The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-10
PROGRESS OF THE NEGRO.
What Ex-senator Bruce, Register of the
Treasurx- Thinks nf His Rrethren-


Treasury, Thinks of His Brethren.
Washington Correspondence st. Louis Post-Dspatch,
Are you satisfied with the progress that
your race has made in the past twenty
years?"
Il think the progress which it has made
is, everything considered very remarkable
and very gratifying. Indeed, | do not believe
the annals of history show such progress by
any other race or class of people. OF course,
there is yet much to accomplish, but speak
OF that which has been done and the mate
rial with which it was accomplished"
But the school system of the South-is it
adequate to the needs of the racer"
No; NOT at all. Why, we have in the old
slave States over 3000,0 900 colored persons
above ten years of age who cannot write"
and he moved down the street toward the
Treasury building
What is the remedy, then?'
"Oh, the government. The national gov
eminent ought to appropriate a sum of
money-say 1000 0O0-for school purposes
there, making it available in case the States
do a certain portion of the work. They plead,
you know, that they are not able to keep up
public schools for the negro or even indeed,
for the whites saying that the war impover-
lshed them to such an extent. And that is
doubtless true, for they lost greatly In other
property in addition to their slaves. But the
colored people are good citizens as rule,
orderly and dilligent, and many Of them are
becoming property-owners and taxpayers,
and 1t is right that they shall have educa-
tional advantages. Their position as tax
payers entities them to it, and the power of
the ballot which they hold makes it the duty
OF the government to ITSELF as we'll as to
them, to make them intelligent"
Are the colored people of the South be-
coming landowners, then?'
Yes; many of them own their own homes
now. The progress in that direction has
been slow and painful, but it is on a firm
basis now, and will move forward more rap
idly. Great difficulty was encountered at
first in this regard, very great. The Southern
people, who had always looked upon the col
ored man as property, had serious objections
to selling him land. They did not want to
break up their big plantations, nor did they
want to see the colored man a property
owner for they realized that he was too val
liable as an employe, and if he became a
landowner he would work for himself and
not for them Then, too, the colored people
had hard time with the land they did pur-
chase, or attempt to make their own. They
had had do experience in such matters, and,
in many cases, after paying for land they
found that the men from whom they bought
it, as they supposed, had no title to it. They
are learning now, however, to take
the necessary steps and to see that
they have got good TITLES. Then
the land owners are getting now so
that they will sell more readily to them, and
they are getting to own a good deal of land
through the South. The report of the Comp
troller-general of Georgia shows that one
acre in fifty of the cultivated lands of that
State is owned by colored people, and this,
think, is about fair average of the stua-
ton throughout the South generally"
"The colored people are accommodating con-
siderable wealth, then, are they not?"
eyes, there are good many quite wealthy
men among the colored population now. 1
don't know of more than one or two who
could be counted millionaires, but there are
good many who run up into 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 few feet of ground-a home
and he will never part with it if he can help
it. He will almost starve rather than do so.
And that is good spirit 1 think Make a
man a taxpayer and owner of the soil, and
you make him good citizen"
Are they doing much in the trades?'
No, unfortunately they are not yet able
to do so. The trades unions are against
them, and will not permit any members of
the unions to take them as apprentices The
result is that, while they would be glad to
get trades, they cannot get opportunity to
learn them. That is a race prejudice which
we will have to live down, 1 suppose Be-
fore the war there were many colored me-
chanics, for every owner was glad to make
his slave more valuable by making him a
skilled laborer. But the trades unions are
violently opposed to the negro learning
trade of any kind. Why, in the cotton fac
tories of the South no colored people can be
employed except to do the heavy work. The
skilled laborers who are brought there from
the North to do the work only go on the
agreement that no colored people be en-
ployed among them."
You speak of the intellectual and mate
rial progress of the race. From the stand
point of morality, do you think there is
much to be said?
YES quite. The Methodist and Baptist
churches alone have nearly /, $4,000 of color
ed people, and the amount of church prop
erty they own is quite wonderful. The per-
centage of crime among them is not large,
and the marital relation to-day is infinitely
more sacred among the colored people, as a
class, than it was few years ago."
''Yes?"
Yes And now have said good deal
about the colored man." said Bruce with a
laugh, but just want to add one more
statement which l think will settle the ques-
ton as to our progress"
"Well?p
well, we have the dude the colored
dude, full-fedged and as pronounced as the
white race can produce" and his hearty
laugh rang out as he climbed the Treasury
steps, I'VE have the dude"
An Alabama Waif of the Cyclone.
Eufala Times.