The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-12-29
soUTHERN RACE PRoBLEM.
Negro Emigration Not Endorsed by the
Press of the South,
Cbfrxe., q--sh,,.a

AfeSs OF the Souths
Chicago Tribune
Four Southern senator's have already in
troduced bills looking to the solution of the
race problem in that section, and having
for their basis the emigration of the negro
from the cotton states. Some of them are
conditional in character. the others ask for
the appropriation Of money or the securing
OF territory, bat all OF them have in view
the thinning out of the negroes from the
congested districts. As We expected would
be the case the Southern press dissents
from the principle involved in these bills,
and declares them premature. The senti-
ments expressed by the Nashville Aaseyicaa
may be taken as fair sample OF the gem
erai line of comment. 1t says that the
negro has no wish 10 leave the South. and
that the Southern people are not ready to
part with him, though il fatty confradicts
itself in the same article by the declaration
that II inducements are held out to them
they will be likely 10 60 en- masse. 1t
further says that the emigration of ne
groes from the South suddenly and in
large numbers would be attended with q
arrangement of industrial conditions IN
those sections now wholly dependent upon
American labor, from which it wsould re-
qaire long time 70 recover" ard that
"the confusion and alarm among cotton
and sugar planters, caused by the occas-
ional emigration OF large bodies Of negroes
from one state 70 another. may give some
idea Of the violent protest which would 60
UP from the South against any effort to
transfer the negro TO another country
While condemning negro emigration
neither the AHeyscaa nor any other South
ern newspaper has any better proposition
or any suggestion of any kind to make for
the solution of the problem. Evidently
they would be content to have the negro
remain as he is in the South and to enjoy
the fruits OF his labor, but at the same time
refusing him any Of his civil rights and
many Of his social. educational, and in
dustrial privileges in those parts OF that
section where he menaces the success Of the
Democratic party by his overwhelming
numbers. This. however, is clearly in-
possible. The negro cannot be expected TO
accept the tender of the South at the cost
of his Acknowledgement, nor can any
honest. law-abiding national administra-
ton look ON with eomplacency and see the
law Of the country nullified. There must
be q settlement of the question. 1t cannot
be allowed 10 drift along as il is doing, for
that involves the negro's disfranchisemen.,
industrial conditions not far removed from
those of slavery, and a future full OF
danger The Southern papers themselves
acknowledge that IN the cotton states II is
impossible for the two races to live together
without perpetual friction and the danger
Of violence and bloodshed, and yet when
it is proposed to thin the negroes out so
that these dangers viii no longer exist they
protest they must not 90. Evidently, then,
they would have them remain and set.le
the problem by keeping the negro in an
inferior and brutalized condition. AS this
cannot be allowed, what better remedy is
there than the emigration Of the negro Ia
sufficient numbers to secure fair treatment
for those who remain and 70 remove the
menace Of black domination2 The SOUTH
ern senators are near the root Of the mat
ter, and their schemes deserve 20 be care
fully and thoughtfnlly considered.