The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-01-15
THE CENSUS AND THE NEGRO.
NhAt 1t Shows as Respects His Presel
and His Future Condition.

=
N'hAt It Shows as Respects HlS Present
and His Future Condition.
Portland oregonian: A generation ago
half Of the United States, and the doml-
nant half, dallled with the idea that all
the negro needed was emancipation. The
ballot was his summum bonum. With
tt, by some swift and unfathomable mir
acle of evolution, like that when a new
species springs into being, the black man
would be Anglo-Saxon American in
everything but his skin. The world IS
full Of happy expectations OF this kind,
and history Is strewn with their wrecks.
Man does not live by bread alone, nor Is
he by the ballot alone raised 10 moral
and intellectual prime.
The insuficiency OF the ballot in
strengthening the negro has slowly dem
onstrated itself. Time has been needed
10 show what he would do with the bal
lot, and the ballot with him; and in all
his relations, a generation after the war,
we should be able 70 see his needs and his
tendencies. a recent book by Frederick
J.. Hoffman, entitled Race Traits and
Tendencies OF the American Negro"
seems 20 gather UP the mass Of data and
census. These In general are discourage
ing and may be briefly epitomiZed. The
negro Is declining In numbers, compared
with the whites. Hhe increases, but les5
rapidly, Notwithstanding greater fecun-
Lity. In 1880. 1910 per cent OF our popu-
lation was colored; In 1880. only 1l.03
Per cent. One cause Of this decline Is
the rush of the negro, an agricultural
product, to the cities, Thus in sixteen
large southern cities where the white
population increased all per cent dur
.nG the decade lSS0-90, the colored popu-
latlou increased 1928 per cent; whereas,
in ten southern states where the white
population increased bl.93 per cent, the
negro population increased only J0.9S per
cent The blacks cOngrcgate in crowded
sections and uRsanitary districts. I'm
cleanness and immortality give them a
higher death rate than the whites. and
death rate that goes on increasing. while
sanitation is steadily lowering the death
rate OF the whites. In northern states
negro deaths actually outnumber negro
births. In Washington &c per cent OF
COlorcd infants do not live. Mixture of
the race with the whites still goes on,
though Its fearful moral and physical
consequences nave been well ascertained.
This deterioration Is not necessarily ir-
ATlAtHNtfN''Ns 4 NF IlgDtg Unit llutTtUk
radical tendencies prevent better things
for the negro IA far from proved. Bnyl-
Tonment has "a much to do with him as
with his white brother. Hygiene and san
itatIon will help him out physically, and
when he learns that emancipation or the
ballot have In them no revlvlfycatlng or
Tcgenerahng power, there s. sure TO be
great gain. This he u beginning to real
lie, and one OF the most hopeful signs in
the negro problem now IS the awakening
NJ representative colored mon 70 the fact
that the ballot IL no longer 10 be regard
cd ns the supreme good. The wlsest
leaders OF the racH-men like Booker r.
WIshlngtOn-1rc much more urgent that
the negro shall make himself Mt for the
outrage In the future than that black
men who are not III 10 exercise Il ghali
cast ballots now. Washington Is exert
ing himself strenuOusy TO educate his
race, 20 make them worthy OF citizen
ship. and 30 save them. when we can
put educlted colorcd men In every coun-
ny Of every southern state" NO wrote in
The Independent iaVt week, "thnre win
DO little OF the race emblem LEFT IN The
COuth,"