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from the home of the woman who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin " stands the handsome brick-and-cement structure which houses this modern school. Upon the brow of the same hill is Lane Seminary, around which there centered before the DO Civil War one of the main stations on the famous Underground Railroad from slavery to freedom. As time passed, many of those who had come found themselves abiding near the homes of the re kindly and high-minded enthusiasts who had befriended them. The end of the war did not stop the growth of this black community; for from time to time others have come seeking to better their condition.

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Now there is a truth, familiar to all when it is applied to fowls of the air, that is equally a truth when it is applied to human beings, although this fact is not so clearly appreciated by many. For of men as much as of winged creatures can it be said that "birds of a feather flock together." In obedience, therefore, to this law of life as well as to the law of the State as it then was, a separate public school was established in that neighborhood for the Negro children.

But as time passed the public mind became opposed to racial segregation in the schools as a matter of man-made law. The Legislature, accordingly, put an end to compulsory separation as long ago as 1888. And yet during the thirty-one years that have gone by since then the great majority of the Negroes in the Douglass district have continued to send their children to Douglass because they prefer this Negro school.

Their choice is clearly a free one; for within the same territory are three other public schools that are open to both white and black. And yet only a handful of colored boys and girls are to be found there consorting with the white race. The actual statistics are impressive. For, although the Douglass section contains 1,087 Negroes between the ages of six and twenty-one, the enrollment at Doug lass numbers 936. About one hundred of these live in other parts of the city and go to the trouble of walking or S of paying car-fare rather than attend mixed schools near their own homes.

actually in school attend with white children. But even if we play safe by doubling this estimate, we find that ninety per cent of the children in school are enrolled at Douglass. And this is the place where of their own free will none but Negroes attend.

Clearly, then, the colored community is overwhelmingly in favor of the separate school. It follows that Douglass in greater degree than other accessible institutions meets the real wants of the Negro. If, therefore, we learn just what Douglass offers to that community and just how Douglass makes the offer, we shall have some light at least on what a Negro group that is above the average in intelligence and in enterprise does want from white America.

How many go to the three mixed Eschools within easy reach of the Douglass neighborhood? The precise answer cannot be given, because the School Board does not tabulate enrollment by races, but only by schools. It is plain, however, that those attending these institutions from that territory are negligible in number. For if we subtract from the district's population of those between the ages of six and twenty-one all who go to Douglass, we have a remainder of some two hundred and fifty. Subtract again from this remainder that large proportion of boys and girls above compulsory school age who must work for their bread, and who because of this are not in school anywhere, and it becomes clear that only a few can be going to mixed schools. It is, indeed, the estimate of competent per sons that not over five per cent of those

The Rough House in the evenings for the boys.

In a large basement room, on a level with the ground outside, the Rough House holds its nightly session. Under the supervision of a teacher, the youngsters find vent here for their surplus energy and animal spirits. So many throng the place that it would be a puzzle how to find room for all to play at once. Fortunately, games like basket-ball and contests like boxing, if gone at with a vim, soon reduce the participants to a state of breathless willingness to retire to the rooters' bench. It is but natural, therefore, that the boys should find almost equal satisfaction in playing the game for all it is worth and in shouting for their side. The boys have, indeed, proved their interest in a very practical way, for with their own hands they have made and erected the basket-ball goals.

Now all of this promotes team-work, as well as friendly rivalry with the "good sports" on the opposing side, and a common fellowship with the other "husky." whether he be for or against a boy's own crowd. And so that overflow of vitality which, if undirected, might easily result in tough gangs is put in harness to achieve the democratic spirit.

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frequented by migrants from the South. And all the year around there are gym" classes for men and for women, as well as clubs of all sorts-clubs for house servants, for factory girls, for young men, for girls in high school, and for girls in the University. Then, too, the audito. rium is thrown open for lectures, concerts, and the movies.

