The news & observer., 1897-07-20

RlsHOP PETTY'S VIEWS ON THE NEGRO.

Bishop Petty, in an interview in the
,P;ttsburg Dispatch, tells the truth when
ne SAYS that the condition of the negro
ia better in the South than in any other
norton Of the country. "My conviction
is that it is best for him to stay there"
he added. We make few quotations
from the Bishops extended interview:
"You in Pittsburg have had consid-
cradle colored emigration from the South,
but my belief is that it is about over,
and that few more win come. This city
contains a great many colored men for
whom there is no opportunity for en-
ployment. Particularly is this true of
those who have received an education,
upon the same terms and in the same
schools with the whites, and when they
haye it they are denied the chance to
earn their living by it. The same thing
is largely true of Northern cities. 1t is
not so in the South.
"In the North the negro is told that he
possesses all the civil and political rights
OF the white man. yet when it comes to
obtaining employment he finds that his
civil and political rights avail him moth
ing. In the South there are certain we'll
defined limits to the sphere Of the negro,
but these do not include his employment.
He is entering all the professions; he is
learning to perform all kinds of skilled
labor and he gets the fullest opportunity
for the exercise of his talents and abili-
ties. The colored carpenter or bricklay-
er may work upon houses where white
men are employed and none OF them
think Of offering objections. In the
North the educated colored man is met
impassable wall Of prejudice and the col
ored artisan is prevented by the trades
unions from showing what he can do in
almost all the lines of skilled labor.
"Political equality does not compensate
zor this and no more would social equal
iy ff the eolored man could obtain it.
One Of the great causes for the limiting
of the colored mans opportunity in the
North is the school system. In all the
Southern States we have separate schools
for blacks and whites and the result is
that there is great field for the work
of educated colored men and women as
teachers. In the North colored youth
may fit himself for teaching but he can
not get position. There are a few
places where he can, believe, but they
are so insignificant in number as scarcely
to constitute an exception to the rule.
We believe in our system Of education In
the South for this reason and also for the
reason that no white teacher can inspire
q colored boy or girl as a colored teacher
will do. A white man may be absolutely
free from prejudice and yet he cannot
convey to young negro the enthusiastic
desire to do something for his race which
is necessary to constitute man a leader
Of the colored race.
81 would not be understood to claim
that prejudice against the negro race is
yet gone from the South, but it is only
in sections that it yet remains in all the
bitterness of few years ago. AS an
example Of the liberality which prevails
in North Carolina, I may instance the
fact that in the last four years there
have been only three men lynched, and
two Of them were white.
''In the district in which live we have
had colored coroners and States attor-
neys elected by q majority Of white
votes. Our representative in Congress Is
a colored man, George III. White, my
neighbor.
eff the negro is a property holder his
interest in municipal and county taxation
is reasonably certain to be the same In
such matters as that of his white neigh.
Dor who is property holder and so il
has come to pass that many colored men
are known as possessed of very indepen.
dent notions concerning their county anG
city politics.
''This independence is rapidly extending
to their views regarding nationa
politics; and l think justly so. Take the
question of free trade or protection, fol
instance, and it is quite clear that if free
trade is to the interest of the white
Southern farmer it is to the interest O.
the black Southern farmer, too.
zone thing which will aid very largely
in deciding the attitude of the coloret
population upon this question will be tn,
disposition which the manufacturer
show toward them in the matter of EN-
ployment. If manufacture growing III
in the South by the help of Northern
capital employ the black labor of th
South, then the negroes, it seems to mq
will decide that protection is what the.
want. If the practice of bringing in for
eigners spreads and continues, however
so that the negro is compA ed to remain