CHAPTER II
A MODERN SCALAWAG
As the professor entered the office Norton was surprised at his height andweight. He had never met him personally, but had unconsciously formed theidea that he was a scrub physically.
He saw a man above the average height, weighing nearly two hundred, withcheeks flabby but inclined to fat. It was not until he spoke that he caughtthe unmistakable note of effeminacy in his voice and saw it clearlyreflected in his features.
He was dressed with immaculate neatness and wore a tie of an extraordinaryshade of lavender which matched the silk hose that showed above his stylishlow-cut shoes.
"Major Norton, I believe?" he said with a smile.
The editor bowed without rising:
"At your service, Professor Magraw. Have a seat, sir."
"Thank you! Thank you!" the dainty voice murmured with so marked aresemblance to a woman's tones that Norton was torn between twoimpulses--one to lift his eyebrows and sigh, "Oh, splash!" and the other tokick him down the stairs. He was in no mood for the amenities of politeconversation, turned and asked bluntly:
"May I inquire, professor, why you have honored me with this unexpectedcall--I confess I am very curious?"
"No doubt, no doubt," he replied glibly. "You have certainly not mincedmatters in your personal references to me in the paper of late, MajorNorton, but I have simply taken it good-naturedly as a part of your day'swork. Apparently we represent two irreconcilable ideals of Southernsociety----"
"There can be no doubt about that," Norton interrupted grimly.
"Yet I have dared to hope that our differences are only apparent and thatwe might come to a better understanding."
He paused, simpered and smiled.
"About what?" the editor asked with a frown.
"About the best policy for the leaders of public opinion to pursue to morerapidly advance the interests of the South----"
"And by 'interests of the South' you mean?"
"The best interest of all the people without regard to race or color!"
Norton smiled:
"You forgot part of the pass-word of your order, professor! The wholeclause used to read, 'race, color or previous condition of servitude'----"
The sneer was lost on the professor. He was too intent on his mission.
"I have called, Major Norton," he went on glibly, "to inform you that mydistinguished associates in the great Educational Movement in the Southview with increasing alarm the tendency of your paper to continue theagitation of the so-called negro problem."
"And may I ask by whose authority your distinguished associates have beenset up as the arbiters of the destiny of twenty millions of white citizensof the South?"
The professor flushed with amazement at the audacity of such a question:
"They have given millions to the cause of education, sir! These great Fundsrepresent to-day a power that is becoming more and more resistless----"
Norton sprang to his feet and faced Magraw with eyes flashing:
"That's why I haven't minced matters in my references to you, professor.That's why I'm getting ready to strike a blow in the cause of racial purityfor which my paper stands."
"But why continue to rouse the bitterness of racial feeling? The questionwill settle itself if let alone."
"How?"
"By the process of evolution----"
"Exactly!" Norton thundered. "And by that you mean the gradual breakingdown of racial barriers and the degradation of our people to a mongrelnegroid level or you mean nothing! No miracle of evolution can gloss overthe meaning of such a tragedy. The Negro is the lowest of all human forms,four thousand years below the standard of the pioneer white Aryan whodiscovered this continent and peopled it with a race of empire builders.The gradual mixture of our blood with his can only result in the extinctionof National character--a calamity so appalling the mind of every patriotrefuses to accept for a moment its possibility."
"I am not advocating such a mixture!" the professor mildly protested.
"In so many words, no," retorted Norton; "yet you are setting in motionforces that make it inevitable, as certain as life, as remorseless asdeath. When you demand that the patriot of the South let the Negro alone towork out his own destiny, you know that the mere physical contact of twosuch races is a constant menace to white civilization----"
The professor raised the delicate, tapering hands:
"The old nightmare of negro domination is only a thing with which tofrighten children, major, the danger is a myth----"
"Indeed!" Norton sneered. "When our people saw the menace of an emancipatedslave suddenly clothed with the royal power of a ballot they met thisthreat against the foundations of law and order by a counter revolution andrestored a government of the wealth, virtue and intelligence of thecommunity. What they have not yet seen, is the more insidious danger thatthreatens the inner home life of a Democratic nation from the physicalcontact of two such races."
"And you propose to prevent that contact?" the piping voice asked.
"Yes."
"And may I ask how?"
"By an ultimate complete separation through a process covering perhaps twohundred years----"
The professor laughed:
"Visionary--impossible!"
"All right," Norton slowly replied. "I see the invisible and set myself todo the impossible. Because men have done such things the world movesforward not backward!"
The lavender hose moved stealthily:
"You will advocate this?" the professor asked.
