The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-03-15
RUSSELL ON THE NEGRO.
He Tells Northerners That as People
They Have Not Made Progress In
Proportion to Their Opportunities.

(Rev P. K. Law in LumbertOn RObeSOnlan)
The speech of Gov. Russell, read
before the Marquette Club, of Chicago.
by Mr.. Harris, is an interesting pro-
duction, whether agreed to or not.
This arrests our attention: IAN i'm
preston prevails that they (the ne
groes) have acquired homesteads,
have become tax payers and given
great promise along these lines. 1t
is not true. In North Carolina they
have had as fair chance as in any
other Southern State-perhaps better
than in any other. And there it is
sad to hear their frequent boast that
they own eight millions of property.
This is about three per cent. accord
ing to the tax list, the total of which
shows an amount much less than the
actual total values of the State, but
this fact does not disturb the proper
tions between the races. They are
thirty per cent. of the population.
After thirty years of opportunity they
have three per cent. of the property.
True, they may claim that this is all
net gain, as they did not start with
any property. But they did not start
with nothing. They started with
enormous advantages over the whites.
They were accustomed to labor, the
whites were not. They had been for
generations the producers of the
State and the whites the consumers.
They were accustomed to hardships
and privations and patient industry.
They had the muscle. If in this
thirty years they have only acquired
this pittance, where will they be in
another thirty years, considering that
the advantages of their start are
largely, if not entirely, lost?'
The answer to the question with
which this excerpt closes opens an in
teresting speculation. 1t will not be
denied that the best citizens and
most prosperous business men among
the negroes are those who were train
ed before they were set free. In nc
particular has the negro been 50
great a failure as in training his chill
dren. The great ma jority of that
part of them who were born since
freedom show decided lack Of thrift
and moral manhood. They are pen,
niless and aimless. AS to laborers
they appear to have been losing ef-
fectiveness for over ten years. There
is no disposition to work at all
Ambition to rise to higher things ap'
pears to be dying out among them.
The question presses where will they
be in another thirty years? Educate
them, it is said. and thereby arrest
this sad decadence. Very good.
But lifting of race under such con
ditions must take long time by the
inevitable slow process. His best
| friend and his best educator is his
Southern neighbor and old owner
and his worst enemy is the man who
| would come between him and this
friend and interject an estrangement
| The betterment of his condition in
wolves necessarily under the circum'
stances the cultivation Of the natur-
| ally warm affections which when un.
molested subsist between him and
| his white fellow citizens and friends.
Let outsiders hands off and the
white men in the South will in the
quickest and wisest way solve the ne
gro problem and arrest his degen
eracy, and do it graciously and peace
| fully.