Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-12-29


subject of the education of the negro
in the South has by long odds attracted
more attention than any other brought
before the Southern Educational Asso-
citation. The most significant address
made on this topic was that tonight
by Prof. Paul B. Barringer, of the Uni
versity of Virginia. His views on this
question are sure to attract very gen
eral attention. Discussing Cne enfran-
chisement of the negro, Professor Bar
ringer said:
The attempted degradation of a proud
people was simply sectional crime, but
a brake on the wheel of national expan-
sion is, II possible, a greater evil than
this, the fifteenth amendment.
We dare not give Statehood to even
the stands already under the flag, with
their Spanish-American, Chinese-Malay-
an and Polynesian population. A govern
ment of the people, by the people and
franchise for such as these. We must.
as a nation, now confess that only in
teligence can rule, for we know the po-
ltieai liability OF the Span:shc-America9
the Philippines, and the Wilcox bill is
with us. No! the bill for the reduction
of Southern representation will never
pass, and the negro disfranchisement is
to stand. America now sees the hand
writing on the wall, for she faces a gold
en- opportunity wit hands tied. This is
a great evil, but it has it's blessings for
US. Not so much in the retention OF rep
resentatfon as in the VtndicatiOn of the
historic policy of the South and the de-
cline of political a~ntagonismS betwee
the races. 1t means much to us in the
publication of politics, and therefore,
public morals, but it means far more to
the negro, as we shall see. The fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments have been
failures. Let US look at the thirteenth,
which opened the economic problem.
1t has always been a mystery to the
people of the North why the non-slave-
holding class at the South fought so ar
IDENTIFY during the war. No explanation
seems to solve the mystery Tor them.
Let US first note by way of explanation,
tennessee and Virginia now West Vir-
glnla), where the negro was unknown,
the poor whites did not fight or else
fought on the Federal side. Let US also
recall that the enormous emigration that
took place from the South was chiefly a
labor emigrat.on, and even the wealthy
the South; These things were because
every w~orkingman who knew the negro
looked with holy fear upon the day of
ms emancipation, With the well fed
compete but with the starving savage of
freedom he had not a ghost of a chance.
In the fated language of Professor Russ,
late OF Leland Stanford, in speaking of
the Ch.naman, the whiteman can Guido
the barbarian, but the latter can under
live him, and there is the rub.
The laboring man who knows what
1t means to have to underlive his fellow,
will always hate the negro on contact.
There are to-day thousands of negroes
IN the South living on a ration that costs
b 5-lO cents a day, or less than - per
month, while If pressed they can live on
the half of it. Imagine the fate of the
white mar who has to compete with such
labor.
'Lured by higher wages, many negroes
are now making pilgrimages to the North,
to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc.
AS a rule they are the best raine work.
ers of their race in the South, and hence
the highest livers, but they underlive all
competition so easily and cut wages with
so much profit to themselves that the
hatred of the negro, always felt by the
white workers of the South, is beginning
to be felt at the North, and this is the
true and only reason of the late race
riots. Wherever he goes, disenchantment
follows. The old slave owner, his nature
friend, is now, as we nave seen, against
HIM as a political foe and the poor
whites of the South hate him as an econ
omic enemy, while the laboring men ev-
erywhere recognize that the ed~ifcation
OF The darkey was a mistake.
The poor white" said Professor Bar
negro labor. has to work his children TO
live. The negro, easily UNDERLYING him.
was able TO use this same white mans
taxes in the public schools, and hence
has given his children the rudiments now
necessary to vote. This is fast making a
reading voting pauper class of the blacks
and an illiterate working taxpaying class
of whites. Which OF these classes have
most interests in the State and most
right to be heard? No. This political par
adox must be changed. and it must still
allow us to work for the salvation of the
negro. With an educational suffrage the
first step towards Improvement is the
first act in a political feud. Let US be
done with and be free to help him and
make him help US. AS for ourselves, let
us go back to the old rule of the South
and be done forever with the aud of
an educational suffrage. Let us break
up the game that produces political pro-
feSsionalism Let us return to the poit-
zeal status we had when We furnished
the men of America. In national politics
let US also strive for truth and consist
ency. We cannot be high and mighty
in the Philippines and high and holy in
Cuba and maintain the respect of the
world"