 
 these people in his book, 'The Southern South,' com- 
 pares them with the people of New England in the sev- 
 enteenth century. Then there are the poor native whites 
 living in places such as Clinton and Franklin counties 
 (Xew York), Aristook county (Elaine), and AMndham 
 county (Connecticut). Prof. Branson, of North Caro- 
 lina, speaking of these, compares them to those crab-like 
 creatures mentioned in 'Les ^Miserables,' people who, 
 'before advancing light, steadily retreat into the fringe 
 of darkness,' while the Chicago Daily Journal, Oct. 3, 
 1916, wonders if some of these people are not beyond the 
 help of education. These poor whites, by the way, are 
 the purest representatives of that Anglo-Saxon strain 
 that the Dixons, Watsons and Tillmans are always 
 bragging about. They are a striking example of stag- 
 nation. ]\Iany communities of them are far below many 
 A\'est African ones. Following your argument, sir, I 
 would be justified in calling them inferior. 
 
 "The Negro, however, is growing out of the ideas 
 inculcated in slavery and each succeeding generation 
 will be more assertive of its manhood. As I will repeat, 
 he only lacks training." 
 
 "No amount of training will ever make him other 
 
40 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 than a Negro," snapped the passenger. "He is simply 
 incapable of governing himself. Who evolved the white 
 man's government for him? Look what a miserable 
 failure Liberia has been ! Look what a farce Haiti is ! 
 There never has been a successful government by 
 Negroes, and there never can be one. I'd give you a 
 hundred dollars just to name me a single one." 
 
 "As you have justly intimated, sir, the white man's 
 government has been a matter of evolution, the nucleus 
 of which he derived from peoples, some of whom are 
 extinct. Consider the painful evolution of the British 
 government, undoubtedly the most stable of all govern- 
 ments. Historians tell us that the Britons, after four 
 hundred and sixty-four years of Roman rule, almost 
 relapsed into barbarism when left to themselves. Lang 
 tells us that the Picts and Dalriadic Scots after driving 
 out the English fell into a kind of quadrangular warfare 
 among themselves. Doesn't this sound like the case of 
 Mexico and Haiti today?" 
 
 "But these countries have the example of the best 
 governed peoples to go by," interrupted the passenger. 
 
 "Well, so had the Britons," retorted Dixon, warmly. 
 "It took infusion after infusion of superior civilizations 
 to I make the England of Edward III. As mankind through 
 all the ages, has ever been the same, the state of the 
 less developed peoples affords the more highly devel- 
 oped a fine opportunity to observe what was, in all 
 probability, a condition similar to their own first steps 
 in self-government. But, apart from old Egypt, 
 there has been a successful government conducted by 
 Negroes which thrived, so far as is known, for more than 
 five centuries — Uganda, now annexed by Great Britain 
 to her African possessions. When Speke discovered 
 Uganda, her people had developed a high state of civili- 
 zation. 'Chinese' Gordon also speaks cordially of the 
 fine character of the Uganda government under King 
 Mtesa." 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 41 
 
 The passenger made no immediate reply. He was 
 ambitious to find some bad trait peculiar to the Negro. 
 His m.ind ran over the list. First, he thought of rape, 
 but he had read the Bible and i^new the first rapes on 
 record had been committed by white men. He had also 
 sat on juries where white men had been committed for 
 this crime; and he remembered the treatment Negro 
 women had received at the hands of white men during 
 slaver}^ times. No, he would not bring up this point. 
 His opponent had been too skillful in finding parallels 
 between black and white. 
 
 The passenger thought of the question of veracity. 
 AMiite men Avere not always truthful, too. He thought 
 of stealing, but white men were the princes of theft. He 
 turned to immorality. Here he hesitated as thoughts of 
 the mulatto came into his mind ; visions of the big city 
 ''tenderloin districts''* flashed before him. as well as the 
 statistics on illegitimacy. But, having' heard so often 
 that blacks were more immoral than whites, he decided 
 to speak of Negro immorality, so, striking out boldly, he 
 demanded : ''The highest sign of the culture of a race 
 is the control that race exercises over the animal passions 
 by the sheer power of its intellect, isn't it?'' 
 
 Dixon assented. 
 
 "Well, the Caucasian, being far more moral than the 
 Negro, is consequently the superior. The Negro has no 
 more ideas of morality than a monkey; in fact, he is 
 non-moral." He then went on to relate some of his 
 experiences. 
 
 "The Negro, too, holds a ver\- low opinion of Cau- 
 casian morality," replied Dixon. 'T have seen on sleep- 
 ing-cars, and in hotels, incidents similar to those you 
 have mentioned, but it would not be just to take these 
 instances as criterions. Our only guide in this matter 
 must be scientific opinion, and that is in favor of the 
 Negro. Havelock Ellis, probably the greatest living sex 
 psychologist, in 'Studies in the Psychology of Sex' (Vol. 
 
42 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 3, p. 261), after giving two convincing reasons in favor 
 of the savage, goes on to say, 'It is a common notion that 
 the Negro and Negroid races of Africa are prone to 
 sexual indulgence. This notion is not supported by 
 those who have the most intimate knowledge of these 
 peoples. It probably gained currency in part to the 
 open and expansive temperament of the Negro and in 
 part to the extreme sexual character of many African 
 orgies and festivals.' And Finot says, 'These accusa- 
 tions must fall before facts.' " 
 
 The passenger did not reply, so Dixon continued: 
 "I have another quotation from Havelock Ellis, bear- 
 ing on this same topic. It reads, 'The importance, even 
 sacredness of procreation is much more generally recog- 
 nized by savages than by civilized peoples, and also a 
 certain symbolic significance is attached to human pro- 
 creation as related to natural fruitfulness generally, so 
 that a primitive orgy, instead of being a mere manifesta- 
 tion of licentiousness, may have a ritual significance." 
 
 "But that does not mean the Negro in America," 
 objected the passenger. "No one can ever persuade me 
 that the Negro is not more lustful than the Caucasian. 
 The Negro's lustfulness will ever prevent him from being 
 of any consequence. Negro boys and girls learn well up 
 to a certain age, but their strong animal nature, that 
 trait which links them nearer to the monkey than it does 
 any other race, will ever make them the inferior of white 
 children." 
 
 "What you say about the morals of the Negro is 
 partly true, sir. The morality of the mass of the Negroes 
 is lamentably bad ; but, if Havelock Ellis and his sup- 
 porters are right is not civilization largely responsible for 
 this condition? The white man has been living in con- 
 cubinage with the Negro woman for nearly three hundred 
 years ! Wouldn't that spoil the morals of any people, 
 however pure originally?" 
 
 "Nothing will ever persuade me," persisted the pass- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 43 
 
 enger, ''"that the Caucasian is in any way as lustful as 
 the Xegro/''' And he went on to make a comparison of 
 certain instances that had come to his notice. 
 
 '■'I'm inclined to believe," responded Dixon, '''that sex 
 instinct is more highly developed among the whites than 
 among the Xegroes. Havelock Ellis conclusively proves 
 that the more developed a people, the stronger the sex 
 instinct. The Xegro eats less stimulating food, works 
 more laboriously, and has less leisure than the white 
 man. The whites, on the other hand, have more uplift- 
 ing diversions. The Xegro does appear to be more im- 
 moral, but I think this is due to the fact that his pov- 
 erty prevents him from being as secretive as the whites, 
 and that the whites, with more self-respect due to their 
 superior training, are more desirous of, and more skillful 
 at concealment." 
 
 Dixon paused a moment to consult his note book, 
 then added: 'T have a quotation here from the ']\Iedi- 
 cal Review of Reviews'' for July, 1916, which, I am sure, 
 you will find interesting. It says, in commenting on the 
 report of the Baltimore A'ice Commission: Tt tells a 
 tale of lust and sexual deceit and whoredom among the 
 must reputable Baltimoreans — it lifts the cover from a 
 never-ceasing cauldron of sensuality and seduction. 
 Baltimore is a city taken in adultery. . . . The 
 tv-elve hundred pages of this report are a transcript 
 of the white man's sexual life anywhere : a record which 
 should prevent him from criticising other races.' " 
 
 "'But X'egro women are very immoral," persisted the 
 passenger, at the same time illustrating his viewpoint 
 with some of his experiences. 
 
 'T have no reason to doubt your experiences, sir," 
 responded Dixon, "but similar tales can be told of Cau- 
 casian wom.en. Which people, for instance, poses for 
 those pictures which Anthony Comstock labored to sup- 
 press? But this, too, is no criterion." 
 
 The other made no reply, so Dixon continued : "'Have- 
 
44 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 lock Ellis tells of a French army surgeon, who, in his 
 'Untrodden Fields of Anthropology,' says that it is a 
 mistake to imagine the Negress is very amorous and 
 that she welcomes the embraces of white men. On the 
 other hand, it is generally conceded that civilized woman, 
 especially she of European stock, prefers men of the Don 
 — v/ell — does not incline to the St. Anthony type. Have- 
 lock Ellis says that uncivilized woman is far more mod- 
 est than her civilized sister. Were it not for legal re- 
 straint, I am sure that the standard of modesty among 
 women of the more advanced Caucasian countries would 
 be much belov/ what it is. The tendency is toward 
 boldness in dress and conversation. Havelock Ellis says 
 that in certain parts of West Africa, among the better 
 families, the unchaste bride is punished in a manner so 
 cruel that I do not like to mention it. I know person- 
 ally of one rite the natives of Sierra Leone used to prac- 
 tice, until prevented by the British, which showed the 
 high value these people placed on chastity. Again, 
 Shakespeare, in his 'Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music,' 
 IV,' did not have Negresses in mind when he 
 wrote, nor did Weininger, Schopenhauer, Bocaccio, Bal- 
 zac and de Maupassant." 
 
 "Despite all you may say to the contrary," retorted 
 the passenger, "the standard of morality among white 
 women is far higher than among Negro women." 
 
 Dixon responded : "I believe that a much greater 
 percentage of white women maintain their honor than 
 Negro women, but solely because the white women have 
 superior youthful training; on the other hand perver- 
 sions are much more frequent here. I do not speak, how- 
 ever, in condonation of the Negro woman. She is not at 
 all blameless. She is still the great medium by which 
 intermixture is being carried on ; and she cannot plead 
 physical bondage today. Nor is this illicit relationship 
 with white men confined to the ignorant classes of col- 
 ored women. I will add in passing that one great men- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 45 
 
 ace to the morals of colored women, ignorant and other- 
 wise, is the visits of the white installment collectors, in- 
 surance men and others to the homes when the husband 
 is at work. But the statement that all Negro women are 
 immoral — a statement Avhich I hear on the cars from 
 time to time — only the other day a director in an insur- 
 ance company made it to me — can only mean one of two 
 things : either it is a case where all seems infected that 
 the infected spy, or the speaker has been associating with 
 a class of colored women as imm^oral as himself, and 
 formed his opinion there. I am convinced, from what I 
 have seen and heard, that any improvement in the mat- 
 ter of Negro morals, to be effective, must be accompanied 
 by a reform in the morals of the white man." 
 
 The train stopped and Dixon went out to open the 
 trap-door. During his absence the passenger was again 
 diligently revolving in his mind all the conventional 
 points of Negro inferiority. At last he found one — a 
 trait which he felt sure the whites had never possessed. 
 Now, certain of victory, he waited for Dixon's return. 
 Seeing him pass, he hailed him. Dixon, however, had 
 to put some newly-arrived passengers to bed and it was 
 some time before he could return. When he did return 
 the passenger said impressively: ''I have a point here 
 which conclusively proves Negro inferiority. The Negro, 
 and the Negro alone, is guilty of the most repulsive, the 
 most debasing practice known to humanity — the eating 
 of human flesh. Negroes are still cannibals. Even in 
 this country you can find Negroes whose parents were 
 cannibals, since it was not until 1830 that the importa- 
 tion of Africans to these shores ceased. And these, who 
 are here, would be cannibals yet if we had not dragged 
 them away. The Caucasian has never been guilty of 
 cannibalism, not so far as we can trace our history, 
 thank God." 
 
 Dixon seemed unimpressed. He said, quietly, 'Tt is 
 true that cannibalism still exists in parts of Africa and 
 
46 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 I understand among certain Indian tribes in the wilds 
 of Brazil, but these savages do not view this practice in 
 the light we do. I wonder if I may read you what Finot 
 has to say on this subject?" 
 
 The passenger did not reply; however, Dixon found 
 the place and began: "If a mother passes through a 
 village with her little one, a traveller tells us, all the 
 others will go to her and take the child, hold it in their 
 arms and make it jump. A cannibal who has just enjoyed 
 a piece of human flesh is quite as capable of doing this 
 as the most sensitive of our civilized folk. Cannibalism 
 itself does not there present to these people the repulsive 
 aspects that affect us, and to which we object so strenu- 
 ously." 
 
 Dixon closed the book and continued: "Contrary to 
 your assertion, however, sir, branches of the white 
 variety of mankind have been cannibals. Herodotus tells 
 us that the Scythian soldier, vampire-like, used to suck 
 out the blood of the first enemy he killed in battle. The 
 Issedonians, he also says, used to eat their dead, and the 
 Padaeans would kill and eat those of their numbers who 
 were sick or approached senility. The Huns used to 
 drink human blood out of the skulls of the enemies they 
 killed in battle. But more, I think I have a quotation 
 here from St. Jerome. Yes. Here it is. He says, 
 'When I was a boy in Gaul I beheld the Scots, a people 
 living in Britain, eating human flesh, and although there 
 were plenty of cattle and sheep at their disposal, they 
 would prefer a ham of the herdsman or a slice of fe- 
 male breast.' So you see, sir, cannibalism among black 
 and white is rather a matter of time than people or 
 place. But the men who steadily grind out the lives 
 of their fellows in sweat shops and live on the proceeds 
 are, to my thinking, less merciful than the African who 
 eats the flesh of his enemy slain in battle." 
 
 The passenger appeared more embarrassed than ever. 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 47 
 
 While Dixon had been speaking another point had come 
 to him. He advanced it hesitatingly: 
 
 '■"^-^'hat of the disagreeable odor of the Negro? I have 
 known some of our Southern ladies to faint from this 
 skunk-like odor." 
 
 Dixon smiled inwardly. Was this man's sense of 
 smell biased, too? He remembered that recently he had 
 been reading advertisements of odor-removing prepara- 
 tions in a prominent journal and he knew that the adver- 
 tisement was not meant to greet the eyes of Xegroes, 
 especially. He also thought of several other points 
 that he had noticed, but his delicacy of feeling forbade 
 him mentioning them. He said, instead, "I have in my 
 note book here a relevant quotation from Sir Henry 
 Johnstone's 'Xegro in the New^ World?' ]\Iay I read it 
 to you, sir?" 
 
 The other did not reply; hovrever, Dixon found the 
 place and began : "A striking peculiarity of the Afri- 
 can is the musky, goat-like smell exhaled from the sweat, 
 more especially the axillary glands. The odor is 
 markedly characteristic of the African (it has not hith- 
 erto been recorded among Asiatic Negroes), but also 
 occurs to a much slighter degree among Europeans as 
 an exhalation from the armpits. Yet I would make bold 
 to say that this skin odor is not so disgusting as that 
 which comes from heated and unwashed Europeans and 
 Asiatics. It is practically absent from many Africans 
 Avho keep their bodies washed and clean. AA^hile in the 
 United States I mixed with Negro crowds and scarcely 
 noticed any disagreeable smell, for the Negroes, like 
 the American whites, seem to be an inherently cleanly 
 people. I only detected the presence of disagreeable 
 body odors coming from the Oii'ensively dirty Chinese 
 traveling in public conveyances or coming from the 
 newdy-arrived immigrants in Nevv' York. 
 
 "Finot says, 'Tor a long time it was thought that 
 white men were exempt from this, but now we have to 
 
48 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 admit a strong smell peculiar to white skins — a smell 
 which the Japanese declare to be insupportable/ Age- 
 bebi also says that the African complains of the odor 
 of the white man." 
 
 Silence for a few minutes broken only by the rattling 
 of the train. Dixon, in spite of his endeavor to sup- 
 press it, had the buoyant air of a winner. The passen- 
 ger on the other hand appeared worried and generally 
 ill at ease. He apparently could think of no effective 
 retort just then for he began to cavil. 
 
 "A little while back," he began, "you said 'Caucasian 
 blood figuratively speaking?' What do you mean? Per- 
 haps the next thing you will tell me is that there is 
 no such thing as Caucasian blood." 
 
 ''There is neither Caucasian nor Negro blood," Dixon 
 stated simply, repressing every indication of the triumph 
 he felt, "but just human blood. I wonder if I may read 
 you what Finot has to say on the subject." 
 
 The passenger nodded his assent. 
 
 Dixon found the place and was about to begin read- 
 ing when both men started nervously from their seats. 
 
 "What's that?" demanded the passenger. 
 
 A noise like the barking of a dog came from the 
 body of the car. 
 
 "Someone having a nightmare, I should say," guessed 
 Dixon ; "one hears some queer noises in a sleeping car 
 at night." 
 
 "Can't be. That's a real dog," rebutted the other, 
 somewhat gruffly. Dixon went in to investigate, and 
 presently returned, smiling. 
 
 "You were right, sir, it was a dog. A lady had a 
 poodle in her basket. In making down the beds, I 
 pushed the basket up against the steam pipes and the 
 poor little fellow was being roasted. He was voicing his 
 protest when we heard him." 
 
 Dixon then began to tell him about a passenger who 
 had walked in his sleep, but the traveller, who, ap- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 49 
 
 parently was not listening, again brought up the topic 
 of Caucasian and Negro blood. Dixon again found his 
 passages and began : 
 
 ''The anthropologists have not succeeded in finding 
 the essential variations in the composition of the blood 
 between men of yellow, black and white colors, of broad 
 and narrow skulls, of the smallest cranial capacity and 
 those of most astonishing greatness. What is no less 
 conclusive is that the part w^hich the composition of the 
 blood plays in demonstrating the difference between races 
 and species is known. It is only the blood of beings 
 belonging to the same variety and the same race which 
 may be injected into them with impunity. Thus the 
 blood of a hare may be injected into the organism of a 
 rabbit or that of a mouse into that of a rat, but the 
 blood of a man may not be injected into the organism 
 of a dog, horse or any other animal. Neither can the 
 blood of an animal be injected into the veins of a man. 
 In all these cases the foreign blood will be destroyed 
 or destroy the organism w-hich receives the injection. 
 On the other hand, the blood of a black man may be 
 injected into the blood of a white or yellow. It goes 
 without saying that the form of the skull, as w^ell as the 
 other grounds on which the anthropological divisions of 
 human beings rest, plays as negative a part as the color 
 of the skin." 
 
 Dixon found another place and read : 
 
 " 'The oldest of all human classifications is at the 
 same time one of the most defective. Its errors are 
 obvious the moment the specific characteristics of each 
 of the categories are considered. For, while am^ong the 
 whites, there are men w^hose skins are as black as ebony, 
 the Bicharis or the Black ]\Ioors of Senegal, there are 
 among the blacks, fair or yellow skins like the Bushmen. 
 Whence is this difference of color? The skin of the 
 Negro, the yellow man and the white is identical as to 
 that which concerns its composition, the derm, the 
 
50 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 mucous membrane and the epidermis. What varies is 
 the color of the cells of the mucous membrane; these 
 are blackish brown in the Negro, pale yellow in the fair 
 white, a yellow more or less in the brown whites. But 
 when this difference of coloring is examined closely, it 
 must be acknowledged that the milieu represented in 
 particular in this case by the intensity of the solar rays, 
 exercises a preponderant influence on it/ 
 
 "I have also a quotation from Von Luschan, profes- 
 sor of Anthropology in the University of Berlin, on this 
 matter of color, in his paper before the Races Congress. 
 With your permission, I will read it. He says: 'Still 
 weaker and more objectionable is the division as to color. 
 We now know that color of skin and hair are only 
 the effect of environment, and that we are fair be- 
 cause our ancestors lived for thousands probably tens of 
 thousands of years in sunless, foggy countries. Fair- 
 ness is nothing else but lack of pigment and our ances- 
 tors lost part of their pigment because they had no 
 use for it.' " 
 
 Schopenhauer says : "There is no such thing as a 
 white race, much as this is talked of, but every white 
 man is a faded or bleached one." 
 
