The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-14
A Harsh view of the naee Problem.


terly Review, Published IN New York city,
there are some notes on the negro ques-
ton By William Henry Thorne. the editor
Of that magazine. with which We do not
think the southern people will agree. Mr.
Thorne's notes are based upon an article
in the same number Of the magazine. en-
tnled The Negro in Fact and Fiction"
by Eugene L. Didier. Mr.. Didier's article
IS by no means complimentary TO the negro.
He takes the ground that history furnishes
no instance in which the negro race has
accomplished anything that judging from
the past IL will never accomplish anything.
that it has been the cause directly and in
directly. of all the troubles that have
taken place In this country since the for
nation OF the government. that the south
will remain solid" as long as the negro
threatens the political life OF the southern
people and that this is a white mans
country" from which latter statement it
is inferred that Mr.. Older means that the
sooner the south gets rid Of the negro the
better it will be for her
But we wish especially 20 call attention
to the remarks Of Mr. Thorne. in his COM
ments on Mr.. Didier's article. They are
much more radical than anything we have
yet seen from any source entitled TO res
pect. Mr. Thorne IS a northern man. and
prior to the war. was. he says, an aboli-
ZIONIST. In his remarks he says:
I frankly say. therefore. first, that for the
last % years I have been slowly chang
ing my views and feelings in regard to the
negro question. Second, have long seen
even from my experience with the negroes
or the north-that education, as far as it
has had any effect upon the race, has had
the effect of making the negro a less use
full. and more dangerous and offensive
member of the human family; that after
my visit 10 the southern states, last March,
these convictions were not only strength
ened and intensified, but that then be-
came thoroughly convinced, ard have since
freely expressed the conviction that the
south must either reinslave the negro, or
export him, drive him out of the land. or
kill him.
It Is remarkable fact that when people
holding extreme opinions change their
opinions they go TO the other extreme.
They find no middle ground. Mr.. Thorne
was an abolitionist. and doubtless assalled
the white people Of the south with extreme
bitterness for holding the negroes in slav-
cry. Now, to relieve the south OF what he
considers a great burden. he is ready TO
advise the reinstatement or the killing Of
the negroes. He can see no way in which
the south can work out prosperous fu-
ture without getting rid OF her negro pop
ulatlon.
But there are things going on in the
south which Mr.. Thorne does not see. He
has not studied southern problems as close
" as some of the southern people have. In
the first place there is no bitterness of feel
ing between the whites and negroes in the
south. The two races get along very well
together. At present the south could not
do without the negroes. They plant and
gather her crops, work her mines and turn
her forests into commercial products. And
they do much OF her mechanical work. But
gradually, almost imperceptibly. the place
occupied by the negroes is being taken by
white people. The belief that white people
cannot work In the fields in the south no
longer exists. Nearly the whole cotton crop
of Texas is made by white labor. To a much
greater extent every year the crops OF the
south viii be made by white labor. The
great plantations are being broken up into
small farms. and white men own the farms,
and they and their families do the work
that is done on them.
And here in Georgia, what is the out
look? What is the meaning of the coming
of 10000 white people in one colony-the
Fitzgerald colony? Is it not that Georgia
is to be state OF small, white farmers who
will themselves cultivate their farms and
gather the fruits of their industry? Unless
the negroes become cultivators of the soil
and compete with white men they Will be
slowly out surely driven from the fields to
the industrial centers of the north and
west and to the towns of the south. In the
towns, owing to their neglect of health
conditions they will not increase greatly
in numbers. The white people will increase
far more rapidly. Before many years the
race problem In the south will cease to be
a problem. 1t will have been solved, and
without the aid of any one of the means
suggested by Mr.. Thorne