The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-13
WLLIrIERS OF THE SOUTH.

from Il certain section OF the NoFtHciii
press a flood of abuse of the South.
The more or less esteemed Washington
Star. whose sensibilities have for some
time been greatly harried by the re-
ports of a special correspondent from
this State. has finally suffered puncture
of it's vitriol tank. and other kindred ills.
In its issue of yesterday the Star
says:
1.-THE situation in Wilmington \. c.,
as it stands to-day, calls for emphatic
condemnation of the course pursued by
the white citizens who have been seek
ing to put an end to negro rule in that
city and elsewhere through the State.
Whatever may have been their provoca-
ton. they have resorted to the most
radical of measures without necessity,
and bloodshed has been the logical con
sequence, the responsibility for which
rests squarely upon them and them
alone.
That this Il gross and gratuitous mis-
representation of the white people of
Wilmington every intelligent newspaper
reader i'll the country knows, or should
know. The Star adds that the people
of Wilmington are guilty of murder,
and that they "are not deserving of any
consideration from the better balanced
portions of the country"
The New York Press. after cantins
about and descanting on the recent riots.
utters this contemplate SANDER upon
Southern whites:
Meantime the abandoned black has
his compensations. OF these one is that
not only is his race rising but that of
his oppressors falling. both ir the intel
lectual and material plane. There is not
one New" Southerner III public life to-
day who so nearly approaches the mental
standard of the Southern public man of
anteebellum days as does the negro
Booker T. Washington. The deteriora
ton is not that which we may note in
other sections. the relapse into what is
called mediocrity in craftsmanship which
follows every great era like the war
The new Southern public man belongs
to a race totally inferior to that of his
predecessors Without desiring to
stigmatize and simply wishing to define,
we may call him degenerate"
The Philadelphia Press, the organ of
Mr.. McKinley's Postmaster General
belches blue lightning and ends with the
dramatic query, 'What is the end to
be?'
Doubtless other newspaper have in
dulged in much the same sort of stuff
but these are sufficient to show that
there is still Il disposition on the part of
the organs of spite and promulgators of
hypocritical cant to misrepresent the
South as of old.
With one accord these newspapers
urge that Federal troops be sent to
maintain law and order" Why did not
these same sheets advise that Federal
troops be sent to Illinois where negroes
We're shot down because they wished tn
work and where other negroes have
since terrorized the town, firing at white
men walking in the streets, and even
shooting into houses? The governor OF
Illinois either could not or would not
end the disorders. And yet not a word
did these radical South-haters say o:
Federal troops.
SO far as the Philadelphia Press IS
concerned. no utterance from it is en-
titled to the respect of intelligent men
after the servile flattery of Mr.. McKin-
ley with which its columns were flooded
day after day, the price of which was
finally a position in Mr.. McKinley's IA
binet. To it also the retort may be made
that whatever the end may ne in this
| the shooting down of unarmel men in
| cold blood at Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a
| crime that has been thus far without
| condemnation of the law and without
| censure by the Philadelphia Press.
| The New York Press, of course, never
| lets slip an opportunity to malign the
| South. No man who was born south OF
| the Potomac, in the estimation of thai
| journal, deserves consideration in thil
| world or will receive any hereafter. II
| is worth while to observe in passing
though, that however degenerate the mel
of the South may have become they
have not yet reached the stage when one
man can play the easy boss" to a whole
State and year after year make and I'M
| make its destinies Nor are the Southern
people SO degenerate as to support
newspaper whose chief stock in trade i
groundless abuse of their fellow citi
zens of other States. That sort o
mental pabulum is neither liked no
countenaced by our "degenerates."
That blood should have been shed n
Wilmington none regrets more than Il,
white people of that town. That such
deplorable climax was not of their seek
ing is evidenced by their precedent pa
tience That the great mass Of people
in other States understand this is mad
plain by the fact that no adverse crit
cism has been heard. save from thOs