 Dixon commented: "I do not know if you have ever 
 noticed it, sir, but there is a great similarity between 
 the varieties in physique in man and dog. We have dogs 
 with white skins and silky hair; with black skins and 
 woolly hair; with long noses and snub noses; with round 
 heads and long heads ; with high cheek bones and ordi- 
 nary ones, just as among the different varieties of man- 
 kind. There is also a suspicious resemblance between 
 the color of the Caucasian and just plain pork. Indeed, 
 very few Caucasian beauties can equal in complexion the 
 rosy, dainty freshness of a newly-shaved sucking pig." 
 
 The passenger, who was listening attentively, made no 
 comment. Dixon resumed his reading: 
 
 " 'Very frequently the so-called inferior races show 
 
FROM SUPERTAX TO MAN 
 
 51 
 
 precisely the physiological properties, which, by revising 
 all preconceived methods, place them at the head of 
 humanity. After having stated that superior races are 
 furthest removed from the anthropoid Apes, whilst in- 
 ferior races are nearest them, they bring together all 
 the facts which in this respect favor the whites and 
 entirely forget those in Avhich Xegroes are shown to 
 be favored. . . . 
 
 " 'In the blood of modern Europeans flows that of 
 Negroes, who lived on our continent at the end of the 
 Quartenary epoch. . . . 
 
 " 'Let us remember that according to Guiseppe Sergi. 
 Professor Brinton and others that the white race, the 
 ethnographical pride of Europe, is only the direct fruit 
 of a Xegro race — the European-Africans established from 
 time immemorial and who came from North Africa. . " 
 
 ''But what about the skull of the Negro?" objected 
 the passenger, at this juncture. "The brain of the Negro 
 is much smaller than that of the Avhite man. The com- 
 plexity of the convolutions of the Negro's brain is also 
 far less intricate. It is not unlike that of any orang-outang. 
 The sutures of the Negro skull also close much earlier 
 than the white man's and thus prevent the growth of 
 the brain." 
 
 "Of this Finot says," read Dixon : " 'AH these 
 measurements with their imposing numbers and scien- 
 tific prelentions, as also the theoretic observations, re- 
 solve themselves as we have seen into a nebulous doc- 
 trine, which affirms many things and proves nothing. 
 The exact instruments which anthropologists and crani- 
 ometrists use ofiFer a fantastic data. ,The results of their 
 operations are deposited in thousands of volumes, and 
 yet, Avh.it is the real meaning? In examining them 
 closely one can hardly attribute to them even a descrip- 
 tive value, so much do they contradict and destroy each 
 other.' " 
 
 Dixcn began to look for another passage that he was 
 
52 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 desirous of reading. While finding it, he commented: 
 "In this passage note the difference between the voices 
 of science and prejudice. 'An analysis of all the suc- 
 cessive theories on inequality created in us before every- 
 thing else a profound astonishment at the inertness of 
 our thought. When we go through the list of external 
 differences which appear to divide men we find literally 
 nothing which authorizes their division into superior 
 and inferior beings. The science of inequality is em- 
 phatically a science of white people. It is they who 
 have invented it, and set it going, who have maintained, 
 cherished and propagated it, thanks to their observations 
 and their deductions. Deeming themselves greater than 
 men of other colors, they have elevated into superior 
 qualities all the traits which are peculiar to themselves, 
 commencing with the whiteness of the skin and the 
 pliancy of the hair. But nothing proves that these 
 vaunted traits are traits of racial superiority. Human 
 varieties have not been studied like those of animals and 
 plants without conventional prejudices to their respective 
 values and as to those which are superior and inferior. 
 Facts have often yielded to sentiments. We have often 
 been persuaded with the help of our feelings to accept 
 our own preferences rather than impartial observations 
 and our own prejudices rather than scientific laws. The 
 purity of the blood which we create at will and which we 
 find in the animal world becomes impossible in the human 
 milieu. The Negroes are related to the Whites who are 
 linked to the Yellows as these last have common links 
 with both Negroes and Whites.' " 
 
 The passenger started to reply, but just then the 
 train conductor entered and began to ask Dixon about 
 certain tickets. Dixon explained that he had them in 
 the locker, and asking to be excused, left the room with 
 the conductor. 
 
 Shortly afterward the passenger retired, but the 
 thought of his defeat forbade sleep. He was in a blind 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 53 
 
 rage. Why had he started to argue with this menial? 
 The idea of a Negro, a common porter belonging to a 
 race he so heartily contemned, possessing enough knowl- 
 edge to beat him in an argument! His anger increased 
 as he remembered the calm and polished bearing of his 
 opponent as contrasted v/ith his rude manner, he, a Cau- 
 casian, and a state senator. And, worst of all, too, he 
 had to acknowledge even to himself the logic of the 
 porter's argument. As he kept revolving some of the 
 points in his mind his hatred for the whole Negro race 
 welled up in his heart stronger than ever. Ah ! but after 
 all there was some consolation ! This man was only a 
 Negro porter, and no matter how much knowledge he 
 possessed, he, as a Caucasian, was a better man. Every- 
 body recognized him as such. He had better advan- 
 tages and could enter places where this Negro dared 
 not. But deep in his heart was an involuntary admira- 
 tion for his opponent. 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 "The man's body is sacred, and the woman's body is sacred. 
 "No matter who it is, it is sacred — is it the meanest one in the 
 laborer's gang? 
 
 "Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf? 
 "Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just 
 as much as you. 
 
 Each has his or her place in the procession." — Walt Whitman. 
 
 The passenger slept late the next morning. On 
 awakening, better thoughts came to him. These were 
 improved by Dixon's cheery and respectful salutation. 
 To this greeting he responded in a shamefaced and 
 somewhat gruff manner, but Dixon refused to notice 
 this. All that day the passenger noted Dixon's conduct 
 — his unobstrusive manner, his solicitude for the women 
 passengers, his gentleness with the children, and his 
 amiability to all, and began to like him in spite of him- 
 
54 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 self. Yet, the thought of his defeat rankled in his breast, 
 and he determined to seek another occasion to talk with 
 Dixon in the hope of regaining his lost ground. 
 
 That night, Dixon again retired to the smoker to 
 read. He had read but a short while when the passen- 
 ger entered. Dixon was sitting in the chair this time. 
 He arose, urging courteously, "Won't you have the 
 chair, sir? I'm sure you will find it more comfortable 
 than the couch." 
 
 "No, thank you," refused the other, motioning him 
 to keep his seat, at the same time passing his cigarette 
 case, a kindness which Dixon smilingly refused. 
 
 "Suppose we resume our talk," suggested the pas- 
 senger after a few minutes of silence. 
 
 "My sermon, I fear, sir," laughed Dixon, "since I 
 have been doing all the talking, or rather, preaching. I 
 really don't want to preach to you." 
 
 Now, Dixon had guessed this man's object, on his 
 entrance, and determined to circumvent him if possible. 
 Although passionately fond of debating, he did not like to 
 argue the color question, especially with whites. He had 
 chided himself much for the argument of the night 
 before, and determined not to be caught again. At the 
 moment the passenger entered, Dixon was reading of 
 Negro mentality, but just prior to that, he had been 
 reading about the ancient Celts, so he replied: 
 
 "I have been reading about the Druids," and then, 
 without giving the other a chance to reply, he began to 
 speak about the customs of these ancient Britons. Then 
 he started to tell of the various countries he had visited. 
 Now and again the passenger would make some remark 
 calculated to lead the conversation into the channel he 
 desired, but each time Dixon would adroitly evade it. 
 Once Dixon told of an incident in Damascus, where a 
 Syrian was carrying a good many chickens to market, 
 with their legs tied together and hanging head down- 
 ward, and the other immediately made an allusion to 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 55 
 
 Negroes and chickens in the South. But Dixon steered 
 clear of this by immediately telling him of the ruins of 
 ancient Ass3^ria. Then he spoke of the ruins of ancient 
 Greece, of Pompeii, the Colosseum, and the ruins of 
 the Cliff-dwellers in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. 
 The passenger then pointed out that the Negro had no 
 such monuments to his credit. Dixon mentioned the 
 Sphinx, and was just going to tell him about a visit to 
 the Pyramids, when the other wedged in a remark about 
 the Negro and the Indian, and then began to speak of 
 the superiority of Indian mentality over that of the 
 Negro. He concluded by saying, "The Indian did not 
 submit to slavery, while the Negro did. My great- 
 grandmother was the daughter of a Cherokee chief and 
 I am proud of it. Now, don't you really think the 
 Indian is the mental superior of the Negro?" 
 
 Dixon did not reply for a few moments, then sud- 
 denly making up his mind, he said to himself, ''You want 
 me to argue the color question, do you? All right, I will, 
 but don't blame me if I tell you a few plain truths." 
 Then speaking aloud, he said : "The Indians were en- 
 slaved successively by the Spanish, French and English. 
 There were Indian slaves from Canada to Louisiana. 
 The decline of Indian slavery was due largely to its 
 being an economic failure. The Indian could not stand 
 the hardships, nor the whiskey and the diseases of the 
 white man. Large numbers of them died from small- 
 pox, consumption and syphilis. A white slave was far 
 more valuable than an Indian, and a Negro was more 
 valuable than either. One Negro slave sometimes fetched 
 as much as nine Indians. A Negro laborer was reck- 
 oned as the equivalent of five or six Indians. You can 
 find some interesting reading about this in 'Studies in 
 History, Economics and Public Law,' Columbia Uni- 
 versity (Vol. 54). 
 
 "There were also Indian slaves in the remainder of 
 the New World, but everywhere they came in contact 
 
56 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 with the white man, they declined. Take the island of 
 Jamaica, for instance. Two hundred and fifty years 
 after its discovery the Arawak Indians had totally dis- 
 appeared. They could not stand slavery, while the Negro 
 brought there as a slave, and subjected to as harsh or 
 harsher treatment, is today master of the island. I have 
 seen a great deal of Indian life, and I think it much 
 below the Negro standard." 
 
 The passenger again brought up the subject of Negro 
 mentality and Dixon referred him to the following quo- 
 tation from Myers, Lecturer on Experimental Psychol- 
 ogy at the University of Cambridge, England, in his 
 paper before the Races Congress : 
 
 "The mental characters of the majority of the peasant 
 class through Europe are essentially the same as those 
 of primitive communities." 
 
 Just then another passenger, on his way from the 
 observation car, entered the room, and, handing a tele- 
 gram to Dixon, asked him to send it at the next stop. 
 When this passenger had gone, the other once more 
 brought up the subject of Negro mentality. Dixon then 
 read to him the following passage from Finot: "It is 
 fruitless to maintain the theory of the mental inferiority 
 of Negroes. Twenty years of intellectual work has often 
 proved sufficient for a Maori, Zulu, Red Skin or Negro 
 to win back in his individual self, the centuries of mental 
 arrest or mental sleep experienced by his congeners. This 
 property common to all human being provides them at 
 once with a trait of ineffacable equality. 
 
 "The psychology of primitive peoples and especially 
 of Negroes strangely resembles that of the uncultured 
 classes of Europe. Their prepossessions, ideas and super- 
 stitions betray a similarity which draws them singularly 
 together. The inhabitants of Negro villages in Central 
 Africa are like the peasants living far from railways in 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 57 
 
 the extreme north of Russia, or the extreme south of 
 Italy." 
 
 Dixon then loAvered his book, and remarked: "One 
 of the greatest arguments brought forward in sup- 
 port of Xegro inferiority — an argument that not a few 
 Negroes are inclined to admit — is that the Negro has 
 been a slave. But I am sure that if the slave traders 
 had captured some primitive European people, and sub- 
 jected them to the same dehumanizing treatment, the 
 result would have been the same. For instance, in Rich- 
 ard Hildreth's '^Memoirs of Archie, a AVhite Slave,' a 
 prominent slave-dealer says (here Dixon consulted his 
 note book) : 'Just catch a stray Irish or German girl 
 and sell her — a thing sometimes done — and she turns a 
 'hiigger" at once, and makes just as good a slave as if 
 there were African blood in her A^eins.' " 
 
 He now closed his note book, saying at the same 
 time : '"The more I study anthropology, the stronger is 
 my belief that the difference between one people and 
 another is the result of environment." 
 
 ''But," objected the passenger, "even in the black 
 man's home, the white man is master. Look how easy 
 it is for sm.all numbers of white men to rule large num- 
 bers of Africans! Look in India! A mere handful of 
 English persons holding in subjection hundreds of mil- 
 lions of natives. Then, too, take the New World. What 
 was it before the white man came here? Imagine what 
 it would be now if the white man had not come here. 
 Look at China, the oldest country in the world! It stood 
 still until the white man got there. Japan owes its 
 progress to the white race. The white man has con- 
 quered or overrun almost every country on the globe. 
 He rules Europe, the whole of Africa, except one or two 
 inconsequential spots; the far greater part of Asia, the 
 Avhole American Continent and Australia; in fact, he is 
 master of the Vv'orld. That the world is a better place to 
 
58 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 live in is due entirely to the magic touch of the white 
 race." 
 
 "Of course," concurred Dixon, "The Caucasian is the 
 most advanced and we must look to certain of its branches 
 to take the lead in material progress. I readily admit that 
 the general awakening all over the world is due almost 
 entirely to his energy. But even this energy is conquered 
 by the climate, which has retarded the growth of many of 
 these peoples you speak about. The white man going 
 to these countries with his superior fighting implements, 
 his more developed intellect and higher civilization, has 
 a decided advantage over the natives. But he must be 
 reinforced from time to time by fresh numbers or he, 
 too, is likely to yield to the spell of the climate. I have 
 seen white men in the tropics sink so low as to be objects 
 of disgust to the lowest native. Blackburn, speaking of 
 this, says : Tn Africa the animalistic self-indulgent white 
 man approximates yet nearer the animal ; the intellectu- 
 ally active, destitute of the stimulus of conversation and 
 encounter with diverse opinion and nimble wits, becomes 
 an intellectual fungoid.' The white immigrant in the 
 tropics becomes less energetic, while the black one in 
 northern latitudes improves in energy. The Negro of 
 northern latitudes, I think, is superior in energy to the 
 average white man in the tropics." 
 
 "But Negroes have been living in northern latitudes 
 for nearly three hundred years," protested the passenger, 
 "and yet from among them has not emerged one single 
 genius, indeed, not even a famous man. Many Negroes 
 pampered by white admirers, and gross exaggerations 
 from their own race, have acquired a pseudo-fame, but 
 had they been white men no special notice would have 
 been taken of them." 
 
 "It is true," acknowledged Dixon, "that the Negro 
 has been living in northern latitudes for three hundred 
 years, but under what debased conditions? Just see 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 59 
 
 what he has done in fiftv years of freedom. It is also 
 probably true that the mediocre attainments of certain 
 Nesrroes have been enhanced bv the fact of their color, 
 but is it not also probable that these men would have 
 done better but for the handicap of color? Thus, you 
 see, one compensates for the other. Then, too, since 
 mediocrity is a human characteristic, and is to be found 
 in human beings having- the widest and fullest oppor- 
 tunities for advancement and development why marvel 
 at its appearance in a people who have been almost uni- 
 versally and uniformly oppressed and repressed below 
 the level of self-respect? 
 
 "Yet there are many Negroes who have achieved 
 prominence regardless of color. It is generally con- 
 ceded that the most remarkable man that the South has 
 produced since Lincoln is Booker T. Washington. In 
 my opinion he is the most remarkable figure the United 
 States has yet produced, and he is undoubtedly one of 
 the greatest men of all time. There are also many 
 Negro authors of unqualified merit, as Dunbar, Blyden, 
 DuBois, Kelly ]\Iiller, Braithewaite and Oscar Alischeaux. 
 DuBois belongs to the aristocracy of English letters. 
 There are few, if any, living English authors Avho excel 
 him in eloquence and elegance of diction. He is doing 
 more than an}^ other that I know of, especially through 
 his magazine, 'The Crisis,' to awaken the Negro to a 
 fuller sense of his manhood rights. Kelly ^liller is a 
 distinguished sociologist and essayist, and a born mathe- 
 matician, a fact apparent in his writings, for although he 
 speaks on a subject that must afiect him deeply, yet 
 he is always the polished analyst. Braithewaite is one 
 of the foremost critics of poetry in this country, and 
 Oscar Mischeaux, according to the 'London Standard' and 
 other critics, is in the front rank of American novelists. 
 If white America, with thousands of years of culture 
 behind it, has produced so remarkably few geniuses, not 
 half a dozen, how can you expect geniuses from a peo- 
 
60 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 pie but recently in slavery's chains? In two European 
 countries, men of Negro descent, Poushkin and Dumas, 
 have led all the others in their respective spheres." 
 
 The wind was whistling through the ventilators, 
 blowing in small flakes of snow. Dixon arose and closed 
 the transom. 
 
 "But the ability of these men is due to their white 
 blood," said the passenger when Dixon returned. "The 
 pure-blooded Negro is incapable of reasoning. He learns 
 things like a parrot." 
 
 "No, indeed, sir," protested Dixon. "When I was in 
 Europe, I met and heard of many African lads fresh 
 from the jungles, who were acquitting themselves with 
 honor in the best universities there. An Oxford gradu- 
 ate told me of one James Chala Selfy, an old classmate 
 of his, who, as a boy, was taken at random from among 
 among hundreds on a captured slave ship and carried to 
 England. This lad eclipsed his classmates, especially 
 in Latin and Hebrew. Abbe Gregoire speaks of Amo, 
 a full-blooded Negro who was an astronomer and lec- 
 tured on philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. A 
 Zulu once won the gold medal for oratory at Columbia 
 University. Kelly Miller is a distinguished mathema- 
 tician, and there is Dr. Bowen of the Gammon Theo- 
 logical Seminary. In 1914 a full-blooded Negro led all 
 his classmates at Harvard. Psychology really is inde- 
 pendent of color. Negroes like the Haytian novelist, 
 Fernan Hilbert, have been able to write novels depicting 
 the sensations and emotions of the whites in a way to 
 satisfy the whites themselves. Shakespeare, when he 
 created Othello with such stateliness of character, saw 
 that color had no effect on the soul. One of the ablest 
 of Othellos was Ira Aldridge, the African Roscius ; Bilal, 
 a full-blooded Negro, was the first to utter the Azan, or 
 Call to Prayer of the Mohammedans, ranking next to 
 Mahommed, who accorded him precedence in Heaven; 
 Kafur, a full-blooded Negro, was also one of the most 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 61 
 
 famous of the Mahommedan rulers of Egypt; Hannibal, 
 great-grandfather of Poushkin, the father of Russian lit- 
 erature, was a general in the Russian army. Sir Samuel 
 Lewis and Sir J. Thomas of Sierra Leone are full-blooded 
 Negroes, and I could name you many more. If the full- 
 blooded Negro has not accomplished a great deal, it is 
 simply because he has not had an opportunity. There 
 is absolutely nothing that a white man can accomplish 
 that a full-blooded Negro cannot. Sir Harry Johnston, 
 the greatest authority on the Negro, says, in 'The New 
 Statesman' : 'There is literally nothing in the way of 
 education that the Negro cannot master and master 
 rapidly.' " 
 
 The passenger, who appeared to be thinking deeply, 
 made no comment. After a few moments of silence, 
 Dixon took up his book and again began to read. After 
 reading a few minutes, he remarked : ''Here are some 
 interesting facts from Finot relative to the progress of 
 the Negro. He says : 'In 1899 there were eight per one 
 thousand destitute among the Negroes. The whites show 
 _as many, but these last had sixty-four rich for one rich 
 Negro'. Of one hundred proprietors seventy-five whites 
 to twenty-five blacks. But proportionately the latter 
 should not have exceeded twelve or thirteen. Of one 
 hundred Negro houses, eighty-seven were free from 
 mortgage, while there were seventy whites.' " 
 
 Dixon added: "The census of 1910 shows one pau- 
 per for every 1,053 whites, against one in 1,565 for the 
 Negro. 
 
