Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-11-26
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
Among the articles in the November
number OF the Conservative Review
Ncale e. CO.. Washington, y. C., pub
fishers IS one on "The Negro Popula-
ton of the South" by Philip Alexander
Bruce. author Of Economic History Of
| Virginia in the Seventeenth Century
and some time secretary Of the Virginia
Historical Society The article in ques-
ton IS instinct with the characteristics
( OF everything that comes from MT
Bruce's pen-that is thorough and com
! prehensive as 20 the subject treated ana
IN excellent literary style.
Some of the conclusions reached by
Mir. Bruce from observation extending
over twenty-five or thirty years. which
has enabled him TO form an estimate OF
me character Of the new generation OF
negroes brought Up altogether under free
institutions. as compared with the char
acter Of the generation receiving this
freedom are these: CD That the negro Of
to-day who has been free from birth is
I'm many OF the most important lines OF
his conduct very much inferior to his
father. who was once a slave; CO.. that il
would De false TO say that in the rural
districts of the South the negro has in
the last quarter of century made any
progress iu morality in the ordinary
affairs OF life: CD that in some directions
Of the utmost significance the negro race
has so clearly refrigerated, that one is
forced 10 concede that the man OF yes
torday. who had spent most Of his life
I'm bondage. was far better equipped TO
be "a useful member of the community
than IS the man of to-day who was born
free and has. from his earliest years.
been reared under the iudIeaces of
state of freedom; 90 that while the
fathers were as ignorant and blind in the
use of the ballot as their sons now ere,
from a moral Toint Of view IT has been
left TO the sons TO add to the criminal
record Of their race It's most numerous
and atrocious chapters; and, from an
economical point of view. it has been
left to them 10 diminish the usefulness
Of their people enormously by their
steady decline in skill and industry as
laborers.
Mr.. Bruce sustains each count in what
we may term mis- indictment Of the new
negro" by unanswerabie argument and
incontrovortible facts. and i'm discussing
the most atrocious chapters the latter
day negro has added TO the history Of
his people recalls a prediction he Qhe
authoD made I'm his work-the "Planta-
ton Negro as a Freedman"-and which
has been verified. This work was pub
Hshed about twelve years ago and the
prediction was that as time went on ''tho
usual crime" would increase among the
negroes. AS to education, Mr.. Bruce
holds that it has not, 80 far, made the
mass Of the negroes more intelligent or
more sober citizens. Indeed, he says,
"the moral influence Of the school sys-
tenn in the crowded black districts Of the
South. l believe, from personal Observa-
ton Of its effects in many Of these dis
tricts, TO amount practically TO nothing
i'm the repression of the worst impulses
of the race or fin the cultivation Of their
better qualities
Mr.. Bruce dwells upon the tendency OF
the races to drift further and further
apart and the steady waning Of the
interest Of the whites in the negro; notes
that the whites. I'm large divisions Of the
country. are engaged in filling the
soil with their own hands, thus restrict
ing the negro's domain of labor, and i'm
summarizing. contends that the darkest
day for the southern whites has passed.
but the darkest day for the southern ne
groes has just begun. For" says he.
"in this age of the world no race can. I'm
the long run, hold its own in a civilized
community unless 1t has all the moral
qualities which are necessary TO meet
successfully the conditions OF modern
ufc' In his pessmistc view Of the me-
gro's future Mr.. Bruce is not singular,
and IL is as certain as that night follows
day that his contention Will be borne out.
unless the negro leaders do for their
race what the whites have been unable
to do for it during years Of struggle
and sacrihce-viz.: Elevate 1t I'm the moral
scale