Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1899-04-28

natural propensities are only restrained
when they are restrained by a wholesome
fear of the white man. Not one negro in
ten can be trusted to go out alone to do a
piece of work IL he is not watched he
will not work enough to pay for his salt.
1t is the same with him in politics Clothe
the negro with little authority and he at
once becomes independent of everything
and everybody. He may originally mean
well, but his moral strength is not suffi-
cient to enable him to keep his mental bal
ance.
Whenever a negro comes in direct COM
petition with a white man the colored
brother gets the worst of it, From what
l have seen l believe that the man who
says that the negro is the equal of even
the uneducated white man in the South is
a knave or else he knows nothing about it.
The one great lesson that the negro has
never learned is the necessity to work for
himself, and until he does this he can never
compete with a white man. Thousands of
negroes who will work we'll if hired and
watched will not do anything for them
selves. Give each of them piece of the
richest of land and 10 out of 20 will not
raise a thing on it though they might be
threatened with starvation.
There is a field of opportunity for the
negroes of the South in which they will be
independent and their own masters just as
soon as they will take it. When a negro
learns to work a given number of hours a
day for given wage without being driven
or watched, his services are always in de-
mand and he can support himself and his
family in comfort and independence. When
the race as a whole learns that and pro-
ceeds with that idea the negro problem will
be solved and gradually individuals of the
race will rise to higher stations. Just as
long as the colored race is fooled by politi-
clans and professional agitators into be-
lieving that by single jump it has become
the equal of the white race and is fitted to
fill positions for which the white race has
had the schooling of centuries the negro
problem will be trouble and menace.
In Florida, at least, the negro children
are provided with just as good schools as
the white and as far as schooling goes they
step into life just as well prepared. The
negro boy is just as bright as the white and
is generally thought to learn even more
easily, but he has inherited a different
force. The negro naturally loves idleness
and show and these two inherited proclivi-
ties must be overcome before he can become
good citizen. Perhaps his greatest danger
| 10 tuS vain nope, WHICH mas LnuS ldI pTONeu
a curse, that through his right to the fran
chise tie may vote himself into an equality
with the white people, an equality to which
he has been told he is entitled, but which
he is bright enough to see that he has never
realized. The sooner he gives up chasing
the phantom and starts to build ON a surer
| foundation the better it will be for him, in
my opinion.
When | started this letter | did not in.
tend to try to discuss questions about which
| can of course know but little, and in
mercy to you l will cut it off before it goes
any farther. My health has been greatly
| improved by my winter here and believe
| am going home in better physical condi
ton than have enjoyed for some years.
expect to start for home in two weeks and
shall be in Brattleboro probably sometime
during the first week in May on my way
to Montpelier. Sincerely yours,
FRANK +. HOWE.