The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16
NEGRO EMIGRAT10N

Schemes for the emigration of the
blacks from the south have lately been
announced from two quite dissimilar
sources, founded upon different ideals,
and to be effected by quite opposite
methods. Joseph w. Henderson, eGi-
tor of the New England Torch Light,
is the prepayment of one, and w. Fl.
Council, president of an Alabama col
lege for negroes, is sponsor for the
other. The former maintains that there
is no hope for the colored race, so long
as 1t remains crowded in the south, and
both men agree that education is not
a sufficient solution of the race Prob
lem. President Council, who is him
self negro, thinks education only
complexities the situation, by teaching
the blacks to desire political rights
which they are not allowed to exer-
else, and by inspiring them with race
pride and an ambition to perpetuate
race distinction in proportion to their
achievements.
Mr.. Henderson's plan is to scatter
the negroes of the south through the
north and west, for he argues that if
their number were reduced, there would
be no race question in the south any
more than there is in other sections of
the country. The colored people would
then cease to be regarded as politi-
cal menace, and might hope for freer
exercise of the franchise than is now
allowed. At the same time, the value
of their labor would be enhanced, an0
they would receive higher wages-and
better treatment in every respect.
Mr.. Henderson makes the surprising
statement that a million blacks would
gladly move west or north if they had
the means for transportation, and in
order to provide the means, he is or
ganizing the American Protective
league. A penny week is the assess
ment imposed upon members, and with
the fund thus raised it is proposed to
make settlements in the west and
north, not always new towns, but col
onies within existing cities and towns,
wherever an opening can be found.
The most obvious obstacle to Mr..
TIenderson's plan is that the negroes
are not colonizing race. The STAN
ina of a robust civilization is needed
to subdue a wilderness and found new
homes, and it may be questioned if the
willingness of the blacks to emigrate
has not been overestimated in tnis
would be improved by the removal of
a large percentage of them, does not
admit of doubt.
President Council, on the other hand,
looks to the founding of a great African
nation in the black continent, not i'm
nediately, but some generations hence,
when the negroes shall have acquired
that race pride of which he writes and
when the slaves and their immediate
children shall have passed away and
given place to a virtually new race,
possessed of the stamina and energy
that are now lacking. In any conflict
of races, he sees only the subjugat ton
of the one by the other, and hence The
negro must emigrate or be extermina-
ted. THE negro has political ambition,
and ought to have it, - writes Mr.. Coun-
GILL; HE must vote and take part in
the government, or become a worthless,
dangerous incubus on society,"" Mr..
Council is a democrat, but takes no
rart in politics and counsels silence in.
others of his race, but he believes the
time will come when they must and
will exercise those rights and then there
will be the added allurements of profit
and ambition to draw them back to
Africa.
To this Utopian dream may be OF
posed the prospect of a white mans
Africa, for now the land seems likely
to be pre-empted before President
CouncilPs immigrants arrive from
America. 1t might be supposed, too,
that when the race is developed to the
high condition of civilization he de-
scribes, the colored people would be too
well contented to move, and they
might not be unwelcome neighbors even
in the south.