St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-21
The NEGRO IN THE SOUTH.
A Rosy Picture of the Condition
Now Existing.

III there pe any virtue Ill tu6 quick It'll
preSsons of short experience, l may
then deduct few conclusions from my
recent visit to the South. Under the
espionage of the cultured native South
ron, envirOned by members of the press
Of the country; embracing everywhere
receptions which were matchless in
hospitablc facilities for instructing the
visiting Northern hosts, feel that the
first, fires h impreS'i ms of Southern
conditions, social and political. acquired
through such intelligent agencies, are
entitled to value in our estimate Of the
South.
Throughout the region. from Ken
lucky to the gulf, there lives an ever
present picture OF social and CONNER
cial thrift and personal content. What
ever may be Surging within political
volcanoes; whatever race discussion
may be tormenting the mind of other
sections. none of these seemingly per-
turbs the South. In the utterancc of
fervent patriotism, in pledges of fealty
10 our common veal. in manly defense
of all that is American, no tongue
speaks with greater passion; no heart
wells with the inspiration of keener
pride; no minds apply surer logic
than those which express themselves in
that fair land-a land where the memory
of Lincoln and Lee are alike revered.
He who. forty years ago, declared
that the two races of the South could
never live together in peace and har-
mony under condition of social and
political equality. did not see the South
in the dawn of the twentieth century.
For as the Northern student amplifies
his book-gotten knowledge Of the South
with the vlyifying touch of personal
cantact with the factors and conditions
Of that section, newer and broader
sense of our attitudes modihes the the
cries which have persistentiy warped
his conclusions.
The South is today most interesting to
the political economist as study in
black and white. Avoiding for the
moment million features in the we'll
being of that section, the question of the
negro in his native heath is indeed in
teresting. 10 those of the North who
have only observed the negro life OF
their own section it is apt to suggest
difference of Judgment. The two fact
ors. the Southern negro and the North
ern sophistication of him, are two very
different and distinct entities. See the
negro in Dixie the trustful, simple
mimic of the higher civilization around
him, the contented servant Of the white.
the obedient. unworried iaborer of the
held and town, the voluntary devotee
of old Southern homes. There is no
race friction in the South which is borl!
of prejudice based OH native human quail
ity. The negro instinctively comedies
the mastership, the intellectual and
moral superiority OF the white, and he
is never so happy as when he expresses
this acknowledgment in the forms o!
Difference and respect. He clings with
his brood to the worn mansions of slave
thrift; it seems he would rather serv,
his ante-bellum "massas'' than assum.
the attendant strife and labors of Do
litical freedom. The responsibility o:
enfranchised citizenship does not APP
peal to him in any measure like the
emotional attachment for the old days
and old forms CT his easy Southern
activity. in land of peace and plenty.
In the North all age of rampant ma
teral development is fast stampeding
from off the human plane many of tilt
Sweeter virtues OF a happier eXistenc,
and prolonged life-service. Into thi.
vortex newly constituted colored maj
has been created. of whom no com
mentary is Intended. There is an I'M
pulsive accord III the South between the
white and the negro; the love the latter
bears the former IS manifest In every
home and shop, every field and factory.
That he is naturally emotional accounts
for his esteem OF and truStiul devotion
to the warm-hearted people from whom
alone he got sufficient discipline of
civilization to enable him to act at all
under the franchise Of the fifteenth con-
stltutlonal amendment. Certainly a half
century OF abuse did not 0eget the at
lection now SO manifest. There is no
avoidance of the whites and the blacks
because of hatred. Obviously, TOO,
there is not physical nor moral as
sociation. But there is no aversion by
the one or the other. for it is here you
see enacted scheme of life and ell
deavor which teaches the observer that
there are two distinct planes of social,
liul Ill duu iueHtdI qualify.
What is 1t. then, which periodically
lights up. the Northern sky with the
flame of the so-called race problem? Is
1t ignorance2 Instinct and environ.
ment may breed affection, honesty and
other impulses of the heart. These the
negro has iii goodly measure, both by
the Impress of one generation refining
the next and by the natural impulse to
love his benefactors. But the federal
laws have harnessed him with priyl-
lege IA duty - which rightfully de-
mandS the exercise OF some mind in
contradIstin ctlon to the deporable and
periodical exercise of merely brute mat
ter. The indiscriminate right to vote.
the ponderOus and menacing abuse and
misdirection-o at least unintelligent
exercise OF the right-by the negro in
the South, is the bette noir which any
people-be they of the North or South
have moral and political right to con-
denim. He needs to be qualified by at
least the rudiments of education, as
much as he needs the pants he wears at
the pools. just illumine his mind with
even the falntest rays of cultivating
nght; emanclpate his mentality as YOU
freed his body, and then you may rea.
sonaDly expect the negro to attain to
the DEVELOPMENT of fair citizenship.
The affairs of the South are serene.
mere are no strikes to disrupt; the
abortlve Coxeyite is not Indigenous to
that soil; anarchy has neither nest nor
cause in Dixie land; but all work in
that general human sympathy which is
typical of these people, While both
classes are at peace with circumstance,
SO both would extend the SCOPE