44. John M. F. Erwin, “The Negro: A Business Proposition,” Outlook (November 30, 1901): 815-20.


Analysis of the Negro Problem from a business perspective. “The mass of negroes need co-operation, not charity. Give the negro an alliance with the cold, hard, practical business man. Give him a chance to substitute for himself industrial self-government in place of the industrial imperialism that prevails on the large plantation. Put him on forty acres of land on a decent basis, and go away and let him alone. He will do the rest, and in doing it he will learn something that no school can teach.”