St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-22
Tue DEpoRrA TON SCHEME.

Senator MoRGAN'S speech in support
of Mr.. BUFFERS bill to provide for the
emigration of persons of color to Africa
has attracted more attention and pro-
voked more criticism than any speech
delivered in congress within the last ten
years. We regret to see. however, the
tiippant manner in~which some of the
great newspapers on both sides are dis
posed to treat the race question. There
is no probability, or even possibility,
that Mr.. BUTLER's bill will pass con-
gress, or that Mr.. MoRGAN's deporta-
ton scheme will receive the approval of
this generation of Americans. If con-
gress manifested disposition to adopt
Senator MoRGAN'S views, the section
from which the senator comes would be
the first to antagonize. Whatever they
may think down South of the negro as
a citizen, there is no difference of opin-
ion in that section of his value as a
laborer. His continued residence in
the South is essential to the prosperity
of that section.
Still the question which Senator
MORGAN discusses is a grave one and
merits the most serious considera-
ton. 1t is big question now to fore
cast the future of the negro race in this
country, but 1t will be q bigger ques-
ton twenty-five or thirty years from
now, when the race problem will no
longer be theory, but an actual condi-
ton, and one that Will have to be dis
posed of. And when the time comes
for solving the problem, our prediction
is that the North will take a more adj
vanced stand in favor of the MORGAN
scheme. or some similar one, than the
South will. The colored race is on the
increase in this country, and what is
more, it is increasing more rapidly in
proportion to numbers than the whites.
Further, the race is distributing itself
throughout the country, and quarter
of century hence the probabilities are
that there will be more negroes living
north of Mason and DiXon's line
than south of it. The race trouble is
mainly confined to the Southern states
to-day, but it will not always be so. And
wherever the negroes gather together
i'll bodies, whether in the North OF in
the South, there will be race conflicts.
This fact cannot be obviated except by
repeating human nature.
S oppose the negro is educated, as he
ought to be, and endowed with all the
qualifications for citizenship. What
then? He will be i'll better position to
assert his manhood. What does that
involve? The demand for social recog-
milton as well as the enjoyment of po-
litical rights. Are the white people of
this country prepared to grant it, or will
they ever be? We spend immense sums
annually in the education OF the colored
people, but what effort has been made
to educate the white people of the
United States up to the belief that a
negro is as good as a white man, and is
entitled, oil an equality with HIM. to
full enjoyment of social privileges?
This is a question worth considering,
because upon its answer depends the
full solution of the race problem.
1t makes no difference how high the
negro may be elevated in the moral. po-
iltieal and educational scale, as long as
the bond of social Ostracism encircles
him he will be dissatisfied with his lot.
And the better educated and more in
telligent he becomes, the more aggres-
siye will he be to gain the social status
that ought legitimately to belong to the
American citizen. Are the white peo-
pie of this country prepared to admit
that the time will ever come that they
will receive negro into their parlors
with the same cordiality as they would
receive white visitor, or that they will
give their daughters in marriage to
cOlOred man as freely as they would to
a white man? If SO. the race problem
can be solved by education. Otherwise
there will be a race conflict in this
country as long as the two races Inhabit
it together, or until human nature has
been repealed.
The long and the short of the whole
matter is that there are but two alter
natives for a settlement of this race
question-one is amalgamation, the
other separation of the races. Which
shall it be? 1t is not much use for us to
bother our heads about it, for it will not
be a question to be determined by this
generation. But it is a growing issue,
and one that will most likely confront
the next generation as grim reality.