The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-12
REPLY BY ALFRED NJ.
To Edward AtkInson's structures on
the south on the Negro Question The
Bostonian's Unfortunate selection OF
Wilmington to Prove Truth OF His
Assertions.

The Tradesman's Journal, of Chat
! tanooga. Tenn. in it's annual edition
of January 1st, publishes an article
by Edward Atkinson. of Boston, on
"Lynching Versus Industrial Progress
and also a reply TO the same by Hon.
Alfred NJ. waddell, Of Wilmington.
". c.
The following are the opening para
! graphs Of Mr.. Atkinson's article.
"Lynching, street fighting and other.
abuses u be suppressed by each
state. That state will lead in indus
trial progress in which violence and
wrong TO the colored race are first re-
pressed. That state will lag behind
all the rest in which lynching, street
fighting and other crimes are tolerated
longest. Each state must settle This
question for itself. There can be no af'l
from without.
"A friend and correspondent in the
south not long ince wrote to me as
follows:
I'VE are at a loss to know how TO
stop these rapes. We are puzzled; weI
know not what to do. The harsh CRIT
icisms which have appeared in north
ern papers. all Of which are reprinted N
our negro papers,, have lone harm.
The negro has drawn false conclusions
| therefrOm. Men like you must createI
a disposition in the northern press 10
| Change ine.r o,.-,~uU coward the ne
gro
NY correspondent then went on even
20 the extent of calling for aid in exteT-I
minating the negro rather than hat
the white people shoul submit to their
alleged wrongs, and he then asked for
a solution Of this save problem. Il
wrote a reply, which he did not think.
it expedient to publish. and I therefore
for the time suppressed it."
He then gives the reply he made to
this southern friend. In this reply he
has the following to say about Will
mington, n. c.:
There are sections in the south.
where 10 intelligent colored workman
will stay, where labor cannot be found
and where land is unstable. l "a
name one county in which the evil
dence is conclusive of these facts. In
a neighboring county, although the
blacks oWtnumber the whites by five to
one, there is plenty of labor and there
is constant progress. Why? Because
there never has been a lynching or a
race riot in that county, and the poor
negroes are not harried by the poor
whites. How is it in Wilmington, y
c.? Have not the cOlored antilles been
leaving the place at a rapid rate since
the abuses committed there? What
will become of the industries of Viii
mingtOn? Are they suffering or are
they nOt?"
COLONEL WADDELL'S REPLY.
The attitude of many New England
people toward the people of other sec
tiOns OF the country has YER been
unique. Their solicftude for the moral
and industrial welfare of their coun-
trymen has always been one IF their
marked characteristics. Boston has
been the chief center of this altruiStic
spirit.
a want of knowledge Upon and sub
ject affecting the region of the
republic, including the Philippine Is
lands, has never been imputed to them.
They now it all-if not by actual OBJ
serVation, then, as Falstaff knew the
prince, by instinct.
Ii is now generally conceded that this
superior endowment was the result OF
an original spirit of investigation
which in the early lays attracted their
attention to the shores of Africa from
which they removed a large part of the
population to other regions, for u
purpose, incidentally, of "gayneful pill
ladge," but chiefly for the glory of God
and was supplemented by a subsequent
lively appreciation of the moral ad-
vantages TO be derived from pensions
and liberal bounties granted by theil
c~Ountrymen m shipbuilding, fisheries
and in high protective tariffs. They
tried not ITO be superior to people else
where, but these things, long continued
AMI finally crowned by the virtues
evoked by a great domestic war, were
!, irresistible. and they now stand self,
confessed as the rightfm mentors anC
) guardians of all American interests.
1t is unreasonable, therefore, to fine
| fault with any expression of their So
licitude for the welfare of any part D
haT - rrr ~ mr. x-nr u nrn
: pie who will persist in doing so.
For instance, some ungOdly south
erners still insist that a great mass 0
2 literature has been published by Nov
! England and northern people about at
r fairs in the south, a large part of which
. is without fOunCatiOn in fact, a still
D larger part a Misrepresentation of tn
: truth, and some of it absurdly false
Y and they further insist that in man.
instances efforts, mad respectful,
= and co~urteously, to correct these mis-
representations have been ignored, o
refused admission to the columns o
northern publications.
This, however, does not seem to re
tard in the least degree the steady flo,
: of advice and warning from the wis
and kind gentlemen who inhabit tina
favored section of our country.
The ~indisputable fact that souther
craftsmanship absolutely controlled IN
d~estinies of the republic for the frs
sixty years of its existence. and tn
r natural conclusion therefrom that tn
e race has not SO completely degenerate
II as Nto have become entirely imbscji'
: seems to have escaped attention. Tn
impression prevails that the souther
peoples are in a state Of tutelage I
their northern countrymen, and tina
they are accountable to them fOi n
~ administration of their domestic affair:
Perhaps the southern people ought
IS see the propriety and justice Of tn
view of their relations to their north
ern countrymen, but 1T is a sad an
b solemn fact that they do not so reSar
the situation. On the contrary, the
feel that any unlimited counsel. anC
much more, any active interference
with their surely domestic affairs
II an unwarrantable impertinence, thong
they freely admit the perfect natural
&c ness of il on the part Of New Englan
people, who have always felt it TO be