 "The fact of this advance from comparatively nothing 
 ought to silence this talk of color superiority, an advance 
 below par, it is true, when one considers the enormous 
 wealth of the country, or the progress of the European 
 immigrant, but really miraculous under the double handi- 
 cap under which he has had to struggle. 
 
 "The Indian, in spite of the greater partiality shown 
 him, cannot stand the rigors of civilization, The Indian 
 
62 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 is not increasing; the Negro is. If survival of the fit- 
 test is the test of virility, the Negro ranks v^ith the best. 
 Indeed, that fortitude that brought him through tv^o hun- 
 dred and fifty years of a cruelty unparalleled in the 
 pages of medieval or modern history; that tenacity v^hich 
 makes him hold on when the Indian quits ; that inde- 
 pendent spirit v^hich keeps him in lesser numbers from 
 the poorhouse than the Caucasian, with his thousand 
 superior chances ; that buoyancy of soul that makes him 
 to smile even in the midst of persecution, would justify 
 my saying he is the fittest of the fit." 
 
 The bell began to ring just as Dixon was concluding, 
 and asking to be excused, he went to answer the call. 
 Coming back to the smoker, he drevv^ a glass of water 
 and took it inside. When he returned, the passenger 
 remarked with some hesitancy : "The Negro is uncouth. 
 He has a lot to learn. He lacks the finer feelings of the 
 white man. Listen to a gathering of Negroes anywhere, 
 like so many flocks of jays, or, rather, crows — jim-crows. 
 Listen to their loud guffaws on the street-cars of North- 
 ern cities. You never see white persons acting like that 
 anywhere." 
 
 This seemed to be the topic Dixon was awaiting 
 when he made the resolve to tell his opponent a few 
 plain truths. Now, he remembered a remark made 
 by the latter the first afternoon in the smoker. All "nig- 
 gers," he said, were alike. At that particular time it 
 was out of Dixon's province to say anything, even had 
 he so wished, but now was his chance and he determined 
 to take the opportunity to tell the other what he con- 
 sidered a few plain truths, so he remarked, composedly: 
 
 "There is a great deal of truth in what you say about 
 the Negro, sir, but it does not apply to him alone. The 
 major portion of every people are unpolished ; but in 
 setting his standard, the white picks out the cream of 
 his own and endows the remainder with all the good 
 qualities of this portion. Inversely, ' he picks out the 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 63 
 
 worst of the Negro and measures the good by the con- 
 duct of the bad, insomuch that at the very mention of 
 his name the Negro has already been weighed in the 
 balance and found wanting. One often hears someone in 
 speaking of a good Negro say, 'He is colored, but ' " 
 
 ''But," protested the passenger, "Negroes are also 
 inclined to look down upon their own people. Indeed, 
 some exhibit the highest contempt for their own kind." 
 
 "I readily admit that," agreed Dixon. "Indeed, a 
 good many are harsher to their own people than are many 
 of the whites. A good many, as you say, have the 
 greatest contempt for their own and many would sooner 
 patronize a business conducted by a white person than 
 by one of themselves, even if the business of the white 
 be inferior. On the whole, I generally meet a higher 
 grade of courtesy among the whites than among my own 
 people, but only when I am content to occupy a menial 
 position. The average Negro does need a greater respect 
 for his own people. But he is not singular in this, for 
 I have met many Jews and a few Irish who look down 
 on their own people. One of the greatest anti-Semites 
 that I have ever met proved later to be a Jew himself. 
 Depreciate any name and certain of its possessors will 
 always try to escape it. But as I was going to say, the 
 majority of the Caucasians are of the mediocre class, 
 even here in America. This class, accomplishing noth- 
 ing beyond the powers of a similar class of Negroes, 
 most arrogantly plumes itself upon the accomplishment 
 of the higher class of whites, its arrogance and easy 
 assumption of superiority increasing in proportion to 
 its inability. But I do not blame these half-educated 
 whites very much. They merely reflect in a coarse way 
 the actions and sentiments of a very large number of 
 the educated whites. I can't see any difference between 
 the spirit of the scavenger v\^ho will object to working 
 with a Negro, and that of a Princeton or Vassar student 
 who will object to one in the class-room. 
 
64 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 "You also justly remarked that certain Negroes were 
 loud and uncouth. This happens also to be the same 
 opinion many Europeans hold of some the American 
 visitors to Europe. In the tourist season you can see 
 parties of American tourists, Baedekers in hand, in the 
 Louvre, the Schonbrunn or on the Unter den Linden all 
 chattering at the top of their high, piercing voices with 
 their *Hey, siss, lookee yere,' or some such exclamation. 
 They will even enter cathedrals where persons are at 
 worship, still clattering loudly. And their loud laughter 
 on tramways or omnibuses is just as unpleasant to the 
 Europeans, from what I have heard them say, as is that 
 of certain Negroes to the more cultured classes here in 
 America irrespective of color." 
 
 Dixon could see from the flush on the other's face 
 that he was not relishing the turn the conversation had 
 taken, yet he felt it his duty to acquaint this legislator 
 with the other side of the story. He took advantage of 
 the silence to continue : "The general attitude of white 
 America towards the Negro — I except those who render 
 him justice — is that of a man who is doing his best to 
 prevent his theories from being proved wrong. The doc- 
 trine of Negro inferiority has been preached for a long 
 time. Now that his progress has proved it false, every- 
 thing, apparently, is being done to prevent the truth 
 from coming out. This, at any rate, seems to be the 
 case: for the usual way is to give a man a fair trial, 
 then, if he fails, accuse him of inferiority, but to accuse 
 him in advance is, well — what Bernard Shaw summarizes 
 as 'The sweet reasonableness of the Yankee.' " 
 
 As the passenger was not replying, Dixon decided 
 to end the conversation by introducing another subject. 
 After a short pause, he inquired : "You have been West 
 before, haven't you, sir?" But the passenger evidently 
 had no such intention, for after an absent-minded "Yes," 
 he resumed : "You spoke a little while back of the arro- 
 gance of the lower class white man. I can think of no 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 65 
 
 more arrogant being than the Negro in authority. I 
 have met Negro porters and Negro elevator men who 
 acted as if they were lords of all creation.'' 
 
 "I know many such myself," confirmed Dixon, 
 warmly. ''^lany Negroes do not care to work under 
 bosses of their own people on account of the severity 
 and exactions of many of them. But this trait is not 
 peculiar to Negroes. White 'straw bosses/ in the rail- 
 road service, especially, are just as ignorant and imperi- 
 ous. Persons like these badly need lessons in what to 
 me represents the only real superiority — courteous con- 
 duct." 
 
 Here Dixon remembered the other's conduct on the 
 first afternoon and determined to rebuke it. He con- 
 tinued in even, impersonal tones : ''My idea of a superior 
 man is one who has, first of all, a nice consideration for 
 the feelings of others. Such a one never, vulgarly or 
 otherwise, asserts his color or his social position. On 
 the contrary, however much he might think himself supe- 
 rior to others, he is very careful not to mention it. It 
 is no uncommon thing to hear persons expressing their 
 conception of their own importance by speaking con- 
 temptuously of others in such terms as 'Dagos/ 'Shee- 
 nies,' 'Bohunks,' 'Niggers,' 'coons,' 'Crackers/ 'poor white 
 trash.' The mere fact of a man's proclaiming his superi- 
 ority is in itself an indication that he feels it cannot 
 speak for itself." 
 
 Dixon could easily see from the flush on the other's 
 face that he had taken his remarks personally, but, feel- 
 ing that his opponent really needed the lesson, he con- 
 tinued in a tone impressive in spite of its politeness : "It 
 strikes me that the one great thing white America has 
 yet to decide — again I except those who practice justice 
 to the Negro — is this : Is the Negro a man, or is he, as 
 DuBois says, 'a tertium quid, a creature somewhere 
 between man and cattle'? He is legislated against and 
 contemned, and everything that will tend to destroy his 
 
66 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 self-respect is done. And the irony of it all is that the 
 Negro is expected to smile and be pleasant always. But 
 he is going to stop smiling some of these days and settle 
 down to serious thought. Already some of these smiling 
 ones are like Hugo's Laughing Man, whose face of con- 
 stant laughter hid a heart often full of bitterness." 
 
 Although Dixon could see that the other was getting 
 more and more irritated, he continued : "Very often on 
 these cars and in hotels, I have heard white men say 
 scurrilous things of the Negro, altogether disregarding 
 my presence. Especially do they delight in speaking, 
 even boasting to m^e, of their amours with Negro women. 
 And usually these are the ones who are most sensitive 
 about the women of their own people. Chicken steal- 
 ing, too, according to the jokesmiths, seems to be the 
 principle diversion of a Negro. Very many white per- 
 sons cannot imagine a Negro, however decent, as being 
 anything else but a minstrel, and jokes like these are 
 supposed to represent the depth of Negro character. 
 These and other beliefs cause us to reflect not a little on 
 this matter of superiority, for, since truth is the most 
 superior thing in all the world, it is evident that we are 
 superior to others only in proportion as we exceed them 
 in living up to the truth." 
 
 The passenger got up excitedly. This lecturing, he 
 thought, this presumption on the part of the Negro, was 
 a little more than he could stand. He started for the 
 doorway, but when half way changed his mind. No, it 
 would never do for him, a white man, to run away and 
 leave the Negro master of the field. He began pacing 
 the room, reflecting in the meanwhile, his body swaying 
 with the motion of the train. Why should he be angry? 
 First, it was he v/ho had invited the discussion, then the 
 other, even though frank, had been respectful. Indeed, he 
 was struck by the courteous bearing of the man. Sec- 
 ond, this man was telling the truth. What was his rea- 
 son for being angry at hearing the truth told? In the 
 
FROM SUPERMAX TO MAX 
 
 67 
 
 analysis of this question many points between right and 
 policy in the treatment of the Xegro dawned upon him 
 for the first time. The latter course he had begun to 
 see was wrong. In this thoughtful vein, he reseated 
 himself, lit another cigarette and relapsed into thought. 
 After a few minutes, apparently as the result of his 
 reflections, he demanded, as he flicked the ashes from 
 his cigarette with his little finger, ''Am I to infer, then, 
 that prejudice against the Xegro is a distinctively Ameri- 
 can trait?" 
 
 ''Xo,'"' responded Dixon, who during the interval had 
 been studying the play of emotions on the countenance 
 of the other. ''Color prejudice, or rather color egotism, 
 is not a distinctively American trait, as it exists to a con- 
 siderable extent in the Dominion of South Africa, being 
 especially keen in the old Boer Republics; in Canada, 
 especially the northwestern portion ; and to a mild extent 
 in the West Indies — principally by the lighter-colored 
 persons against the darker. Color egotism is, however, 
 peculiarly American in this : there has never been one 
 recorded case of lynching, not even in the Transvaal or 
 Orange River Colony, where the dislike for the X^'egro 
 is as great or greater than in the South ; there are no 
 segregation laws except in the places first mentioned; 
 and in all British Colonies, again excepting the same two, 
 all men are really equal before the law. In all of these 
 countries intellect, in no matter whom, is respected, and 
 the intellectual Xegro suiters little discrimination. It 
 must be remembered, too, that the X^egro in the United 
 States is far ahead of the South African X^egro. The 
 percentage of illiteracy in Xatal among Xegroes is about 
 90 per cent. The Xegro in the United States, especially 
 in the X'orth, is, on the whole, ahead of the X'egro every- 
 where else. In all of the countries I haA'e mentioned, 
 color prejudice is directed mostly against the ignorant 
 Xegro — a procedure none the less wrong. In the United 
 States, on the other hand, very littlg discrimination is 
 
68 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 made between good and bad, lettered and unlettered, 
 between the esthete of the DuBois and Tanner class and 
 the worthless Negro. Indeed, one might say the unlet- 
 tered Negro, the 'Uncle Tom' kind, is more popular, he 
 being most often idealized in white novels. From this, 
 one might rightly argue that in the United States we 
 have color jealousy, and not color prejudice; not con- 
 tempt, but fear. Abroad I suffered no color dis- 
 crimination — indeed, I often found it an asset — while in 
 the United States I have it everywhere thrust at me that 
 I am not of the fold. Even in remote Northern villages 
 like Merrill, Wis., I have been hooted at or refused food. 
 As I travel over the country my greatest difficulty is to 
 have food served me. There are towns in the North 
 where the most self-respecting Negro would not be per- 
 mitted to reside. Yet we are American citizens. Our 
 past is in the warp and woof of the republic. The Spar- 
 tan was not more unflinchingly loyal to his country than 
 we are ; yet, in spite of it all, it is no exaggeration to say 
 that even the but-yesterday-arrived descendants of those 
 whom our forefathers fought to make this Republic pos- 
 sible, newly-arrived as they are, have virtually far more 
 rights than we because of their more popular color. We 
 antedated the Pilgrim Fathers by one year, and while 
 their descendants constitute the social nobility of Amer- 
 ica, we are still in the discard. Indeed, although the 
 Negro, class for class, thinks in pretty much the same 
 channels and has pretty much the same habits as the 
 whites, not to speak of his blood relationship, the 
 tendency is to speak of all Negroes as if they had but 
 recently arrived from Africa. I fear Baron d'Estournelles 
 de Constant of the French Senate was right when he said 
 in his recent book on the United States, 'The Negro is a 
 freedman, not a citizen. 
 
 "But the Negroes in these South American countries 
 and in the West Indies belong to a higher type of Negro," 
 retorted the passenger. "The most peaceful Negroea 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAX 
 
 69 
 
 were taken to those countries, while the most cannibal- 
 istic and the most warlike came to our shores." 
 
 '"That statement, if true, I think would have no bear- 
 ing on the case," said Dixon. ''The Negro, in every 
 part of the world, as I have noticed, is just what his 
 treatment makes of him. In Brazil and the AVest Indies, 
 I found the average Negro keenly conscious of his dig- 
 nity as a man and a citizen. In the United States, where 
 numbers are against him, and where he has to slink, as 
 it were, through life, afraid to go into this or that place, 
 w^ondering w^hether colored persons are served there, he 
 is naturally timid. Yes, I candidly believe the American 
 entertains more prejudice for the Negro than does any 
 other nationality. Recently the head of one of the most 
 famous educational institutions in the world was ejected 
 from a sleeping-car solely on account of color. A simi- 
 lar incident would have happened in no other part of the 
 world. Sir Charles Bruce, G.C.M.G., in his paper before 
 the Races Congress, said that the Negro in the United 
 States had encountered at every step of his progress 
 'the most formidable opposition that the forces of avarice, 
 jealousy, hate, and fear have been able to command.' 
 Whilst I have met white persons in this country who, 
 despite their environment, are in every way as broad- 
 minded as white persons I have met in Europe or any- 
 w^here else, I have noticed North, South, East and AVest, 
 but especially in the South, so general an exhibition of 
 this prejudice, ofttimes from persons one would think 
 above such petty conduct, that I have come to the un- 
 willing conclusion that far more often than not, a white 
 skin in America is the livery of servitude to the most 
 stupid and exacting of all tyrants — Czar Prejudice. 
 There are servitors of varying degrees from the fanatic- 
 ally devoted, as the lyncher, to the morally timid, those 
 who will not notice Negro acquaintances in public places 
 for fear of wdiat others will think of them." 
 
 The passenger did not reply. 
 
70 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Dixon continued : ''I doubt if one Caucasian in a 
 million of those who do not like Negroes could give him- 
 self one honest reason for his attitude. Lord Brougham 
 expresses their reason when he says : 'I never knew 
 anyone to hate me but those whom I had served and him 
 who had done me some great injustice/ Peoples from 
 all over the world come to America in search of greater 
 individual liberty and find it, too ; yet, if the Negro, an 
 original citizen of the Republic, ever wishes to know 
 how it feels to be a real man, he will have to go to the 
 country whence these peoples came. And what makes it 
 harder to bear is that one hears so many absolute state- 
 ments about liberty, democracy and unlimited oppor- 
 tunity for all. When I returned to the United States 
 after being abroad for six years, I landed at a Southern 
 port. There, debarred from the parks, libraries and 
 public amusements, I felt mentally, in this land of free- 
 dom, how the murderer of King Humbert must have 
 felt in his cell, the size of which did not permit him 
 either to stand upright or to lie at full length." 
 
 "But," protested the passenger, "the South treats the 
 Negro far better than the North. In the South nearly 
 all the manual labor is given to the Negro. We have a 
 large number of Negro mechanics in the South, while 
 they are comparatively rare in the North. Negroes find 
 ready employment in Southern factories, while they 
 rarely, if ever, get into a Northern one. I know of one 
 Southern factory that employs several hundred Negroes. 
 Then the bulk of our unskilled labor is given to them. 
 Janitors, porters, waiters and domestics, are all Negroes. 
 In the North they are white men, mostly foreigners. We 
 are also more sympathetic to the Negro. We know his 
 failings and take them into account in judging him ; in 
 the North, he is held to the same standard of morality 
 as the white man. The Negro knows he can always find 
 a friend in us. Many have I helped, many have I saved 
 from prison by my influence. The South does treat the 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 71 
 
 Negro better than the North. The North gives him lots 
 of sentiment, but refuses him a chance to earn a living." 
 
 "I fear I cannot altogether agree with you, sir," re- 
 plied Dixon. "While it is true that the Southerner is 
 more sympathetic to the Negro than the Northerner, 
 yet the former, as a rule, is only so to those Negroes 
 vv^ho will fawn upon him. It is also true that Negroes 
 find readier employment in the South, but this is due 
 rather to necessity and color pride than to altruism. Ray 
 Standard Baker tells of one instance where the chief 
 argument used against the rapacity of the mob Avas that 
 it was cotton-picking time and Negro labor was being 
 frightened away. This better opportunity for employ- 
 ment is overbalanced by the liberty, largely theoretic 
 though it is, that the Negro has in the North. The 
 Northern policy tends to improve his self-respect, to 
 awaken him to his place in the universe. This, I hold, 
 is more valuable than money to the country as well as 
 to the Negro. In the South, on the other hand, every- 
 thing is done to destroy his self-respect — to crush his 
 soul. On a recent trip I was forced to spend two weeks 
 in Louisiana and Alabama, and the treatment I received 
 from the customs that prevail there made me feel as if 
 I had stepped back into the Dark Ages. It was a great 
 relief to return North." 
 
 The passenger made no comment. Dixon getting 
 bolder and bolder, his earnestness slightly tinged with 
 a sarcasm that leaked out through even his desire to be 
 polite, continued: "Juvenal, Voltaire, Dean Swift nor 
 any of the great masters of satire never had so pregnant 
 and suggestive a theme as that ofifered by the question 
 of a pigmented or unpigmented skin with or without 
 silky hair, and the supposed significance of these appear- 
 ances to the intellect; in short, whether the physical 
 attributes of a person are not a more reliable index to 
 his worth and character than his psychic qualities. This 
 doctrine — this profoundest ignorance of which the human 
 
72 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 mind is capable — thrives in many halls of the learned. 
 In this tragic farce there are a thousand and one 
 idiosyncracies. For instance: a Negro chauffeur or jani- 
 tor and his family will be permitted to live in the most 
 exclusive neighborhood, but if a Negro artist or profes- 
 sional man, though a paragon in character, were to do so, 
 there would be a storm of protest, and he would be 
 likely to have his house set on fire at night while he and 
 the family were asleep, as was the case with a Negro 
 artist in Oak Park, 111., recently; a white man may live 
 in undisturbed concubinage with a Negress, but let him 
 attempt to live with her in a moral manner, and the law 
 will at once send him to prison, as in cultured California 
 and Indiana ; a lady whose baby is being suckled by a 
 Negro nurse and who is being attended by a Negro por- 
 ter, will go into hysterics because another Negro is a 
 passenger in the same car; a pugilist marries a woman 
 in his own class, and a very large number of the better 
 class of citizens lose their heads, jim-crow bills flood the 
 legislatures, many of them becoming laws ; a proprietor 
 will refuse me a sandwich in the business part of his 
 lunch-room lest his serving me there should make me the 
 social equal of his guests and thus give me and every 
 other Negro a right to call upon him and every other 
 white person in their homes ; a certain law will permit 
 the m.ost unclean Indian or Mexican to ride in a car from 
 which the most aesthetic, well-dressed Negro would be 
 barred, or indeed, even a white person, should he declare 
 he had Negro blood. But the situation becomes tragic 
 when it results in so gross an injustice as this: a Negro 
 kills his wife and her white lover taken flagrante delicto. 
 The jury acquits the husband for killing his wife, but 
 sentences him to death for killing the lover. Voltaire 
 spoke wisely when he said: 'Prejudice is the reason of 
 fools.' No doubt many of these persons are sincere, but 
 what has education done for such? Wherein do they 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 73 
 
 differ in conduct from those unsophisticated Africans 
 who, as we saw, shun a white skin ?' " 
 
 Dixon, in spite of his assurance of being passionless, 
 had warmed up to his subject. He had spoken rather 
 more heatedly than he had intended. Now, thoroughly 
 ashamed of himself, he took up his book again. 
 
