of the whole number were engaged in raising farm products either on their own account or by way of assisting somebody else, and the great staples of course were the cotton and corn of the Southern states.  If along with the farmers we take those engaged in the occupations employing the next greatest numbers of men—­those of the building and hand trades, saw and planing mills, as well as those of railway firemen and porters, draymen, teamsters, and coal mine operatives—­we shall find a total of 71.2 per cent engaged in such work as represents the very foundation of American industry.  Of the women at work, 1,047,146, or 52 per cent, were either farm laborers or farmers, and 28 per cent more were either cooks or washerwomen.  In other words, a total of exactly 80 per cent were engaged in some of the hardest and at the same time some of the most vital labor in our home and industrial life.  The new emphasis on the Negro as an industrial factor in the course of the recent war is well known.  When immigration ceased, upon his shoulders very largely fell the task of keeping the country and the army alive.  Since the war closed he has been on the defensive in the North; but a country that wishes to consider all of the factors that enter into its gravest social problem could never forget his valiant service in 1918.  Let any one ask, moreover, even the most prejudiced observer, if he would like to see every Negro in the country out of it, and he will then decide whether economically the Negro is a liability or an asset.

Again, consider the Negro soldier.  In all our history there are no pages more heroic, more pathetic, than those detailing the exploits of black men.  We remember the Negro, three thousand strong, fighting for the liberties of America when his own race was still held in bondage.  We remember the deeds at Port Hudson, Fort Pillow, and Fort Wagner.  We remember Santiago and San Juan Hill, not only how Negro men went gallantly to the charge, but how a black regiment faced pestilence that the ranks of their white comrades might not be decimated.  And then Carrizal.  Once more, at an unexpected moment, the heart of the nation was thrilled by the troopers of the Tenth Cavalry.  Once more, despite Brownsville, the tradition of Fort Wagner was preserved and passed on.  And then came the greatest of all wars.  Again was the Negro summoned to the colors—­summoned out of all proportion to his numbers.  Others might desert, but not he; others might be spies or strikers, but not he—­not he in the time of peril.  In peace or war, in victory or danger, he has always been loyal to the Stars and Stripes.