Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-08
WHAT TIE S0HTR Is DOING

1 4
The St. Paul Dispatch in a lengthy
and very generally excellent editorial on
'fThe True Southern Question, +" thinks
that
Used for so long to doing little more than boss
ing negroes and talking politics the Southern
people, with the aid of their newspaper press,
seem intent on closing their eyes to the indus
trial revolution which is going in their midst.
While the vast mineral resources of Alabama
are being uncovered by the aid of the Northern
capital and enterprise, the -perpetuating
controversy goes on all around, as to whether
the negroes should be excluded from even Repub-
lican political organizations and whether the
significant absence of the United States flag
from the vicinity of public celebrations on the
Fourth of July is wholly made up for by the
presence of the state flag.
Nothing could be wider of the mark.
The newspapers are, it is true, discussing
the race question to considerable ex-
tent. and trying to arouse the people to
proper sense of its Importance, for that
it is important no thinking man who
knows the conditions can deny.
And even the editors OF Southern news
papers have been led to discussion of
race matters by their brothers of the
Northern press
The fact is, the people OF the South are
too busily at work developing the re-
sources of the country, building
up its waste places and trying
TO force two blades of grass to grow
where formerly grew but one, to take
cognizance of any question but that
which has to do with to-day. They are
too much inclined to allow somebody else
to work out the race problem for them,
and the discussion being carried on in
the press is for the purpose of impressing
upon the minds of the people the fact
that they have in their midst living,
growing menace to their happiness and
civilization The trouble is not that
they take too much interest in the ques-
ton, but that they take too little.
No people have ever been so misUnder-
stood and so misjudged by their neigh
bors as have the people of the South by
those of the North. Instead of sitting
down and repining when they came home
from the war, and found themselves
beggared by that unfortunate yet IN
avoidable struggle, they took off their
coats and went to work to renew their
fortunes, rebuild their homes and revive
the country laid waste by fire and sword
How we'll they have worked let the
fields Of grain and the millions OF bales
of cotton sent to feed the spindles of the
world tell.
And now an unforeseen danger arises.
It is that, drunk with financial success,
mad with their greed for gold they will
forget the culture and refnements
priced so dearly in other days, and allow
the old Southern grace and chivalry and
hospitality the pride of the CONT
nent-to become a thing of the past. The
influence Of the negro upon society must
be understood to be appreciated, and it
cannot be explained to those who have
never lived where the colored brother |
fourishes ia large numbers. 1t is proper
and right that these things should be |
pOudered and discussed by ali the peo-
pie, for they are one day to become the
leading topics among the writers and |
thinkers, the statesmen ana philoso- |
pliers OF the country.
Regarding the Dispatches remarks |
about the flag, they were doubtless
brought forth by the fact-as alleged
that during the ceremonies attending the !
dedication OF the new capitol at Atlanta |
no national flag was displayed, but a
state dag instead. 1t is doubtful if any
body but the man who hoisted the flag
thought anything about it, and he prob
ably run up the first one that came to
hand. The Chicago Inter- Ocean has
neither helped itself nor hurt the South
by its screeching over the affair, though
it tried hard to do both.
The South Is not engaged in lazily
twirling its thumbs and moaning over the
lays that are gone. The South is up and
toing, and is not going TO be outrun in
the race for material prosperity.
But at the same time there are one or
TWO social problems upon which she must
Keep an eve.