The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-08
The Lake Mohonk Conference

The conference which was in session at L AXE
Mohonk, n. Y, several days last week. try
ing to find solution for the negro profile m,
adjourned Friday night Our dispatches
yesterday stated that the conference
adopted a series of resolutions based upon
the discussions Of the conference. The sub
stance Of the resolutions was that it was
necessary that the negroes should be edu-
Gated; that they should have better homes;
that special effort should be made to de-
velop in t9em true manhood aud woman
hood. and that particlar attention should be
paid to bringing about a feeling of conf
dence and good will between them and their
white neighbors
There is no fault to be found with the res
olutions. They are good enough in their
way, but they leave the negro problem just
where it was before the conference con-
vened. About all those present were north
ern men of more or less prominence, and it
IS quite safe to say that very few of them
know anything about southern negroes or
their condition. Those who read essays
were mere theorists and based what they
had to say upon what they had picked ND
from northern newspapers and from other
more or less prejudiced sources.
1t is probable that the greater part of
those present were under the impression
that there is no prejudice against the
negroes in the northern states, and that If
the southern people would only treat the
negroes as fairly as the northern people
there would be no such thing as a negro
nTOhlau1 he inf -
rance as this it is not strange that the con-
ference threw no new light upon the sub
ject it met to consider.
One of the delegates to the conference.
President McGill. of Swathmore College,
appears to have had little better under
standing Of the status of the negro north
and south than most of the others He sug-
gested it would be a first rate idea for the
conference to consider how the prejudice
against the negro in the north could be
lessened. Doubtless this suggestion had a
somewhat startling effect, since most north
ern people have an impression that all the
prejudice there is against the negro is in
the south. President McGill told the con-
ference that negro was permitted to
carry mortar in Philadelphia, but was not
permitted to lay bricks He also stated
that if negro should undertake to drive
horse car in that city he would be mobbed.
President McGill might have gone little
further and told his wondering brethren
that in all southern cities negroes drive
horse cars and that there are about as many
black men laying bricks as there are
white.
As matter of fact, there is more
prejudice against the negro in the north
than in the south, and Negroes chance for
getting ahead in the world is much better
in the south than in the north. 1t is doubt
full if negro could geta place in machine
shop in any northern state Not long ago
one tried to get employment in a machine
shop in Massachusetts and failed because he
was negro.
If the good people of the north would only
recognize the fact that although there are
very few negroes in that section of the
country, in comparison with the number in
the south, there is more hostility to the
negro there than any where else, there would
be great deal less discussion of the negr O
problem in northern newspapers and by
those who seem to think that they are
specially commissioned to agitats the negro
question, and the south would be permitted
to deal with the negro problem in her own
wav