The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-01-10
THE RACE PROBLEM.
OPINIONS OF TWO NORTHERN
MEN.
They Differ With Each Other Greatly
Some Outside Testimony That
Makes Interesting Reading-The
South Can Manage its Own Affairs
in its Own Way, Says One of Them.
I Atlanta Constitution

| the American Missionary ASSOCIATION
who has recently travelled through the
South, gives the following summary o
the situation, as he understands it:
"There are three classes of white
people in the South. The first clas:
look upon the negro as a fairly good
| citizen, but still its members refuse tC
accept him as their political and socia
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 wipe out the blacks entirely. 1t is
to this class that the cause Of SO many
| lynChings is due. The feeling against
the negro is so intense that it becomes
dangerous for even missionary to try
and help the blacks.
"The race question will never be
settled until the whites agree to edu-
cate the blacks and acknowledge them
as their equals The last annual re-
port of the Association shows that
$1,000, 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 teachers. y
We do not know Of any locality
in the South where it is dangerous for
a missionary to help the blacks. DR..
Beard shows his unfortunate bias when
he says that the race question will
never 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
practicable limit for the education of
the negroes, and it would be unreas-
enable to expect them to do more.
The suggestion that we should reCog-
nize the negro as our social, as we'll as
our political equals, is too wild and
visionary to merit serious consldera-
ton. DR.. 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 them employment
in only the most menial positions.
How can they ask the whites of the
South to do what they refuse to do
themsclvese
But there are many outsiders who
do not share Dr. Boards views. Mr..
Finn, the able staff correspondent of
the Chicago Hera!d, who has spent
much of his time in the South, says in
his paper:
"The savage instincts of the negro
manifest themselves in the South in
two ways-in murders and in rapes.
These manifestations are almost mex
plicable. They are certainly mysteri-
Gus. The negro almost invariably
commits great crime IN d manner
which seems to demonstrate either his
utter disregard for consequences or his
temporary insanity. He either at the
time does not know how to cover his
tracks or he does not care to cover
them. He acts with all the blindness
of a mad man and all the ferocity Of
the savage. If his sight or his sense
returns with the commission of the
crime his attempts TO hide 1t or to
escape punishment are at once clumsy
and childish. Cupidty almost inva-
riably drives him to murder. He is
as likely, when in this fendish mood, d,
to take life for dollar as to tkae it
for thousand dallars. That which
drives him to the commission of the
other and most horrible crime, which
is frequently followed by murder as
we'll, in the face of almost the Ger
tainty Of a speedy retribution, is a
savage impulse, which is puzzllng the
minds of the best thinkers of the South.
How best to deal with it is question
that has not as yet been satisfactorily
decided. Lynch law has certainly had
a decided tendency toward checking
the evil But the fact remains that it
continues in the face Of lynch law. In
Atlanta and Fulton county the courts
have dealt with it thus far in a sum-
mary manner, and to the satisfaction
of the people, SO far as the execution
OF the law is ConCerned.'
Mr.. Finn thinks that there are
times when even lynch law fails to
meet the requirements Of the case, and
he says that the good people on both
sides of the Atlantic who are trying
to stop lynchings in the South would
change their minds if they lived there.
This is the way he puts it
"They would soon learn that there
are times when even lynch law falls
short of meeting the requirements.
ANY man VINO imagineS his vile,
daughter, sister or sweetheart, or the
wife, daughter, sister or sweetheart OF
his neighbor in the fiendlsh embrace
of a lecherous and murderouS black
devil, can Judge for himself whether or
not he would be prepared to JOIN a
lynching party. People who shed
tears over the fate of the Armenlans at
the hands of kurds and Bashl Rozouks
must remember that the people OF the
South have TO protect themselves
against savages equally as cruel and
ferocious at times, and that were II not
for the restraining influence OF the
rope since the war closed African bar
barism would have subjugated white
civilization in Dixie
The testimony Of this far-mlnded