Again, even "robustious" youth is sometimes glad of a quiet hour. One corner of the Rough House has therefore been set apart for less strenuous games, such as checkers and crokinole. Then, too, there is a community branch of the public library for those in quiet mood. This branch library is conspicuously and conveniently housed in another large basement room provided by the school. And the public library furnishes the books and the trained attendant. Here the girls as well as the boys are welcome, and the old as well as the young. The doors remain open after school hours, closing for the day at nine o'clock.

Douglass offers other opportunities for work and play in the early evenings. Thus there is a five months' night school in academic and industrial subjects, much

All of the activities that one may expect in a modern school are to be found at Douglass. Manual training and domestic science, an open-air room for the tuberculous and a class for defectives, school gardens and a supervised playground-all are here. There is also a lunch-room where nourishing and quickly assimilable foods may be had at recess periods. The policy of the School Board for its maintenance is worth noting. For the lunch-room begins the school year with a thirty-day credit at the wholesale houses. And after that it must maintain itself out of current income.

Of the activities named thus far, one is of especial value for the Negro race. The open-air room is what I mean. For the fact is notorious that consumption is the "black man's scourge.' It is therefore particularly cheering to the believer in democracy to find that the School Board provides the same high quality of care and equipment for these imperiled Negro children that it does for whites in the same danger.

For a race that is struggling upward another standard provision is of peculiar importance. This is the separation of the defectives from the normal children. Not only are normal children who have had good school opportunities held back when defectives are in their classes, but children who have previously attended poor schools, as is the case with so many of the migrants from the South, have a still greater disadvantage when those of feeble mind are taught with them. By separating defective from normal minds, each can be taught the better.

Of late even the problem of the newcomer, backward because of poor schools, has become acute. For the final result of the great demand for labor in Northern industries which grew out of war conditions has been a heavy migration of Negro families from the South. Since the signing of the armistice this family movement has indeed slowed down, but it has not stopped.

The successful way in which the problem of these new children has been dealt with furnishes convincing proof of the wisdom of the Board in allowing to every school a wide liberty in working out the problems of its neighborhood. It is eloquent, too, of the efficiency with which principal and teachers meet the specific needs of their own people as those needs arise.

The root idea was the establishment of a separate room for the over-age children from the South. But it took an artist in humanity to prevent such segregation from becoming a badge of humiliation and discouragement.

"We'll call this room," the princi

pal explained, "the Opportunity Class." Here the teacher devotes herself especially to coaching the individual pupils, although in certain specific subjects, such as manual training, the departmental instructors help too. So admirably do the students respond that in one case a child made four grades in a single year; and two grades a year is a common record. That the other children feel a sympa thetic interest in these newcomers is indicated by the nickname they have for them "the Sunny South Class."

"It occurred to me," added the principal, "that a Southern woman would be better able than a Northerner to understand these young Southerners. I therefore put in charge a capable woman from Montgomery, Alabama. Her grasp of the problem is revealed by the results achieved by the children."

The resourcefulness of the management both in meeting school needs and in utilizing available materials is further emphasized in the following instance: In conformity with the co-operative policy of the School Board and the Park Commission, the latter had condemned several dwelling-houses next to the school, in order to put in a modern playground. One of these houses was in fair condition; and upon Mr. Russell's requesting that it be preserved, the Commission promptly consented. Now the girls have the house for a practice home in domestic science, the neighborhood has it for a community center, and the children have its broad kitchen porch during summer playtime for an ice-cream parlor. Then, too, the manual training boys have combined practice work and community service by building from the ground up a handsome fireplace in the chief club

room.

Let me add in passing that the teachers at Douglass realize that if you increase a man's wants he will work harder so as to have the means for satisfying his new needs. I had commented upon the fine quality of furniture with which the practice house was equipped and had asked if stuff that cost that much might not result merely in the creation of an unattainable ideal.

