The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-14

contact with each other than here,
and as time goes on and population IN
creases, we apprehend crowding andI
friction with consequences more disas-l
Irous than those which attend the
growth Of a homogeneous race
The problem" has become vexingI
mainly because Of the course Of thel
federal government in its most unfor-l
tunate legislation; because of the army
of carpet-baggers that was distribut-
ed through the south; because of the
false promises mad by northern en-
missaries and newspapers; because of
the Misrepresentation, SANDER and
f~alsehoods concerning the southern
whites by northern demagogues in
speeches and by a hostile, bitter repub-I
lican press. Just such men as McKin-#
ley have been largely instrumental in
raising false hopes and influencing the
minds of the negroes in antagonist
to the white people who helped them
in so many ways. The Evening Post
sees that the race problem" is not
strictly southern, but the north can
not escape in it's consequences. Of
Principal Washington the Evening Post
says: has never wasted time in
railing at facts or inveighing against
Providence. He has accepted the con
dition of his race as the civil val left
it, and taken up the task of bettering
1T by work rather than by words
1t considers the plan Of the institu-
ton over which he so ably and success
fully presides, and says:
cit impresses upon all the youth who
come under It's influence the idea that
they are first to become good citizens,
| l~aw-abiding, v%irtuOuS, Industrious men
and women; that they are not to waste
their time grumbling I'VE the race
problem or trying to solve it by ex-
%traneous methods that they are to rise
in the world by helping the world itself
to rise and by supplying something tina.
the world wants"
1t says this admirable, efficient train.
ing school,, as we choose to character
ize it, is "a great moral beacon-light
set up for the colored race. The south,
ern blacks are not as v%irtuous as then
white ~neighbors. They are on a much
lower plane of morality We quote
more at length just here. for it is
pointed and wise:
Public opinion does not exist for tht
great mass of blacks in the south
Want of morality does not carry amy
! penalties. to them except when it takes
the form Of l%ynching. Now no people
can make progress IN the world with
out virtue. Nor can they become vir.
tuous without cultivation, intellectual
social, and religious. This refining in.
fuence must go hand in hani with in,
dustrial training in order to secure any
lasting results to the race"
Now such editorials as his viii dc
good, will awaken proper interest. may
cause efforts on the part Of the NORTH
in behalf of negroes in the south to b.
more sanely, more wisely direcled
Suppose twenty-five or thirty years agt
the many able papers all through the
north had written in this Judicious
friendly, apprehensive spirit hrw much
better the conditions of the negroe:
would be now. The Evening. Pos
looks ahead, forecasts the certain IL.
ture, and sees what the negroes mus
do for success. One more quotation:
1.-The south will eventually be a:
densely populated as the north is, anC
the proportions of the two races viii
continue ITO be about what they 3rt
now. The struggle for existence vii
make the problem harder ITO deal with
lit is indispensable that the coforec
men should win the respect of thei1
white neighbors by being useful an(
orderly members of the community
To do this they must be taught self
reliance and Self-respect. This il
Booker Washinston's self-appointe.
task. He is the best possible illustra
ton of his own theories"