The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-03-28

nave access to two and half million dollars.
-,
onaries A. Dana. the scholarly editor OF
.ne new York Sun, is enjoying journey
through the south. At Jacksonville, Fla,
tne other day, some one asked Mr.. Dana II
ne thought the negro would ever catch mn
WIN the whites in civilization. In the south
they believe fervently that he never win, and
they are always curious to find out whether
northern people agree with them Mr..
Oana's answer was this.
You must remember that the white man ,ro .,
Aryan breed and have been engaged in poiiticsi
anu, ahsi'eration a. d Intellectual pursuits for more
has heaO years The negro, on the other hand,
na ao Ueen engaged In these only little over a
SceehhtsuIy-I25 years. If you expect them to
ssonSse degree OF progress in character and re-
E1S d IN iz6 years when the whites h ave used
o.oUO years to accomplish this you will be great
disappointed. At the end Of 3, 900 wears he will
pe up TO US In everything.
Mr. Dana's reply is little disappointing
all around; to those southern people who
are 10Th to believe that the negro ever can
become the equal of an Anglo SaxDn; and to
the northern people who have expected him
TO take position beside the white people
In rather less time than two thousand years.
~~~S'J ~AA' Desuu has cCb IdLQGI n long
Time. lie speaks of the negro as having
been engaged in political amelioration and
intellectual pursuits" for 125 years. In this
country at least the time has been hardly
more than fifth of this time: for IL can
hardly be said that there was much "politi-
tical amelioration" or intellectual pursuits,
for the negro in the 100 years of slavery.
Considering what the race have done In the
last twenty-five years, the negro will get to
be quite fellow in the next two hundred
years, II we may measure his future progress
by the past.
But another question comes up. Where
will the negro be in two hundred years? 1t
has been generally supposed that the blacks
in the southern states have been multiplying
faster than the whites. This is not the
case. The whites are increasing faster than
the blacks. The Washington dispatches an.
nounce that Superintendent Porter of the
Census Bureau has in preparation an i'm.
portant bulletin giving the population of the
South Atlantic and South Central States.
Missouri and Kansas, by races. The total
population embraced In this count is given
as 2S,S75.259. of which 16.S6S. 2o5 were white
6,s96,166 colored, and 1o,SSS Chinese, Japan.
csc and Indians. In these states are to be
found fifteen sixteenths of the colored
people of the United States. These figures
therefore are sufficient to show that in the
last decade the colored race has not held it:
own against the whites. From 1900 to 1880
during portion of which time the slave
trade went Oh, the colored race outstripped
the wbitpc Rpf 81 ho+
ton has been going the other way In 1880
there were six colored persons to every ten
whites in the southern states. Now there
are only about four to every ten, and so far
the proportion has grown smaller at every
decade. 1t is quite evident from these figures
that the color problem may. so far as num-
Der is concerned, be much less formidable in
two hundred years than now. and at the end
Of Mr.. Dana's two thousand years, at the
same rate. it would disappear.