The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-03-16
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS
The Negroes Need Is Moral Train.
ing.
NOT CLASSICAL STONES DOWN
HIS THROAT.
BY G. GROsvENOR DAVE.
Written for The Commonwealth.

Y Written for The Commonwealth.
/ A plea against Prejudice.-The or
who. the very night this article j
written, lies at deaths doc,
k'pling, has in two years uttered tw
notes that have thrilled the world c
English speakers. First his "Reee.
slonal," written at the time of tn
Queens Diamond Jubilee, pervade,
our whole literature in less than ,
month. 1t raised the thoughts O
those whom strong words could raise
far above turmoil and materialism
into the realm where we sav tha,
power brought with it unavoidable re.
sponsiblllty.
~
Now again confusion of thought and
doubt OF destiny are swept aside like
cobwebs by his new poem "The White
Mans Burden" Why do we so
heartily approve? Because the poet
with the stroke of pen condepses into
few lines the experience of an age
and the convictions of million.
~
1he white mans burden is laid on
the white mans shoulders. He NAV
rave and he may tear, but the bands
Of Almighty God hold fast and the
burden is still there to be carried till
The end. Errors are made down here
below but not up there whore One
'ltteth who seeth the end from the
beginning. The white mans burden
3 laid on the white mans shoulders
because he is able to bear it and be-
ause the strong, in the economy of
aoral life, must carry the burdens of
he weak.
~
We haye the burden here among us
nd we cannot be rid OF tive either
lust carry it or drop defeated in our ,
'acks. The latter, however, we dare {
OF, cannot do; so perforce the burden |
still ours.-One of our United States
said as recently as February
Eth, "The negro is by nature and byI
cry instinct of his soul a loafer
be colored people are a happy.eo-
cky, immoral, untruthful, unreliable J
ce. You cannot alter what God has r,
ade, and though this or that negro :,
ay be decent man, or an honest
an, yet the tiger is loosened in q r
lite mans bosom without regard to
nsequences, when the two races -
me In contact" This is an exampla l
the sort OF rearing and pitching that c'
ly makes the burden chafe q little re
IRE than before. m
nj
Let US calmly look at the burden -,
not attempt to roll it off into a -
ch, for that is futile, nor charge its
aspects upon God, for that is fool
We brought the colored people
9 against their will; with the
nost cruelty they were snatchedi
n home and native land, crowded NJ
slave ships in conditions that were WI
escrlbable, and then sold and
ght like cattle. And then for th,
hundred years or - they were held SCI
'ondage-much of it probably kind sts
thoughtful, but bondage neverthe- wa
Then without any cultivation of sto
1t among them, or the shadow of ore
raining for citizenship, We threw he
n out into the struggle of life and
Now after generation il she
we look for good crop from a son
whereon we have bestowed no live
, and like this senator would lay Mo-
blame of upon that convenient and
'se for failures, Almighty God. ng'
- sect
clea
'e negro is happy-go-lucky and It leis,
Te'l that he is or many a home tha,
ID have mourned because of him. mn.
8 immoral-not because he means ton
,: but because he is simply at the the
of animal existence that the and
Q man as a whole passed ages ago. who
untruthful because lying was his in Il
uard, and stealing his way to lux thos
'ack in those days when he was papf
d. He is unreliable because he ers.
no ancestral experience to show alto,
that trustworthiness is good. He obta
g because his wants are very SIM gran
md wants-the complicated wants new.
ivillzation-enter much more facto
" into the white mans industry in Ii
he stops to consider. live
g. L