Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-05
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrsrArcH.I

negro question is just now attracting the at
tention OF the thinking people of the South
in way that it never has before. The in
terest in this great question is by no means
| confined to the South. 1t is the great ques-
ton of the whole country and is staring
the lawmakers right in the face and
demanding some solution. 1t has been
proposed to have the Federal Government
assist the Southern negroes to return
to the homes of their fathers. This proposal
is just now before the people, and soon sew
eral bills will be debated in Congress look
ing to that end. just at this time the opin-
ions of leaders of Southern thought on this
matter will be read with great interest. Be
low are given the views of several of the
most conservative men OF the South. They
represent all shades of opinion and different
sections of the South.
CONGRESSMAN PHELAN.
The Hon. James Phelan, member of Con-
gress from the Memphis, Tenn, district,
says;
1 do not regard the removal of the negroes
from the South as even aremotelypossible solu-
ti6n Sio OF the social and political problem with
political disfranchisement, it would be impos-
sible. have always regarded the discussion
or these miraculous methods as not only
trlfing with a grave question, but as in a
measure insidious. 1t Injuries US, by belit-
tling the serious problem with which we
have to deal. 1t causes us to initiate
the example of the young soldier
who was dreaming he was going to OYerwhelm
his enemies by his sacrifices to Jove whilst
they were surrounding his camp. 1 regard as
an essential element of the so-called negro
question the most explicit recognition of these
facts, that the negro will live propagate and
increase in our section of the country, and as
citizen. AS to whether he will always retain
the franchise think debatable. AS to whether
he ought to retain 1t or not depends upon the
standpoint from which il is viewed. From the
standpoint OF intelligence and appreciation
OF the responsibilities of citizenship l think
every observant SOutherner will say he is not
worthy as a race, or, if you prefer the
distinction. as class, to have the franchise.
But depriving him of the right to vote Is only
temporary relief. In fact it is only partial re-
lief. The real gravity of the question, in my
eyes, lies in another field. This is the race
question. 1t is true the exercise of the right to
vote brings home to US in its most offensive
form the fundamental race difference. But the
two great questions in my eyes are: How are
we to bring about a status which will remove
the friction of coexistence during the present
period of the negrO's brutal Ignorance? and
how are we to raise the negro to the level of IN
telligent and moral citizenship without increas-
ing the race fr1ctionP
PRESIDENT GAMBLER.
The Rev. w. A. Gambler, D. D., Presi-
dent of Emory College, Oxford, Ga, says:
look upon the proposed removal of the
negroes to Africa or elsewhere as chimerical.
First-Because, if they were willing to go,
they cannot be hauled off as fast as they are
born. Moving several millions of people is a
bigger job than theOrizers suppose.
Second-The negroes are citizens. How can
we compel citizen to move if he doesn't want
to go?
the white people that they remain where they
are. With all their faults they are the best
peasantry of which l have any knowledge
They never turn out dynamiters nor suicides
The negro is at his worst when he cuts some
other negro ''wid his razor"
There may be some sort of chance for a con-
siderable emigration of negroes in the South
west to Mexico. But they would not be well
received by the labOring classes there, and this
fact would soon check any tide which might
set in thitherward-
Prayer, patience and Providence will settle
any negro question we may have, and we will
not have negro question If we will not be con-
stantly characterizing every little local dis
turbance as "a race war; and otherwise inf1am-
ing the passions of both races.
If any negro or negroes attempt to move let |
it be SO. May JOY go with them, and many
negroes will stay behind them
For one like the negroes. Next to white |
folks, I like them better than anybody. like |
them in this world, and If get to heaven ex-
pect to look about until find some dear old |
negroes 1 loved long ago, and who have been |
with God these years. 1 know they are there,
and if they are heavens music is none the |
worse I0T Lnelr presence. 1ney were good |
singers before they left for that good country. |
EDITOR BEIRNE, OF VIR RGINIA.
Colonel Richard f. Beirne, editor of the |
Richmond, Va, State, and leading Demo |
cratic politician says;
Thomas Jefferson, the wisest and most far
seeing statesman this country has ever pro- |
dnced, said that no two races could peacefully |
live in equality on the same soil. He advised |
the emancipation and deportation of the ne /
gro. If his counsel had been accepted the |
South would have had to-day no question so
momentous that beside it every economic IS
sue on which parties should properly divide !
sinks into insigniicance. 1t would be bet
ter for the South, as it is better for all
tion-composed of the peoples of the /
Caucasian race, native and foreign born. The
WeSterner chafeS under the presence of the |
Indian, and cries out against the coming of the |
Southerner, therefore, for shrinking from
social and political contact with the negro! A |
mingling freely together in religion, commerce,
manufactures and politics. and conceding un-
grudgingly to each and every one of their num-
Der all the rights of citizenship, would promote
of the Southern people. The substitution for
the negro of whites, who take pride in learn
ing and In living we'll, and whose ambition to
rise to greater heights is not a hopeless
and natural inferiority, would quicken COM
merce, improve our markets and greatly en-
/
only few OF which the negro cares to use. The
white man wishes to buy books and newspa-
pers to dress well, to eat good food. Whatever |
his own department OF production may be he
eplarges the market for other producers in l.
other departments. In all these things the
force of the white man Is large; the
force of the negro is small. But so
long as the negro insists on remaining
in the South, SO long will those whites who
would take his place if he left refuse to come
and attempt to compete with him. If the negro
we're greatly diminished by emigra-
ton from the South, even if portion of it re-
NAMED, this force, 50 deterrent now to white
to the South, would be greatly
lessened.
It does not seem possible for many years to
come. if indeed it will ever be possible, to Sc
cure Federal legislation providing for the COM
pulsory emigration of the negro. Whether a
subsidy, the gift of lands and an
appeal to his desire for restricted civil and
political rights would induce him to leave in
numbers large enough to relieve the present
political pressure on the South, is a question
that can be answered only by carefully and
devised experiment.
GENERAL s. D. LEE, OF MISSISSIPPI.
General S. D. Lee, President of the Agri-
cultural and Mechanical College of Missis-
sippi, says:
1 am fully aware of the impracticability of
the negro to Africa. My observation
In all the shifting of negroes is that they nearly
always move in southwest direction. In
Texas they are now arranging for an exodus
into Mexico and the Mexican Government is
fayoring the settlement of as large colony as
is proposed from North Carolina TO Mississippi
in one Of the Vera Cruz districts. The negroes
from east of the Mississippi river cross over
into Arkansas Louisiana and Texas. They
move from North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia into Mississippi, and across the
Mississippi river. There was a spasmodic
at one time into Kansas, but it will
not be repeated.
The negroes can. at little expense, move
North into any Northern State. why do they
not do so7 If they did this In any numbers the |