New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-04-27
WHOSE PROBLEMP

As was to be expected, the latest outbreak Of
white savagery in Georgia finds many excuses
i'll the South. The editors do not approve Of
lynching in general; they do not believe in such
q riot of bloodthrstiness as that with which the
superior race demoralized itself. Some are out
spoken in condemning such disgraceful scenes.
Others, we are sorry TO see, seem to be so In
awe of the lawless spirit which they condemn
that. though they disapprove of violence, they
utterly refuse to face the situation except from
the point of view Of that prejudice which makes
possible the repetition from time to time o. such
descents into brutality as marked the white
crowd that cut off the ears and fingers Of dying
negro and divided his heart and liver as pleas
ant reminders Of It's fendshness. Perhaps the
most remarkable case of blindness to the de-
mands of civilization and the true interests of
the whites themselves is shown by THE Macon
Telegraph" which declares:
The alleged race problem is the negros prob
lem-it is more theirs than the white mans.
This fact we have sought to impress on the
more enlightened of the negro race. 1t Is for
them TO deal with.
Suppose this Is the white mans country. Sup
pose nobody else has any rights in It, Accept
the negro just as the animal he was so long con-
sidered by those who to-day proclaim their SUI
perior rights. Still the problem is not less the
white mans. The more this is the white mans
country the greater is his obligation to maintain
its civilization and see that his descendants are
self-restrained, law-abiding, peaceabe people,
instead OF turbulent men delighting In brutality
Bull-baiting and cock-fghting were once COM
mon evils among Anclo-Saxons. Perhaps when
the agitation TO abolish them was active the
baiters and fighters said this was mans coun-
try and not an animals, and that the creatures
were not worth thinking about. But Il was not
for the sake OF the bulls and the cocks but for
the sake Of the men who were demoralized by
torturing them, that the demand for the cessa-
tlon of the brutality was made.
Assume that the negro is as bad as anybody
paints him. Say that his passions menace the
safety of the community. Admit that negro
criminals deserve all the suffering inflicted on
them. Let pass the assertion that in his present
state he must be terrorized to be kept in order.
Yet the problem is a white mans problem more
than Degro's problem. II pestilence were
devastating the country. should we tell the
germs TO disInfect themselves? If nuisance
threatened a community, should we say 1t was
not the problem of the people to remove IL. but
the concern of the person who maintained H.?
The negros faults and crimes are menace to
the white man. and the white mans retaliatory
faults and crimes are even more a menace to
the white man. Blame the negro as much as
may be for not conducting himself so that there
shall be no race problem, even 10 the extent Of
abolishing himself entirely, and the fact will re-
main that so long as there is a race problem II
is chiefly the concern Of the superior race pre-
sumed to have the greater ability to meet it