The age-herald., 1900-03-18
MIR. MURPHY ON
 THE RACE QUESTION
,rom .the Characterised Reoord.


 No reasonable person could listen to the dfspassionate and instructive address de- livered in this oty the other day by the Rev. Edgar G. Murpfy. of Alabama, with cut feeling HIhat the negro problem in the south is not so easy of solution as some northern critics assume. Indeed, it Is sale to say that most of his hearers had sense of the rashness and ignorance of agitators who indulge in wholesale con- demnation of the southern people flor lack of intelligent effort to determine upon @ just and humane policy toward the ne groes. MT. Murphy showed that the best brains and conscience of the south are try ing to meet the enormous dangers of an unparalleled situation in a spirit of right and justice Of the difficulties elf the prob lem by which the southern states are con- fronted he could give only suggestion; yet he convinced his hearers that they are not to be dissipated off-hand by northern people who are shocked by. dynchings, but are ignorant of all the conditions that surround and lead to such acts of mob vio- Hence.
 Philadelphia has not been so successful fin meeting much simpler questions as to
 
 to those who are moved by passion and a lack Of information in their miscnievous advice to southern negroes. The death of thousands of persons from typhoid fever and from other preventable diseases which are spread by our system of water supply evidences our dneffioiency. The destructive fires which have swept through the heart of the city are a proof that we have no monopoly of wisdom. The revocation of bailot-box frauds of the most audacious and primitive character, lhe rule of corrupt politicians and the reckless waste of the public funds are not calculated to justify the belief that we are able to instruct other people hotW to effect great reforms.
 Ut is quite as reasonable to suppose that all our people have been indifferent to the ravages of disease and fires and the spread or corruption as to assume that all the peo- pie Of the south trust to lynching as the cure of their great evil. A long time has elapsed since our own problems first press ed for solution. Have We any warrant for demanding that the south shall instantly abolish whatever is shocking in the graver situation that presses on its people? 1t would be stupid to think that the intelligent people of that section are ignorant of the fatal influences on their own civilization of policy which distrusts the courts. As matter of fact, they are making constant and tremendous efforts to establish a con- dition under which life may be tolerable without injustice to the negroes Northern people are bound by every consideration of right, and by the interest of the whole na- tion, to refrain from maintaining an atti- m 1af oix 4I,.. criminal impulses of the negroes in the south.
 The conditions of life of the southern ne- groes are unfavorabe. They are the imme- diate descendants of slaves. who were sud denly freed and endowed by law with rights of citizenship, which they are expect ed to exercise among those who were the slaves owners. They have been inspired to insane ambitions by civil rights law and by Irresponsible political rascals from the north, and they must be more than 11u- man not to have among their numbers some desperate characters with hatred of the whites. The blood-drunkenness of a white mob does not lessen the horrible criminali- ty of the black beasts whose deeds provoke avengers to the use of the rope, and does not tighten the fearful responsibility of those who condemn the white lynchers without denouncing the black criminals and thus encourage the foulest of all forms of human wickedness. The northern people can well afford to rest on the assurances of such men as MT Murphy that the conscien- tious and patriotic people of the south are working on the great problem with zeal, and with a better understanding than we can possibly have The reckless interfer- ence of ignorance can only exaggerate the evil. l.fIlB