Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-05-17
PROGRESS OF THE NEGRO.
what Ex-senator Bruce, Registrar of
the Treasury. Thinks of His Brethren.

- rum % " UShsHgtOA LeUFF.
mad very interesting conversation
with the Hon. b. X. Bruce. Registrar of
the Treasury, who is Acknowledged to be
one of the representative men of the
cOlOred race. Mr.. Bruce was walking
along F street, leading by the hand a
very pretty little boy. with dark. wavy
hair and an olive complexion. s'He is on his
way to the kindergarten said the proud
father. You are exemplifying your
Ialth In education for the race by an
early start for the young man. =
suggested your correspondent. eyes.
1t is the great need of our. race
! now" he said, ''and l wish that the
powers that be could be brought to real
lie 1t as keenly as many of our own peO-
pie do. DO you know that many of the
| cOlored people so thoroughly realize the
| necessity for education that they are will
ing to deprive themselves of almost any,
thing else that this may be had"
In the course of conversation Bruce
said, referring to the education of his
race in the South: ''The National Gov
eminent ought to appropriate sum of
mOney-say $4,000, 000-for school pur-
poses there, making it available i'm case
the States do certain portion of the
work They plead that they are not able
TO Keep up public schools for the negro.
or even, indeed, for the whites, saving
an extent. And that is doubtless true.
for they lost greatly in other property I'm
addition to their slaves. But the colored
people are good citizens as a rule orderly
and diligent, and many of them are be-
coming property owners and taxpayers.
and 1t is right that they shall have edu-
cational advantages. Their position as
taxpayers entities them to it, and the
power of the ballot which thew hold
makes it the duty of the government to
itself as well as to them to make them in
telligent."
Are the cOlOred people of the South be-
coming land owners, then?''
Yes; many of them own their homes
now. The progress in that direction has
been slow and painful; but they are on
firm basis now, and will move forward
more rapidly. The report of the Comp
trOller General of Georgia shows that one
acre in fifty of the cultivated lands in that
State is owned by colored people; and
this, think, is about a fair average of
the situation throughout the South gener-
ally"
''The cOlOred people are accommodating
considerable wealth, then, are they not? 2"
YES, there are good many quite
wealthy men among the cOlored popula-
ton now. don't know of more than one
or two who could be counted millionaires:
the hundreds of thousands. and large
numbers who are worth, say $25, 900. The
colOred man, as a rule, is great on real
estate. Let him get possession of a few
feet of grOund-a homeland he will never
part with it if he can help it. He will al
most starve rather than do SO: and that
is good spirit, | think. Make him
taxpayer and owner of the soil, and you
make him a good Citizen
ttErOm the StandDninf Of 1onra1;fu do
you think there is much to be said 2"
Yes, good deal. The Methodist and
Baptist churches alone have nearly 1,500,-
600 of colored people, and the amount Of
church property they own is quite Won
derful. The percentage Of crime among
them is not large, and the marital relation
to-day is infinitely more sacred among the
colOred people as class than it was a
few years ago.
'"Yes?'
eyes. And now have said good deal
about the cOlOred man." said Bruce with
"A laugh, ''but L just want to add one more
statement which I think will settle the
question as TO our progress"
''WelI?'
''Well, we have the dude, the colored
dude, tull-t1edged and as pronounced as
the white race. can produce" and his
hearty laugh rang out as he climbed the
Treasury steps, ''we have the dude"