"In due time. The Southern white man and woman still labor under the olddelusion that the negro's lazy, slipshod ways are necessary and that wecould not get along without him----"
"And if you dare to antagonize that faith?"
"When your work is done, professor, and the glorious results of Evolutionare shown to mean the giving in marriage of our sons and daughters, my taskwill be easy. In the mean time I'll do the work at hand. The negro is stilla voter. The devices by which he is prevented from using the power to whichhis numbers entitle him are but temporary. The first real work before thestatesmen of the South is the disfranchisement of the African, the repealof the Fifteenth Amendment to our Constitution and the restoration ofAmerican citizenship to its original dignity and meaning."
"A large undertaking," the professor glibly observed. "And you will daresuch a program?"
"I'll at least strike a blow for it. The first great crime against thepurity of our racial stock was the mixture of blood which the physicalcontact of slavery made inevitable.
"But the second great crime, and by far the most tragic and disastrous, wasthe insane Act of Congress inspired by the passions of the Reconstructionperiod by which a million ignorant black men, but yesterday from thejungles of Africa, were clothed with the full powers of citizenship underthe flag of Democracy and given the right by the ballot to rule a superiorrace.
"The Act of Emancipation was a war measure pure and simple. By that actLincoln sought to strike the South as a political power a mortal blow. Hedid not free four million negroes for sentimental reasons. He destroyedfour billion dollars' worth of property invested in slaves as an act of warto save the Union. Nothing was further from his mind or heart than the madidea that these Africans could be assimilated into our National life. Heintended to separate the races and give the Negro a nation of his own. Butthe hand of a madman struck the great leader down in the hour of hissupreme usefulness.
"In the anarchy which followed the assassination of the President and theattempt of a daring coterie of fanatics in Washington to impeach hissuccessor and create a dictatorship, the great crime against Democracy wascommitted. Millions of black men, with the intelligence of children and theinstincts of savages, were given full and equal citizenship with the breedof men who created the Republic.
"Any plan to solve intelligently the problem of the races must firstcorrect this blunder from which a stream of poison has been pouring intoour life.
"The first
step in the work of separating the races, therefore, must be todeprive the negro of this enormous power over Democratic society. It is nota solution of the problem, but as the great blunder was the giving of thissymbol of American kingship, our first task is to take it from him andrestore the ballot to its original sanctity."
"Your movement will encounter difficulties, I foresee!" observed theprofessor with a gracious smile.
He was finding his task with Norton easier than he anticipated. Theeditor's madness was evidently so hopeless he had only to deliver hisultimatum and close the interview.
"The difficulties are great," Norton went on with renewed emphasis, "butless than they have been for the past twenty years. Until yesterday thenegro was the ward of the Nation. Any movement by a Southern state toremove his menace was immediately met by a call to arms to defend the Unionby Northern demagogues who had never smelled powder when the Union was indanger.
"A foolish preacher in Boston who enjoys a National reputation has been inthe habit of rousing his hearers to a round of cheers by stamping his foot,lifting hands above his head and yelling:
"'The only way to save the Union now is for Northern mothers to rear morechildren than Southern mothers!'
"And the sad part of it is that thousands of otherwise sane people in NewEngland and other sections of the North and West believed this idioticstatement to be literally true. It is no longer possible to fool them withsuch chaff----"
The professor rose and shook out his finely creased trousers until thelavender hose scarcely showed:
"I am afraid, Major Norton, that it is useless for us to continue thisdiscussion. You are quite determined to maintain the policy of your paperon this point?"
"Quite."
"I am sorry. The _Eagle and Phoenix_ is a very powerful influence in thisstate. The distinguished associates whom I represent sent me in the vainhope that I might persuade you to drop the agitation of this subject andjoin with us in developing the material and educational needs of theSouth----"
Norton laughed aloud:
"Really, professor?"
The visitor flushed at the marked sneer in his tones, and fumbled hislavender tie:
"I can only deliver to you our ultimatum, therefore----"
"You are clothed with sovereign powers, then?" the editor askedsarcastically.
"If you choose to designate them so--yes. Unless you agree to drop thisdangerous and useless agitation of the negro question and give our people ahearing in the columns of your paper, I am authorized to begin at once thepublication of a journal that will express the best sentiment of theSouth----"
"So?"
"And I have unlimited capital to back it."
Norton's eyes flashed as he squared himself before the professor:
"I've not a doubt of your backing. Start your paper to-morrow if you like.You'll find that it takes more than money to build a great organ of publicopinion in the South. I've put my immortal soul into this plant. I'll watchyour experiment with interest."
