Evening star., 1898-11-14
THE NEGRO sQUEsTioN
A Scholarly Review o6 the Elements of a
Monenseus Problem.
The Advice of a Negro to His Race to
,-:2 j
Wait Until .Furtl,er Develop
ment Before Voting,
the Editor Of The Evening Star.

To the Editor Of The Evening STAR
The candid and conservative editorial |
comment of The Star upon the recent race
conflict at Wilmington, N c. must elicit |
| the commendation of thoughtful people of
all shades of color or political conviction
The alarming outbreak of passion de- |
vefoped by the late campaign, in state
which had hitherto, been considered nota-
BILE for the kindly feeling supposed to exist
| between the races is a striking Illustration
| of the gravity of the negro problem. De-
spite the wonderful transformations of the
past thirty-five years, this question is no
nearer satisfactory settlement than when
| Lincoln issued the emancipation proclama-
| ton. The remedies proposed so far have
| all failed to work out the fulf1lIment which
| their propounders prophesied. Emancipa-
| ton. enfranchisement and education have,
seVerai1y or conformity been confidently pre-
| dicted as adequate measures of relief; and
yet with each of these experiments the
| problem, instead of yielding to the treat
| ment, seems to take on added difficulties.
| We have apparently reached the limit of
| human wisdom This conviction was clear
| ly expressed by Mr. Henry Watterson sew
| eral years ago, when he declared that he
! had stopped specu1ating and had gone to
| praying. The North Carolina episode Illus
! trates more clearly, perhaps, than any oc-
| currence since the overthrow of the recon-
struction regime, the spirit and determina-
| ton of the dominant race, and the utter
| helplessness of the weaker element in the
| contest. The situation does not call for
| bitter abuse or vile -epithets although on
| first impulse, 1t is almost impossible to sup
| press them. 1t is only a calm, dspassion-
ate, judicial consideration of all the facts
| ard factors involved that can be of any
| avail. Much of the evil of the situation in
| evitably grows out of the juxtaposition of
! two races widely different from each other
| in physical pecularities and cultivated fac
| ulties. After exercising all possible prli-
| dence and caution, there will still remain a
| large residuum of difficulty. But unless
both put a check upon the wild license
| of passion, the catastrophe will be too ap-
| palling for the imagination to depict.
A Reaction.
| Although the negro would doubtless be
| made the immediate victim, the permanent
| evil effect would fall ultimately upon the
| white race. kind Providence has endowed
the negro with patient, long-suffering, non
! revengeful disposition, which, to the self
| assertive Anglo-Saxon, is simply inconlpre-
| hensible The arrows of insult, injury and
| outrage absorbed by the negro's gener-
| Gus nature and rendered nugatory and
| harmless: on the other hand, the Anglo
! Saxon forges them into thunderboits of
| wrath and hurls them back at the aggressor
| with the red hand of vengeance. The ca
| pacity of the colored race receive insult
| ridicue and irony as do the trees and ami
mails is doubtless, to the white man, an
| amazing grace, but tor the negro it is as
| Suredly a saving lone.s If the negroes in
| Wilmington had not possessed this quality
| there would hardly1haee been one of them
| left to tell the stors@3 This is undoubtedly
| the one great contribution which this race
| has to offer to the general culture of the
! human spirit The, ayalities of meekness,
| humility and FORGIVENESS of injury lie at
| the basis of the Christian religion albeit
| they are despsed ind rejected by a Chris
| acia
| that thay that conquer by the sword shah
| perish by the sword, and "the meek shall
| Inherit the earth" are working out their
| fulhilment under otR daily observ ations
Goldsmith .IsusgesGve Verse.
| The negro possesses, the power of quick
| recovery. and can 1apidly emerge from any
| commotion and goe Only plodding the weary
Tenor of his way. Haeewitf1 the white man
| this is not SO. The aevii reputation which
! attaches to the place and people as well
| as the reflex action upon the character, win
! ne dlflcult, if not impossible, to eradicate
! A striking analogy is drawn by Goldsmith
| IN his "Elegy on d Mad Dog:
| Ihls dog and man at first were friends:
| But, when a pique began
| The dog, TO gain some private ends
| Went mad and bit the man
The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye;
And Al while they swore the dog was mad
| . Phey swore the man would die
| but soon wonder came to light
Ihat showed the rogues they lied;
| The man recovered from the bite
| The dog it was that died"
| DO the whites of the south not know that
| IN me maj. adjustment of the cause and
| consequence the victims of violence ami
| outrage Will suffer less than the perpetra-
| Tors Of them? a law of physics applies with
| almost scientific eXactness to society: Ac-
Iinl tnon ana reaction are equal and in opposite
The late Mr.. Douglass was fond of
prophesying that, in course of time. the So
| called negro problem would be looked upon
| as essentially the white mans problem
| Daliy occurrences are making the truth of
| is umis prophecy more and more apparent
| me Whlte race represents the dominant
element In all parts of this country. and
| are responsible to the enlightened con-
science OF the civilized world for the sun
| preston and punishment of crime. the
| nsalntalhance of law and order and the
| continuance of a peaceful regime That
| the southern whites are not satisfactorily
| lulflhng this function is shown by the fact
| thdt one can scarcely pick up his daily
| paper PUT that he is shocked by accounts
| OF laWless mobs wreaking summary ven
| geahce upon helpless and defenseless c,t-
| lA2ns many Of whom are subsequently,
| proved to be innocent of crime. The Sc
| verify of the shock is relieved only by the
| frequency of the occurrences.
An EngIishman's View.
| The local and national conscience has be-
come scared. Mr.. w Laird Cloves an
! Ergishman was sent to this country sew
| erai years ago by a London newspaper to
| study and report upon the problem
| in the south. 1t should be said, in fairness,
| that Mr. Cloves mission was not a part
! OF the anu-lynching crusade, and there
| fore, he did not bring to the inquiry a
| mind preposessed with the existence of a
| special evil. In his book, BLACK America"
| We nowhere find any evidence that he is
| unduly inclined toward the colored race.
| Here is the result of his observation:
| And here let me say at once, deliberately