 The passenger appeared to be buried in thought. 
 After a few moments he inquired with ill-concealed sar- 
 casm : "Am I to infer, then, that you are in favor of 
 social equality?" 
 
 "No, sir," responded Dixon, with cheery decisiveness. 
 
 "But," queried the other, puzzled but molHfied, "how is 
 it possible to have equal rights without social equality?" 
 
 "Hasn't the white man equal rights, and yet not social 
 equality ?" 
 
 "You are always going off at a tangent," complained 
 the other. "You must have understood me. I mean, am 
 I to infer that you are in favor of social equality be- 
 tween black and white?" 
 
 "No, sir, I am not, for, apart from the fact that social 
 equality will never exist, not even among the members 
 of similar people, there are a good many whites also 
 Negroes, with whom I would dislike to associate." 
 
 "Well, you are too critical, anyway ; what I mean is 
 this : do you infer that Negroes should meet white per- 
 sons in a social wa}^ — call upon them — that is, pay them 
 social visits in the homes?" 
 
 Dixon responded : "If such persons are friendly 
 enough for that, why, certainly. I can see no valid rea- 
 son why kindred souls, regardless of color, cannot meet 
 in this country for an interchange of thought when they 
 meet in Europe among the same white race. Each of 
 the peoples in question can learn something ennobling 
 from the other, and ennobling influences have no color. 
 When the Caucasian reads Terence, Dumas, Poushkin, 
 
74 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 DuBois and Ellis, and enjoys the music of Coleridge- 
 Taylor, or admires Tanner's paintings, he associates with 
 what for a better name we will call Negro thought. 
 Does he feel a lowering of social status by so doing?" 
 
 "But from the vast mass of Negroes the Caucasian 
 has absolutely nothing to gain," protested the passenger, 
 ''and if we let down the bars to a certain class, we'll have 
 to let them down to all." 
 
 ''When you," returned Dixon, with some show of 
 spirit, "merely allow a man to enjoy his God-given rights, 
 does it mean that you have to invite him to your home 
 against your will? For instance, no self-respecting white 
 man would think of visiting you socially without an 
 invitation. I, a Negro, would never think of intruding 
 in another Negro's home." 
 
 A short pause, then Dixon continued, still more ear- 
 nestly : "But there's another and more important aspect 
 of this question of so-called social equality — the human 
 side. The great-hearted man refuses to imprison his 
 soul behind bars of creed, color or caste. Despite social 
 status or color, he enjoys meeting kindred souls. For 
 him grandeur or dignity exists only in simplicity, sin- 
 cerity and sympathy. As it is in the province of even a 
 leper convict to be exclusive, there is nothing remark- 
 able about the exclusive man." 
 
 "But the Negro doesn't want to mix with the whites. 
 He prefers to maintain his separate institutions, to seg- 
 regate himself, as in churches," retorted the other. 
 
 "That brings us back to our conversation about the 
 universality of human nature. You will doubtless re- 
 member that the Tories did not want to be freed from 
 the tyranny of King George. There are many human 
 beings who will stomach anything at all if they happen 
 to be even half-way comfortable. I speak especially of 
 my people. One hears not infrequently : 'Well, you 
 know this is a white man's country,' or, 'AVell, you 
 must remember you are colored.' Such still have the. 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 75 
 
 spirit of slavery. As for me, I was born in this country, 
 it is just as much mine as any other American. And 
 with regard to segregation, a great many Negroes do 
 act as you say, but under the present circumstances they 
 can hardly be blamed. Apart from this somewhat jus- 
 tifiable spirit, you will find a great many Negroes just 
 as illiberal in this respect as the average white, perhaps 
 more so. I would wager that those Negroes who want 
 segregation are the direct descendants of that deputation 
 of slaves who waited on Lincoln and entreated him not 
 to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But the fact 
 that some Negroes want segregation is no excuse for its 
 existence." 
 
 The passenger made no response, so Dixon contin- 
 ued : ''And speaking of segregation, let spread-eagle 
 orators rave as they may, we have in this Republic a 
 caste system immeasurably more vicious than that of 
 Europe, and, if we consider our superior educational 
 advantages, worse than that of India. In Europe the 
 lower classes are held in contempt by the upper, yet, 
 except as in Russia, there are no segregation laws. I 
 will say in passing, but not in defense of Russia, that 
 the Jews, as a rule, wish to be exclusive. The European 
 peasant, if he has the push, may rise to the highest of 
 positions — Lloyd George, as an example. Imagine even 
 the most cultured and capable Negro in the United 
 States Cabinet! Here in the United States this associa- 
 tion of black and white is held repulsive, but not so in 
 Europe, where the cultured non-white has entree to the 
 best society. The French, undoubtedly the most aes- 
 thetic of all peoples, welcome the Negro. Finot, dilat- 
 ing on the beauty of some of our quadroons and octo- 
 roons, says, (here Dixon found the place) : 'In France 
 and in Europe all these women would be surrounded 
 with the praises of men, whereas in the Southern States 
 they are penned up like lepers in special schools, special 
 railway carriages and special hotels.'' But " 
 
76 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Just then that passenger with the nasal, drawling 
 voice, whom the reader will remember had commented 
 on the legislator to Dixon the first day, entered the 
 room. After greeting the occupants, he leaned against 
 the edge of the washstand and, with that freedom usu- 
 ally found on the trains, began to listen to the conver- 
 sation. 
 
 Dixon arose and courteously offered him the chair. 
 "No, thank you," he refused, "I will sit on the seat 
 here." Then, after a short pause, he asked, "Am I 
 intruding?" at the same time winking at Dixon and 
 glancing slyly at the legislator as if to say, 'T see he is 
 at it again." 
 
 "Not at all," protested passenger No. 1, who did not 
 see the by-play. Then turning to Dixon, the newcomer 
 urged, "Go on. Don't let me interrupt you." 
 
 Dixon hesitated, but as passenger No. 1 was looking 
 expectantly at him, he resumed: "But do not infer 
 from my remarks that the average Negro is hankering 
 after social intermingling either actively or passively, 
 not even with other Negroes, where the desire for it is 
 not mutual. The thinking Negro places far more value 
 on his social integrity than his white brother is inclined 
 to think. 
 
 "I know many Negro families possessing all the sub- 
 tle refinement to be found in the best white families, 
 and many Negroes possessing as high ideals as are to be 
 found in any white man I have met. But the average 
 white man knows as much of this home life of the better 
 class of Negroes as he knows of the fourth dimension. 
 A good many meet only uneducated Negro porters, and 
 that is all, while a good many others associate with the 
 lower class of Negro women and form their opinion of 
 all Negro women from that type. This lack of knowl- 
 edge is evident even in the writings of all but a few of 
 those who write sympathetically on the color question. 
 There are also those white persons who resolutely shut 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 77 
 
 their eyes and ears to any progress of the Negro. These 
 are like those very devout persons Avho, although believ- 
 ing themselves firm in their religion, steadfastly refuse 
 to look into a doctrine in any way contrary to their own. 
 But ignore truth as we will, like a mighty glacier it 
 creeps on, cold to claims of color, creed or clan, grind- 
 ing to dust the mountains of wrong. In whatever field 
 the Negro has entered into competition with the white 
 man — in the university, in the professions, in the shop, 
 or on the farm — he has held his owm in spite of all the 
 handicaps peculiar to his color. If this is not a superior- 
 ity of the highest order the whole world needs to revise 
 its idea of that term. The great m.ajority of the Negroes 
 of my acquaintance do not wish to merge the identity of 
 their group into that of the white man. Nor do they 
 ask for social intermingling. They merely Avant to live 
 like the normal citizen of any country." 
 
 "That's what I say, too," joined in passenger No. 2, 
 heartily. ''I stand for fair treatment to all. Isly expe- 
 rience is that if you treat a man rightly he Avill act 
 rightly. While on the other hand, if we treat him badly, 
 even if he be good, you will make a bad man of him. 
 The conduct of others toward us is usually the mirror 
 of our own conduct toward them." 
 
 Passenger No. 1 spoke: ''But social intermingling," 
 he protested, excitedly, hardly noticing No. 2, "would 
 lead to intermarriage. The Anglo-Saxon will never 
 stand for the mongrelizing of his race. It is to the best 
 interest of both races that they should not mix. The 
 marriage of the black man and the white woman is an 
 atrocity." Then turning to No. 2, as by way of enlist- 
 ing his sympathy, he added, "Our women must be pro- 
 tected. Whatever may be said of the white race no one 
 can say we have ever failed to protect our women." 
 
 Dixon wondered if the passenger had ever read of 
 the atrocities of the Germans in Belgium, 
 
 ^That's where we agree," chimed in passenger No. 
 
78 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 2. "While I believe in fair play for the Negro, I do not 
 believe in race amalgamation. The Negro represents a 
 less developed race and the Caucasian is bound to lose 
 by the blend. It took many centuries for the white 
 man to reach his present status, and until the Negro 
 reaches that status amalgamation will be detrimental to 
 the Caucasian. We must reckon on the effects of hered- 
 ity. I agree with you, too, about the marriage of the 
 Negro to the white woman, as except in rare instances 
 he cannot provide for her as a white man could, and she 
 must suffer. Yet, at the same time, one should not be 
 unjust to a man simply because he would not have him 
 for a son-in-law.." 
 
 Dixon had been expecting this argument and had 
 prepared himself to meet it. Now he began : "There is 
 a tendency among persons, otherwise calm, to get excited 
 in the discussion of this phase of the color question ; but 
 I cannot see why the matter cannot be looked at in a 
 calm and scientific light. Getting excited never helps." 
 Then, in calm, almost judicial tones, he continued: 
 "Now, gentlemen, I find that this question of marriage 
 between the so-called Negro and the so-called Caucasian, 
 resolves itself into seven principal points, one against, 
 four why the question should be permitted to take care 
 of itself, and two in favor of the proposition. As I de- 
 sire truth I have honestly sought for other adverse points, 
 but I have been unsuccessful. The point against it is 
 that such marriages are contrary to the law in some 
 states, and, well — let us add, opposed by public opinion 
 in all the states." 
 
 Passenger No. 2 exclaimed: "Public opinion! Now 
 you have said it. That is a sufficient reason why we 
 should not have intermarriage. The voice of the people 
 is the voice of God." 
 
 "Quite true, sir/' affirmed Dixon, softly, "but only 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 79 
 
 when the voice of the people is instructed ; when like the 
 voice of God it expresses truth." 
 
 Passenger No. 2 did not respond. 
 
 Dixon continued: "Now let us examine the other 
 reasons. First, like the " 
 
 Just then Dixon was interrupted by the entrance of 
 another passenger, the travelling companion of passenger 
 No. 2. Both had been riding in the observation car, but 
 the newcomer had stopped to talk with the porter, and 
 No. 2 had preceded him. 
 
 The newcomer approached the group. Dixon arose 
 and offered him the chair, but he, too, refused the prof- 
 fered seat, and after leaning for a few seconds against 
 the dental lavatory, sat down on the couch between the 
 two other passengers. 
 
 These two looked at Dixon as though expecting him 
 to continue, but as he did not. No. 2 asked him what 
 were his reasons in favor of intermarriage, at the same 
 time explaining the circumstances to passenger No. 3. 
 Upon the latter's allowing his interest in the matter, 
 Dixon continued : 
 
 "As I was saying, first, like the Negro haters, we'll 
 go to the Bible. Is such a marriage wrong theologic- 
 ally? No, for God struck Miriam with leprosy for object- 
 ing to Moses' Ethiopian wife, and Joseph married an 
 Egyptian woman. Second, is it harmful biologically? 
 No, for it is possible to produce healthy offspring by a 
 union of the highest type of the most cultured variety 
 and the lowest type of the most benighted. Some of the 
 finest types, mentally and physically, have been produced 
 by crossing dissimilar varieties of mankind, as Coleridge- 
 Taylor, one of England's greatest musicians ; Frederick 
 Douglass, Booker T. Washington, General Dumas and 
 others. 
 
 "Third is it wrong ethically? Quite to the contrary, 
 for our laws forbid immorality. Here is where the laws 
 themselves conflict. One of the least defensible of 
 
80 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 laws," says Viscount Bryce in his "American Common- 
 wealth." 
 
 "Fourth, the right to select one's mate is the most 
 sacred of individual rights, and when the state inter- 
 feres in this, except in the case of the physically unfit, it 
 but adds humor to the witticism, 'This is a free coun- 
 try/ " 
 
 The rattle of a freight train bound in the opposite 
 direction made it impossible for Dixon to continue. 
 When it had gone by, the three passengers looked at 
 him to continue, so he resumed : "The two reasons 
 in favor of the so-called intermarriage are : First, it is 
 beneficial sociologically. As the color of the mulatto is 
 generally more pleasing to the whites and also to the 
 full-blooded Negro, the problem is lessened. Mr. Roose- 
 velt, in his article on Brazil, says that a prominent Bra- 
 zilian pointed out to him that the danger of color fric- 
 tion in Brazil had been decreased by that country's pol- 
 icy of fusion, whereas in the United States color dis- 
 agreements are more likely to increase. 
 
 "Second, and most important of all : the honor and 
 dignity of the Republic demands a cessation of the dis- 
 honorable relations that have existed for nearly three 
 hundred years between white men and Negro women." 
 
 "Amalgamation leads to degeneracy," exclaimed pass- 
 enger No. 1, with determination. "The mulatto is the 
 inferior of both races, because he inherits the bad quali- 
 ties of both." 
 
 "No," dissented No. 2, bending over to catch the eye 
 of No. 1, "that's impossible. How could it be possible 
 for the mulatto to inherit the bad qualities of both races. 
 He is inferior only in logevity. I have seen aged white 
 men and aged Negroes, but never an aged mulatto. Will 
 you please explain why the mulatto should inherit the 
 bad qualities of both races?" 
 
 And the discussion went on for some little time be- 
 tween the two men, while Dixon and passenger No. 3 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 81 
 
 listened interestedly. "Here's where the doctors dis- 
 agree," laughed Dixon to himself. 
 
 Dixon took advantage of a short lull to refer them to 
 the following quotation from V on Luschan : ''We are 
 absolutely ignorant as regards the moral and intellectual 
 qualities of the half castes." He also added, ''Mr. Roose- 
 velt says, 'There is nothing of the mongrel about the 
 aspect of the Brazilian.' And would you care to hear 
 what Finot has to say on the subject?" 
 
 Both assented. 
 
 Dixon had placed the book on the long seat, and pass- 
 enger No. 3, in sitting down, had taken it up and was 
 now looking at it. Dixon borrowed it from him, and, 
 having found the place, began: "Cross-breeding among 
 the most differentiated races, far from being sterile, adds 
 to their fecundity. According to Le Valliant, a Hotten- 
 tot woman, who generally gives birth to three or four 
 children, will have as many as ten or twelve when united 
 to a white man or Negro. The crossing of Negroes with 
 white women or white men with Negro women produces 
 similar results. Cross-breeding has in no sense the sorry 
 privileges of physical degeneracy nor that of bringing 
 peoples to final ruin. Where did Tylor find the most 
 beautiful women in the world? At Tristan d'Acuna 
 (a little island between the Cape and South America), 
 among the descendants of whites and Negroes. . 
 'Among the young girls were some with such entirely 
 beautiful heads that I never remember having seen any- 
 thing so splendid. . . . And yet I am familiar with all 
 the strands of the earth.' 
 
 "Another important point to be noted is that our 
 physiques conform to climatic environment, and the con- 
 stitution of the Negro is similar to that of the native 
 whites, with the Negro possessing a better circulatory 
 system and sounder tissue." 
 
 "But the Negro," objected No. 2, "is far more subject 
 to tuberculosis of the lungs than the Caucasian." 
 
82 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 "And the Indian, the aborigine, is still more so than 
 the Negro," replied Dixon. "The Bureau of American 
 Ethnology gives for the year 1907-08, 7.9 per thousand 
 deaths among the Indian from this disease, while the 
 Negro had 4 and the Caucasian 1.7. This disease is 
 probably as prevalent among the poorer class of whites. 
 According to the Chicago Herald, March 26, 1917, a 
 health commissioner found 300 cases in one white tene- 
 ment block in Chicago. The white plague, like syphilis, 
 is a white man's disease. It is safe to say that he in- 
 troduced both these in the New World, but his superior 
 wealth enables him to better combat consumption." 
 
 "You say syphilis is a white man's disease?" ques- 
 tioned No. 2, doubtingly. 
 
 "So far as it is known," replied Dixon, "it originated 
 with the Caucasian. Prof. Eliot Smith examined 10,000 
 skeletons of ancient Egypt without finding any trace of 
 it, and Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the Smithsonian Institute 
 reports similarly of the Pre-Columbian Indian. Syphilis 
 first came into notice in the early part of the sixteenth 
 century, when there was an epidemic of it in Spain and 
 Italy." 
 
 "But what about heredity, that most important of 
 all points to be considered in the crossing of animals, 
 human or otherwise?" continued No. 2. 
 
 "A most important question, sir," concurred Dixon, 
 "but one that has been sadly neglected in this country, 
 as witness the welcome extended to all types of Euro- 
 pean immigrants, nearly all of whom, with the exception 
 of the German and possibly the English and French, 
 have always lived far below the economic level of the 
 American Negro. The American Negro has a more 
 intelligent and better-fed appearance than the average 
 immigrant one sees at Ellis Island, the Barge Office, or 
 in the steerage of trans-Atlantic liners. The percentage 
 of paupers among foreign-born whites is almost four 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 83 
 
 times that of the Negro. The figures, according to the 
 census of 1910 are 248.2 and 63.9 per 100,000 respectively. 
 The Negro is also twice as literate as the European Rus- 
 sian, and more literate than the Italian, Bulgarian, 
 Greek, Portuguese, Spaniard, Roumanian and Servian 
 of Europe." 
 
 "Anyway," said No. 2, with an air of finality, 'T be- 
 lieve that everyone should marry his own color. It 
 doesn't look good to see a mixed couple." 
 
 Passenger No. 3, who had hitherto kept silent, now 
 spoke. 
 
 "It is not a matter of whether it looks good," he pro- 
 tested, "but whether it is right or wrong. Intermar- 
 riage, as the porter has shown us, is a crime against 
 neither Nature nor Nature's God. Physical affinity has 
 ever been the principal motive in the mating of human 
 beings, often regardless of racial differences. Nature, in 
 her selective principle, knows no race difference. Ignore 
 it as you will, the fact remains that there are a great 
 many whites of both sexes v\^ho find their affinities among 
 Negroes, also many Negroes of both sexes who find 
 theirs among the whites. From my observations, 
 which I flatter myself are somewhat extensive, I see that 
 Nature, in this respect, simply refuses to submit to laws 
 or to conventionalities. The vilifying of either race in 
 question w411 not help, since love is illogical. Now, as a 
 rule, these persons while meeting, often clandestinely, 
 get into the habit of shunning marriage even where it is 
 permissible. These restrictions also give many persons 
 a very convenient excuse for leading a double life, since, 
 even while they might find their affinity in one of the 
 other race, they are conventionally bound to marry in 
 their own race. This artificial condition, then, is respon- 
 sible for a great amount of double dealing, especially on 
 our part. Now, since intermarriage does not mean a 
 forcible and promiscuous marrying of persons, but pro- 
 ceeds from personal selection, I should think this mat- 
 
84 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 ter revolves on the query, 'Shall such persons be encour- 
 aged to live wedded or forced to live unwedded?'" 
 
