The age-herald., 1897-08-17
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

of the negroes of Alabama there appeared a very forceful editorial. with the signifi- cant headlines "A Strike for Political Freedom" It was written and signed by the editor, David Williams Parker, and the position he takes in regard to the negroes duty politically, is worthy of the attention of the white people of the state He says among other good things: ''For thirty years we have been the slaves of a political party that has done absolutely nothing for us, but keep the race at swords point with our white neighbors When a republican is elected president sometimes few negroes get office, but the masses are left in tho cold. What has the south done for the negro? It has made him what he is. It has brought him from state of savagery to the high plains of civilization, It has appended SSO,OOO,O 600 for negro public schools and of this tremendous amount of money only s4,OOO,O00 were paid by negro taxes. The south has built churches and erected school houses for the negro. In fact the old masters and their sons have been fath- CTS and brothers to the ex-slayes. There are thousands and thousands of freedman, who think just as we do. on these lines of peace, progress and prosperity. What we want to do is to make strike for our political freedom. Let the colored vote divide, and in just and reasonable way, stand side by side with our neighbors, up- holding law and order and voting for the glory of Alabama, and the common inter- est of our country. If the press and lead ing democratic citizens throughout Ala bama properly encourage this movement, r.rfIIl fa iC cfof ocu in Indiana, a colored democratic party. work ing with and subject to the regular organ ization. We claim that the interests of one race is the interest of the other"
 
 Two such men as David Williams Parker and Booker T. Washington are doing more to advance their race along all helpful lines than every politician who has come among the negroes of the south during the last thirty years, sowing the seeds of dscord between the whites and the blacks. and using the credulous negro voters only to place themselves in office. One of the most hopeful signs of the times is the awak- ening of the negro to the necessity for amia- ble relations between the two races at the south. Booker Washington has preached the gospel of fraternal peace for many years and the progress of the negroes, who come within the influence of his teachins is sufficient proof of it's truth and power The race problem will be solved at the south by the conservative, intelligent lead CTS, of both sides and David Williams Par ker and Booker T. Washington will be potent factors in it's solution.
 The strongest reason for the wonderful successtof Prof. Washington (after granting everything that is his due because of moral worth, intelligence and a capacity for per sistent efforD is without doubt the fact that he is a native of the south, born on a
 Virginia plantation, and therefore fhad ample opportunity to study. both sides of the race question. Growing up amid pow erty, he had time to note the causes there for and to discover there were fields of en- deavor which the negro of the south could enter, and in which he could succeed with out clashing with the white race. He com prehended with his rapidly expanding intel lect that there was room below Mason and Dixon's line for both peoples; that the an- tagonsm engendered-by the results of the late war, and the false teaching of outsid- ers-between the whites and blacks should not exist; that each race had its manifest destiny to accomplish, and that neither whites or blacks can afford to be menac-. ing evil to the other
 Prof. Washington further realized that all the twaddle and jargon Of ''social equal ity" is but a weight and drawback to the advancement of the negro, and could never be successfully brought about, in any sec- ton of the country. The two separate and distinct lines of thought and action along which run the lives of the whites and blacks Prof Washington; recognized as lines which need never become entangled, but should always lie in helpful and harmonious prox- unity. This teacher of the gospel of re- conciliation and good will, has inspired the two races with confidence in his ability to complete the task he has set for him. self. He has made no effort at display; there has been no "playing to the gal leries;" he has moved steadily forward with dominant force, upon the only possi- ble line that can bring permanent good to the negro of the south. Prof. Washington Is credited with the remark that the edu- cated man, who stands idly upon the street corners, with his hands in his pockets. is as useless and undesirable a citizen as an un- educated man, doing the same thing' and upon this philosophical basis, he has built his educational methods for the redemption and elevation of his people.
 
 The great hue and cry the chatter and clamor which rent the political atmosphere subsequent to the civil war concerning the necessity for giving the southern negroes the advantages of the public school system, brought no abiding benefit. The rodiments
 
 negroes, but in majority of instances the academic opportunities only increased their natural restlessness and created a desire for the unattainable and forbidden A partially educated negro often became a firebrand a neighborhood. stirring up strife, and deceiving the ignorant with fallacous arguments. A smattering of music and the languages served but to in- crease idleness and thriftlessness; there was but little evidence of mental or moral growth, under the new order of things and the white people of the south, helpless to alter these conditions, looked on with dark est forebodngs of the future. Just at this period when the outlook was most discour- aging, Prof. Washington began his life work. at Tuskegee, in the humblest most limited way. It has grown to such pro- portions under his wise, judicial manage ment that it's benign influence is beginning to be felt in every portion of the south.
 Prof. Washington desires to implant in the minds of his people along with "book learning" the wish to be self-supporting in an honorable way. in that sphere of life in