The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-06-15
(Wilmingt IN Star }

(Wilmingt)n Star)
The negroes of the South have for
some time past been given a good
deal Of advice by their friends and
alleged friends, some Of which mas
been good, some sort of mixture
and some bad. AS general thing
the advice they have received from
their white advisers has been much
better than that offered by their col
ored advisers, for the reason. per
hapS, that the colored counsellor is
too apt to look through the colorcd
spectacles and view things solely from
colorcd standpoint before his deliv-
erance, and for that reason there is
too much race leaning and pre- iudice
in what he says.
The New York Tribune is one of
the Northern journals which has been
discussing the race problem and in
cidentally giving the negroes some
good advice, but it never crowded
more into the same space than is
embraced in the following EDITORIAL
In reply to an inquiry from a New
Jersey negro who, after saying the
negroes had exhausted all possible
means to maintain their rights and
escape violence, asks the question
"What shall we do?" the Tribune
editorially says:
"Follow the advice Of such leaders
as Booker T. Washington. Educate
the colored people in self-control, mo-
rality. obedience to law. Accept the
situation as it is, and try to make the
best of it, instead Of provoking more
evils than the negro now endures by
doing more wrong in addition to that
which is pleaded as the cause and the
excuse for Southern violence.
1.-The negro's duty to maintain
order is not different from the white's
Ii the one owes it to civilization to
practice sclfrestrain and avoid deeds
of blood even in retaliation, the other
does. We have denounced the lynch
ers and man-burners frequently, and
told the Southern white people that
even negro crime, no matter how
despicable, no matter how deserving
the wretch might be of heaviest pun
ishmcnt, could furnish no excuse for
a community to lower its own civili-
zation and taint its own blood with
the poison of delight in savage deeds
and tiendish passion. SO, too, we
say to all who desire the happiness of
the black race that no resentment for
i'll treatment warrants them in an
appeal to force. No doubt the negro 5
burden is a heavy one. Whatever
his sins as an individual and as a race,
he has been banished out of all pro-
portion. But he cannot retaliate.
Every bit of disorder, every act of
vengeance, is sure to return upon the
head of his own people. His is a hard
lot, but he will not better it any by
ignoring his actual situation. He
belongs to race interior in culture
and ability to the dominant people
among whom he lives. He is the vic
tim of race prejudice, which, however
unreasonable, is one of the most per-
sistent and insurmountable feelings
in the world. Anything he does
amiss, particularly anything that
arouses the passion or race pre- judices
| of the whites, is sure to call for severe
treatment, more severe than white
man would receive. He may say that
is un Just, but it is an in ustice too
deeply rooted in human nature to be
eradicated by such appeals as our cor
respondent speaks of. The only
refuge is to be more careful than
the white man has to be about doing
wrong.
.:Of course, the ignorant black can
hardly be expected to be model OF
conduct, who will neither merit the
punishment nor excite the persecution
of the whites. But the leaders of the
negroes can do as Professor Wash
ington has done, try to train them to
! fill more to their own credit and the
satisfaction of their white neighbor>
the humble station in which they have
been placed. They can be taught not
to think of vengeance, not to defen,
criminals of their own race. They
can be educated in industry and
order, and warned against following
demagogues and bringing on them
selves the blame for political evils
put upon communities by rascal:
whom they in sheer Ignorance trust
They will thus do more to disarn
white prosecutors than they can ever
hope to dc by antagonizing th'
stronger race. The worthless white
who make up the active force o
lynchers and burners have been abl'
to impose their sayagery on the South
only because the higher class 0
whites, who hated the disorders, wer
alienated from the negro, partly. it i
true, by rejudice, but partly also b.
the negro's own faults. We need no
discuss the origin of those faults o
ask how far the whites are responsible
for them. 1t is sufficient to kno,
that if the negroes can be trained t
be honest, moral and really desirabl
inhabitants of a region. they can gail
the respect of the white people 0
character to such an extent that tn
lawless elements Will not long hav
dominion over them.
This advice is noteworthy. and
commends itself the more strongly /
the negroes, because it comes froI
one OF the leading and most uncom
promising Republican papers in tn
country, one which has always bee
a Republican paper since the Repul
lican party was organized, and alway
a Republican of the most pronounce
type. 1t was a Republican paper be
fore the Republican party had ns
tional existence and was one OF tn
active factors in giving it nation:
power. 1t was a Republican pape
before the negro was 4 freeman, di
as much if not more than any papt
a in the country TO make him fire,
r man. and for these reasons the negl
to whom this advice is addressed cal