The times., 1899-08-05
Bisbop Turner and His Race.

The solution of the negro problem sug-
gested by H. NJ. Turner, Bishop of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church OF
Georgia, cannot be commended when con-
sidered in the light of practical common
sense.
Bishop Turner's proposition is unques-
tionably sincere and deserves attention, if
for no other reason, on account of the high
authority from which it comes. Few col
ored men in the United States bring to
the consideration OF the negro problem a
more disinterested purpose or more
human sympathy than the colored bishop
from Georgia.
Bishop Turner believes that the negro
has no possible future in the United States.
His belief is, moreover. no mere dogma
handed down traditionally and accepted
by him without questioning 1t is rather
the sober conviction of one who has
striven to look at the race question from
every possible point of view with the
single purpose of eventually and perma-
nently benefiting his kind in America.
When. therefore, he states that the de-
termined alienation between the blacks
and the whites will never be harmonized
until the races are separated, he makes
a declaration which will command the at
tention of thinking men and women every
where. He states candidly condition and
courageously announces a remedy.
The negro, he suggests, must return TO
the tropical lands from which his fore
fathers came. He must go back to his
native environment and there work out
his salvation. Bishop Turner believes
that, if given the opportunity to make a
fresh start in some country uninhabited
by whites, he will evolve civiiiza-
tion satisfying to himself and gratifying
to the real friends OF negro progress.
II would be needless TO discuss at this
time the academic question as TO whether
or not the negro will be better eff in Africa
than he is in America. 1t is sufficient only
10 remark that the tendency in the United
States is toward intense segregation of the
negro race. as illustrated in the black
belt and the "Yazoo delta and it is an
indisputabie fact that where the black pop
ulation has become so concentrated, the
standard of civilization has been in each
/ case sensibly lowered.
That, however, is not presently peril
nent to Bishop Turner'S proposition. The
Immediately important fact is his sugges-
ton that the negro can be deported from
America, and that one hundred millions
of dollars can readily be appropriated to
carry opt the work. The advocate
has, for the moment. let his enthusiasm
for his race run away with his judg-
ment There is now in the United
States an estimated coiored population o:
fourteen million souls. The consent of these
must needs be had before they can be sent
outside the country. Is there any reason
able possibility that such consent would
4 be given2 Is there any reason for believ-
/ ing that the average negro wishes, or could
/ be prevailed upon. TO leave the United
J States and live in a new and untried land
Granting that such consent could be OBJ
/ tanned, has the Georgia bishop considered
even for a moment what a multiplicity of
/ details sliEh an undertaking would in
volve? The transportation alone would oc-
cupy at least ten years. working on the
basis OF a hundred ships carrying thou
sand passengers each week and making
! fifty trips annually between the United
States and the nearest foreign country.