The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-20
THE NEGRO PROBLEM.
New York Tribune.


In three States the race question mas
been acute and dangerous i'll the past
few DAYS, but in only one has there been
a race problem worthy of discussion ana
admitting of difference among thought
full and unprejudiced men. The Illinois
riots were labor troubles, and the race
antagonsm in them was purely incident
nj The striking miners would nave on
iectcd as strenuOuSly to importation Oh
white as of black laborcrs to take thelr
places. and Governor Tanner Wouid
have had equal jurisdiction for ms hlgh-
handed notification of the constitution
of the United States if the newcomers
had been white men. The significance
of his action is not his exhibition Oh
race feeling, but his official promul-
cation of the view not now for the tlrst
time preached by professional labor aSl-
tators that whatever at any time they
arc pleased to call 'the rights of labor
becomes the supreme law or the land'
constitution or statutes Notwithstanding.
That was the idea that underlay DeDlsm
and the Chicago riots and dictated the
nopuist attacks on the integrity OF the
Silprcme Court. To accept it or to act
rs if they accepted it and permit whoie-
sale law-breaking SO long as 1t is zone
in the name of labor is favorlte device
Of demagogic officials. 1t calls for stern
reprobation and repression and some eie-
mentary instruction i'll the character OF
the United States as Il country OF IL
berty regulated by law rather than OF
license regulated by mobs.
The riots in Greenwood county. South
Carolina. were race troubles without
M
he wanton and wholesale murder of ne
groes there. A petty difficulty which a
white man provoked was made the eX-
cuse by brutal and lawless gangs for
sating their appetite for shooting ne
.y.rocs. and the best elements of the com
nuffty condemned their man-hunting
and tried to save their innocent victims.
There was no question of white supre-
macy or of white safety The negro is
no longer a factor in South Carolina
politics since the adoption of the new
constitution. A white candidate for
Congress was engaged in the perfectly
lawful and peaceful operation of max
ing a list of negroes who came to the
ooIls to vote for him, but whose votes
we're refused under the registration law.
He desired to test that law, and there
had been no objection to his doing so
until one OfficiOus person attacked him
without provocation and the negroes
Joined to protect the man attacked and
his assailant was shot. Thereupon the
hoodlums of the neighbOrhOOd went ne
gro-hunting. and after rounding up in
nocent blacks who had fled to the fields
N fright they proceeded, in spite of pro-
tests from their neighbors. to shoot them.
This was simple murder and nothing
Else. Race prejudice was the occasion
'or it. but the blood-thirsty instincts of
he staggering. worthless white trash.
who have too frequently been allowed by
conservative. law-abidng white people OF
the Southern States to disgrace them,
was the cause.
But when we come to North Carolina
and the troubles over the Wilmington
city government there we find not mere
ly the senselesS race feud, but the race
problem. The South Carolina disturb
ance was revolution. There appears 10
he no doubt that the negro rule III
Wilmington was bad. The negrO's best
friends in the South are agreed that
ne is not vet fitted to rule well, and do
not blame the whites for desiring to
rulc the towns of which they are the
most intelligent and capable element
with the largest interests at stake
though they are often much out-number-
ed biz the irresponsible and ignorant
blacks, whose attempt at government is
only an opening for INSCRIPTIONS sharp
ers. Wilmington has done away with
his government by what is nothing
more nor less than an act of revolution.
The new system may justify itself as
better than the old. but that is the COM
mon justification of revolution. 1t IN
fact is its only justification, and to adj
nit that it is adequate is to admit tnat
democracy is failure. The theory OF
majority rule and universal suffrage mas
no place for good government by the
minority when the majority government
is bad A majority of bad negroes Is
lust as sacred under our constitution as
4 majority of bad whites. such as some
Of our Northern cities have had to en-
dure. The majority rule. be it good or
bad. must be accepted unless we are pre-
nared to retrace our steps to the more
moderate republcanism of our earlier
history. when suffrage was restricted
with the frank purpose OF keeping the
government out of the hands OF the II
responsible elements of society. Inc
bumor of the situation is that this at
come from States which have always as
serted their superior devotion 10 the pure
and ideal Democratic philosophy ;,
But the situation is not one IN "hich
humor predominates. The problem is
| n serious one. and it has two sides, ana
| it is made more serious by ineradlcable
and irrational race prejudice. But for
| that a solution might be found. If the
| peopIe of the Southern States would
| frankly say that they wanted to be ruled
| by their best rather than their WORST
| citizens, and proceeded to shut out from
| suffrage undesirable white voters on the
| same terms as the undesirable blacks
| there would be one solution. If they
| would devote themselves heartily to the
work of training ignorant voters so as
to secure good government from them