The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-01
The southern problem.

The Southern Problem.
To the Editor of the Globe:
| Your editorial on The True southern
! Problem in yesterdays issue, and shown
! to me today, contains sentiments 50 Ut
| terly at variance with what should be
expected in these days Of brotherly love
and forbearance, that am moved to
! ask space in your columns to challenge
| its correctness and enter a protest. lest
many OF your readers will be led to &C
! cept the sentiments as expressing the
| thereby.
Quoting Gen. Grosvenors query. in the
! current issue of the Forum. why should
| 1t be insisted on that this race, which
! has suffered so much, so long and so pa
! ttently, and made such rapid strides
toward a better condition, shall now be
! cient answer to the Southern mind, and
| is becoming more and more so to the
| American. people generally Because
| chised." Applied to the nliterate and
nOn-progressiVe part of my race the cor
! rectness of this view is not seriously
! questioned, not even by the negro. That
| is, 1t is agreed that his enfranchisement
| at the time it was. and TO some extent in
| the way it was brought about, was mis-
| take. Though it must be recolleCted that
the mistakes of the past are never a
| justification of wrongs of the present.
Your all sufficient answer will not hold
| good as applied to that part of my race
| who have developed a status of American
manhood and American citizenship that
make him q worthy, respected and pro-
| greSsive man and citizen have made
rapid strides toward a better condition"
| Surely he merits something better at the
| hands of the white man, and the South
| ern white man. too, If you please, than
to be disfranchised, simply because the
| statesman of the reconstruction days
| made mistake
| He (the negro has no place in the
| South. He is an exotic, an interloper a
| foreign substance. He is allowed no
| place In its social system, and time will
| show that in the South, as in the North
! ne can nave no place in its economic or
! industrial life" If you are right, dark.
indeed, is the future of my race. But
| you are wrong, and you wrong your own
| race when you say this.
The South has no desire to be rid of
the negro. Few are the Southern states
| but have made it an ofense against their
laws for any one to contract for, or en-
gage labor within their state to go with
! out the state. This legislation is intended
! for no other purpose than to prevent the
taking Of the negro away from these
| states. There are no laborers to be had
| but the negro. Within one year l have
! read of an emigrant agent being driven
| from Southern state because he was
! attempting to engage negroes to migrate
! from the state.
The writer is 10th to believe that the
! good people of New Orleans, VINO offered
] their services and did duty as special
policemen, and otherwise assisted in put
| ting down the riot there, were actuated
! by none other than selfish motives-to
| save the good name of their city and
| that their business affairs go without in
t9rruption from the mob No there was
| a spark of humanity of the genuire
| brotherhood of the human family in what
| they did.
My people, by Industry and patiently
contending against their many disad-
vantages, despite the G o b e. S asser.
ton, have gained for themselves a place
| in the economic and industrial life of
| the North" If the q o b e will take the
! trouble to make the inquiry it Will learn
that the negro has a considerable firm
place and standing In such life. What is
| to be found in ST. Paul fairly represents
| what can be found In all the North. Ger |
| ta1nly no worse Here, in some position
| or another, he is found in nearly all the
avenues of Industry, and his home life
and surroundings will compare favorabIy
| with the white in like walks of life.
Inc labor uHions are admitting nv peO-
| PIE TO membership in all its branches
| Our professional men have white clients
ana patients from all stations of life
| The spirit of the times tends toward q
! heaithy growing friendly sentiment and
| heipIulnesS, SUCH as will offer the worthy
! and we'll deserving negro all the oppor-
spleuousiy famed. thus fnsuring him, not
| OILY a permanent place, but the very
| near approach of the times of his being
| part and parcel of the economic and in
| dustrial life of the North
| The negro is not wholly to blame for
| ire now seeming altogether unfriendly
| Leenng, existing, 1t would appear IN every
! man breast, against him; upon the ma
| ton Is the blame for his being here
| Upon the nation too the blame for This
| Ieenhg. The cafpetbagger scwed this
| dangerous and deadly seed under the pro-
| tectlon, nay more enCourag cement of the
| national administration. Then the ma
tons duty it is. and all the people of
! the nation to lend their best efforts 10
pflng about different relation between
the races. Not by deporting the negro
Ihat cannot be accomplished. The negro
| by force. i''-' -
The Southern white man went home
! rom the war, and has since spent his
| every effort to have the past forgotten
and all its wrongs. fanced or otherwise
| forgiven. And now, that the sons of the
men men Of the blue and the men of the
hands over the bioedy ch hs and S b9hg
or unity and peace IS welded
tb no u,i Is t there. what is there
somewhat like, or some other mn NJ
ike condition or circumstance the
wnite man Of the South from shaking
bring as firm bond of union and friend-
| ship between them as there is between
the whites Does the white mans reIi-
| gion run only within the line Of color? Is
! the spirit of Christianity and the teach
| ing Of the Holy Nazarene to be of no
| force among men when he who is to
snare the benefits thereof, happens to be
Poor negro taught to do these things
| that places him in the position OF an in
| CRATE is left by his instructors to bear
/ the burden of his mistaken ard misguided
acts.
The negro has now Iearned-better for
/ him had he did so a generation ago, that
he must make peace With the Southern
| white man. 1t has taken all the time
| since the war for the Northern white
man to make peace with his Southern
| brother. 1t may take longer for the ne
| gro to do so. but he will do it. And the
| G L o b e owes it to the country Certainly
! to my race to assist in the creation of
! such a kindly feeling between the races,
| as the white man of the South will be
| not only generous in the terms upon
| which this peace can be arranged but
| intelligent of my lace as to what these
| terms shall be; and to the performance
| Of this task 1 must respectfully invite
| the Clio with all good white citizens
| to join the negro.
| ST Paul. July 81. 1900.