It is the unsatisfactoriness
of the negro as a worker, as a producing agent, that gives rise largely
to the friction between the two races. The negro has not yet become
adapted to a system of free contract and is frequently unreliable as a
laborer. This breeds continued antagonism between the races. It is only
necessary here to remark that when the negro becomes an efficient
producer and a property owner the negro problem will be practically
solved.
Educational Progress Among the Negroes.--The educational progress among
the negroes has been more satisfactory than their industrial progress.
At the time of the emancipation 95 per cent of all the negroes in the
United States were illiterate, since nearly all the slave states had
laws forbidding the education of negroes. Since the emancipation there
has been a rapid decrease of illiteracy. In 1880 seventy per cent of the
negroes above the age of ten years were still reported as illiterate. In
1890, 56.8 per cent; and in 1900, 44.6 per cent. The number of
illiterate negro voters in the United States in 1900 was 47.
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