The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-12-15

the shuttlecooks to which the almighty dollar of the interruptions politician Is the hattledore. Their ignorance upon party questions entails this upon them. They call themselves republicans; but, as in every other elective government, the uneducated vote is the purchasable one. Of the populists they are some- what shy. "They ain't fish an they aims flesh; theys jest foul," as one of their orators once said and that set tied it. The introduction of the Aus tralian system into some of the states has materially lessened the colored vote, for the large majority of the older ne- groes have not the requisite educational qualifications to observe it's require ments. But this obstacle need not stand in the way of the coming voters if they choose to avail themselves of the priv ileges of the public schools prepared for them throughout the South But many have already climbed a few rounds up the party ladders; for even now negro magistrates are found among the squires, and negro representatives sit in the legislative halls; they wear po- licemen's stars, and fill many of the smaller political offices. True Georgia town recently received its colored post master with bullet; but North Caro- lima has three such postmasters, and there is no talk of a lynching bee.
 Intellectually the negroes are on the up grade. Some people, chiefly those same onlookers from distance, point with enthusiasm to the success in Eng land of the negro poet, Dunbar, as proof of this intellectual growth. But this seems a very one-sided illustration for two reasons First, they have been many individual cases before the com ing of Dunbar of negro ability; and in the second place the English look upon the negro with something Of the sane curiosity with which their forefatners regarded the Indians who went back from this country with the first set tiers, so that if Dunbar had been only a crack shot or an expert bareback rider instead of a poet he would still 1 have been a success" over seas. It is not this nor any other one mans att tainments that are the convincing argu- ments in the question of this mental development. Rather Is 1t all of this combined with the general desire that Is manifesting itself among the negroes for an education; not a collegiate or even high school education as rule though in some of the colleges there are excellent Greek and Latin scholars, and | colored lawyers and doctors are numer- ous-but such knowledge as will enable | them to make better wages. A large 1 proportion of the young negroes know | something of the elementary branches, and a good sign of the awakened inter- est Is the half-contemptuous pity with | which boy or girl who cannot write l his or her name or read the sign boards 1 and papers is regarded by those who can boast of these accomplishments,
 1 And these attainments are within the reach of every negro child who Is not | held back by sloth or parental greed for the small wages these little ones may earn in the cotton patches or around the houses of the well-to-do. For the white people, realizing that the two races must continue to live side by side with equal suffrage privileges, want the negroes educated, want them so trained that their ignorance may not be a menace to good government. For this purpose a generous share of the public school money is set aside for the
 maintenance of colored schools In the different districts, though of that money
 the negroes themselves pay but the | merest fraction.
 The negroes are the laboring classes
 of the South, and an examination into
 history and statistics will show to the
 world that where they are aw-abidine
 they are no more put upon no more
 persecuted than the laboring classes oi
 other sections and countries. It is only
 when they overstep the great underly, ing principles of civilization that mol i violence overtakes them. It is from tht
 South only that accounts of such vio. lence come, say the critics. True; fol
 in the South only do we have two peo
 ples of such widey different racial ant
 national characteristics dwelling to.
 gether in just these existing relations
 Compared with other working classe:
 the negro does not suffer The wages
 he receives would turn a foreign peas
 ant green with envy; and in many ways
 the life of a southern plowman or cot.
 ton picker is less restricted, has fewel
 hardships, and is far happier than tht
 life of a New England factory hand
 Sara Beaumont Kennedy In Chicago
 Times-Herald.