The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-22
BOOKER WASHINGTON PUTS THEM TO
SHAME.

The decent portion of the Northern
press has repudiated the outrageous ut
terance of Mrs Grannis. who UNANIMOUSLY
charged that the white women and
white girls of the South are full of
colored blood" and the equally false
statement of Mr.. Fuller. The New
York Journal says:
1.-TWO of the speakers at Cooper Union
both white-gave expression to intol-
cradle and villainous sentiments. We in
New York know Mr.. Lawson \. Fuller
eccentricities and understand the
louuacious folly of Mrs. Elizabeth Il.
Grannis too we'll to attach any import
ance to what either one says. But their
words will travel to neighborhoods not
acquainted with the character of the
speakers and will awaken racial bitter
ness where it is now dormant.
Mr.. Fuller's suggestions that young
ladies in the South are too easily insult
ed would be bad TASTE at any time-de-
livered to an audience which received it
with sarcastic laughter, and made i'll al
fusion to the offence which causes most
of the Southern lynchings, is was i'll
something more than bad taste; it was
an egregious blunder almost crime.
when this misplaced witticism is sent
through those Southern communities
where the race question is uppermoet
coupled with the vulgar and lying asSer-
ton of Mrs. Grannis that the white
women and white girls of the South are
full of colored blood it will awaken
Indignation which may unjustly be visit
cd upon the colOred race.
''The fact is that both Mr.. Fuller and
Mrs. Grannis are much afflicted with
Incorporate and ill-considered speech
Neither represents any public sentiment
i'll New York. Neither is listened to
with the slightest respect. The colored
people who organized the Cooper Union
mass meeting were unfortunate in hav-
ing two such indscreet spokesman rep
resent the white race. 1t was from ne
@roes that those gathered i'll Cooper
Union heard the only intelligent and
patriotic discussion of the deplora bic
conditions existing in the South"
About the same time that these two
common scolds were villifying Southern
people, Prof. Booker Il. Washington, the
negro college president from Alabama,
was invited to deliver an address at
Clinton Avenue Congregational church,
Brooklyn. He made no allusion to
troubles he very well knows cannot be
settled by Northern cranks, but spoke
along lines of practical helpfulness to
his race. Here is the gist of his address
in few extracts:
ut must be apparent at this time that
the effort to put the rank and file of
the colored people into a position to ex-
ercise the right of franchise has not
been a success in those portions of our
own country where the negro is found
in large numbers. Either the negro
was not prepared for any such wholesale
exercise of the ballot as our recent
amendments to the Constitution CON
templated, or the American people were
not prepared to assist and encourage
him to use the ballot In either ease
the result has been the same.
I'm my mind there is no doubt that
we made the mistake at the beginning
of our freedom of putting the emphasis
on the wrong end. Politics and the
holding Of office were emphasized almost
to the exclusion of every other interest,
and we accepted responsibilities which
our experience and education had not
fitted us to perform with success and
credit.
ITO my mind the past and the present
teach but one lesson-to the negro's
friend and to the negro himself-that
there is but one way out. but one hope
of solution, and that is for the negro in
every part of America to resolve that his
pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud
by day shall be property, skill, economy,
education and Christian character.
The individual or race that owns the
property, pays the tax, possesses the in
telligence and substantial character, is
the one who is going to exercise the
greatest control of government. The ne
gro will be on different footing III this
country when it becomes common to as
sociate n million dollars with Il black
skin. The black man who is intelligent
and ,virtuous, and owns and cultivates
the best farm in his country, and is the
largest tax payer, cannot be denied all
the respect and consideration given to
any other citizen