The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-05-10
The Negro Problem.

An address delivered on Tuesday by Mr..
HERBERT Of Alabama. formerly Secretary
Of the Navy, ut the Montgomery Confer
ence on the negro problem at the South,
was in good temper and reasonable. He rec
ognized the obvious impossibility of deport-
ing the negroes, now eight millions and more,
for they constitute the labor on which
Southern industry and enterprise depend.
They being in the South to stay and the
South being deSirious of having them
remain, how are they to he treated by the
white population TO whose prosperity they
are so essential? In the first place, Mr..
HERBERT contended that negro suffrage had
proved a 'blunder " so far as helping in the
education OF the negroes Is concerned. Now.
practically. white men in every State
have obtained control" even in those
where the negroes are the majority
Of the population. and there is a gen.
eral movement 10 disiranchise them act
ually in all Of the old secession States
except three. When this purpose has been
accomplished the voters among seven or
eight millions Of negroes will be set aside az
a class debarred from the privilege of the
suffrage granted TO them by the Cons,itu-
ton Of the United States. In other words.
of the voting population Of the old seces-
sion States, about two-fifths will be dis
franchised II very anomalous state of
things under our political system and de-
struCtive of its cardinal principle.
We do not accuse these States Of n pur-
nnln in fhIS IpnriNinn tln pnyr,,, 90 a.,
suffrage, to gain undue power proportion
ately in the National Government: We do
not believe that this is the motive of he
movement. But that such is the result Is
indisputable. As the situation in these
States is actually, by DISTINGUISHING the me-
groes they get rid Of practically the only
political opposition, and, as human nature
Is. that consequence cannot be dismissed
entirely from consideration. Fifty years
ago there was n great movement in the
Northern States to exclude the foreign citi-
Zens, and unQneStionahly the partisan adj
vantage ohtainable from it commended it to
It's advocates, though they did not confess
to themselves such a motive. The heart of
man, "a JEREMIAH tells us, "is deceitfil
above all things and desperately wicked.
who can know ito"
Mr.. HERBERT said also that 1.-THE results
Of the millions of dollars for which we
have taxed ourselves for negro cdrIca-
ton have been 81 unsatisfactory that
some Of our good people are even adj
vocating that negro schools should be slis-
tanned only by negro taxation, which means
no more education for the negroes" II
might be argued with equal pertinence in
Northern States that taxation for the sup
port Of the public schools should be i'm
posed only on those whose children usn
them, they being to a great extent people
who do not pay taxes directly, though.
Of course, everybody. black or white. rich
or poor. pays them indirectly. More
over, If the Southern theory that the no
gro Is in danger of reverting 10 barbarism
is, to any extent. sound. efforts to edu-
cate him in civilization should be re-
doubled by the whites. Mr.. HFRBERr
recognized the wisdom Of this policy by adj
vocating the system Of industrial education
pursued by BOOKER WASHINGTON at Tus-
kegee. He also very fairly made an allow
ance for the poverty of the negroes as lin
large part a cause of the criminalitv
among them. for generally the criminal
population is recruited from such ranks of
society, since in them the necessary moral
and preventive training may be deficient.
The fact remains. however. that since
emancipation the material development OF
these Southern States has been greater than
1t was under slavery; and that it should have