"No," said my guide. "At present wages many, through saving, can buy furniture as good as this. And such ideals give an incentive to the wageearner for steadier work."

The record as thus far presented gives ample proof both that a just School Board provides Negro children with opportunities equal to those of the white and that the leadership within the school is sane and resourceful. But, after all, these would come to nothing without a teaching staff of high quality. Several of the Douglass teachers are from reputable Negro institutions. And all comply with the requirement of the School Board that teachers shall do some studying each year in such an approved institution as the University of Cincinnati, itself a part of the school system.

But the remark of one teacher from New Orleans struck me most forcibly. "My leaving the South," she said, was simply a business necessity. I am studying for my A.B. degree, and I have decided that it is a needless expense to

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from the far South to summer sessions at Ann Arbor and Chicago, when I can get my education at the municipal university here while earning a comfortable living as a teacher."

As a white Southerner I have found much food for thought in this statement, especially because eleven out of the twenty-eight teachers on the efficient staff at Douglass have been contributed by the South. And the South is none too rich in such treasure.

In all that I have written my aim has been to make clear what the Douglass School is doing and how it does it. To whom is honor due for this signal service to American democracy across the bounds of race?

The question is not easy to answer; for, as is characteristic of democracy, the leadership has been co-operative. But, wherever the idea had its birth, it is worth while to remember that back in 1910, when the Douglass School got its present splendid building, an Ohioan whose Virginia Quaker father had freed his own slaves years ago was superintendent of schools in Cincinnati; that he worked in harmony with the president of the municipal university, a Virginian who in former years wrought effectively in the eastern South for better schools for all the children of all the people; and that Booker Washington is said to have been consulted in the selection of the Tennessee Negro who has furnished the direct leadership. For the rest the school would amount to nothing but for

the cordial and statesmanlike support it receives from the present School Board and their superintendent, and but for the backing of the local Negro community.

Do the people of Cincinnati indorse the policy of voluntary attendance by Negroes at schools maintained exclusively for Negroes?

Yes. For how else may we interpret the recent creation of the Stowe Public School, modeled after the Douglass, in the heart of a congested downtown center of Negro population? And how else may we interpet the action of the great majority of Negro parents there in sending their children to Stowe and to other exclusively Negro schools in that district? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

My journey over, I sought out my friend in the South.

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"What did you find that those Negroes want?" he queried. Only this,' "As good a chance for their boy and girl as and I want for ours. But they feel that they get that chance most surely by staying in their own crowd. For us in the South this case is especially encouraging; because, in view of the selected character of the original group and their close relations with white abolitionists, we need not have been surprised had these Negroes desired mixed schools and social intermingling. On the contrary, this community, while reaching up toward white standards, prefers racial seclusion. These people revere their own racial personality. This fact could not be better set forth than by quoting from the four huge placards that confront the visitor in the main entrance to the Douglass School For on the placards are these words:

"Self-Control: Self-Reliance: Self-Respect: and Race Pride!"

Does not this record provide just ground for a faith deep enough to cause white Americans to see to it that the children of the Negro have opportunities for self-development in separate schools that are equal in quality to the opportunities we demand for our own children? May not America find in such an enterprise the chance to teach the world the supreme truth that democracy means, not the wiping out of racial personality, but rather the cherishing of racial difference and the ennobling of diverse stocks for the enrichment of us all?

Sunday Night.

AM on the sleeper bound for Erie, having just left my wife at the Albany station. Singular that, no matter how often I start off for a trip on the road, there is a mist in her eyes which she tries to hide by smiling bravely. One would think that it were for six months or a year and to some distant land I was going instead of on a three weeks' trip to a near-by

all individual flavor. A trout might be a bluefish (perhaps it is).

Although my berth has been made up, I am sitting in the smoking compartment, listening to the heavy rain and waiting for the rest to get settled for the night. Years of travel have made me selfish enough to prefer waking others up when I retire to being wakened myself. Besides, berths were never made for one of my