The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-08-26
The Negro Problem

i Gaanting that the South is loyal
enough, wishes never another rebel
lion, and Is satisfied to be rid OF
slavery, do not the people intend to
keep the negroes practically servile
class, slaves in all but the name,
and to defeat by chicanery or by
force the legitimate results OF the
war and of enfranchisement? This
is very large question, and cannot
be discussed in my limits. If were
to say what my impression IS, It
would be about this:
! The South is about as much per-
picked by the negro problem as the
North il. and is very much disposed
to await developments, and to let
time solve it. One thing, however,
must be admitted in all this discus
sion. The Southerners willnot per-
NIT such Legislatures as those as
sembled once Louisiana and South
Carolina to rule them again will
you disfranehise the blacks bv man
agement or By force ?" well, what
would you do in Ohio or IN Connee-
ticut? Would you be ruled by a
lot of ignorant field hands allied
with a gang Of plunderers ?"
In looking at this question from
Northern point of view we have to
keep in mind two things: first, the
Federal government imposed color
ed suffrage without any educational
qualification hazardous expert
ment; in the second place, it has
handed oyer the control of the col
ored people in each State to the
State, under the Constitution. as
completely in Louisiana as in New
York. The responsibility is on
Louisiana The North can not re-
lieve her Of il, and it cannot inter
fere, except by ways provided in |
the Constitution. In the South, /
where fear of Legislative domina- |
ton has gone, the feeling between /
the two races is that Of amity and 4
mutual help. This is, | think, es.
pecially true in Louisiana. The
Southerners never have forgotten the
loyalty Of the slaves during the war,
and the security in which the white
families dweit in the midst of a
black population while all the white
men were absent in the field they
often refer to this. IL touches with
the new relation of the
races. | think there is generally IN
the South a feeling Of goodwill to-
ward the negroes, and an earnest
desire that they should develop
into true manhood and womanhood |
Undeniably there is indifference and |
neglect and some remaining suspi
cion about the schools that North
ern charity has organized for the
negroes. AS to this neglect Of the
negro, two things are to be said: the
whole subject Of education (as) we
have understood it in the North Is
comparative new in the South and
the necessity of earning a living
since the war has distracted at;en-
tlon from it. But the general devel-
opment of education is quite as ad-
vanced as could be expected. The Il
thoughtful and the leaders of opin-
ion are fully alive to the fact that the
mass of the people must be educat-
ed, and that the only settlement Of
the negro problem is in the education
of the negro, intellectually and
They 90 further than
this. They say that for the South
TO hold its own-since the negro is
there and viii stay there, and is the
of the laboring class-it is
necessary that the great agricultur-
al mass of unsklled labor should
be transformed, to a great extent, in
to a class of skilled labor, skilled on
the farm, in shops. in factories, and
that the South must have a highly
industry. To this end
they want industrial as well as or
dinary schools for the colored peo-
ple.-Harper's Magazine for Sept.