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46 THE ATHENAEUM WITH WHOM LIES THE FAULT TlflTANY- have wondered and a few have been sufficiently interested to ask the cause of our silence in thei last issue with regard to the charges against the validity of the Fourteenth Amendment. This silence was maintained because it was at first considered as merely a bid for publicity on the part of a disgruntled Southerner. It now secures space because on further consideration it is seen in its real aspect as the outcropping of a complex prevalent among a large ele- ment of Southern .whjJtfs^Jjjat the natural condition of the Negro is that of slavery and thal^aU attempts to alter this condition contrav ene the will ofdGodj VO t . r The futility -j9k 3 tfye ( attepmt to invalidate the Fourthteenth A- mendment is readiljfjflpp^rent to all who are on speaking terms with American Constitutional History. But who is responsible for the more or less prevent complex which at the end of the first quarter of the Twentieth Century allows its validity to be questioned. The development of this qomplex is easily traceable to the two centuries and more in which white men were born, lived, and died observing Negroes in a state of servitude and their mentality developing a feel ing of inferiority that was far worse than the most abject form of slavery. The'responsibility for its maintenance to our day is not so readily placed. But from whatever_angle we view this condition it must be admitted that at least a part of the fault lies with that large group of Negroes who show no disposition to avail themselves of their rights; ia&jejt^zens and who are backwrad and servile in their dealing&jwith members of the white race. With: that portion of guilt that lies at the door of the white Southnwejcan not, ejfjegfi^eto dea^. But we can and must go systema tically sabjtytfi of .the fault within. This may be broughta&tfj&fo t^thorough, and continuous training and relentless propagandising.of th^ r nj^§ses of our people^" ft'would be well worth their while if 500 of our best minds would devote their lives to the problem of getting over to the Negro the feeling that he is the equal of any man alive—but that the way to prove it is not by making the statement but by actual accomplishment in the arena of life.