 Dixon looked at this man with amazement on his 
 face, the more so as he knew the speaker to be a South- 
 erner. 
 
 No. 1 challenged him instantly. 
 
 "You say you are in favor of intermarriage," he 
 snapped. "Tell me, would you have your daughter 
 marry a Negro?" 
 
 "Yes," came the unhesitating response. "If he ful- 
 filled my ideals of what a son-in-law ought to be I would 
 raise no objection. And with regard to amalgamation, 
 it strikes me that this talk is just a couple of centuries 
 late. The fact is that we have been having amalgama- 
 tion all the time, and although under unfavorable and dis- 
 graceful conditions, good rather than evil has been the 
 result. And with regard to what you say about mon- 
 grels, I went to a gathering of colored persons recently 
 and out of several hundred present I saw but twenty-one 
 full-blooded Negroes. And these persons all looked 
 healthy and intelligent. I think that in view of the little 
 * or no protest against illegal relations, and the strenuous 
 objections to legal ones, that the cynically inclined would 
 be justified in saying that the principal objection to inter- 
 marriage is the legalizing of the union." 
 
 Passenger No. 2 commented: "One thing is sure: 
 this mixture does not afifect the racial integrity of the 
 white man." 
 
 "Why?" asked Dixon, much emboldened by his unex- 
 pected ally. 
 
 "Because all mixed bloods are classed as Negroes," 
 was the quick response. 
 
 "Not all," retorted Dixon. "Intermarriage of black 
 and white has been going steadily on for over two hun- 
 dred and fifty years, so much so that there is no stratum 
 of American society in which you will not find persons 
 of Negro strain. And far more than you think. I have 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 85 
 
 heard it estimated at 60 per cent of the native whites. 
 The American Anglo-Saxon, composed of Slavs, Latins, 
 Jews, Iranians, Teutons, Magyars, Celts, Indians, Mon- 
 golians and a small percentage of English, has, too, a 
 considerable percentage of Negro strain. I have a col- 
 ored friend who is really more of an Anglo-Saxon by 
 birth than many so-called Anglo-Saxons on this side of 
 the Atlantic, as his paternal grandfather and his mother 
 are English. This talk of racial purity and racial integ- 
 rity when asserted by any people living in the New 
 World is pathetic. Look at the number of white per- 
 sons with distinctly Negroid features. A little more pig- 
 ment in their skins would make a radical change in their 
 lives. And you can't tell the whites from some of the 
 so-called Negroes. Dr. Kintzung is responsible for the 
 statement that it is impossible to tell persons who have 
 an attenuated strain of Negro blood. And Finot says 
 that one can distinguish them only in American novels. 
 Time and again persons hitherto thought white are 
 proved to be of Negro descent. The great Alexander 
 Hamilton, for example. Then take the case of Henry 
 Timrod, the poet, in whose honor there is a statue in the 
 City of Charleston, S. C. Timrod, unknown to his ad- 
 mirers, was a Negro." 
 
 Passenger No. 1 did not relish this shattering of his 
 most sacred idol. He felt that he ought to enter a pro- 
 test, so he said with all the spirit at his command: "In 
 your advocacy of intermarriage you are forgetting the 
 inherent incompatibility between the races. I " 
 
 "Incompatibility between the races?" dominated pas- 
 senger No. 3. "Do you believe in the Fatherhood of 
 God?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Do you believe, then, that the God who said, 'Love 
 one another,' would create hate in the heart of one race 
 for another? No; whatever dislike exists between the 
 races has been caused solely by training." 
 
86 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Dixon supported him : "In view of the fact that the 
 white man, of his own volition, has mixed with the 
 black more than with any other variety, and that the 
 exotic black is attracted rather than repelled by the 
 white, one would be justified in saying that we have 
 color attraction rather than color repulsion." 
 
 He took out his note book, and after finding the de- 
 sired passage, said: "Here is a quotation from 'The 
 Sexual Life of Our Times,' by Iwan Bloch, page 614: 
 'White men from very early times have had a peculiar 
 weakness for Negresses and mulatto girls and women. 
 
 " 'The European newspapers are full of interesting re- 
 ports of the powerful attractive force exercised by exotic 
 individuals, male or female, such as Negroes, Arabs, 
 Abyssinians, Moors, Indians, Japanese, etc., upon 
 European men and women respectively. Whenever 
 members of such races come to stay in any European 
 capital, we hear of remarkable love affairs between the 
 white girls and these strangers. 
 
 " 'The colored girl exercises a powerful attractive force 
 upon the American man and even the proud American 
 woman manifests with an especial frequency in Chi- 
 cago a certain preference for the male Negro. But much 
 greater is the alluring force exercised by the white upon 
 the Negro.' " 
 
 "All of which shows how very unnatural our segrega- 
 tion laws are," commented No. 3, at the same time ask- 
 ing Dixon the name of the book and noting it in his 
 memorandum. He then continued : "I will tell you of 
 an incident I thougdit interesting: I was in London at 
 the time of King Edward's coronation. To the event 
 came many Africans, jet black and of superb physiques, 
 and the manner in which these men were petted and 
 feted by women, even of the better class — many of whom 
 had seen a black face for the first time — gave me food 
 for much reflection as well as recalled that passage in 
 Shakespeare, 'Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 87 
 
 eyes.' I saw, too, recently, where an American news- 
 paper correspondent in Paris expressed her disgust at 
 the reception given to the Senegalese by the Parisiennes." 
 
 Passengers No. 1 and 2 did not respond. 
 
 Dixon said, ''Quite recently a Chicago newspaper in 
 its crusade against cabarets advertised the fact that in 
 certain ones conducted by Negroes there was no color 
 line, and now the majority of patrons are whites of 
 both sexes. In Salt Lake City, where intermarriage is 
 illegal, I found that the women who visited the colored 
 clubs were all white. When I inquired as to the absence 
 of colored women I was informed that the white men 
 had appropriated them. In one of these places I saw 
 eight women, five of whom were Southern. The keeper 
 of one of these places remarked to me that he would 
 not advise a colored man to bring his wife to live in that 
 town lest she too might be appropriated. I did, how- 
 ever, find some decent colored wives. I also found in 
 the same city an ultra-private colored club where the 
 better class of white women visited. I found similar 
 relations existing between black and white in Seattle, 
 Portland, Oregon, Calgary, Winnipeg, Milwaukee and 
 other western towns. In many of the towns of Ari- 
 zona, Montana and Nevada, the colored women, who 
 were usually of a very low type, had nearly all gone 
 over to the white men. All through the cities of the 
 South I saw and heard of houses of infamy whose occu- 
 pants were colored women, and whose patronage was 
 white. Similar conditions exist all over the country. In 
 Buffalo, N. Y., for instance, I found a colored club fre- 
 quented by white women and whose keeper was a white 
 man. In Chicago there are scores of resorts where Ne- 
 groes meet white women, and white men meet Negro 
 women. The sexual relations between black and white, 
 whether they exist in Boston, New Orleans or San Fran- 
 cisco, are one of chronic immorality." 
 
 No protest from the opposing side. 
 
88 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Dixon continued: *'But, if there be inherent incom- 
 patibility between these groups, why have anti-misceg- 
 enation laws? If there be a great gulf fixed, why make 
 segregation laws? A law prohibiting marriage on ac- 
 count of color is unnatural, immoral and stupid, and a 
 monument to the asininity of those who make it. Hos- 
 tile to nature, such a law will not avail. In states where 
 this law is in force I have noticed only a greater im- 
 morality. In the South white men have marked certain 
 Negresses as their own, and the Negro who will attempt 
 to take them away is in danger of his life. One hears 
 from time to time of Negroes being killed by white 
 men on account of Negro women. This is axiom- 
 atic : Forbid a human being anything and you at once 
 create a desire in him for it. Tobacco became popular 
 largely because of the severe laws prohibiting its use. 
 A follower of Mohammed was once asked that prophet's 
 reason for forbidding the use of wine to his adherents 
 and his reply was, 'So that they might enjoy it all the 
 more.' In the past the very best blood of this country 
 has mingled with Negro blood and is still doing it in 
 spite of all laws or conventionalities against it. It is 
 human nature and you can't stop it." 
 
 "But," protested No. 2, "the black man is always 
 more willing to marry the white woman than the white 
 man is to marry the black woman. Why so?" 
 
 "That brings us to the real reason for these laws," 
 said Dixon, "the prevention of the Negro man from par- 
 ticipation in the mixing. These laws also, by accident 
 or design, leave the weaker people at the mercy of the 
 stronger. Not long since I heard of a case in California 
 where a sixteen-year-old Negro girl was wronged by a 
 policeman, and under the California anti-marriage law, 
 she had no protection. A good many Southern whites 
 consider the comely Negro lass their legitimate prey. 
 But in view of the great amount of mixture done and 
 being done by the whites and the small amount of mar- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 89 
 
 riages contracted by them, doesn't it appear a greater 
 honor and morality on the part of the Negro that he 
 should desire to have his children born in wedlock?" 
 
 "That's true," conceded passenger No. 2. ''The white 
 man, even while protesting against amalgamation, is 
 really practicing it." 
 
 Passenger No. 3 added : "What's more, he has never 
 been in a country, however savage, in w^hich he did not 
 mix his blood with that of the natives. The white 
 man has spoiled the morals of every weak race with 
 which he has come in contact." 
 
 But it is only white women of the abandoned class 
 who marry Negroes," protested passenger No. 1. 
 
 "That is the current belief," said Dixon, "but it is 
 wrong in the majority of cases. I have spent some time 
 investigating the matter and I have found that the ma- 
 jority of these women are no different from the ordinary 
 respectable woman. Many of them have fine, well-kept 
 homes, well-regulated families, and live as happily as the 
 Caucasian problem will permit them. 
 
 "And with reference to the abandoned white women 
 who marry Negroes : their reason for doing so is that 
 they find in the Negro that which their own people 
 refused them — that lack in their lives which made them 
 outcasts — genuine human sympathy." 
 
 "Another point," persisted passenger No. 1. "we 
 must take atavism into consideration. If either parent 
 has a drop of Negro blood the child is liable to be born 
 coal-black, and with regular Negro features." 
 
 "Well," returned No. 3, "I will believe that only 
 when I see an apparently full-blooded Negro couple, one 
 of whom has a drop of Caucasian blood, produce a pure 
 Caucasian child. Atavism ought to work both ways. 
 That, my friend, is only a scheme of the novelist to 
 appeal to a prejudiced public." 
 
 Dixon supported him: "Dr. Woods Hutchinson, the 
 famous physician-author, in the 'Chicago Examiner' of 
 
90 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 April 10, 1916, proves this theory to be false. But if 
 the child were born black, what of that? Hasn't it a 
 human soul?" 
 
 "Passenger No. 3 added: ''In view of these two 
 facts : first, that intermarriage is contrary neither to the 
 laws of God nor of Nature; second, that persons who 
 have an affinity with each other are going to meet in 
 spite of all laws, it is evident, unless we admit our igno- 
 rance, that the sole purpose and effect of these restric- 
 tions are the upholding of racial vanity, even to the det- 
 riment of morality." 
 
 At this juncture, Dixon asked to be excused, saying 
 that he had to wake a passenger for the next station. 
 
 THIRD DAY. 
 
 "Oh, give me liberty, 
 For were even a paradise itself my prison 
 Still I should long to leap those crystal walls." 
 
 — Dryden. 
 
 The next day at noon Dixon was sitting in an end 
 seat looking out on the snow-covered waste, when pass- 
 enger No. 3 approached and, sitting opposite him, ques- 
 tioned : 
 
 "Did I understand you to say you have been in South 
 America?" And the other, who had also travelled in 
 South America, engaged him in a conversation about 
 Argentina. The talk gradually led to a consideration of 
 the conditions among the Negroes in the South. Among 
 other things that the passenger said was : "I am a 
 Southerner, but I am very much opposed to the South's 
 treatment of the Negro. The South needs badly an 
 infusion of new ideas. At present it is like an ancestral 
 mansion, whose occupants, sitting behind shuttered win- 
 dows which barely admit the sunlight, are still basking 
 in the reflection of the dubious glory of past days. How 
 I wish that my beloved Southland would throw open the 
 
PROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 91 
 
 windows of its soul and let in the rejuvenating sunlight 
 of Truth. 
 
 ''And the South will never rise higher than the Negro. 
 Black and white in the South are, to a great extent, like 
 the Siamese Twins, who, while they were physiologic- 
 ally distinct beings, were so joined that one of the twins 
 could not harm the other without harming himself, or 
 benefit the other without benefiting himself." 
 
 Dixon then took occasion to compliment him on his 
 broadmindedness. 
 
 "Well," he went on to say, "I have found truth the 
 only thing worth living for. But there is a hard strug- 
 gle to obtain it. As a rule, we don't like to hear that 
 which doesn't fit in with our ideas. I find that my mind, 
 when it comes to unpleasant truths, is like a horse which 
 shies at the sight of strange objects. By constant use 
 of the spur, Reason, however, I force my intellect to 
 accustom itself to strange truths — to overcome prejudice 
 — and so I go on finding each new truth easier to accept. 
 
 "Many of our most prominent men, leaders of 
 thought," he went on to say, "are conspicuously weak- 
 kneed in this matter of color. They fear public opinion. 
 By a good many of my people I am regarded as a freak. 
 Some even say I must have Negro blood. But I would 
 rather be anything else than a coward, for I agree with 
 DeFoe when he says, 'He that hath truth on his side is a 
 fool as well as a coward if he is afraid to own it because 
 of the currency or multitude of men's opinion.' " 
 
 'T owe a great deal to my Negro mammy," he con- 
 tinued. "I shall never forget her tender solicitude for 
 my mother and me during the terrible times of the Civil 
 War, and her noble, forgiving Christian character. More 
 than any other agency, that of my parents not excepted, 
 she has been a power for molding my character for good. 
 My people say that the Negro is a hindrance to their 
 progress. Yes, because of themselves he is. Thoughts 
 of the Negro predominate in the mind of the South to- 
 
92 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 day, and since that which dwells uppermost in our mind 
 really dominates us, the South, largely through its own 
 fault, actually has what it dreads most — Negro domina- 
 tion. And ah, how different things could be !" 
 
 Both men exchanged views for some time, and the 
 passenger, before leaving for lunch, concluded: "This 
 Republic in its treatment of the Negro would do well 
 to imitate the humble oyster, who, when a grit or worm 
 or whatever it is gets into his shell, does not make a 
 fuss, but quietly makes the irritant into a pearl. And 
 believe me," he continued in a voice so kindly, so full of 
 his creed of right doing that it affected Dixon's inner- 
 most being and stamped its sincerity on his soul, "no 
 race so possesses the qualities for conversion into human 
 pearls as the Negro — kindly, sunny, faithful.'' 
 
 That night, while Dixon was cleaning the cuspidors, 
 passenger No. 1 came in with a newspaper. After read- 
 ing for a few minutes, he inquired : "Dixon, I have been 
 wondering why a man of your intellect should stay in a 
 job like this?" He knew the reason only too well, but 
 he had become interested now, and simply wanted to 
 hear the other's views. 
 
 Dixon suspended the cleaning of the cuspidors to tell 
 him what the reader already knows. To this he added: 
 "I recently took an examination for a position as secre- 
 tary in the United States Consular Service." Then he 
 added, laughingly : "But as I had to submit a photo- 
 graph of myself, I shall be much surprised if I ever get 
 an appointment." 
 
 "Have you ever thought of returning to Europe?" 
 
 "Yes, or to South America, but on second thought I 
 have decided to remain. Sometimes I feel as if I am 
 experiencing too much of the acid of color prejudice to 
 keep my temper sweet. But," he added, with his teeth 
 set hard, "this is my country, mine as much as any other 
 American. My great-great-grandfather died in defense 
 of the flag at the Battle of Rhode Island, August 29, 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 93 
 
 1778; my great-grandfather fought at Lake Erie in 1812; 
 my grandfather fought at Shiloh. and I myself have had 
 the honor of seeing a httle active service. I am an 
 American — a plain American — in spite of all the attempts 
 to hyphenate me. I am going to fight it out here. Xo 
 one shall make me run.'' 
 
 There was a brief period of silence, which was 
 broken by the passenger. '''Yet, there are many Xegroes 
 who really hold good positions/'' and he went on to relate 
 some instances he knew of. 
 
 "Yes, there are a good many Xegroes who hold fairly 
 prominent positions," affirmed Dixon, ''but since preju- 
 dice is an enemy that will not come out in the open 
 and fight fairly, it is more often a matter of chance that 
 such get these often well-merited positions. Color ego- 
 tism thus diverting valuable talent into lines of employ- 
 ment that could be filled by less capable persons is a 
 bad economic factor. A vast amount of X^egro talent 
 goes to absolute waste. This woefully short-sighted 
 policy results in a direct loss to the nation." 
 
 '"But so many X^egroes are without any ambition at 
 all,'"' said the passenger. "'In all the large Xorthern 
 cities in which I have been, it seemed to me as if the 
 proportion of Xegroes hanging around pool rooms and 
 saloons was far in excess of those whites doins: the same 
 thing," 
 
 'T am inclined to believe so, too," concurred Dixon, 
 "but consider the bad example these have. The edu- 
 cated and more ambitious X^egro is very often forced 
 into competition with his uneducated brother, who, see- 
 ing the former faring no better than he, sometimes 
 bossed by a man whose chief asset is his complexion, has 
 no incentive to acquire an education. Only today at 
 
 the dinner table I heard. ''Whaf's the use? AV has a 
 
 good education, and he is doing the same porter work as 
 L' X'ow, really, can 3'ou blame such for this Omar 
 Khayyamish outlook? What incentive have they? Some 
 
94 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 will say that these men have little or no ambition to 
 begin with. Perhaps so. But the duty we owe to our 
 fellows is to encourage them, to fan every spark of ambi- 
 tion, not to throw obstacles in their way. The aspiring 
 Negro is severely handicapped in his desire to accom- 
 plish anything. He has to wrestle so long and so hard 
 with color prejudice that a vast portion of his energy 
 is lost. Take the case of a poor Negro at a university. 
 While his white fellow-students can secure any position 
 for which they are eligible, he has to depend on the 
 whim of someone for employment. Even the meanest 
 jobs are sometimes refused him. As a student I was 
 once refused a job of taking out soiled dishes in ex- 
 change for my meals on account of color. It is truly 
 disheartening to see Negro youths being graduated from 
 our high schools and colleges to find the door of oppor- 
 tunity closed to them. As an instance, take Chicago. 
 The Negro in Chicago, from my observations, is better 
 treated than in any other part of the country; and more 
 Negroes occupy responsible positions there than any- 
 where else. Yet the disadvantages the colored people 
 suffer in Chicago, as reported by the Juvenile Protective 
 Association, are unbelievable." 
 
 The bell rang and Dixon went in to answer the call. 
 
 On his return, he said : "Here is a clipping I had in 
 my grip. It is from the 'Chicago Tribune' and deals 
 with the employment of Negroes in Chicago." 
 
 He handed it to the passenger, who began to read, "In 
 the business world — speaking generally — the discrimina- 
 tion against the Ngero is even greater. It grows more and 
 more difficult for a colored man or woman to get work ex- 
 cept as a laborer or servant, and even in those directions 
 there are serious difficulties. As salespeople, office clerks 
 and stenographers there is almost no opportunity for Ne- 
 groes in Chicago. With one exception the big business col- 
 leges discriminate against colored students. There is 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 95 
 
 small encouragement for them to take training and tech- 
 nical courses in public schools. One bright colored boy 
 who graduated from a technical school this year was 
 sent with his classmates to the employment office of a 
 big corporation. 'We don't hire niggers,' said the man 
 in charge." 
 
 A child's cry was now heard in the body of the car. 
 Dixon, asking to be excused, rose hastily and hurried in. 
 