"Thank you! Thank you," the thin voice piped.
"And now that we understand each other," Norton went on, "you've given methe chance to say a few things to you and your associates I've been wantingto express for a long time----"
Norton paused and fixed his visitor with an angry stare:
"Not only is the Negro gaining in numbers, in wealth and in shallow'culture,' and tightening his grip on the soil as the owner in fee simpleof thousands of homes, churches, schools and farms, but a Negroid party hasonce more developed into a powerful and sinister influence on the life ofthis state! You and your associates are loud in your claims to represent anew South. In reality you are the direct descendants of the ReconstructionScalawag and Carpetbagger.
"The old Scalawag was the Judas Iscariot who sold his people for thirtypieces of silver which he got by licking the feet of his conqueror andfawning on his negro allies. The Carpetbagger was a Northern adventurer whocame South to prey on the misfortunes of a ruined people. A new and farmore dangerous order of Scalawags has arisen--the man who boldly preachesthe omnipotence of the dollar and weighs every policy of state or societyby one standard only, will it pay in dollars and cents? And so you frown onany discussion of the tragic problem the negro's continued pressure onSouthern society involves because it disturbs business.
"The unparalleled growth of wealth in the North has created our enormousPoor Funds, organized by generous well-meaning men for the purpose ofeducation in the South. As a matter of fact, this new educational movementhad its origin in the same soil that established negro classical schoolsand attempted to turn the entire black race into preachers, lawyers, anddoctors just after the war. Your methods, however, are wiser, although yourpolicies are inspired, if not directed, by the fertile brain of a notoriousnegro of doubtful moral character.
"The directors of your Poor Funds profess to be the only true friends ofthe true white man of the South. By a 'true white man of the South' youmean a man who is willing to show his breadth of vision by fraternizingoccasionally with negroes.
"An army of lickspittles have begun to hang on the coat-tails of yourdispensers of alms. Their methods are always the same. They attempt toattract the notice of the Northern distributors by denouncing men of mytype who are earnestly, fearlessly and reverently trying to face and solvethe darkest problem the centuries have presented to America. These littlebeggars have begun to vie with one another not only in denouncing theleaders of public opinion in the South, but in fulsome and disgustingfawning at the feet of the individual negro whose personal influencedominates these Funds."
Again the lavender socks moved uneasily.
"In which category you place the author of a certain book, I suppose?"inquired the professor.
"I paused in the hope that you might not miss my meaning," Norton replied,smiling. "The astounding power for the debasement of public opiniondeveloping through these vast corruption funds is one of the most sinisterinfluences which now threatens Southern society. It is the most difficultof all to meet because its protestations are so plausible andphilanthropic.
"The Carpetbagger has come back to the South. This time he is not a lowadventurer seeking coin and public office. He is a philanthropist whocarries hundreds of millions of dollars to be distributed to the 'right'men who will teach Southern boys and girls the 'right' ideas. So far asthese 'right' ideas touch the negro, they mean the ultimate completeacceptance of the black man as a social equal.
"Your chief spokesman of this New Order of Carpetbag, for example, hasdeclared on many occasions that the one thing in his life of which he ismost proud is the fact that he is the personal friend of the negro whoseinfluence now dominates your dispensers of alms! This man positivelygrovels with joy when his distinguished black friend honors him by becominghis guest in New York.
"With growing rage and wonder I have watched the development of this modernphenomenon. I have fought you with sullen and unyielding fury from thefirst, and you have proven the most dangerous and insidious force I haveencountered. You profess the loftiest motives and the highest altruismwhile the effects of your work can only be the degradation of the whiterace to an ultimate negroid level, to say nothing of the appalling resultsif you really succeed in pauperizing the educational system of the South!
"I expected to hear from your crowd when the movement for a white ballotwas begun. Through you the society of Affiliated Black League Almoners ofthe South, under the direction of your inspired negro leader, have soundedthe alarm. And now all the little pigs who are feeding on this swill, andall the hungry ones yet outside the fence and squealing to get in, willunite in a chorus that you hope can have but one result--the division ofthe white race on a vital issue affecting its purity, its integrity, andits future.
"The possible division of my race in its attitude toward the Negro is theone big danger that has always hung its ugly menace over the South. So longas her people stand united, our civilization can be protected against thepressure of the Negro's growing millions. But th
e moment a serious divisionof these forces occurs the black man's opportunity will be at hand. Thequestion is, can you divide the white race on this issue?"
"We shall see, major, we shall see," piped the professor, fumbling hislavender tie and bowing himself out.
The strong jaw closed with a snap as Norton watched the silk hosedisappear.