The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-15
VIEWS On THE RIOT.
Rev II blackwell Call, Attention To
Several Remarkable Feature. OF the
Adair-Differing I'm nany Respect,
From Ordinary Riots.

| In speaking yesterday with The Rev.
! c. s. Blackwell. Ph. d. pastor OF First
/ Baptist church, about the race conflict
! in Wilmington on Thursday, a Messen-
! ger representative said:
DR.. Blackwell. you have had some
! observation Of riots in different cities.
| have you not?"
Yes, l was pastor in ST. Louis dur
| ing the labor strikes and railroad and
street car riots in the early SOS, and
also in Chicago at the time OF the Hay
market bomb throwing and anarchists
riots and hangings."
What are your impressions OF our dis
turbances in the past few days as COM
pared with such things in the west
aid north?"
They differ in every particular ex-
cept in one point, viz: A few people
| are killed in both. But the spirit actu-
ating both sides, and the methods OF
doing it are totally different. There.
| the moving motive is primarily mon
ey; hence there is a furious madness.
! inflamed in every instance by liquor
dignity of a proud dominant race calm
! ly determined to assert its innate right
to rule, 10 protect its person and prop
erty in the midst Of an inferior and mis-
4 guided race was secondary. There,
| the point of contact is always property,
| hence the city, railroads, mine owners
! and factory proprietors simply call on
rh1 oil Il
! government to send the soldiers. or
| perhaps, personally hire Pinkerton
men to stand up and shoot down the
! bowling and half drunken mobs. There,
! the whole thing is a conflict of Drawn
| and bullion. Hence it was brutal, cold
| blOoded and hard hearted as the gold
| dollars for which each was fighting.
| Here the point of contest is person
! ality. Here the element of paternalism
entered. Here, no man expected to
make a dollar out of this conflict. All
knew they were loosing money. There
| was something deeper and higher than
| dOllars-the dignity of a race, the hon
or of home and family now and for
the future were at stake. Also the re-
d
race was present in every rejecting
mind. Hence the people could not and
| did not want to hire police, soldiers,
or foreign detectives to shoot down, or
| put back to their birth place the ne
grOes. Such a performance would not
! have been effective here. In the north,
| to quell a labor riot by machines would
| be just as effective as by personal su-
| periority and sacrifice, this being our
| lofty motive, our methods had to be in
| keeping-hence our citizens, all of our
! citizens, armed themselves, organized
/ themselves, drilled themselves for
| weeks, met together in our public mass
;. Observation-Disclosures with judicious-
ness, gave their ultimat atum as a master
| should calmly to the other side. 1t
| was not complied with. The white
| people, the very best and practically
| all of our citizenship proceeded to put
/ its last word into execution by remov-
! ing the Objectionable materials of men
/ That a few negroes We're shot was a
| mere incident You can't make an ONE
| let without breaking a few eggs The
! primary purpose was not to kill but to
| educate"
You say there was sort of pater-
! nalism about our proceedings?"
| Yes, and by that l mean that our
malice in their hearts towards the ne
! gro. The day following our conflict, the
| whites and the negroes were working
| right along together in the best OF feel
| ing. 1t was just as if wise and right
! full ruler of a ward should find that
| ward growing insOlent from had asso-
| Citations and took the child in hand to
! chaStiSe it. After the chastisement the
/ man does not hate the child and hold
! malice in his heart. The white people
| here do not hate the negro as such.
| We feel that we have these people here
and in a sense are responsible for them
| That we know them as no other peo-
| pie. not reared with them. can know
! them, and that we know they are utter
| ly incapable Of either ruling themselves
| or any body else. and that whenever
| they get out Of their place they have
| to be put back to their place by the
rough hand of material and maSterful
! force. That is the only kind OF reason
| ing that finally convinces the negro
race Capital and labor conflicts are
! heartless. ours is heartful. The few
| capitalists really fear the many labor
ers We Anglo-Saxons have no real
| fear in our breasts as to the negro.
! They kill TO save their nuggets. we
kill to save the negro from himself.
In all this there is not the slightest
! disposition 10 humiliate the negroes.
! The white people hold the negroes in
! the highest respect so long as they OBJ
| serve their place and position. The
! white people would and did during the
! riot. protect such negroes with their
/ lives. During the hottest excitement
. our best citizens were seen on the
streets conducting negro men and wO-
men TO their homes, lest some excited
and irresponsible person should insult
or injure them. This is what ! mean
by the paternal element/that enters in
TO our race conflicts"
+ What is your idea as TO the future
g0od?"
There will be a lasting and Who'll
. some mental respect between the races
. based on right understanding. 4
| change Of manners on tn streets for
| the better is already observable II
. viii leave a lasting good on the minds
OF the negro children. For fifteen