 A few minutes later he returned, bringing a baby 
 about two years old. 
 
 ''His mamma is indisposed," explained Dixon. 
 
 The youngster, riding on Dixon's knee and being 
 tickled by the passenger, was now crowing with delight 
 and tossing his arms in the air. Dixon, by tossing him 
 and riding him around on his shoulders for the past two 
 days, had been spoiling him, and more thao once he 
 had refused to return to his mother. 
 
 After a while the baby became sleepy, and nestling 
 back in Dixon's arms, soon fell asleep. 
 
 Shortly afterwards the passenger resumed his read- 
 ing of the newspaper clipping. "Out of nearly 4,000 men 
 employed by the express companies in Chicago, only 
 twenty-one are colored men, and fifteen of that number 
 work as porters. There are apparently none at all em- 
 ployed as boot and shoe hands, glovemakers, bindery 
 workers, printers, neckwear and suspender workers or 
 on the elevated roads. A good many labor unions admit 
 colored men to membership, but these complain that 
 they are discriminated against, at least in the more dif- 
 ficult and better-paid trades, when it comes to getting 
 work. 
 
 "The result is that the mass of Negroes are forced 
 to seek, in increasing numbers, the less desirable and 
 poorly-paid occupations. More Negro men — nearly 
 8,000 in all — work as porters and bar helpers in saloons 
 and poolrooms than in any other field." 
 
96 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 The passenger made no comment. After a few min- 
 utes' thought he demanded: 
 
 "What do you think of the education of the Negro?" 
 
 Dixon thought the question vague, but answered : "I 
 do not think it ought to differ from that of any other 
 color of mankind. Every human being, regardless of sex 
 or color, ought to be permitted to develop himself to his 
 full powers, and any agency that prevents him from 
 doing so is pernicious in the extreme. Is it to the bene- 
 fit of the state that certain minds remain undeveloped? 
 In the reign of Henry VIII, the lower classes were not 
 permitted to read the Bible. What monumental igno- 
 rance ! do we of today exclaim ; yet here, 500 years later, 
 we find men in authority advocating an analogous thing 
 in the non-education of certain citizens." 
 
 "But," protested the passenger, "the ignorant Negro 
 is the happy Negro ; to educate him is only to make him 
 unhappy." 
 
 "Well, sir, with the possible exception of the Latin, 
 the Caucasian is the unhappiest of all peoples. Now, 
 suppose I were to say, Do not educate the white man 
 any more, for to do so is only to make him unhappier, 
 what would you think? With all due respect to you, sir, 
 I think that since these advocates of non-education for 
 the Negro have shown so little regard for us in other 
 vital matters, and so much genuine solicitude in this, I 
 suspect what they really mean is : Do not educate the 
 Negro and make the white man unhappier." 
 
 The passenger made no response, so Dixon contin- 
 ued : "The ignorant Negro will be the happier Negro 
 until we educate the cause that makes the educated 
 Negro unhappy. 
 
 "Moreover, the thinker of any color is often unhappy 
 because education enables him to see the tinsel and the 
 heartaches that go to make up the greater part of our 
 civilization. But, as you say, there is some mercy in 
 this advocacy of non-education of the Negro, for in the 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 97 
 
 United States, and especially in the North, while the 
 educated Negro, as a mass, lives better than any other 
 similar class outside the United States, there is no recog- 
 nized place in America for the educated Negro. The 
 educated Negro in America is clearly in advance of his 
 age ; that is, so far as it is governed by the white man. 
 He lacks that association which helped to make Johnson, 
 Lamb and Garrick what they were. Solomon's state- 
 ment, 'He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow,' 
 is especially true of the Negro in the United States." 
 
 "A great many advocate only industrial training for 
 the Negro," said the passenger. "What do you think 
 of that? I favor industrial training. That being the 
 basis of material production, the Negro will thereby 
 acquire greater wealth, which means independence. If 
 the Negro cannot get employment he must create work 
 for himself. Professional men must depend largely on 
 others for employment. The Negro race has already too 
 many doctors, lawyers and preachers." 
 
 ''In view of what science says," answered Dixon, "it 
 would be just as logical to ask, AVhat form of training is 
 preferable for the Caucasian? As no two men are alike, 
 human intellect cannot be standardized. Any such at- 
 tempt, besides preventing full attainment, must cause 
 unhappiness. Every man, as Shakespeare advises, should 
 study what he most affects. Since thought has always 
 preceded intelligent action, and action provides suste- 
 nance for thought, it goes without saying that every 
 human group needs both thinkers and v/orkers. And 
 you spoke of the large number of Negro preachers, doc- 
 tors and lawyers, and the relatively small numbers in the 
 mechanical pursuits. I happen to have the figures here. 
 The census of 1910 shows : Whites, one preacher for 
 every 813 of population ; Negroes, one for every 560. 
 Doctors: whites, one for CA^ery 512; Negroes, one for 
 every 3,195. Lawyers : white, one for every 763 ; Negroes, 
 one for every 12,620. But if the statement were true, 
 
98 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 the reason is obvious: since the Negro has difficulty in 
 getting employment, he has to follow those professions 
 in which he can strike out for himself." 
 
 The train began to slow down as the lights of a 
 town were visible in the near distance. 
 
 "What town is this?" inquired the passenger. 
 
 "Evanston, Wyo." 
 
 "How long do we stay here?" 
 
 "About five minutes," replied Dixon. "We change 
 engines." 
 
 "I think I'll take a walk, then." 
 
 Dixon took the sleeping boy to his mother, and re- 
 turned with the passenger's hat and overcoat. Both 
 men left the smoker and went out on the vestibule. As 
 Dixon opened the trap-door, a rush of cold air entered, 
 compelling the passenger to button his overcoat around 
 his neck. 
 
 "Pretty cold!" he remarked. 
 
 "Yes, sir, it is about twenty-five degrees below. It 
 gets rather cold up here on the mountains." 
 
 "How high up are we?" 
 
 "Seven thousand five hundred feet." 
 
 The train stopped and both men stepped off into the 
 crisp midnight air. 
 
 The passenger caught sight of the railroad lunch- 
 room. 
 
 "Have we time to get a cup of coft'ee?" he asked hur- 
 riedly. 
 
 "Yes, sir," assured Dixon. 
 
 "Come along, then," said the passenger, catching 
 Dixon by the coat sleeve, and both men started on a 
 trot over the crackling snow for the lunch-room. 
 
 Here the passenger ordered cofifee and sandwiches for 
 Dixon and himself. After taking a few mouthfuls, the 
 passenger began to look nervously through the win- 
 dows. 
 
 "We have plenty of time, sir," reassured Dixon, guess- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 99 
 
 ing the cause of his anxiety. "See ! there's the train- 
 conductor just getting his coffee now." 
 
 When they were once more on the train, the passen- 
 ger, followed by Dixon, went back into the smoker. 
 Taking off his overcoat and hat and throwing them on 
 the seat, the passenger settled himself comfortably in the 
 chair. He then passed his cigarette case again to Dixon, 
 urging him to try a cigarette, but Dixon courteously 
 refused. The passenger then helped himself to one, and 
 after smoking some time, he reopened the conversation 
 by saying: 
 
 'T was going to ask you something, but I have for- 
 gotten it now. Let me see ; we were last speaking of 
 Negro education. Ah, I remember ! It is this : From 
 what you say, you are evidently not in favor of the pol- 
 icy pursued by the late leader of your race, Booker T. 
 Washington," 
 
 *Tf it is his policy of the surrender of certain rights 
 for progress in other directions that you mean, sir, I am, 
 on conditions. The late Mr. Washington has been much 
 blamed, and is still being blamed, for not standing up 
 more firmly for the rights of his people. A friend of 
 mine, a book agent, told me he had difficulty in dispos- 
 ing of Mr. Washington's books among colored persons. 
 The reason for this difficulty, he said, was that a great 
 many of his would-be patrons said that they did not like 
 the way in which Mr. Washington had bowed to the 
 white man. But even had Mr. Washington been endowed 
 with an unbending spirit, I do not see how he could 
 have done otherwise and have carried out his life w^ork. 
 The great majority of the people he wanted to help were 
 in the South, where any assertion of Negro rights on his 
 part would not only have been resented, but might have 
 been visited by serious consequences. Had he shown a 
 bold spirit, there would have been no Tuskegee, and 
 schools with the spirit of Tuskegee were, and still are, a 
 necessity in the South for both white and colored. The 
 
100 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 major portion of any people is fit only for industrial pur- 
 suits, and this would be especially true of a people but 
 recently emancipated. And humble as Mr. Washing- 
 ton's manner was, there were those whites who com- 
 plained that Tuskegee with its thoroughness was mak- 
 ing, not servants, but masters, and thus threatening white 
 domination. Mr. Washington has done more than any 
 other person or agency that I know of to assist the feet 
 of the crude, struggling mass of freedmen to the first 
 rung of the ladder of progress. While it is true that 
 others will have to strive hard to undo the impression 
 he gave of Negro subordination, yet the blame for this 
 should be placed on the conditions to which he was forced 
 to adapt himself in order to do his work. 
 
 ''But whatever one may say, no one can impugn the 
 honesty of his motive. This was a genuine desire, born 
 of the largeness of the man's heart, to do good to his 
 fellow-men. Booker T. Washington built his fame on 
 the surest of all foundations — unselfish service. Some 
 object that he made a great deal of money. I sincerely 
 hope that he did, because few deserved it better than he. 
 There are a very few of his critics, indeed few citi- 
 zens of any country, who would not do well to emulate 
 his unselfishness, his energy, and his rugged determina- 
 tion. 
 
 *'And yet, I resent the title that was given to Mr. 
 Washington, that of leader of the Negro race. He did 
 •not have the spirit of a leader; that is, if Hampden, Tous- 
 saint L'Ouverture, George Washington, Pinckney and 
 Patrick Henry had that spirit. That spirit of surrender 
 :so much admired in Mr. Washington by many whites is 
 just the opposite of that which those same whites would 
 advocate for their people under a like circumstance. That 
 'dog-like quality so often praised in the slave by the whites 
 is just what they have always contemned most in their 
 -own people. We hear a great deal of praise for the 
 .slave who .stayed at home guarding his master's prop- 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 101 
 
 erty while the master went off to war to forge his chains 
 stronger. I think that if those slaves had had a grain of 
 sense they would have taken everything of value that 
 they could have set their hands on and escaped. The 
 mission of a republic is to foster and stimulate self-re- 
 spect — to let every man and every woman feel that he 
 or she is an indispensable part of the universe. There 
 ought to be no cringing or kowtovving to caste." 
 
 A brief pause, then Dixon added: '"'Of course, this 
 policy of eating humble pie, which a good many Negroes 
 advocate, is the best one by v/hich to get money. But 
 is money everything? Can it buy respect? The Jew has 
 a great deal of this world's money, but very little of its 
 respect. I think that one spark of that kingliness of 
 soul which, while respecting superior mxcrit, recognizes 
 only the superiority of God, gives more satisfaction than 
 all the wealth of a Rockefeller. If the Negro ever hopes 
 to gain the respect of the whites, if he ever hopes to be 
 regarded as other than a minstrel, he will have to make a 
 stand for his manhood rights." 
 
 "But," objected the passenger, ''the Negro is poor, 
 and a poor man cannot afford to talk too strongly." 
 
 ''The Negro is poor," retorted Dixon, "but is it his 
 fault? I think that in 1863, after 250 years of unpaid 
 toil, if he had received justice, nothing less than a trans- 
 ference of the entire South into his hands would have 
 been the result." 
 
 The passenger did not respond. 
 
 Dixon continued : "A matter of pigment can furnish 
 no excuse for two so diametrically opposed policies. 
 What is right for one body of citizens must be right for 
 another, for as Huxley says, 'There can no more be two 
 kinds of right than there can be two kinds of straight 
 lines.' Moreover, this policy of flattery is bad for the 
 w^hite man. If the Negro really wishes to even up scores 
 with the white man (I speak of the South), he should 
 
102 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 keep on flattering him and thus at one coup lighten both 
 his character and his purse." 
 
 The bell now called Dixon away. Ten minutes later 
 he returned. 
 
 The passenger, who, during this interval, had been 
 reading a newspaper bought in the lunch-room, called 
 his attention to an account of a lynching, at the same 
 time asking his opinion. 
 
 Dixon took it and read: 
 
 "NEGRO BURNED BY MOB OF CHEERING 
 TEXANS. THOUSANDS, INCLUDING YOUNG 
 GIRLS, SEE BLACK AT STAKE IN PUBLIC 
 SQUARE." 
 
 Dixon sighed : ''That such a thing should be possible 
 in a country which, more than any other, asserts itself 
 to be civilized. Can the most savage African tribe equal 
 in barbarity the infamous lynching record of this Repub- 
 lic, with its churches, colleges and schools? When be- 
 fore in the history of the world, from its darkest moment 
 until now, has there been a country where a citizen 
 could be dismembered, burnt alive, and every other 
 form of atrocity which a fiendish ingenuity can 
 devise be visited upon him because he refuses to get off 
 a sidewalk or gives a saucy word to another — all on 
 account of the accident of color? We have had so much 
 lynching that it is now accepted as one of our American 
 institutions, and from what I have just read, one might 
 say, one of our sports. The conscience of the nation is 
 numb. How we shudder at the barbarity of the pagan 
 who, 2,000 years ago, used to burn Christians alive! 
 Yet we pass almost unnoticed the burning of Christians 
 by Christians today. The Roman pagan used to have a 
 holiday and flock from afar to see Christians tortured. 
 Today the Christians of Georgia and Texas are doing the 
 same thing. And the better element acquiesces in this, 
 too ; for the murderers are rarely, if ever, brought to 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 103 
 
 justice. Look at the recent horror in Waco, Tex. It 
 was perpetrated in broad daylight when the officers of 
 the law could recognize the murderers, and no one was 
 brought to justice. There is too much catering by the 
 better classes to the ignoble spirit in the lower classes 
 here in America. Indeed, every man, be he president or 
 peasant, who upholds this theory of Negro inferiority 
 is in his own way an aid and abettor of lynching, for 
 lynching is after all but the culmination of this doctrine. 
 The lyncher is doing in his way what the better classes 
 are doing in theirs to maintain the supremacy of unpig- 
 mented skin and silky hair. 
 
 "But national indif¥erence to lynching does not min- 
 imize the horror of it. Think of the excruciating pain 
 of even a burnt finger, then imagine what it must be to 
 have the whole body in flames. The upholders of chiv- 
 alry in olden times would strive singly against a host of 
 foes ; even Don Quixote attacked the windmills single- 
 handed ; but the chevaliers of America hunt in packs 
 like wolves and possess the same reasoning power. 
 Thousands of the 'gallants' will attack a single Negro, 
 whom, more likely than not, they would run from singl}^ 
 Southern chivalry, so far as the Negro is concerned, is 
 as dastardly, brutal and debasing as olden chivalry was 
 brave, magnanimous and ennobling. Having immolated 
 their victim these ghouls will rend the reeking flesh in 
 search of souvenirs, bequeathing them as a rich legacy 
 unto their issue. I once saw a Southerner exhibiting 
 with great pride a member from a lynched Negro. 'Could 
 the lynchers of George be any worse if they belonged 
 to any other than the Christian religion?' asked Ingersoll. 
 We might ask, Could they be more barbarous if they 
 belonged to any other variety of mankind? I cannot see 
 any difference between that part of the psychology of a 
 white American which prompts him to cut off the fin- 
 gers and toes of a black man to keep as souvenirs, and 
 that of the black Fiji Islander who used to cut off the 
 
104 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 fingers and toes of white men for a similar purpose. 
 
 ''And very often the victims are innocent. In Macon, 
 Ga., recently two innocent Negroes were lynched. And 
 the mob sometimes is not satisfied with one victim. Like 
 the Australian Bushman, the lowest of all human types, 
 who, in days past, would wreak his vengeance even on 
 the family of an offender, the mob will attack all Negroes. 
 Just so long as lynching continues, just so long we will 
 be Pharisaic when we speak of the barbarity of any 
 other people; Mexico, for example, which, by the way, 
 abolished race distinctions as early as 1824. Really, 
 these best citizens, these would-be Chesterfields, are just 
 common murderers, cowardly to the heart's core. These 
 ruffians would be tolerated in no other country except 
 the United States and Turkey, the home of the racial 
 and the religious fanatic, respectively." 
 
 The passenger made no response. Dixon now looked 
 out the window and remarked : "We are in Utah." 
 
 "The Mormon state, eh? By the way, have any of 
 the Mormons at present more than one wife?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Dixon. "I have been credibly informed 
 that some have as many as four." 
 
 "Four wives ! Well, that mightn't be so bad, but 
 four mothers-in-law — never." 
 
 After conversing for some time in this jocular vein, 
 the passenger returned to the original conversation. 
 
 "What were you saying about Mexico and racial dis- 
 tinctions?" he asked. 
 
 "Speaking of racial distinctions," Dixon replied "how 
 can one logically call this mixture of every human vari- 
 ety Negro? What, then, is a Kruman? By what law of 
 reason can you call a man fifteen parts Caucasian and 
 one part Negro a Negro? Why is a man three parts 
 white and one part Indian an Indian? Would you call 
 a mixture of Japanese and Indian, Japanese or Indian? 
 But we do not intend to cavil at the name, The term. 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAX 
 
 105 
 
 Anglo-Saxon, also a misnomer, even when applied to the 
 average Englishman, vras, in Xorman times, hardly less 
 opprobious. The term Z\egro may yet become an hon- 
 orable one." 
 
 '■'That is hardly likely,'' replied the passenger, "since 
 it is even novr a synonym for 'slave''/'" 
 
 ''I agree with you, too, sir. Personally, I strongly 
 object to its use. I would A-ery much prefer to be 
 known by my national patronymic, as I would be Avere I 
 citizen of any other country but the United States." 
 
 A few moments of thought, then Dixon added : 
 
 "From the manner in which the Negro is being beaten 
 on the anvil of adversity, it would appear that he is being 
 fitted for some vital task." 
 
 "Such as what?'' demanded the passenger dubiously. 
 
 "'One feature of this is helping to make the Caucasian 
 much more stable mentally. Eugenists tell us that since 
 1876 there has been a marasmus of population in nearly 
 all of the Caucasian countries, except Russia and Ger- 
 many, and that was before the war. One author who 
 examined the records of the recruiting stations in Xew 
 York State found that 85 per cent of the applicants in 
 the army stations and 8/^2 per cent in the navy stations 
 were rejected on account of weak hearts, weak lungs, 
 weak kidneys, and like disabilities. Those in the navy 
 stations must have been all white, since Xegroes are 
 barred from the navy, except as mess attendants. In 
 my belief, vrhat the Caucasian wants as a strengthener, 
 especially here in America, is a strong infusion from 
 some primitive stock, as the magnificent Zulu, with his 
 nerves and physique unspoiled by the greed of civiliza- 
 tion : that is, if the Zulu would stand for it. The Ameri- 
 can Xegro. having lived here for nearly 300 years, is as 
 thoroughly acclimated as the white. In my estimation 
 he could not add so much to the physique of the Cau- 
 casian as the Zulu, but vdth his fresher and more buov- 
 
106 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 ant mentality, he can do a great deal toward relieving 
 the tension on the nerves of the Caucasian. For instance, 
 statistics of 1913 show one suicide for every 8,500 white; 
 one for 36,000 colored ; white insane, one in 469 of popu- 
 lation ; Negro, one in 761; and whites are much more 
 prone to mob violence — all signs of highly-strung nerves. 
 President Rittenhouse of the Life Extension Institute 
 gave (December, 1915) twenty causes of the decreas- 
 ing vitality among the American people, and the chief 
 one was nervous strain. I think it is for this reason then 
 — repairing the ravages made by civilization — that has 
 caused Nature with her prevision to deposit this balance 
 from her reserve fund — the Negro — here to America." 
 
 Here Dixon searched his note book, and having found 
 the desired passage, said : "Here is what Sir Harry 
 Johnston in his paper before the Races Congress has to 
 say about this. Would you care to hear it?" 
 
