The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-01

close every negro school in the state
except one in New orleans. The fac
tion that believes in negro education
has been in a large majority hereto
fore. and all propositions as TO the
closing of colored schools have been
voted down. There Is reason to fear
that the recent race troubles have
given strength to the reactionaries,
and have increased the number of
whites who believe that education has
a demorallzng influence on the negro"
The same article quotes ex-Chief
Justice Campbell. of Mississippi, as
having expressed pretty nearly the
same nonchalant philosophical dictum
uttered by Colonel Watterson and as
adding thereto this supplementary
opinion, which the colonel no doubt
would not care to endorse:
The negro learns great many things Mt school
which unfit him for his ordinary and necessary
condition, which make him unhappy and which
nll him with desires impossible OF realization
Education among the race Is a great provocation
of discomfort. II is tr1e that the education
given the negro does not amount to much and
discomfort seems to be the only result from it,
lie learns enough to read incendiary literature
like the negro Charles in New orleans and then
he is ripe for disturbance The negro should
have remained in ignorance. The methods now
used to solve the negro problem (hv education)
will make that problem fearful one. The me-
Rroes are getting further and further away from
the very basis upon which they can remain
pcaceably in this country distinct recognition
Of the racial superiority of the whites. This
gives the only assurance Of harmony between
the two races
I'm the meantime. in New Orleans"
| adds the Sun correspondent, "the
school board has decided to make a
radical change in the education of
| negro youth. From this time for
ward, all grammar schools for negro
children will be abolished, and the edu-
| cation furnished the negroes in the
public schools will be restricted to the
primary grades. In place of higher or
grammar school instruction, a course
| of manual training will be intro
| duced."
We are not prepared TO dispute the
wisdom of the substitution for the
illiterate negro as he appears in the
| DOuNu VI manual III pace Ol dCdutIlllC
| training. 1t has many arguments in
its favor. Many of the wisest negroes
! concur in it. Booker T. Washington
| especially indorses It and his opinion
| carries enormous weight. But the
| question presents itself if the negro
| is to be educated manually because
| the whites view him with contempt In
| any other than an Industrial relation
AS newer of wood and a drawer of
water-what will be the result when
he comes into industrial competition
with the whites; when labor unions
| Will ask for legal protection against
his competitive labor and the same
| hue and cry which has effected his
disfranchisement will be raised to ef-
feet his election from the avenues of
physical toll?
| The North has its flashes of violence
but the motive Is not race hatred
| There is no hatred of the negro nor
| fear Of the nogro In the North. North
ern people do not demand that the
negro shall keep away from school
lest he become discontented. If this
argument were to be applied logically
and completely, It would do away with
| perialistic and undemocratic.