munity-life. It is not out of place, however, to say that the difficulty of solution has been greatly intensified because of the inexcusable blunders made by the people of both sections because of political differences and sectional antagonisms that have no proper place in Christian brotherhood.

In all the history of the world's civilization no nation on earth has had to settle anything like this American problem. The question of the hour, the burning question of the hour is-are we willing and ready, in God's name, for the good of humanity and the preservation of our Christian civilization—are we ready to make the best effort righteously to solve it? The problem, I repeat, is American. It is not sectional, it is national. Just now it may not be so intense at the North as at the South, but it is moving toward the North and moving rapidly.

Washington City, the capital of the nation, has the largest negro population of any city in the United States, amounting to 87,000, more than double the negro population of Atlanta, the capital city of my state. Baltimore, nearing the line of separation of the sections, has 79,000 resident negroes, being more than twice as many as the capital city of Mississippi. Philadelphia has 63,000 negroes and New York 60,ooo, which is more than double the negro population of Charleston, South Carolina.

The Southern problem is moving north as

surely as the Northern problem-industrial unrest-is moving south. What shall we do when these two great industrial forces shall meet in conflict on the same field for industrial service? This is the question constructive Christianity must answer, lest the state be destroyed and anarchy and chaos reign in the nation.

Difficult as the solution may seem, awful and disastrous as the foreboding may appear, I have never doubted for a moment, that constructive Christianity, under God, is equal to the demands that are upon us. If not, why Christianity at all?

Now as to the application. How shall we proceed, looking to a solution? First, the negro problem is the problem of our community-life. Patriotism and economy, and certainly Christianity, demand that we make every element of the local community a helpful force for the general good. This can be easily accomplished through the forces now organized throughout the nation. We must give the negro the gospel just as we give it to the backward peoples of all the earth. If the gospel is withheld, every Christian man in the community is responsible for all the crime and ruin of community-life that follows. Any man is a moral coward, who dares not cry aloud against any evil in his community-life.

Second, the problem is that of the individual, as is true of all human problems. Immediately after the close of the civil war, the legislature

At

of my state enacted a law legalizing all the marriages between the slaves in the state, even those that had occurred years before the war. the first minute after that statute was approved by the Executive, by virtue of the statute, thousands and thousands of negroes were legally married. The time has not yet come when a nation can thus be spiritually born in a day. The spiritual problem of this day is the problem of the individual.

It does not need to be said that the negro must be educated and specially trained if he is to meet successfully the obligations of his community-life. Every dollar invested by the people at the North in the school at Hampton, under the direction of Dr. Frissell and in the school at Tuskegee, under the direction of Booker T. Washington, has brought most satisfactory returns to our common interests at the South.

Christ has given us a most striking and apt illustration of the problem of the individual, as the solution of the problem of the multitude. Journeying through Samaria he came to Sychar, and being weary with his journey, he rested at Jacob's well. There came a woman from Samaria to draw water. Jesus saw and improved the opportunity to reach her people through the salvation of the woman from Samaria. He did not trouble himself about the hate that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. He knew He was in the presence of a lost human soul.

From that interview, what a marvelous change was wrought in an individual life and, subsequently, in the lives of many others, when she returned to the city and said: "Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did: Is not this the Christ?' Then they went out of the city and came unto him." The multitude must be saved, by first saving the individual.

What a beautiful story Jesus tells of the good Samaritan and a certain man who fell among thieves. The priest came down that way, but not being a constructive Christian, he looked upon the unfortunate man, and passed by on the other side. The Levite came by and saw the man's distressed condition, but although an official, he was not a constructive Christian and he left the' wounded man to die of his wounds. The good Samaritan gave us a fitting illustration of the spirit and the service of the gospel toward those who need our help and Jesus commended him as an example for all time.

Third, the problem is that of the negro home. I do not know how it is in the North, but in the South, thousands and thousands of negroes are most dangerously housed. Families of three, five or fifteen live in cabins having one, two, and sometimes three rooms. In this limited space all of them sleep, cook, wash, and do all their domestic service. These rooms have, practically, no ventilation, and the inmates close up tightly whatever openings there may be. Most of them sleep with their heads entirely covered. Bad

ventilation and uncleanness breed disease and bad morals.

The problem of the negro home is the problem of proper sanitation. The bacteriologist for my city reports that thirteen hundred people died in Atlanta last year, because of neglected sanitation.

I had thirty years' experience with domestic slavery. In my community there were great multitudes of negroes. I was generally familiar with the conditions in other communities. During my thirty years' experience, I never saw or heard of a single case of consumption or tuberculosis. White people had tuberculosis, but negroes seldom, if ever. Now, the negroes in Georgia and at the South are dying three to one as compared with the whites.

The population of my city is sixty per cent white and forty per cent negro. The whites furnish forty-two per cent of the deaths from tuberculosis and the negroes furnish fifty-eight per cent. The population of Savannah, in my state, is forty-eight per cent white and fifty-two per cent negro. The whites furnish twenty-five per cent of the deaths from tuberculosis and the negroes furnish seventy-five per cent. And so it is throughout the South.

The problem of the negro home is the problem of good morals. Living as many of them do, they cannot be kept morally clean. This makes the woman of the negro home an easy prey to immoral and degenerate white men.