Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-11-17
Race Troubles.

The trouble which has stirred the |
people of North Carolina to the depths,
is much to be deplored. There are few
who do not sympathize more with the
negro than with the white people who
brought about the real troubles by
giving the negro the opportunity to lord
it over the white people of that State.
We had hoped as the election had pass
ed off quietly there would be no further
trouble, but in this we were uisap-
pointed. The feeling against a negro
paper at Wilmington was SO great on
account of its scandalous comments on
che white women of the State, that
there was not power to restrain the
whites from looting the office from which
| it emanated, and destroying the plant
| The building took fire shortly afterward
and was consumed This is claimed by
some to have been accidental and by
others intentional, but as the buil4ing
did not belong to negroes as we learn,
we cannot see why it should have been
burnt unless for its association. This
|
| probably precipitated the trouble which
followed in which eight negroes are said
to have been killed, and about twenty
| wounded. Order, it is now said, has
been restored and the city Of Whining
| ton Is in the hands of white people who
will restore it to good government.
Now comes the news that the presi-
dent and his cabinet are much angered
over the trouble, and call it massacre,
ard that steps may be taken in regard
| to it. the exact nature of which are yet
| in doubt 1t is singular coincidence
| that about the same number OF negroes
were killed in Wilmington that w re
killed at Virden, ILL.,, and about the
same number wounded The president
has not been in North Carolina since
the trouble. but he was in Illinois about
the time of the killing there, and history
fails to recordithat he entered any pro
test against that killing, although he
| made several speeches in the State.
History also fails to record that he and
his cabinet had any serious consulta-
| lions over the Virden massacre Is it
worse to kill negroes in North Carolina
| than in Illinois? Does il make any
difference whether the negroes killed
were attempting to kill white people
at the time they were killed, or whether
they had come to work in mines? 1t
surely must, else the president and his
cabinet would have been aroused sew
eral weeks ago. We hope the president
will show his usual good sense in this
affair." The moment he begins to inter-
fere he will make matters far worse.
| Considering the number of negroes In
North Carolina they are far more safe
than if in Ohio, certainly more SO than
in Illinois, and much more so than if in
Massachusetts.
The questions arising in North Caro-
lima and at Virden, ILL.,, and in fact
every where there is trouble between
the whites and blacks, is not poll zeal ii
is racial, and race prejudices cannot be
wiped out even with the sword. They
are Unborn, and the more there is done
to eradicate them if the plan adopted
|. is force, the wider become the differ
ences. and deeper the prejudic9s. Mr..
Mckinley nor any other Northern man
who has not lived in the South knows
the conditions, and like everything else
will have trouble trying to handle a
subject of which he knows nothing. 1t
is therefore hoped that for the good of
all concerned he will let it severely
alone