The sun., 1899-09-26

wants to get rid OF Its negro population,
the duty and the cost OF shipping them
away should fall on It, The United States
Government could not interfere In the mat
ter without exceeding it's proper constitu-
tional functions and limitations. 1t Is
matter for the States alone to deal with,
and they would justly resent such national
interference with their laboring people.
Primarily, however 1t Is matter for the
negroes themselves solely to decide. They
are American citizens, and the Govern
ment State or National, has no more power
to compel them to leave this country or to
remove to specified part OF 1t than II their
color was white. They are free to go or
stay, as they feel inclined. Except for
crime and In regular process OF law, they
cannot be deprived OF their liberty, and they
have rs much right here as any other peo-
pie What indication has been Afforded in
our history, and more particularly since
their emancipation, that they want to emf
crate to Liberia or to Central or South
America, or to any other foreign countryr
During the days Of their slavery, a society
for their colonization in Africa, or Liberia,
was formed, and efforts have been
made during the whole period since
to induce them to go. Bishop TURNER,
OF their own race, has been making
such efforts Of recent years, but they
have met with little response from our
negro citizens. No extensive yearning for
return to Africa has been manifested
among them, and Of those who have been
persuaded to emlgrate thither, not few
have come back utterly dissatisfied.
This effort to colonze Liberia with Amer
lean negroes began long ago, and at times
It has been pursued Systematically, yet
out OF the total OF over one million people
in that African republic. only about twenty
thousand are described as Americo-Libe-
rians, the rest being aboriginal Africans.
Liberia, artiicially stimulated though It's
development has been, ia a petty State
whose revenues have been declining rather
than increasing, whose industries are
few, and whose products are 80 Insignificant
in amount that it's combined exports and
imports do not exceed two or three million
dollars. The interest on it's little debt Of
$500, 900 has been unpaid since 1874, and
now amounts to near one million dollars.
The arrears OF interest on an internal debt
also amount to more than the principal.
The attractions offered by Liberia to
immigrants cannot accordingly, be
called great. Sending negroes to Africa is
a project which makes sentimental appeal
to the consciences OF the ancestors Of white
people who stole them from Africa and
sold them into slavery. but practically 1t is
very much like sending Goals to Newcastle
The supply Of negroes In that continent
Is already sufficient for the demand, and the
needed immigration which goes thither
OF it's free will Is white. The feeling there
seems to be that the actual requirement is
for more white men; not more negroes.
The Chronicle, OF Augusta, in Georgia,
refers TO another plan, urged ardently for
several years past by the Hon. JOHN TEMPLE
GRAVES, the plan Of settling the negroes in
a separate Territory or State OF this Union;
but 1t says that 1t would be physical
impossibility to transport them to such
selected territory across the Mississippi
River In the course Of few years" 1t
would also be legal impossibility. for no
pressure could be exerted by our laws
to compel them to accept the trans
portation. The Georgia paper, however,
suggests that "our Northern friends who
are 30 much interested in the settlement Of
the negro question in the South provide a
fund for bringing negro colonists" to
Northern States. This is open to the same
objection. 1t takes no account Of the
free will or the interests Of the negroes.
They are laborers, and labor follows
natural law in seeking a market
or obtaining residence. 1t drifts where
there is a demand for it, and unquestion-
ably that demand in this country is chiefly
at the South To transfer them bodily to the
North would be to impose great hardship
on both them and the labor with which they
would compete. They would glut the
labor market, while at the South their in
dustry is requisite, and their withdrawal
thence in great numbers would be serious
blow to its prosperity, for they furnish the
cheap labor the South requires, and have
special fitness for the conditions Of its
climate and agriculture. As we have said
before. II the South should drive out the
negroes, it would be killing the goose that
lays the golden egg; deprivng itself Of the
main advantage it has in the Industrial
competition.
For that reason the subject Is not worth
serious discussion. II movement for the
exodus Of the negroes from the South to
the Northern States. to any selected Terri
tory or to any foreign country, should once
gain headway. the opposition to 1t aroused
In the South would become violent forth
with. 1t was so few years ago when such
emigration was stimulated from limited
region. The negroes in the South are there
because they are wanted there, and any
scheme to draw them thence in large num-
bers would be an artificial interference with
the law Of demand and supply, which, from
the very individuals and newspapers now
favoring it, would provoke strong and
reasonable resistance.
Would France Profit by England's
Dihculties?