The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-05-12
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THE RIGHT VIEW OF THE .WHITE
MANS BURDEN.o

The white mans Durden" as UNDER
stood in the south, is not exactly what
Mr.. Kipling would understand it. His
song is to shoot the half civilized or bar
barous men to civilize and c~hristianize
them, or words to that effect. "The
white mans burden in the south has
been taken up all through the years
in the south by the white taxpayers
since the negroes were set free by the
victorious arms of the northern inva-
ders and d~estroyers. The costs have
multiplied in every direction. The
whites have paid two to five times more
taxes i'm their poverty than they ever
paid, before the war on the same pro-
perry. Then the costs of criminal
courts, the cost of asylums, of peniten-
tiary, etc., have piled up "the white
mans burden" at a fearful rate. While
1t is very absurd to regard the negroes,
as the foolish white fanatics in the
north first regarded them as the Wards
of the Nation" with a mighty big n,
they may be regarded as costly luxuries
in time of peace. The effort to edu-
cate the children of 1000, 900 blacks,
steadily increasing until it has become
5000, 900, or even more, has indeed
proved "a burden" IN poverty for the
white men" to tax themselves volun-
tarily to give equal advantages in the
common schools of the state to the
children Of the negroes, was a splendid,
a most magnamimous example of "tak-
ing up the burden" No other people
in all history were ever reported as I'M
dertaking such a needed and noble
work-to educate their W slaves
wrested from them by armies and in
the hands of a people who were fanat-
ical and cruel.
The sorrow and disappointment Of
the whole thing are so saddening be-
cause the benefits to the negro race by
the sacrifice of the whites have been so
lamentably small, and the appreciation
d1d 5ldLlLuuC OA lAC pdII vi hC ACSlo
beneficiaries have been so contempta-
bly, nil. So far from education ending
crimes and stopping the more aggre-
waited and Internal ones, rape and muir
der, they have vastly increased. In
three months there have been 300 rapes
committed in the south, is the state
ment of the leading Methodist Or
gan in the south-the Nashville Advo-
cate. Crime is increasing in every
southern state and the more heinous
crimes in the greatest ratio. Where
n negro under slavery was tried for
murder, there are ten or twenty now,
and where there was charge of rape
then are 100 now, and according to in
crease in population. The old negroes
those of slavery-were incomparably
better than those of freedom, including
those who have been taught the Three
RS. The old negroes were more faith
f"e, more Industrious, more trust
Nworthy, more honest. They were far
better citizens. The taking up Of "the
white mans burden" in behalf of the
present generation has been practically
an unwise expenditure of toll and
money. In North Carolina six or eight
millions of dollars have been expended
on the negro schools. A we'll edited
Georgia weekly paper, the Marion
County Patriot, puts it in this wise:
"It is a misnomer to call the colored
man the ward of the nation. That
is the very thing that has turned his
head. He is the ward of the states Of
the south, where he enjoys equal rights
before the law and where he is not
molested in any of the ~aTocations of
life.
The white mans burden has been in
the education Of the negro since the
war. Millions of money has been spent
in Georgia alone since the negro was
and honorable citizens out Of them, but
there is no question that it has proved
a failure from that standpoint.
Where comes the gratitude for all the
interest manifested by the white man
Ill euucdlluS anu trying W uudhe ucCIcl
citizens? The answer is written in
thousands of despoiled and desecrated
homes all over the south such as the
Crawford home in Campbell county"
And still the white mans burden"
must be borne. The negro must be
elevated some Low. He must be taught
as to his head, but he will be a no better
more useful man unless his heart is
taught, and he is made more moral,
more perpendicular, more useful. So
many Of the negro preachers are intel
.Iectually and morally unfit for their
Office that the negro is liable to be mis-
taught, to be badly influenced, to be
enemy of the hand hat helps it.
And yet the burden" must be borne.
The white man" must continue to
help. Cost what it may if the negroes
are to remain in the south they must be
educated and Christianized. If the
n,,lo;4 ooouoc in tho north and