The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-06-14
THE RACE PROBLEM.

AFTER the IarlH anu NllN'T DllIs arc
disposed Of, we shall take up the Fed
eral Election laws" Is the authorize
tive utterance Of Republican leader
in congress. The Republican menu
beers held caucus on Tuesday even
ing on the subject, when the two prom
inent measures before the house,
known respectively as the Lodge bill
and the Rowell bill, were discussed,
and committee was appointed to pre-
pare a new bill by blending the better
features Of the two into one.
And this is the solution the Repub-
leans propose to offer the country for
the gigantic race problem that con-
fronts it. What is that problem 1T
is thus stated by the late Henry w.
Grady "Two utterly dissimilar races
on the same soil, with equal political
and civil rights, almost equal in num-
beers, but terribly unequal in intelli-
gence and responsibility, each pledged
against fusion, one for century In
serytude to the other and freed at last
by desolating war-theSe are the con-
ditions: and under these, adverse at
every point, we are obliged to carry
these two races in peace to the end"
Never before in this republic has
the white race divided on an alien
race. The red man was cut down as
weed, and the yellow man was shut
out Of the republic because he is an
alien and inferior" ut matters not
that every other race has been routed
or excluded without rhyme or reason.
1t matters not that whenever the
whites and blacks have touched in any
era or in any cline, there has been an
irreconcilable violence. 1t matters
not that no two races, however SINH
lar, have ever lived anywhere, at any
time. on the same soil, with equal
rights, in peace. In spite OF all these
things, we are required to make good
this change of American policy, with
out change Of American prejudice; to
make certain here what has elsewhere
been impossible between whites and
blacks: and to reverse under the very
worst conditions, the universal YER
dict Of racial history"
This is the problem. In the nature
Of things its solution rests with the
communicative states-in which
the problem obtains. Drawn towards
each other by ties Of friendship, long
association and common interest, there
Is much in their common situation
that should incline the whites and
blacks Of the south to mutual good
will and confidence The only real
cause Of fricture between them to-day
Is admitted to be the manner OF the
exercise by the negro Of his right to
vote. If that right were exercised
sparingly, or in way not to be often
sive or threatening to the whites, IT
would involve no danger. But the
right to vote involves, where 1t Is In
the majority, as the negro vote is in
several Southern states, the right to
rule-and to expect vastly superior
race to submit to be governed by a
vastly inferior race, through the sheer
brute force of an inferior number Of
voters-that is to fly in the face OF all
history and human experience. Com
mon sense would dictate, that as here
in lies the only great cause of friction
between the races, the negro should be
taught to exercise his right prudently,
carefully, modestly-so as to generate a
spirit OF mutual forbearance and con-
| fdence-Otherwse a race conflict Is in
evitable, and that means his inevita-
bic ruin.