 The passenger nodded his assent. 
 
 *TIe (the Negro) has certainly been endowed by 
 Nature with a degree of race fertility probably surpass- 
 ing that of the European, Asiatic and American Indian 
 living under conditions similarly unfavorable to the 
 struggle for existence. Those few scientific men in Brit- 
 ain, Germany, France, the United States and Brazil who 
 have striven to understand the anthropology of the Negro 
 and to compare it with that of the white man are rather 
 inclined than otherwise to argue now that the Negro 
 and the Negroids have contributed in the past, and still 
 more may contribute in the future, a very important 
 quota to the whole sum of humanity an element of sound- 
 ness and stability in physical development and certain 
 mental qualities which the perfected man of, let us say, 
 twenty or twenty-two centuries after Christ, cannot af- 
 ford to do without." 
 
 "But to return to this matter of race distinction," said 
 the passenger. "What will you call them, if not *Negro'? 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 107 
 
 You must have some name to call them by, a name to 
 distinguish the race." 
 
 ''Permit me to call your attention to the fact, sir, that 
 there is only one race — the human mind. The term race, 
 as we usually use it, implies some great and inherent 
 psychological difference. I remember when I used to 
 think that a Chinaman must be an entirely different sort 
 of , being from myself, and how much surprised I was to 
 find out that he was just as much human as I. In speak- 
 ing of this term 'race,' Finot says that it is only an 
 abstract image the existence of which does not lie out- 
 side of our brain. 'Human variety,' he says, 'is a more 
 truthful title.'" 
 
 "All right," smiled the passenger. "What title would 
 you use to distinguish that human variey known as the 
 Negro?" 
 
 "The only logical title I can think of is American," 
 responded Dixon. "It must be remembered that, next to 
 the Indian, the so-called Negro is preponderantly the 
 true American. The census of 1910 showed only 40,339 
 foreign-born Negroes. If those descendants of white 
 men who have been here two or three generations can 
 lose their hyphen when they wish, and assume the title 
 American, a title clearly belonging to the Indian, why 
 can't the descendants of the black man who have been 
 here a score of generations assume that title, too? But 
 the chief reason for a separate name is that our caste 
 system demands one. All the present titles are illogical. 
 Afro-American is ridiculous. One never hears of Afro- 
 Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Afro-West Indian. The hyphen 
 is really a minus sign — Afro-American minus the Ameri- 
 can. I think the first step toward the abolition of our 
 caste system will be the abolition of the terms Negro, 
 African, Afro-American, colored race, and so on, using 
 instead plain American. So far as every-day usage is 
 concerned, it is quite possible to refer to a person with- 
 out saying whether he is a blonde, brunette, or black; 
 
108 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 English, Egyptian, or Eurasian; Northerner or South- 
 erner." 
 
 The passenger appeared to be in deep thought. After 
 a few moments' pause, he asked : "But how do you 
 account for the higher criminality of the Negro? The 
 Negro is nearly four times more criminal than the white 
 man." 
 
 "It is due, first of all, to the injustice he receives from 
 the officers of the law. Justice, when a Negro is brought 
 before her, discards her scales and takes a firmer grip on 
 her sword. Secondly, to the much larger percentage of 
 Negro illiterates — the relative proportions are six to one 
 in favor of the whites ; and thirdly, to the larger number 
 of poor Negroes. Finot asks, 'After all, can one ask of a 
 race exasperated by all kinds of barbarous and unjust 
 treatment that self-respect and moral dignity which con- 
 stitute the best barriers against criminal leanings?' If 
 you continually point out the faults of the ordinary man 
 and try to impress upon him what a very inferior crea- 
 ture he is, you will succeed in most cases in making him 
 a debased, spiritless thing. On the other hand, if you 
 praise his good qualities, you inspire him to do better 
 and may make a truly noble creature of him. The 
 Negro's greater lack of proper home training, due to his 
 poverty, is also a potent factor. It must be remembered, 
 too, that the Mexican, Italian, Austrian, French, Cana- 
 dian and Russian emigrant, all have a higher percentage 
 of crime than the Negro." 
 
 "What about rape?" next questioned the passenger. 
 
 "This seems to be only a reaction of segregation. 
 The mind, especially that part connected with sex, pre- 
 fers in most individuals, the not easily obtained. Igno- 
 rant persons, Negro or otherwise, seem to be no excep- 
 tion to this. In Jamaica and Haiti, where black outnum- 
 bers white, the white woman is as safe or safer than 
 among her own people. In one Jamaican village where 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 109 
 
 I lived for some time, I found that neither whites nor 
 blacks placed any especial value on a white skin. In 
 Cuba, Porto Rico and all of the South and Central Amer- 
 ican countries where the black man is outnumbered, but 
 where he has liberty of movement, this condition is , 
 equally unknown. This evil seems to be peculiar to the 
 United States, and to a smaller extent in those parts of 
 South Africa where conditions similar to those in the 
 South exist. With segregation as the basic factor, there 
 are a concatenation of causes which miight go to make up 
 the Negro attacker of white women : the sight of pic- 
 tures of nude white Avomen in highly suggestive poses ; 
 revenge — the Xegro sees the white man making free 
 with the best of his women, a tA'pe which he, a Negro, 
 cannot get, and hears, too, the often inflammatory talk 
 by Negroes less ignorant than himself against this and 
 other phases of the color question; and rum — all of these 
 causes go to make up a lust even more paralyzing to the 
 will than that described by Shakespeare in Sonnet 129, as 
 'perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, savage, rude, 
 cruel, not to trust, past reason hunted, mad in pursuit and 
 possession.' This state of mind, o'erwhelming a will un- 
 tempered by refining influences, drives him on to the deed. 
 
 "Again, the white woman is sometimes to blame. A 
 few months past, on a trip from ^Minneapolis, a passen- 
 ger volunteered to me the information of how a white 
 woman, the wife of a farmer, had been taken flagrante 
 delicto in a field with a Negro. The woman, to shield 
 herself, accused her lover, but when she saw him being 
 lynched, confessed her blame." 
 
 "But it is usually a low type of Negro who is guilty 
 of this," objected the passenger. 
 
 ''The greater the reason, sir. In most cases of liaisons 
 between Negroes and white wom.en it is usually the 
 white w^oman who makes the advances. Now, howeA'er 
 bold a Avoman may be, she will not, as a rule, make 
 advances to any man who is a personality, fearing a 
 
110 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 refusal, and in this case the desire for sexual novelty 
 overcoming any repugnance to crudeness, she takes the 
 man who is not a personaHty." 
 
 Dixon consulted his note book and said : "I have 
 three entries here concerning this topic, which you might 
 find interesting. First, the following quotation from Dr. 
 Frances Hoggan of London, in her paper before the 
 Races Congress. 'In the outlying districts of Africa, 
 where native life is seen at its crudest, white women 
 have no fear and they pass freely in and out among the 
 native population, safe and unarmed, never dreaming of 
 danger. It is when natives and low-class white men 
 come into contact with each other that the peril origi- 
 nates, and white women begin to see in the native a pos- 
 sible source of danger.' 
 
 Second, of those committed to prison for major of- 
 fenses in 1904, the percentage committed for rape was : 
 Hungarian, 4:4; Italian, 4:4; Austrian, 2.7. Poles, 2:1; 
 colored, 1.9; all whites, 2.3; foreign whites, 2.6. The 
 Negroes lynched for rape would change this percentage 
 less than one-fourth of 1 per cent. 
 
 Third, the following quotation from the 'Medical Re- 
 view of Reviews' for July, 1916: 'The sexual crimes of 
 the black race against the white are as nothing when com- 
 pared to the sexual crimes of the white race against the 
 black. Negroes have raped white women retail, but the 
 white man has raped the colored women wholesale.' " 
 
 "The mortality of the Negro is also greater than that 
 of the white,'^ next commented the passenger. 
 
 "This is also due to the Negro's greater poverty. The 
 rich live longer than the poor. In spite of adverse cir- 
 cumstances, however, the Negro is more tenacious of life 
 than the white man, ranking next to the Indian. In 1910 
 there were 2,675 Negro centenarians, against 764 white, 
 a proportion of 30 to 1, the Indian being about 45 to 1. 
 The Negro's higher mortality and criminality are the 
 direct results of his ill-treatment by the white man. The 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 111 
 
 attitude of those white men who wrong Negroes, and 
 especially Negro women, is like that certain woman who, 
 after committing a shameful act, as Solomon says, 'eat- 
 eth and wipeth her mouth, and sayeth, I have done no 
 wickedness.' The feeling, Tt is only a ''nigger",' is 
 responsible for a great deal of extra wrong." 
 
 Dixon went in to answer the bell. When he returned 
 the passenger, who had been thinking of what Ingersoll 
 had said concerning lynchings and Christianity, asked : 
 
 ''What do you think of Christianity and the Negro?" 
 
 "Now, sir," responded Dixon, "I appeal to your com- 
 mon sense. Consider this — but, first, let me differenti- 
 ate between any religious sect which practices that sub- 
 lime Christianity which enjoins, 'Love thy neighbor as 
 thyself,' and the usual Christianity of the white Gentile. 
 For these Gentiles, though worshiping a Jew, have per- 
 secuted the Jews for fourteen centuries or more. I 
 have found in my travels that these white Gentiles, as a 
 whole, do not like the Jew and the darker races taken 
 collectively; that is, in some parts of the world the Jew 
 is disliked, as in nearly all of the European countries, 
 while there is no antipathy against the Negro. Then in 
 some places both Jews and the darker races are disliked, 
 as in the United States. On the whole, I have found 
 that the Christianity of the English-speaking Gentile does 
 not work when it brings him in contact with the darker 
 races in considerable numbers, as in South Africa, Aus- 
 tralia and the United States. The religion of the Latin 
 races, Roman Catholicism, is decidedly broader. Now to 
 speak of the Christianity of the white Gentile in the 
 United States. Here is a religion which declares that its 
 Founder died to save all men, regardless of distinction — 
 a religion which avers it is a great unifying force. Now 
 here are two peoples of the same nationality, language, 
 dress, ideals, not to speak of blood relationship, both 
 worshiping this great unifying force, and expecting as a 
 reward to go to the same place, and yet because of so 
 
112 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 slight a matter as complexion, these peoples cannot meet 
 together in the same church. And why? For fear of 
 what they call social equality! Can you think of any- 
 thing more absurdly inconsistent? If they can't harmon- 
 ize on earth, if they can't even live in the same block, or 
 work in positions of equal importance, will they do so 
 in heaven? White church! colored church! White God! 
 Colored God, eh? What material for a satirist! Vol- 
 taire nearly laughed the Pope out of the Vatican for less 
 than this. Quite recently in Florida, where white can- 
 not teach black, three white women were arrested for 
 endeavoring to instil into Negro children the love of that 
 same God whom the good Christians of Florida habitu- 
 ally implore to send light to those whom they call the 
 heathen. For the life of me, I can't understand the sen- 
 timentality of those who, as a Negro writer says, 'will 
 weep over Christ lynched 1900 years ago,' and yet accept 
 as a matter of course the lynching of a Negro today; 
 yea, even participate in it. Some morbid Negro haters, 
 like Cole Blease, are never tired of spouting of Jesus 
 and his love. To my thinking, men like IngersoU or 
 Thomas Payne are worth many ship-loads of the average 
 Christian." 
 
 ''Then you do not advocate Christianity for the 
 Negro?" asked the other. 
 
 "The real Christianity, yes. The usual Christianity 
 of the white Gentile with its egotism and self-interest, 
 no. From what I have seen in Africa, and read of as 
 occurring in slavery times, I know that this brand of 
 Christianity, as a whole, means no good to the darker 
 races, and the sooner they see it the better. I do not 
 mean to disparage the great work done by men like Liv- 
 ingston, Moffat and Dan Crawford, but these good men 
 are usually followed by the dishonest trader with his 
 whiskey, immorality, and disease, under the pretext of 
 carrying the white man's burden, which, by the way, is 
 composed largely of plunder. The white man must first 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 113 
 
 be Christianized; until then the weaker varieties of the 
 human race may expect very little from Christianity 
 except to be plundered." 
 
 ''But," objected the passenger, "Christianity has done 
 a great deal for the Negro. Look what a solace it was 
 to him during slavery times." 
 
 ''And it was also the strongest argument used to 
 keep him enslaved," rejoined Dixon. "I think the Negro 
 has too much religious enthusiasm. Many Negro sects 
 seem to have the haziest idea possible of Christianity. 
 As I sometimes watch these people, howling and huUa- 
 ballooing I cannot help thinking that any other 
 form of emotion, religious or othervv^ise, would have 
 produced the same effect, and that, so far as Jesus is 
 concerned, any other rose by that name would smell as 
 sweet to them. The poor white mountaineers are also 
 violently religious and immoral. The slogan of the 
 Negro devotee is, 'Take the world, but give me Jesus,' 
 and the white man strikes an eager bargain with him. 
 The religion of the Negro, as a whole, needs to be tem- 
 pered by the philosophy of right living. 
 
 "Another thing: there are too many Negro preachers. 
 Many of these are rascals, pure and simple, who have 
 discovered an easy way to make money and to have all 
 the women they want. In my opinion, one of the first 
 steps toward a higher progress among my poeple should 
 be the ejection of these parasites." 
 
 "You said you have been in Turkey. What do you 
 think of Mohammedanism and the Negro?" 
 
 "From what I saw of it in Egypt, Turkey and other 
 Moslem countries, I think that, despite its ethical inferi- 
 ority, it is as liberal to its dark-skinned followers as 
 Christianity is illiberal ; in fact, any other form of relig- 
 ion is more liberal toward the Negro than the usual 
 Christianity of the white Gentile. Next to Mohammed is 
 a Negro, Bilal. Christianity — I speak almost entirely of 
 the Anglo-Saxon brand — likes the Negro only when he 
 
114 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 is content to be a flunky. Islam, on the other hand, 
 inspires him to be a man." 
 
 The passenger took up the newspaper and resumed 
 his reading. After a while he inquired : "What do you 
 think of politics and the Negro? What party do you 
 think he ought to vote for?" 
 
 "I do not think," said Dixon, "that he owes allegiance 
 to any party, since, however divided in creed, all have 
 fundamentally the same ideas regarding him. These 
 parties, you will remember, are made up of those indi- 
 viduals who discriminate against him singly. The Repub- 
 lican party is regarded as the traditional friend of the 
 Negro, yet I think our progress is due to our own energy, 
 to our being in the most prosperous of all countries, and 
 to aid from individual whites, rather than to its effort on 
 our behalf. I have always considered the Republican 
 party responsible for the major part of the hardships my 
 people have experienced during the past fifty years, in 
 that it did not make some practical provision to aid the 
 freedman in gaining economic independence. On the 
 whole, I think that the Republican party does more harm 
 than good to the Negro from what I know of its meth- 
 ods in Negro districts. It is true that a few Negroes get 
 positions, but it is at the moral expense of the others. 
 Although this party makes a great show of love for the 
 Negro around election time, agitating the color ques- 
 tion most fearfully, it would gladly get rid of him if it 
 could and transfer its attention to the South. The 
 Republican party in this respect is like a man who is 
 allied with a woman he considers below him in rank, and 
 whose company he barely tolerates. Seeing another 
 woman he much prefers, but who will have nothing to 
 do with him while his connection with the other woman 
 holds, he would glady get rid of the old love, but dares 
 not, fearing the harm she could do him." 
 
 The passenger smiled approvingly. "And what about 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 115 
 
 the Democratic party?" he asked, with some hesitation, 
 after a few momxcnts. 
 
 Dixon, out of courtesy for w^hat he considered must be 
 the political creed of the other, hesitated, but after a few 
 moments of thought, decided to give his frank opinion. 
 
 He responded : "A more characteristic title for the 
 so-called Democratic party would be Negrophobic party. 
 Their attitude to us is just the opposite of w^hat their 
 name signifies. (Of course there are broad-minded men 
 in both parties, with the Republican containing the 
 greater number.) In many parts of the South this so- 
 called Democratic party is spectacular. It would appear 
 that the successful candidate is he who can abuse the 
 Negro most vociferously. The Negro, inconsequential 
 as they make him out to be, plays the most impor- 
 tant part in the lives of these men. Despite all their 
 affectation of contempt for him they live chiefly for him, 
 and after a lifetime of brooding on him they, themselves, 
 have unconsciously become just as cantakerous as they 
 imagine him to be. These men, even if they have a sense 
 of justice, can never exercise it; they must act with the 
 mob if they want to keep their jobs. Take Ben Killman, 
 that blustering super-egotist. Let him or any of his ilk 
 but declare a stand for justice to all American citizens, 
 regardless of color, and it would mean their political 
 death. Weininger's statement that the politician is a 
 prostitute is at least true of a good many of this type. 
 
 ''And the result of this policy is an abundant display 
 of verbal pyrotechnics to please the mob. Take a states- 
 man like Lardaman. His sole function in the Senate is 
 like that of a firecracker at a fete — to make a noise, and 
 the louder the noise the greater the applause of the 
 child-minds in the audience. These men have raved so 
 continuously about the Negro, to the exclusion of every- 
 thing else, that according to the law of cause and effect 
 that part of their brain which is connected with the 
 
116 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 Negro must be hypertrophied from overuse, while the 
 remainder be atrophied from disuse. I seriously believe 
 that if the Negro were suddenly to be removed from the 
 South, these statesmen, like victims of amnesia, would 
 have to begin life again as infants. But, with all this, 
 the so-called Democratic party possesses one admirable 
 trait, which consciously or unconsciously has been more 
 prominently developed than we find it in its great rival, 
 the Republican party — that trait is frankness of expres- 
 sion. It does not like the Negro and says so." 
 
 ''And what do you think of the Socialists," next asked 
 the other. 
 
 ''The Socialists appear to stand for unqualified fair 
 play to the Negro, as witness articles in their papers. 
 Yet it must be remembered, too, that theirs is a new 
 party and needs support. I hope that I am not doing 
 the Socialists an injustice, but I fear their party is like 
 that white man who will open a business in a Negro 
 neighborhood, and when he gets sufficiently rich, move to 
 a white locality and bar Negroes. I note that when it 
 comes to employment of the Negro, they maintain the 
 same attitude as the rest of the whites. In Milwaukee, 
 the Socialist stronghold, the condition of the Negro is 
 in many respects worse than that of the average North- 
 ern city. I agree with Prof. Loeb when he says : 'As 
 long as the Socialists worship at the shrine of racial 
 antipathy, they will so long continue to be an unreliable 
 factor in the progress of civilization.' " 
 
 "Anyway, you will admit the wisdom of keeping the 
 Negro from the polls in parts of the South? The white 
 man is better fitted to govern and he will give the Negro 
 a far better government than Negroes could give white 
 men. We do not want to return to the horrors of 
 Reconstruction." 
 
 "That the honest and intelligent citizen, and he alone, 
 should have a voice in the government of any country 
 is so evident that it is unnecessary for me to say so. 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 117 
 
 There ought also to be no royalty in vice, and I cannot 
 see why a vicious white man should be permitted to 
 vote and not a vicious Negro. Debar them both from 
 the polls. And with reference to a return to the evils 
 of Reconstruction, this would be impossible, for, first, 
 there are no more carpet-baggers ; second. Southern 
 whites are more educated; and third, the Negro is four- 
 teen times more literate now than then. I do not doubt 
 that in every Southern community you can find Negroes 
 possessing all the educational qualifications of the aver- 
 age white Southerner for election to office.'' 
 
 The passenger considered the paper in his hand, then 
 inquired : "What influence do you think the press has 
 upon race prejudice?" 
 
