Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-01-10
Outside Views of Our Race Problel

Dec. 81, 1894. WM. CAMM.
Outside Views of Our Race Problem
The Rev. A. F. Beard, DID,, of New
York. corresponding secretary of tn,
American Missionary Association. VIII,
has recently travelled through tn,
south, gives the following summary o
the situation, as he understands it:
There are three classes of white peo
pie in the south The first class lool
upon the negro as fairly good citizen
but still its members refuse to accep
him as their political aud social equal
The second class would like to see the
negroes kept apart from the whites
They hate to see their colored brother
advancing in civilization and think he
should be kept in slavery.
The remainder of the whites are
known as the lawless class, who wan,
to whip out the blacks entirely. 1t Is
to this class that the cause of so many
lynchings is due. The feeling agains,
the negro is so intense that it becomes
dangerous for even a missionary to try
and help the blacks.
The race question will never be set
tied until the whites agree to educate
the blacks and acknowledge them as
their equals. The last annual report
of the association shows that $11, ,000.-
900 has been spent On the negro of the
south. We send $1,000 daily to the
south, where We have from twelve to
fifteen normal schools to prepare teach
ers.
We do not know of any locality in
the south where it is dangerous for a
missionary to help the blacks. DIR.
Beard shows his unfortunate bias when
he says that the race question will new
er be settled until the whites agree to
educate the blacks and acknowledge
them as their equals. The whites of
the south are taxed to the utmost prac-
ticable limit for the education of the
negroes, and it would be unreasonable
to expect them to do more. The sug-
gestion tha: we should recognize the
negro as our social, a. well as our po-
litical eeuals.-is too wild and visionary
to merit serious consideration. DIR.
Boards northern neighbors and church
people do not treat the blacks as their
social equals. They refuse to live in
the same block with negroes, and give
hem employment in only the most
menial positions. How can they ask
he whites of the south to do what
hey refuse to do themselves?
But there are many outsiders who
10 not share DIR. Boards views. Mr..
Finn. the able staff correspondent of
The Chicago Herald, who has spent
much of his time in the south, says in
lis paper:
The savage instincts of the negro
themselves in the south in two
vays-in murders and in rapes. These
are almost inexplicable. |
They are certainly mysterious. The
legro almost invariable commits a +!
,reat crime in a manner which seems |
o demonstrate either his utter disre- |
,ard for consequences or his Temporal |
y insanity He either at the time
Ioes not know how to cover his tracks |
'r he does not care to cover them
lie acts with all the blindness of the |
and all the ferocity of the |
avage. If bis sight or his sense re-
urns with the commission of the crime |
lis attempts to hide it or to escape |
punishment are at once clumsy and |
Cupidity almost invariably
lrives him to murder. He is as likely, |
rhen In this fiendish mood, to take a |
ife for dollars as to take it for a |
housand dollars. That which drives /
i'm to the commission of the other |
md most horrible crime, which is fire.
uently followed by murder as well.
q the face OF almost the certainty of
speedy -etribution. is a savage i'm
,ulse. which is puzzling the minds of |!
be- best thinkers of the south. How
est to deal with it is question that
as not as We. been satisfactorily deed
d. Lynch law has certainly had a |
ecided tendency toward checking the
vii. But the fact remains that it con-
inues in the face of lynch Law. In
ltIanta and Fulton county the courts
ave dealt with it thus far in a sum
nary manner, and to the satisfaction
the people. SO far as the execution
+ the Law is concerned.
Mr.. Finn thinks that there are times
hen even lynch law fails to meet the
of the case, and he says
aat the good people on both sides of
le Atlantic who are trying to stop
Tnchiug in the south would change
,eir minds If they lived here. This is
,e way he puts it:
They would soon learn that there are
mes when every lynch law falls short
meeting the requirements. Any
ian who imagines his wife, daughter.
ster or sweetheart. or the wife, dangh-
'r, sister or sweetheart of bis neigh
Or in the fiendish embrace of a lech-
rous and murderous black devil, can
ldge for himself whether or not he
ould be prepared to join q lynching
arty- People who shed tears over
le fate of the Armensans at the hands
Kurds asd Bashi Bozouks must re-
ember that the people of the south