The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-25

affairs. Recently 1t was discovered
that a number of negroes had planned
race war, and that many white men
had been marked for victime. 1t is.
learned that twenty-three negroes were
implicated in this plot, and the whites
are now bent on melting out summary
punishment to the entire coterie of con-
spirators.
So say the dispatches, and there is
every indicat ton that a conflict has be-
gun which promises to eclipse any
clash that ever occurred between the
whites and blacks of the south before.
There seems to be no solution for
this problem of the races, unless it be
war to the death and survival of the
fittest.
The most serious aspect of this con-
tinuous trouble is the friction it devel-
ops between the north and south, Each
has its view of the race question. and
as neither side understands the other,
the moment the radical newspapers
and public men on each side begin to
argue the matter, exhibitions of bad
temper inevitably follow.
1t is a difference of opinion as to
whether the south is to be turned over
to negro domination or not. The whites
resent colored rule and defeat it as best
they can. The negroes retaliate, usu-
ally under the influence of some politi-
cal agitator or religious enthusiast, and
armed resistance to the whites is
planned. The two sections discuss the
matter from their respective stand
points The southerner regards white
supremacy as the desideratum para
mount; the northerner declares with
equal emphasis that majority rule is
the cornerstone of republican institu-
tons, whether that majority consist of
Africans, Cubans, Filipinos, Kanakas
or Cinnamon, provided they have not
been disfranchised for special reasons.
The white race believes in white SUI
premacy. This may not be an argu-
ment for its justice, but il is the state
ment of an incontrovertible fact.
Northern people who go to live in the
south soon reach the same conclusion
as their neighbors. This being true,
there is strictly no southern view, ex-
cept that generally held by people from
all quarters when they come into actual
daily contact with the negro race.
1t is no new conflict in the south.
This feeling which we call race preju-
dice is as old as mankind and as wide
as the world. White men object to
having negro jurors, policemen, post
masters, magistrates, not because the
negro is poorer, less intelligent, or less
capable, but because he belongs to an
other race, which has characteristics
and impulses as different from those of
the whites as one species of animals is
distinct from another. The negro is not
a white man BACKED up. The differ
ences between the races are more than
skin deep. And no amount of senti-
mental twaddle or clustering will ever
remove it, either.
Some negroes understand this ques-
ton. The more intelligent and educated
know that it lies back of politics, that
it antedates present creeds and par
ties. Ignorant negroes imagine they
can break the barriers down by brute
strength and radical talk and treat
ment. They are doomed to certain fail
ure.
Educated colored men sense this.
Booker T. Washington has stated his
opinions along these lines. He has
pointed sout a path for his people to
follow Another cultured negro, in the
Howard university at Washington,
askes his people to pursue a distinct
policy of their own
rs it not wisdom on the part of the
negro" he asks, "to refrain from agi-
tating those issues which infame the
mind Of the white race against him
and retard his progress along moral,
mental and material lines? The negro
should generally accept self-effacement
as a controlling political factor even
in those communities where his nu-
merical preponderance confers upon
him the abstract right. To state the
truth mildly, the negro is not yet quail
flied to control in state, town or county,
according to the standards Of western
civilization. A knowledge of this truth
on the part of the colored race is es-
sential to its true development along
those substantial lines which count for
progress. Wherever the negro has at
tempted to control the political ma
chine, the result has always rebounded
to his detriment. The reconstruction
regime in the south worked lasting in
jury to the colored race. The minds of
the young were vitiated by looking
with admiration upon corruption in
high places. AnimoSitieS were engen-
dered which viii embarrass the prog
ress of the race for generations to
come. The alleged quadrennial trade
in negro delegates to the Republican
nominating conventions is the standing
disgrace of our national politics. In
retiring from the active field of politics
and directing the energy which has
hitherto been dissipated into productive
channels, and striving to build up the
people in moral, mental and material
directions, the negro will not only be
moving along the line Of least resist
ance, but of greatest usefulness Also
But will the average negro ever rise
to this necessity? Does he care for to-
morrow? Is he working for the ameli-
Grafton of his race?
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