The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-16
UNITARIAN LEAGUE,
War With Philippines
Denounced by
Speakers.
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
An Animated Meeting
Opens the Years
Program,

Program.
The negro problem and the problem
involved in the American tenure of the
! Philippines brought out a variety of
opinions at the first meeting of the
| Unitarian League yesterday. The meet
ing was the first of the fall and was
well attended, women being there from
Clinton, Grafton, Hopedale, Leomin-
ster, Millbury, Northboro and Spencer,
| besides Worcester. The meeting was
held at the First Unitarian church The
morning was occupied by a paper on
the Philippine situation by Mrs. Alex
ander F. Chamberlain. Mrs. Chamber
lain referred in closing to the present
affair of the Americans in the Philip
pines, and said: Had the prelimina-
ries to the treaty of Paris which end
ed the recent war, been as definite and
as little ambiguous as that of the set
tlement between England and Spain the
cruel war now raging in the Philip
pines would never have occurred. 1t
| is unwise for this country to attempt
| to introduce new element among the
native Inhabitants, because the Ameri-
cans will not mingle with the races.
The Chinese and japanese are the only
| ones to mingle with the natives, with
| good results.
Since the recall of Dewey from the
| Philippines everything seems to indi-
| in iclo iG
characterized by pitiable lowering of
| nigh American ideals and an abject
surrender of the principles of the de-
claration of independence. 1t is moth
| ing less than crime against humanity
to put back the Filipinos who were on
| the eve Of Christian independence,
into a condition of hopeless subjec~
ton. The principles at stake will not
down. Taxation without representa-
ton is not a whit more just in Luzon
than it was in Massachusetts. We may
! expect just as we'll that the Filipinos
will sooner or later copy the Americans
in the latter's efforts to rid England of
| the American colonies. We may ex-
pect the Filipinos to rise continually
in instruction until they have their
| liberty"
In the spirited debate that followed,
Mrs. Gardner C. Whiting said she
| sympathiEed with the speaker in her
views of the iniquity of the war in the
| Philippines. She told Of two visits to
| the islands, and OF social conditions
| there. The Americans, she said, had
| done a noble thing in liberating their
slaves, and had kept talking about it
| ever since, but they had bought the
| Philippines for twenty millions of dol
lars, and practically bought the inhab-
itants as chattels. The time would
| nd Hold
man and woman in the county would
see the matter in the same light as a
| few now saw it. Mrs. G. A. Slo-
comb, the secretary, said that we had
done the same thing when we pur-
| chased Alaska, Texas and Florida, but
Miss May of Leicester replied that the
last mentioned territories were a part
of the continent and that the two
| cases were not parallel.
"The negro problem" was the subject
| for the day, and was preached by Miss
| May of Leicester, who read a paper on
The negro in slavery by Miss Wilson
of MaYsville, S. c., head of a school for
| girls and an exslave. Miss Wilson said
that the negro slave was a chattel of
| his master, on a par with the OK and
| horse, except that sometimes the latter
had holiday and perfect liberty He
could do four things-Eork, sing, pray
| lin secret and shout Iin moderation)
| The relations of the family were ig-
nored. 1t was life without remuner-
alton or recompense. Whole communities
! like little commemorative, and whole
states were made up of this class of
people The slave had certain charac-
| teristics impressed on him by slavery
fidelity to his master being one of
| them.
| After reading this paper, Miss May
said that she had tried to get a view
Of sltxRery from the side of the white
man, but had failed. If she could, she
would have brought Booker T. Wash
| ington, and recommended the audience
to read Mr.. Washington's article on
1.-THE case of the negro" in the Novem-
| Der Atlantic
Mrs. o. A. G. Flint opened the dis
cussion, speaking sanguinely of the ne
gro's future She thought the imita-
| tiveness of the negro an important ele-
| ment in his development While other
modern nations were enriched by an in
| fusion of blood, in the crossing of white
| blood with negro blood, the latter is
| overlaid by the alien element If the
| European nations have got no farther
than they are, with all their advanta-
ges, let us have sympathy with the COL
| ored man. Mrs. Flint said that the
physique of the human race is alter
ing, that the Uranium is enlarging, the
arm shortening. Evolution is not fin
ished In the body; why should it be in
the soul? At all events it is unwise
to predicate failure of a race, which
like the colored race, is unique in his
tory.
Miss Perry said she was in Norfolk
Va, in 1857, and the years following
and told of the negro worship and sing
ing there and then. Their religion was
efficacious during the week following
their Sunday services, but she did not
blame them for stealing Mrs. Ben T.
Rice said she thought methods had va
ried much in different states, and that
what was normal in Virginia was too
liberal in Louisiana. Personally she did
not believe equality between the two
races possible.
1.-The emancipated and enfranchised
| negro" was presented by Miss Edith
Goodell in a thoughtful and comprehen-
sive paper. That the enfranchisement
given TO the negro was a mistake, she
| thought ought to be granted, but the
purpose of the paper was to show how
| much had been done by him to fit him
| self for suffrage.
1.-THE educational situation is the
| brightest spot in the problem, and
| many Of the colored race avail them
selves of it. Since the organization of
| Hampden school, many schools, nor
| NAL schools, training schools, universe
| ties, have been founded, and now the
| states are doing much for popular edu-
| cation: but although supposedly the
| state funds are divided equally between
the colored and white population, in re-
atty they are not This, however, is