The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1900-05-30
cOndi.iOn of the Southern EsgrOs.

Owing to the widespread ignorance
of industrial conditions In the South
il seems necessary TO state, with great
distinc.ness and emphasis, that ths
negro remains, as be has always been
the great industrial factor of the South
He is especially conspicuous, as he has
always been, in agriculture. Nearly
all Southern landowners derive theil
income from renting the land to negro
tenants, who cultivate tie crop under
the owners directiOn-often under tha'
of an overseer. Not less than IS pei
cent. Of the negro race are living under
these conditions. Therefore, whatever
benefits there were formerly to be de-
rived from such occupation and such
groups of labOrers on a plantation,
must exist for the negroes of to-day.
The conditions of life are very much
the same on these plantations as they
were during slavery. except that the
owner Of the land is not privileged to
buy or sell his laborers, but must buy
their labor. This be does-on his own
terms.
There is not the slightest danger Of
the Southern negro becoming over ed
ueated. In the first place, many of the
so-calIed colleges" are little more than
high schools, and the amount of learn
ing they impsri is not likely to make
the negro "top heavy" or otherwise
injure his capacity for waiting on table
In the second place, the negro masses,
except in the towns and cities, have
little opportunity to obtain even the
rudiments of an education. A public
school system OF three months school
ing. without textbooks or schoolhouses,
and which opens its schools in deserted
log cabins or eolOred meeting houses,
five, ten or fifteen miles apart, is no,
likely to prepare many pupils for the
negro colleges" that Mr.. Warner so
much breads. The public schools in
the Philippine Islands would probably
compare favOrablS with those provided
for negro children in many of our
Southern States-that is, for negro
children on the plantations, where IL
literaey often claims 20 per cent. of the
population.
And now a brief word on the in
creased criminality of the negro. I'm
doubiedly, prison statistics both North
and South tell heavily against the race
since it has attained its freedom. But
prison statistics tell heavily against
any class of people who can be grouped
together as pitiful wage-earners al d
day laborers. They tell heavily against
the foreign-element element in our
Northern cities, as well as against the
negroes. The records of our jails and
almshOuses in Pennsylvania will sub
stantiate this statement. The reform
atories of the State tell a similar tale
against the young children of the for
eign-bOrn. Are these children and
their parents inherently depraved? Or
is it merely that the conditions of life
in our large cities bear most cruelty on
those who are least fitted to overcome
their environment?
The reformatOries for children tell
another strange tale which may illus
trate my point. The records of those
that l have studied show that so per
cent. of the youthful inmates are either
orphans or half-orphans. Does this
mean that orphans and half-Orphans
have a natural bent toward moral de-
prayity ?-Caroline H. Pemberton, in
Springfield Republican.