The age-herald., 1899-10-13
WASHINGTON AND
 COUNCILL SPEAK
Yesterdays Session of Southern
 Industrial Convention.
RACE PROBLEM DISCUSSED
President Dabney of the University of Tennessee Talks of Affairs in Transvaal-Many Delegates
 Leaving for Home

Huntsville, Ala, October 12.-The two foremost negroes of the country and a rep resentatiye white man of the south talked plainly and fearessy on the race problem today to the delegates attending the South ern industrial convention. The Huntsville opera house was crowded with delegates when the morning session began, their friends and representative citizens from the northern part of the state. The cause of the negro was upheld, but on different lines, by Professor Booker T. Washington, president of the Tuskegee Normal school, and Professor ". II. Councill, principal of the, Agricultural and Mechanical school at Normal Ala. The views of these two men are well known. Professor Washington be- lieves the ignorant negro should not be al- lowed to vote, but favors the placing of tine same restriction upon the iifterate white man.Professor Councill wants the negro eliminated from politics and his education as an industrial factor. The speeches of these two distinguished negroes were re- markable, and the cheering from their white hearers was as brisk that from men of their own color who packed the galleries.
 Governor McCorke was liberally applaud ed by both whites and blacks. His recom- mendation that a strict educational quali- fication be imposed upon all negro voters was received with favor by both whites and negroes. The concordance of views presented by the speakers prevented any controversy, and the quick adjournment of the convention at the conclusion of the speeches shut off discussion, if any was in- tended.
 The only departure from the subject dis cussed by Messrs. MacCorkle, Washington and Councill was an address on agriculture by Professor c. w. Dabney, of Knoxville, Tenn, president of the University of Ten nessee. As he concluded Professor Dabney said: We hear today that the peaceful farmers of the Transvaal are on the verge of being forced from their domains Whither are they going? They are hem med in on all sides by foreign powers. I believe a great crime is about to be per- petrated. But it is the result of the march of progress. It is inevitable. It is the law of nature and the law of nature is the law of God" The convention still has two days before it, with enough speakers for three Many of the delegates not feeling at liberty to devote five days to the con- vention left tonight, while others an,ived to speak tomorrow and Saturday. Among the latter was Governor Atkinson, of West Virginia. . r.
 Professor Councill said in part:
 "The races of the south, side by side, moving in parallel lines, must work out all the problems naturally growing out of our new relations, as we'll get rid of the i'll feelings, like tares sown among the good wheat by 'an enemy External forces can avail nothing. We alone must correct our errors and set right our wrongs. Outside in- q f.s- .1..l... years, feed internal strife, retard the pros- perity of the south, injure the white mans interest, while the poor, weak negro will go down in poverty and ruin. If we are united, if we understand our true relation, if we cultivate friendship the missiles of the enemy will fall as fruitless as balls from Admiral Cervera's toy guns upon Commo- dore Schley's steel armed ships, or as the ocean wave spreads its fury in foam against the impregnable base of Teneriffe.
 'I want my race to learn the hardest les sons of labor, for thereby may it have that continued resistance which labor brings regardless of denominational creeds or the defects and triumphs of political parties.
 "I deny that the south is opposed to inc higher education of the negro. It supports more than thirty colleges and universities for negroes. But 1t emphasizes the value of industrial education for both races, put a premium upon good, efficient labor, whereby the masses may be exalted Throughout the south the gallant men who left their footprints in blood over the snow- covered hills of Virginia following General Lees tattered banners to Appomattox are just as devoted to all the people of the south, white and negro, they were to that Lost Cause which was highest in their hearts. By the aid of these men the ne- gro will blot out his iAiteracy, lessen the number of criminals, normalize his nor alty, build up his fortunes and again take his stand among men of integrity and in- dustry"