The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1899-01-04
RACE PROBLEM.
Asa Brooks Thinks the Blacks Re
tard White Progress.

AsaP. Brooks, at Camp Mckenzie,
Augusta, Ca, sends the following
letter, interesting at the time, to the
Minneapolis Tribune, of which
newspaper staff he is a member, and
for which newspaper he is now cor
respondent. The letter is dated at
Augusta:
While the North pushes on con-
cerned only in the whirl OF enter
prise and the pursuit of wealth and
happiness, little conscious or
thoughtful Of the needs or conditions
of others in the great section which
goes to make up this great land OF
ours, the South is trying to solve
question which is battling the minds
of her most brilliant men, and the
negro, ignorant of the concern which
he is exciting in the minds OF all,
goes on persistently, annoying the
whites with his aspiration to honor
and public Office, and exercising
every right to domineer that law or
permission will grant.
Those who think that the negro
question is solving itself for the
good of both races, will wake up
some day and find themselves won
derfully mistaken. The past ten
years have made a marked differ
ence in the black race. 1t has
grown smarter, trickier, and more
insubordinate than ever, and the
South is not far distant from the
time when it will be called upon to
make final solution of the problem,
and many here look for a race war
which will end in the determination
of the blacks. This is an extreme
view, but it has foundation, and
the same view may be heard ex-
pressed in any part of the South.
There is no question but that the
negro is detriment to the South.
They keep out white settlers, none
of whom will or can compete with
the negro in the field OF common
labor. They work for from 81 to 70
cents a day, and keep a family.
Their homes are not homes, they
are dens where swarm in ignorance
and filth the little blacks who prop
agate so rapidly that the census
taker has difficulty in keeping track
of them. There seems to be limit
beyond which they cannot be edu-
Gated. They do not or cannot be-
come skilled mechanics, and there
never will come time when they
will enter society as the equal of a
white man.
The North may look patronizingly
upon the South in it's dealing with
the question, and offer all kinds of
suggestions, but not until they come
down into the territory where it ex-
lists will they be able to, in any
sense, give an intelligent suggestion
or practical answer as to what is
to be done with this race, which
our fathers brought here, and left
us as heritage to dispose of as we
saw fit.
War has done much for the blacks,
if they were capable of approaching
it, but what has it done for the whites?
It has made it necessary for them to
either bring the negro up to their
standard, or to meet them at some
intermediate point, and they are do
ing neither. The negro is strug-
Cling in his owninterest to dominate
the whites. Thirtysix years OF
freedom has given him desire for
Office, and his success in getting
there has precipated the rebellion
which has caused so much agitation
in North Carolina.
The South will always be Demo-
cratic as long as there is danger of
Republicans putting negroes into
Office. There is many man who
votes against his own ideas Of gov
eminent policy just to prevent a
party getting into power which it is
feared will put into Office the negro
politician. This is the fear that
haunts the South, and it is growing.
The colored man is disfranchised as
much as though he had never been
given the right to vote. The tickets
are so printed that it is impossible
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