Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-06-23
THE RACE PROBLEM.

ALA - AAAAA hOADAEMs
Tie statements made by Joseph w.
Henderson, in the Spark Street, Bos-
ton, church. Sunday. in reply to ex-
Governor Northern, of Georgia, as to
certain race trouble and racial crimes
in the South, naturally provoke COM
ment. While there is considerable
trSth in what the speaker said he neg
lects to go to the root Of the trouble
or to suggest a remedy In this, how
ever, he does not stand alone among
speakers and writer's on the great race
problem of the South.
The race problem has perplexed and
baffied the profoundest minds of several
generations. When that issue is COM
plicated with race crimes. race preiu-
dice and hatred it becomes vastly more
difficult to handle.
Mr.. Henderson proposes no adequate
remedy; he simply recites-and not al
ways AUTHORIZATIONS past and pres
ent This is far from sufficient. 1t is
unquestionably true, as it is perfectly
natural, that blacks as well as whites
have suffered from the change of polit-
lcal conditions which was the beginning
of the South's race troubles. for the
sudden enfranchising of the vast mass
Of blacks regardless of their qualifica-
tons to intelligently exercise the suf-
frage has been disastrous to them as
well as to the whites But it is the
latter who have had to carry this dense
human burden as well as endure its
sudden elevation to equal political
rights, though not sharing equal re-
sponsibilities. A mere appeal-Uncle
Toms Cabin fashion-to our sentiments
and sympathies is neither a fair nor a
common sense way of stating the case
Digging among the bones of slavery
days throws no new light on the SUBJ
ject. And in those days, by the way,
the Southern blacks were far more
contented and probably as we'll off NOR
ally, intellectually and physically as
the masses of the same blacks are to-
day in the real BLACK belt" of the
South. Moreover on the other side of
the account do not the whites more
than balance these things by their
losses from and since the war. their
political persecution by designing
Northern politicians during the dark
days of the reconstruction period, not
to mention the array of horrible crimes
of an uncomfortable character which
have grown with the emancipation of
the blacks
1t does no good to harp, as Mr..
Henderson does, upon storied slavery
days grievances of the blacks. They
are, as we have said, at least fully bal
anced by the grievances of the whites
since then. These things are pretty
well understood even in the North. Ex-
aggeration on one side or the other can
only tend to fan the ever-burning fires
of race prejudice and stir up sectional
feeling. The two races are in the
Southern States to stay They will have
to go on together, and the best method
OF making mutual progress is to forget
the past, to observe the law, to recog-
nize conditions, to make use of the pow
erful means afforded by industry, thrift
and education, especially the latter.
The practical solution of the South
ern race problem has yet to be sug-
gested and until it is we can but trust
to time and to Providence to solve 1t,
leaving the details to the intelligent
people of the South both white and
black. 1t is their problem and their
affair. They suffer the consequences of
failure. They understand its condi-
tons as the people of the North cannot
and if it is not in our power to aid
them in this stupepdous work we can
at least stop nagging them and leave
them alone in peace to work out their
own salvation.