The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-26
DIR. CU.RRY's CRITICS,

i The speech of DIR. Curry at Shaw Uni
versity has received criticism from sever
al sources. Mr.. w. Il. Hill, Of Faison,
in a Communication 10 this paper last
!, Sunday wrote;
II am surprised that you, DIR. Bat.
tie and others should approve of DIR.
/ Curry's Address at Shaw University,
/ He asks: Why the negroes do not go
North with his friends instead of
staying South among his enemies?
/ That is incendiary doctrine. The
Z! South is not an enemy to the negro.
Look at the schools, asylums they
/ have taxed themselves to build for the
! negroes"
/, We fear that Mr.. Hill did not UNDER
stand the spirit of DIR. Curry's argument,
F.! due perhaps to the brief report. He
was expressing his surprise that the ne
groes massed themselves more and more
! in the States in which their ''enemies, 50
| using, as we understood him, the Ian
| guage of those who say the Southern
people are the enemies Of the negro, and
| not expressing his own idea. DR. Curry
knows that the negro has had generous
/ friends in the North, but he believes with
! Mr. Hill that the best friends Of the
negro live in the South. DIR. Curry was
giving the negro youth of Shaw some
/ thing to think about, and suggesting an
/. inquiry that would make them under
stand that if their true friends were in
/ The North inducements would be offered
for the negroes to go to them Dr. Cur
I rvs views are identical with Mr.. Hits
I upon this point But Mr. iHll adds.
| DIR Curry also says no man should
; vote III Ass he can read the ballot
/ That would disfranchise a number
I of white people. / am in favor of
education, but that kind of talk is
not good for North Carolina people,
! Here is what DIR. Curry said:
II don't believe A MAN WHO
! CANNOT READ HIS BALLOT
OUGHT TO BE ALLOWED TO
PUT TT IN THE BOX"
This utterance was applauded by many
Of the negro students. Fully one third
Of the States have election laws that in
effect disfranchisr all illiterate citizens,
| and in Connecticut and Massachusetts
it is expressly provided that no man can
vote who cannot write and read the Con-
stitution in English. DR. Curry, seeing
and feeling the evils that ignorant negro
voters have brought upon the South,
takes the same position that is held by
most of the educated Northerners.
| A correspondent of the Richmond Dis
patch takes hand at criticizing DIR. Cur
ny because he expressed his opposition Of
the plan of having an American flag
| float on the public schools. This writer
intimates that DR.. Curry was teaching
that respect, loyalty and devotion to the
| flag in proportion to the amount of rev
enue we derive from the government
| Treasury" The idea that DR.. Curry was
| trying to enforce in his talk to the negro
students was to let their strongest love
go out to their homes; their towns; their
| States; and their country in proportion
| to their nearness. Without saying so,
in express terms, he was protesting a
! gainst the idea that is eternally taught
the negro that he owes some debt of
| gratitude to the Federal government for
his education, and is in danger OF fixing
| all his loyalty there to the exclusion of
| the county and State to which alone
he is debtor for education. There is not
a dollar expended by the Federal gov
eminent to educate the negro, except in
A. and NJ Colleges. There was no pur-
pose on DR.. Curry's part to measure 10y
atty to the flag by dollars expended. He
only wanted by strong point to show
the negro that his real helper in securing
his education in the public schools was
his white tax-paying neghbor, and not
| the far-off friend Of education whose
only help was in the shape Of tract
upon the Importance Of floating a flag
over every public school. But for the
State, there would be no school-house
from which to float the flag. The negro
ia too prone to put Uncle Sam ahead of
his local government, and DR.. Curry
showed the injustice in anything that
tended to carry sAe wrsRg tendency fur
| fher