The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-27

Governor Russell perceives that the
best friends Of the negroes are the men
who believed in secession n fought
for their rights. At the Tuskegee negro
conference held in Alabama on list
inst, among other declarations was this,
regard the real feelings towar them
Of the white people:
We believe the race is making slow
but sure progress n We are glad
TO note that the growing interest Of
the best southern white people in our
elevation is shown by the various con-
fsrences held by them for the discus
sion of the race problem We would
call attention to the fact that our peo-
pie charged with crime and in nth
ern prisons have as a rule little or No
education and are largely without in
dustrial and moral training We urge
all to becom taxpayers and to
promptly pay their taxes; to keep out
Of the courts; to cease loafng on the
stfeetA and in public places, and to pre-
pare to do well the work which the best
interests Of the community demand"
That is the best advice possible.
There are enough points presented to
demand an essay. The white people
desire to educate the negroes. They
have shown this for thirty years by
taxing themselves in the time of power
ty and robberies. They have given the
negroes more than $50, 000, 900 in educa-
tional advantages. The results have
been but partially satisfactory. The
statistics gathered by a professor in a
great northern university show that
one-third of the negro a. has gone
back since freedom-has actually de-
teriorated; another third is at a COM
plete standstill, while one third shows
some progress.
The people of North Carolina have
borne their burden of taxation for the
benefit of negro children with great
resolution. They have striven to help
to uplift the negro in so far as mental
education of a certain kind could con-
this when neither gratitude nor conf
dence nor appreciation nor a willing
ness to help in return has been shown.
Hostility to their real friends and ben
efactors has marked uniformity, in
v%ariably, the conduct of the negroes.
They have cultivated a spirit of dis
like and a~ntagonism for a generation.
If the present franchise amendment to
be voted for in August, should by any
federal legislation or interference; by
any combination possible under the
leadership of such dangerous enemies
of the whites as Pritchard, Butler,
Rich Pearson, Holton and the other
leaders of the plunderers, then educa-
ton of negroes by white taxes will soon
end. The white men will no longer
bear any such burden with the return
to the old rule of negroes and mean
whites.
The advice given to the negroes at
Tuskegee is ~pressingly made The ne
sroes do not pay taxes as a class" they
do not keep out of court, but occupy
most of the time of courts of several
kinds; they are systematic and peril
nacious loafers, and are lazy, idle, and
a drag upon communities. This applies
to h gang that hang around the
streets and follow parades whether it
is a band or a drum or a roller engine.
They do not earn their salt and are
public nuisanceS. There is a big OPP
portunity offered for Improvement Let
a parade come off n a thousand idle
negroes will flock after it. Idleuess is
no builder but a wrecker.