 ''The press," said Dixon, with conviction, "is the 
 greatest propagator and maintainer of color prejudice. 
 Crimes committed by the lower classes of Negroes, and, 
 in short, anything unfavorable to the Negro, is promi- 
 nently displayed, while favorable things are given scant 
 mention. The press takes a malicious delight in giving 
 a false impression of the Negro. And its cowardliness ! 
 Observation tells me that the Jew in this country is dis- 
 liked even more than the Negro. Why, then, does not 
 the press heckle the Jew? Because he has money and 
 can put them out. of business. A great many persons 
 know only of the newspaper type of Negro, which no 
 more represents him than the thug or the clown repre- 
 sents the Caucasian. To speak frankly, the larger jour- 
 nals ought to have got beyond that stage where they 
 find such cheap methods necessary to the retention of 
 their popularity. Of all the newspapers that I know and 
 I know many, there are only three that are above this 
 despicable conduct. Let anything, however insignifi- 
 cant, occur in which a Negro is concerned, and they will 
 often greatly exaggerate it, as I have proved time 
 and again. Schopenhauer, speaking of journalists 
 
118 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 and the way they exaggerate and create alarm, says, 
 'Herein they are like little dogs; if anything stirs 
 they immediately set up a shrill bark.' When I think of 
 the attitude of the press toward the Negro I cannot help 
 thinking how true this is. I regret to say it, but the 
 Fourth Estate in this respect reminds me of a spiteful 
 old gossip who, shutting her eyes to the good in a neigh- 
 bor, seeks out the neighbor's faults, and after magnify- 
 ing them considerably spreads them broadcast over the 
 town. I can't see any difference in this respect between 
 the conduct of some of these big newspapers and that 
 of some four-page weekly conducted by some ignorant 
 Negro editor who depends on the agitation of the color 
 question for his patronage. If diligence is displayed in 
 hunting for crime, fairness demands the same diligence 
 in hunting for virtue. Or why not adopt the system in 
 vogue in all other parts of the New World — do not men- 
 tion color? It is not at all necessary." 
 
 "But aren't you forgetting the influence of books such 
 as 'the Freckled Jeopard'?" 
 
 ''Since these authors make their appeal directly to 
 the color vanity of the unthinking and usually incompe- 
 tent white man," replied Dixon, "they undoubtedly do a 
 great deal of harm. Any man who sets out to tell a 
 group of human beings, however unmeritorious it be, 
 that it is better than any other group, generally has a 
 pleasant and easy task. 
 
 "And the men who do so are rascals, pure and sim- 
 ple, whose sole aim is to batten on the ignorance of oth- 
 ers. I refer especially to Thomas Vixon, who, according 
 to a leading historian, is the most misleading of 
 those who write against the Negro. According to Vixon, 
 one drop of Negro blood damns its possessor intellectu- 
 ally. While his motion picture, 'The ABORTION of a 
 Nation,' was showing in Chicago, it happened that a 
 Negro was accused of attacking a white woman and the 
 supposed incident was used in a full-page ad. with lurid 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 119 
 
 type to advertise the play. Vixon's plays have caused 
 several riots, some with fatal results. In my opinion 
 this man is the most mischievous of those literary sharp- 
 ers who prey on the emotions of the novel-reading public. 
 
 ''There are many points of resemblance between the 
 prostitute and this type of literary man : they use intel- 
 lect and motherhood, those highest gifts that God give 
 to man and woman respectively, not as a means of bless- 
 ing humanity, but to blight it; these authors make a liv- 
 by catering to the lowest of the intellectual vices — preju- 
 dice ; the prostitute by catering to the lowest form of 
 human passion — lust ; the prostitute's aim is to make 
 money, though in doing so she strengthens that enemy 
 humanity has always fiercely battled — Disease ; their aim 
 is to make money, even though their process may 
 strengthen that other arch-enemy of the human race — 
 Ignorance. The prostitute, the counterfeiter, the vendor 
 of diseased meat, and the Thomas Vixon type of author 
 are the four greatest perverters of society that I can 
 think of at this moment. I am looking forward to the 
 time when the average reader of novels will not sur- 
 render his emotions to the will of men of this calibre.'' 
 
 The passenger did not reply and, after a few moments, 
 Dixon continued : 
 
 "But it is only the non-thinking whites who allow 
 themselves to be thus swindled, for the arguments of 
 anti-Negro writers, scientific and sentimental, are so 
 padded with rhetoric, so childishly exclamatory and exag- 
 gerated, that were it not for hysteria these non-thinkers 
 could not help but see through the cheat, so transparent 
 it is. One of the heartiest laughs I have ever had was 
 after reading that book you mentioned. It is supposed 
 to be the last words in color jingoism. Honestly, I 
 pitied the man who had to carry around such thoughts 
 of his fellow-men. In one of the anti-Negro books, a 
 book to be found in the Chicago Public Library, as well 
 
120 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 as in the Washington, D. C, New York and other public 
 libraries, I found all sorts of annotations, mostly against 
 the author. This one, on page 124 of the Chicago copy, 
 interested me (I have it in my note book here). It runs: 
 'If you think I believe what you print, you are a fool. I 
 was born in Chicago and have a colored teacher and 
 several colored friends. You don't know colored peo- 
 ple's ways of the North, you fool. — Written by a white 
 boy 14j^ years old.' 
 
 "I read the book through twice," continued Dixon, 
 ''and it reminded me strongly of a filter whose function 
 is to retain all the impurities, but to let the good escape. 
 And in this instance, as the filter was an animated one, 
 it, of course, deposited some of its own mud. I found 
 the book fascinating — a most interesting study, not of 
 the Negro, but of the psychology of the author — Robert 
 Wilson Shufeldt. Even Thomas Vixon, with his wild- 
 eyed reasoning, can find something good in the Negro, 
 but to this author everything has the taste of a green 
 persimmon. This author relates how he had Negro 
 boys to commit self-abuse for only twenty-five cents, and 
 then uses this instance to prove the depravity of Negroes ! 
 It is safe to predict that a Negro, so perverting a white 
 boy, would, in a Northern state, have received a term in 
 prison, and in the South his charred bones would have 
 been bleached white again. Shufeldt not only goes scot- 
 free, but the product of his loathsome mind is placed in 
 the company of Shakespeare and Milton. The 'Medical 
 Review of Reviews' says that there is a shameful chap- 
 ter in the history of American medicine, entitled the 
 Negro. I am sure that Shufeldt must be the chief cor- 
 respondent to that chapter. Circe, with her magic spell, 
 used to transform men into the kind of animal whose 
 spirit they suggested — lions, tigers, or jackals, as the case 
 may be. The companions of Ulysses, as you might recall, 
 were changed into hogs. Had she espied this scribbler 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 121 
 
 it is difficult to conceive how he could have escaped the 
 incarnation of a scavenger-buzzard. Although Mr. 
 Shufeldt's book about the Negro is so interesting a study- 
 in the psychology of himself, I strongly object to its 
 presence in a library along with the works of Havelock 
 Ellis, Loeb and Fabre. Its proper place, I think, would 
 be in a museum of psychological freaks, and if there is 
 no such place, then treat it as we do the impurities from 
 our filters." 
 
 Just then the porter from the next car entered the 
 room, and calling Dixon aside, engaged him in conver- 
 sation. 
 
 When he was gone, Dixon returned to his seat and 
 continued : "To my mind there are three points in com- 
 mon with these Negro-hating authors : first, they inva- 
 riably begin by expressing their sympathy for the Negro, 
 Avhom they then lambast with a vindictiveness that 
 makes us thankful, for their own sakes, that they did not 
 declare themselves our enemies ; second, their strabism, 
 and, third, their great preponderance of emotion over 
 intellect. As a rule, they evince all that lack of reason- 
 ing power vvrhich they, themselves, attribute to the Negro. 
 The hysterical preacher in Thomas Vixon's 'Freckled 
 Jeopard' has his exact counterpart in another preacher 
 I knew, a New Jersey Negro, who, like him, was trying 
 to work his way to fame and fortune by stirring up color 
 hatred. These men should be laughed at — never taken 
 seriously. For my part, I have enough to bother me 
 already without taking to heart the babblings of these 
 learned ignoramuses. I speak against them merely be- 
 cause I see how they are adding to the already large 
 sum of human misery." 
 
 "But," objected the passenger, "some of these men 
 are really expressing their honest opinion." 
 
 "True, sir," assented Dixon. "For instance, there is 
 Prof. William Benjamin Smith of Tulane University, 
 who has written a book to prove that the Negro is not 
 
122 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 human. Then there is another author whose name I 
 have forgotten, but whose book I saw in the Los Angeles 
 Public Library. This learned gentleman proved to his 
 own satisfaction that the Negro was a survival of the 
 pre-Adamite period and had neither part nor lot with the 
 human race. Then there is another author, who has 
 attempted to prove that the serpent which tempted Eve 
 was a Negro. This theory was taken so seriously that 
 a book, a copy of which may be seen in the Chicago Pub- 
 lic Library, was written in its refutation. As you say, 
 sir, these men may be honest, but cannot the same be 
 said of the DoAvieites of Zion City, 111., who maintain 
 that the earth is flat and has four corners like a table?" 
 
 A brief pause, then Dixon added : "But lest you 
 might think I am exaggerating, I will give you a sample 
 of the logic of these anti-Negro writers. This is from 
 Shufeldt: 'Black wenches,' he says, 'are constantly 
 sought by white men of the various planes of society for 
 carnal gratification.' He goes on to say that the far 
 greater part of the mixing is caused by immoral white 
 men ; then further on, as a remedy against amalgamation, 
 he advocates the emasculation of the Negro ! 
 
 "Here's another jewel of humor from the same author 
 He speaks of the mulatto, 'Some are wonderfully hand- 
 some creatures.' he says, 'with superb figures, but hand- 
 some and fine-physiqued, only in the sense that our 
 American skunk is likewise a beautiful creature. It is 
 also a black animal with more or less of a white stripe 
 in it that is given to stealing chickens, and can, when ir- 
 ritated, elevate its tail and raise the most outrageous stink, 
 which is quite sufficient to check the progress of any 
 Anglo-Saxon, however robust and civilized he may be.' 
 
 "Here is something yet more humorous. This was 
 uttered in the halls of the so-called greatest deliberative 
 body in the world : 'Go down to the Pension Office,' 
 says this verbal pyrotechnist, 'and take out the Africans. 
 Then go down to the War and Navy Building and take 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 123 
 
 those sons of the cocoanut region who sit there with big 
 brown drops of sweat coming out of their foreheads. 
 Kick them out! Turn this brood of African tree-climbers 
 out to earn a living on the farm and in the fields.' " , 
 Both men laughed heartily. 
 
 ''But it is to the white man that these stupid men of 
 letters are doing the most harm," continued Dixon, seri- 
 ously. "Their mission, so they say, is to uphold the 
 supremacy of the white man, but they could not do a 
 surer thing to shatter it. If the color jingoes of America, 
 Australia and South Africa could see beyond their own 
 noses they would see that they are making enemies of 
 the darker peoples. When the average white person 
 reads one of these diatribes against darker humanity, it 
 only makes him pufif his chest out a little more ; but when 
 a non-white reads it, its sole effect is to produce a deep 
 and bitter hatred against white persons. And all these 
 peoples are getting to the stage where an insult to one 
 means an insult to all. No man or group of men, how- 
 ever strong, can afford to thus make enemies unneces- 
 sarily. 'No man,' says Burke, 'ever had a point of pride 
 that did not prove injurious to him.' I have given a 
 great deal of earnest thought to the subject and I am 
 firmly convinced that the present generation of whites 
 in America is making the biggest mistake of its life in 
 this treatment of the so-called Negro, a mistake for which 
 I sincerely hope future generations will not curse it, 
 even as the people of Civil War times must have cursed 
 the introducers of slavery. Napoleon, who certainly 
 ought to know, said that one cannot build an empire on 
 force. I do not want to preach, sir, but I consider it a 
 very poor policy to make an enemy of anyone, however 
 insignificant he may be." 
 
 "I never looked at it in that light before," admitted 
 the passenger, gravely. 
 
 "I'll tell you an incident, unpleasant though it is," 
 continued Dixon, "just to show you the effect of one of 
 
124 
 
 PROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 these anti-Negro productions on the Negro — an almost 
 typical case: A friend of mine, usually rational, con- 
 fessed to me his feelings after seeing a certain motion 
 picture which has been going the rounds. He said that 
 when he saw this picture defaming his people, and noted 
 how the white audience, persons of apparently the best 
 class, were wrought to the highest pitch of enthusiasm 
 over it, a supreme hatred for all white persons came 
 over him, and he said he was praying to God that some 
 one of them would but just offend him the least bit and 
 thus give him an excuse to brain the offender. And to 
 make it all the worse, he said, they had the audacity to 
 sing 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty.' 
 He confessed that in the future the most meaningless 
 ragtime air would have a greater significance for him. 
 Similarly, a white lady told me of another lady who took 
 her little boy to see what effect the picture would have 
 on him, and she said that the boy, when he saw the 
 Negro ill-treating the white woman (as it is in the pic- 
 ture), said he felt as if he could kill every Negro he met." 
 
 "This is regrettable," admitted the passenger, "but 
 what are you going to do? This is a free country." 
 
 "I would suggest," replied Dixon, "that these men — 
 men like Borah, Reed, Tillman, Vardaman, Dixon 
 and others, who are always yapping at the Negro, 
 shift their attention for a time to the vices of their own 
 people — yea, let them look into their own hearts and they 
 will see, to quote from Schopenhauer, Tt is the old story 
 of the dog barking at his own image. It is himself that 
 he sees, and not another dog, as he fancies.' " 
 
 "Well," next suggested the passenger, "there are 
 many persons who have befriended the Negro." 
 
 "I was just thinking of them," replied the other. "I 
 have always maintained that there are two classes of 
 persons alike ; those whites who say all Negroes are bad, 
 and those Negroes who say all whites are prejudiced 
 with the Negro, the worse of the two. Many of these 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 125 
 
 persons to whom you refer have been benefactors of the 
 Negro, even in the teeth of jeers and ostracism from 
 their own people, as certain Northerners who have given 
 up promising careers to devote a lifetime of service to 
 training the Negro. Then there are those who, through 
 press and public, have nobly striven to obtain justice for 
 him, as well as those who have given generously of their 
 means. Men and women like these, as was Voltaire, 
 Victor Hugo, Elizabeth Fry, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
 are the conscience of their generation. The fittest trib- 
 ute one can pay to these persons is to say that they are 
 the living embodiments of the spirit of America — that 
 spirit which declared that all men are equal and are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. 
 
 "But I must not forget to mention that these persons 
 may be divided into three classes : those who believe in 
 segregated justice, this type predominates in the South; 
 those who stand for equal justice only because it offends 
 their sense of justice, but who really have a contempt 
 for Negroes, especially full-blooded ones, this type pre- 
 dominates in the North; and those who really believe 
 that the Negro is human and should be treated as such, 
 and then, even among these I have met a few who had 
 a heartache at the sight of a Jew." 
 
 Dixon now consulted his watch and informed the 
 other that they would arrive at the next station in fif- 
 teen minutes and would stay there ten minutes. Remem- 
 bering that he probably would not have another chance 
 to speak with this man, he decided to summarize his 
 argument, and as the other did not speak, he continued : 
 
 ''Looking back on the conversation we have had, sir, 
 and supported by a mass of other information gathered 
 from various sources, I am confident that every argu- 
 ment brought forward to prove Negro inferiority, of 
 which I have heard, is wrong; that there is no bad trait 
 possessed by the Negro which cannot be paralleled by 
 the white man. In short, 'that black is not so very black, 
 
126 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 nor white so very white' ; that the Negro is disliked, not so 
 much for his features, his criminality and his imputed bad 
 traits, as for the color of his skin and the nature of his hair. 
 
 "But is that the real reason?" he continued, in a spirit 
 of raillery. "For instance, if a Negro has money, he 
 will find any number of whites to kowtow to him. For- 
 eign Negroes, too, or any Negro who can pass off as 
 Spanish, French — in short, anything else but United 
 States citizens, are better treated though these persons 
 are of the same mixture of black and white. Many of 
 the most prejudiced whites, too, have Negro intimates. 
 Really, this prejudice, habit, affectation, whim or what- 
 ever it is, is so ridiculous, so utterly opposed to every- 
 thing bordering on intelligence, that it is a wonder these 
 persons never happen to see themselves in their true 
 light and have a hearty laugh at their own expense." 
 
 "What do you think would offer a solution to the 
 problem?" asked the passenger earnestly. 
 
 "A sense of humor." 
 
 "Something easier than that." 
 
 "Then I should like to see the formation of a national 
 commission for an inquiry into the subject and to ascer- 
 tain the best means for adjusting the relationship be- 
 tween these two bodies of our citizens. There are also 
 three measures which I have always thought would help 
 a great deal : first, text-books in the public schools, teach- 
 ing in a simple manner the latest scientific findings in 
 this matter, without making any special reference to the 
 situation here in America; second, the establishment of 
 federal schools in those parts of the South where the 
 Negroes abound; and third, a non-political provision for 
 a certain number of Negro congressmen. I consider the 
 matter sufficiently serious to be taken in hand by the 
 federal government, and the stoppage of the evil now 
 might — indeed I am sure it would — save future genera- 
 tions a great deal of trouble. Just imagine what would 
 have been saved to the country — 600,000 lives and fifteen 
 
FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 127 
 
 billions of dollars — if the slaves had been freed at the 
 founding of the Republic. I do not see why we in the 
 United States and Canada, with our superior education, 
 should be behind countries like Brazil in this matter. 
 This country is big enough and rich enough — and broad- 
 minded enough, too, if it only will — to admit of every 
 citizen having a square deal, and yet leave a mighty 
 surplus. A little more assertion of our better selves 
 when dealing with others will go a far way toward mak- 
 ing us and them happier. In this respect I have found 
 Hamlet's injunction to Polonius, regarding the treatment 
 of the players, a most excellent one. When Hamlet, as 
 you might recall, sir, enjoined Polonius to take good care 
 of the players, the latter said : 'My lord, I will use them 
 according to their deserts.' But Hamlet exclaimed: 
 "God's bodykins, man, much better; use every man after 
 his deserts, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them 
 after your own honor and dignity ; the less they deserve, 
 the more merit is in your bounty.' " 
 
 FOURTH DAY. 
 
 'The strongest is never strong enough to be always master unless 
 he transforms his strength into right and obedience to duty." — 
 J. J. Rousseau. 
 
 The next day, before arriving at his destination, the 
 passenger, calling Dixon to his seat, invited him to sit 
 down, and with an air of frankness and earnestness that 
 greatly gratified him, said : want to thank you for 
 enabling me to see the other side of the story. I never 
 did realize before the vast injustice that is being done 
 to certain American citizens, and also the vast amount of 
 ignorance we, Caucasians, have to combat in our own 
 people. Hitherto I have prided myself on my broad 
 humanity, but I now see how narrow it has been. I 
 
128 
 
 FROM SUPERMAN TO MAN 
 
 think every true American should do his best to end this 
 great wrong, and I am going to do mine. As a legis- 
 lator, I promise you to see that the truth is more fully 
 disseminated. And more, yesterday you spoke of Ira 
 Aldridge, the famous Shakespearean actor. Now, I have 
 been thinking that since a Negro could win such high 
 dramatic honors, it would be quite possible to find Negro 
 talent for our best dramas. The connection is this : I 
 have interests in a large motion picture concern (here he 
 handed Dixon a card) and I have been thinking that in 
 order to create a better understanding of the Negro, and 
 as an offset to the caricatures so often made of him, that 
 I would get Negro actors for such plays as call forth the 
 best expressions of the soul. I will begin with a few 
 and hope to popularize the venture. In the meantime, 
 you shall hear from me. Call to see me any time within 
 the next two months, and I will show you how motion 
 pictures are made. Glad indeed to have met you." And 
 the two men shook hands cordially. 
 
 "Thank you, sir," said Dixon, in a voice vibrant with 
 gratitude. "And I must say that I note many signs 
 pointing to an amicable solution of this vexing question 
 of race. Among them are these : The salt of the intel- 
 lectual world, as represented by Abdul-Baha, Liebknecht, 
 Shaw and others, seems determined to disseminate truth 
 in spite of the barriers of nation, race or creed ; a grow- 
 ing desire on the part of all peoples to probe for truth, 
 despite emotional influences ; and so far as we of America 
 are concerned, the earnest and untiring effort of a very 
 large number of our citizens to make of our beloved 
 country a real Republic." 
 
 THE END.