The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-01
!, he present season.-orange Judd Farm
CURRENT EVENTS.
F. L. McGhee, tho Colored Orator,
Discusses Them Before Socialists.

F. L. McGhee, the CoIored Orator,
Discusses Them Before Socialists.
Frederick L. aMcGhee delivered the last
lecture OF the course to the Socialist La
Dor union, at Assembly hall, yesterday
afternoon. The hall was filled with an
interested audience, which frequently
MANIFESTED Its approval of the speaker 8
remarks.
Mr.. McGhee's gsubject was Current
Events" which he handled in his usual
enthusiastic and eloquent manner He
said in part:
Things of current happening are so fast
croWdlng themselves upon US that 1t Is
insisted by men who stand high in the
opinion or the public that he who would
dispose OF the matters now pending set
Element by reason of current happenings
or events, IN theslight and by the test Of
certain well fixed rules, principles and
precedents, isaa traitor or a back num-
Der. 1t was but twelve months ago when
the noble sons of our land were leaving
all that was dear to them and vying
With each other to enter the military
service OF the country to sustain the
honor OF our loved flag and give to q
people to whom we owed nothing but HUI
mainly and brotherly. love the blessings
OF that liberty we believe to be ours But
current events would. seem to indicate
that ours was the mission Of him who
enters not at the gate or door, but comes
as thief In the night. Surely this is
true as applied to Cuba The Cubans
complained that they were denied the
right to govern themselves; that they
were ruled by governors sent by Spain;
the moneys collected were not disbursed
by them to enhance the good of their
island in the avenues which they believed
and In the manner they believed it should
Hoo hot
theirs; they wanted one of their own.
And how eloquently did American states
men champion their right to these bless
1ngs! The scene is changed. Spain and
Spanish rulers no longer are there, but
alas, poor Cuban! the taxes are still col
lected and disbursed without regard TO
him, and, as for his flag, it is still thing
TO be, but when no man ventures to say.
"a people who can boast of a Gomez
cannot be a people wholly unfit for self
government. people in whose veins
flow the blood from which came a Maceo
cannot be proved of an order so low that
they would destroy all they had fought
for so long, If given chance to possess
and control without an Anglo-Saxon being
in supreme command
Mr.. McGhee then gave attention to the
conditions obtaining in the Philippines
and said the Divine Master never in
tended that man should pay gold for the
right to teach His gospel of peace and
good will, and 1t is yet to be pointed out
where he said go we and teach all
mankind, baptizing them, ETC., and all
they will not be baptized as I have taught
you then fire upon them with the most
improved implements of war on land and
navy until they submit and take up the
white mans burden"
Speaking of current events in the South
he said: Grant said to the whole coun-
try, Let there be peace and the negro
rejoiced that 1t was said and very re-
Gently the president of the nation in the
capital of the late Southern Confederacy
said, Let there be union between the
North and South, that the time was
even now at hand when the North should
join with the South in caring for the
graves of the soldiers of the Southern
Confederacy,' and for one of my race,
for whose further enslavement these
Southern soldiers went to their graves,
applaud the sentiment of President Nc
Kinley. Yes, and let the negro go along,
and when these graves are decorated
water with his tears the flowers North
ern hands will lay there; for had these
Southerners ben less valiant and cour-
ageous emancipation would not have
come when 1t did; we may yet have been
In slavery. Let there be peace and
union in this country, and, since the,
president is silent the wrongs and
outrages the negro suffers, let the
negro ponder we'll the words of our own
great leader, Prof. Booker T. Washing
ton, who asks: rs there any reason why
the negro IN the, South should continue
to oppose the Southern white man in his
politics% l do not mean that my peo-
pie should no longer. vote, nor yet en-
tirely surrender his right to hold office,
but let him make place with his white,
neighbor, that place in which he will need
fear no violence He can make, If he
will, and this by leading a life so up
right, so honest9 by raising the status
of the masses of my race to high de-
gree of morality and intelligence. Cur
rent events teach too plainly the fact to
permit Of any dispute, that the negro
need look no longer to any party to pass
legislation that will protect him in his
life, property and civil rights Lynchings
will continue until the sentiment of the
people will be decidedly changed. so that
like slavery its wrong will be justified by
no one. Denuneiation, in however BIT
ter terms never softens an enemy's dis
position toward the person the object of
his hatred"
Closing, Mr.. McGhea said: "Of cd
has 1t been said coming events cast their
shadows before Clearly, then. we are
to take warning that if we would keen
Intact the government of the fathers. if
we would hand down to our children the
blessings of that liberty for which the
best blood of our country has been shed.
we must study closely current events nv
the light of the past. We must keep
only that which will prove lasting and
genuine by tests that have never
failed to distinguish the dross from the
real"