The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-15
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
From Leslie's Weekly.

From Leslie's Weekly.
There is no more difficult problem in
the politics and industry OF this country
than the future OF the negro. The IN
dian Is gradually abolishing himself; the
yellow races are not numerous enough
to be a factor and the immigrants from
Clrcassian lands are generally digested
and assimilated by the general popula-
tion. But the negro Is of himself apart.
lie cannot be digested or aSSimilated; ne
must ever remain a black race. The fact
that the negro population, owing TO the
large mortality due to ignorance or neg
ligcnce of the laws of health, is not in
creasng as rapidly as the white has led
some people to say that time VIII elm
irate the negro problem by constantly re-
duCing his percentage in the population,
but this view misses the important fact
that the negro breeds rapidly, and the
spread of compulsory sanitation viii IN
eNitably increase his ratio. This idea OF
moving the race back to Africa is pure
folly, and from every point of view the
conclusion is absolute that the negro is
not only here, but he is here to stay and
to increase and multiply.
Frederick Douglass used to tell his race
that the only way they could gain equal
ity with the white folks was to be equal
to the white folks. Booker Washington is
preaching and practcing the same truth.
As united as the hand, yet as separate as
the fingers, Is his figure of speech to show
the right relation of the races. unques-
tonably there Is a disposition TO do all
that is possible for the negro, but those
who have been studying the situation
including intelligent negroes themselves
would like to be more hopeful than the
facts admit. The very worst sign is that
the negro seems to be losing the occupa-
tions which he formerly monopolized.
Barbaring, shoe polishing, waiting, wash
ing, whitcwashing and kalsomininG, driv-
ing, serving, are a few of the humble but
helpful employments in which white COM
petition is making its way. And worse
than that fact is the further fact
that in most instances the negro is un-
able to hold his own against white COM
petition. OF course there are many eN-
ceptions to the general rule, and indiNld-
ual negroes have made splendid sue
cesses-for instance, the artist whose
painting was recently bought for the
Louvre-but the real truth is that the
great mass of negroes are not much, II
any, further from the drudgery basis
than they were twenty or thirty years
ago. The increase in crime among them
has been most deplorabe. one OF the
grand juries in a border state COM
planned within the past month that, Whlle
the negro population was only one-ffth
of the whole population of the state, the
negroes outnumbered over fifty per cent.
of the inmates of the penal institutions.
%
1t is not too much to say that politics
is responsible to a very large degree for
the failure of the negro to advance on
broader and better lines. The white poll
ticans who live on the negro vote are
practically without exception, utterly un-
prinCipled and mendacious. They lie to
the negro increasingly, and do all in
their power to keep his citizenship down
to a small cash basis This sort OF de-
moralization is increasing at rate which
is alarming, and it Is a common thing TO
hear Republican politicians in the south
ern states complain that while most OF
the negroes win not under any circum-
stances vote the Democratic ticket, they
are obliged to pay them 10 vote the Re
publican ticket. But this VIII certainly
reach its climax, and then there may
come a better state of things. The only
vav is to hone on and work on, knowing
that n race cannot be educated in a day,