Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-10
THE CAPITALS DANGER.
Negroes, Believing 1t to lie the Headquar-
ters of Freedom, Are Making Washing
ton a Rendezvous-A Growing Popula-
ton in llleness-A Remedy

ton IN 4aleness-A Remedy.
| [FRoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9.-If Washington is to
| be the model city of the country and of the
world to which all Americans and all re-
| publicans will point with pride the govern
| ing powers will at no distant day be forced
to wrestle with problem which every year
assumes aspects more difficult and sinister.
have not the exact figures at hand but
know the last census shows that the colored
people of the District number in the neigh
borhood of 10000, or fully one-third of the
population of the District. The proportion
of the black element is enlarging every
year. Their death ratio is far above that of
the whites, but the ratio of births is equally
larger, and the mass is constantly being re-
cruited from the millions of the adjacent
South who are naturally fond of immigrat-
ing to new scenes and whose condition
only In rare instances Is so fortunate as to
make ii net quite possible that any change
would be for the worse.
Moreover the negroes have conviction
that the headquarters of their freedom and
independence are in Washington, the place
from which emanated the proclamation of
Lincoln. whom they almost worship as
God. They believe that the Government
mpst in some way take care of them, if they
can but penetrate to the seat of government,
and SO the influx of blacks Is constantly
larger in proportion than the accession of
whites. With the growth of the city this
tendency will have an increasing impetus
and the country may look forward to the
spectacle of a quarter or half century
hence, when the population of the national
capital, then approaching half million,
will present majority composed of persons
of the negro race.
Some of the Dangers.
In the main they are very undesirable
population, as the ignorant and depraved of
any race must be. They are elannish, and
therefore the more dangerous. In any con-
test that affected their well-being they
would stick together at the behest of the
worst of demagognes, and no kindness nor
strength and eleaFness of reasoning on the
part of the whites could convince them that
the latter are not their bitter and eternal
foes In such circumstances to present the
district with that much-crayed boon, self
government and general suffrage. wonld be
to surrender the control of affairs to o
vicious mob, which would have its white
political contingent no better in moral at
tributes than itself.
The best that can be said of them is that
they are making some progress There are
more skilled wofkmen among them than
formerly, and there are more professional"
men, after some sort; bpt in SO far as have
been able to acquaint myself with them the
doctors and the lawyers and the e1pounders
of the gospel" are about MS fit for their
positiens as though they had been but now
imported from the Wilds of Guinea. BARRIERS,
of course, they. are many, and from these
gamnt Of house se servants, waters, coaehmen,
hostlefs, hod CARRIERS with very few in the
trades, to the great mass, which Is made up
ct OF common ls6oTers' WashTomien nSoni and . the
without anything that can be called regular
employment from end to end of the year.
Ninety-nine Of every hundred are constantly
toir of f1air live Emf n To-
ness makes idleness almost q normal con-
dition, thing to be desired, and eonse-
quence is growing laziness that becomes a
disease, and determination not to work
until compelled to do SO by starvation.
Petty thteviHg becomes general practice,
and court sentences that seem to be out
rngeous have but little effect to deter the
thieves.
Idleness and Ignorance.
Virtue is a term without meaning to the
mass of them. The jail and the workhouse
are constantly crowded, and hundreds who
ought to be there roam the streets partly
because they succeed in keeping out of the
law, and partly because there is no place for
them. Out in the suburbs at any time, and
in the open spaces of the wilderness of the
Flats, hundreds of young men may be seen
playing at ball or shooting erapi growing up
in ldieness and utter ignorance, candidates
for the criminal dock who are certain to
get there. Being superior in numbers, they
make the game which attracts not only their
own color, but numerous boys, Of the low
for the boys of the better classes |
of both eefors, who look on their /
and initiated; and SO Unreasonable harm is |
done to the generation which follows and |
should be an improvement of the elders of |
the present, but which bids fair to show an |
increase instead of reduction of the bulk !
of crime. The worst of the whole matter is |
that no one seems to be alarmed about it or |
interested in it.
Which is the worst criminal, the ignorant |
one who is depraFed by reason of his igno- |
rance and the common war made upon him |
by the respectable class" OF the educated |
rant fellow for his own profit, and never in |
quiring what may be done to save society?
Surrounded by this degradation and de- |
pravity, streets and alleys reeking with foul |
poisons generated by the unOlean lives of |
the inhabitants, Yulgarity and vice of every |
kind rampant, our so-called statesmen come |
and philanthropists are with |
us always, and apparently they all like it |
and seem to think 1t ordained of God, for |
not word is ever heard to suggest the least |
concern in the question of ridding the at !
mosphere of this pest of myriads of the |
low.
Easy to Remedy the Evil.
1t would seem reasonable that where the |
best craftsmanship of the country concen-
trates, and where it has absolute control of
d Slitlit urea ltE Vic bEldl III u HOFul anu
social experiment., some intination of q |
desire to do SO should manifest itself; but |
not whisper is heard ON the subject If |
the conditions are condemned it is without |
any feeling that the statesmanship and the |
moral sense of the country are responsible. !
The solution is SO easy in so far as the
District is concerned that it is astounding
some attempt is not made toward the rem
edy. In Virginia and Maryland, adjacent to
the city, thousands of acres of land now I'M
cultivated, but capable of a vast production
can be bought for almost nothing. few
acres acquired by the Government
would be sufficient for the maintenance of
the mass of blacks and the lesser number of
whites who are, in their present condition a
burden to themselves and a blight on the
We're these transplanted by
suggestion or force to till tho soil, under |
proper control and direction they would
soon be transformed into happy and COM
Portable people. Living in a pure atmos-
phere, with an assurance of the comforts of
life and return for fair amount of work,
and under firm and intelligent guidance,
they would, by mere force OF environment,
learn to despise the filth and ugliness of
their former lives, Factories could be built
in time, and the community made little
world by itself, scarcely dependent for any
thing on the world outside.
With the new ideals in regard to society,
new experiments Will be tried very soon,
and it would seem that there is no place so
favorable for beginning rs here at the ma
sional capital, and whore there is in process
Of rapid growth a vicious element already of
power, a burden and blight in
the present and menace to the future.