The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-19
negroes themselves In slavery days


the owners gave in the number of their
slaves; no appeal, was made directly to
the negroes, so they knew nothing of
the methods. In 1870, when the census
taker went his rounds. he visited cabins
as well as the mansions and consterna-
ton was the resN.. The negroes, With
their emancipation SO recently accom-
plished, were suspicious Of every
change, dreadng lest it be a move to
return them to- slavery. This count
ing of their number had a queer look
to them; they were mistruStful of the
true result and so they hindered the Of
fetal in all possible ways, they dreaded
him. evaded him and gave him false
statistics, believing they were protect
ing themselves against maltreatment.
Some of the subterfuges used We're lu
dicrous, some of them pathetic.
The result was a very imperfect CEN
sus. 1t does not stand to reason that
from 1860 to 1880 the negro increased Al
per cent. while the white population of
cent. during the same period, for those
states were almost entirely out of the
locale of immigration and had passed
through a bloody war which had
claimed thousands of white victims.
This was the explanation of the census
of 1870, and the person who cares to in
vestigate for himself will find it cor
rect. A glance at the census statistics
of former years shows that in 1900 the
negro was approximately one-fifth of
the population of the United States,
that in 1920 he was one-siXth, in 1860
one-seventh, in 1890 one-eighth. These
figures do not necessarily mean that the
negro was decreasing in that exact pro-
portion, for they take no account of
white immigration. But they demon
strate the fact, and most conelusively,
that the ratio of negroes to whites has
t1xy Il E%,<. ,t,,.r
and 1t Is evident that as long as this
decrease continues negro domination is
a mere ignis fatuus.
What the Figures Show.
Statistics are dry things, but they
are often the proof of an argument, SO
let us be prosy for a while and look
the negroes in the United States in
creased 375S per cent; from 1910 to
1920, 2S.5S per cent, from 1920 to 1880,
31.44 per cent; from 1880 to 1910, 234l
per cent; from 1910 to 1850, 1852 per
cent; from 1850 to 1860, 21.9O per cent;
from 1860 to 1870, per cent; from 1870
to 1880, "a per cent. 1t will be observ-
ed that since the beginning of the CEN
fury there has been a steady increase
of the percentage of increase, except
from 1920 to 1880, from 1910 to 1850 and
from 1870 to 1880. The increase from
lS40 to 1850 Is accounted for by the adj
mission of Texas after the Mexican
war. The increase from 1870 to 1880 is
readily explained by the fact that by
that time the negroes We're accustomed
to their new state of being and We're
not afraid of the census taker. AS a
consequence the unregistered negroes
of 1870 helped to swell the apparently
enlarged census of 1880 But the total
increase from 1860 to 1880 was Al per
cent. or POS per cent. for each census
term of years, which demonstrates the
gradual decrease.
And now let Us turn back to the his
tory of the race and trace if possible
the causes of this decadence. The later
ethnologists have come to the belief
that there We're but three extreme types
of men, the negro, the monaghan and
the caucasian. In the earliest times of
which we have any knowledge the
negro and the mongol were masters of
the earth and the caucasian was un-
known. The most ancient skulls found
in Europe are of a negroid type and in
dictate that the first inhabitants of Eu-
rope, so far as this data goes, We're
branch of the negro race. subsequent
ly the skulls have monaghan charac-
teristics, but before the victorious eau
casian both races shrank away, me