The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-05-25
SOUTHERN NEGRO
Still Remains the Great Industrial
Factor of the South.

Z uCLUE VI l44G oJAIns
Caroline H Pemberton, in Springfield,
Mass. Republican: Owing to the wide
spread ignorance of Industrial condI-
lions In the south 1t seems necessary to
state, with great dIstInctness and en-
phasis, that the negro remains. as he
has always been. the great industrial
factor OF the south. He is especially
conspicuous-as he has always been
in agriculture. Nearly ell southern
land owners derive their income frCm
renting the land to negro tenants, who
cultivate the crop under the owners
direction-often under that OF an over
seer. Not lees than So per cent OF the
negro race are living under these con-
ditions. Therefore. whatever benefits
there were formerly to be derived from
such occupation and such groups of
laborers on plantation must exist for
the negroes OF to-day. The conditions
Of life are very much the same on these
plantations as they were during slav-
cry, except that the owners of the
land are not privileged to buy or sell
his laborers, but must buy their labor.
This he does-on his own terms.
There IS not the. slightest danger Of
the southern negro becoming overedu-
Gated. In the first place, many OF the
so-cal!sd Colleges" are little more than
high schools, and the amount OF learn
ing they impart Is not likely to make
the negro "top-heavy." or otherwise In
jure his capacity for waiting on table.
In the second place, the negro masses.
except In the towns and cities, have
little opportunity to obtain even the
rudiments OF an education. a public
school system % three months school
ing. without textbooks or school
houses. and which opens It's schools in
deserted log cabins or colored meeting
houses. five. ten or fifteen miles apart.
is not likely to prepare many pvpils
for the negro colleges that Mr.. War
nar go much breads The public
schools In TIE Philippine Islands would
probably compare favorahly with those
provided for negro children in many Of
our southern stetes-that is. for negro
children on the plantations, where IL
literacy often claims 20 per cent OF the
population.
And now n brief word on the increas-
ed crimlnalIty Of the negro. Undoubt-
cdly. prison stats sites both north and
south. tell heavily against the race
since It has attained It's freedom But
prison statistics tell heavily against
any class of people who can he group
cd together as pitituI wage-earncrs and
day laborers. They tell heavily against
the foreign-born element in our north
ern cities. rs we'll as against the ne
groes The records Of our jails and
almshouses in Pennsylvania will sub
stantiatc this statement. The reform
atorias Of the state toll n similar tale
against the young children Of the for
cign born. Are these children and
their parents inherently depraved or
is It merely that the conditions Of life
IN our large cities bear most cruelty on
those who are at least fitted to over
come their environment.
The retormGtorIas for children tell
another strange tale which may illus
trate my point. The records OF those
that have studied show that so per
cent OF the youthful inmates are either
orphans or half-Orphans. Does this
mean that orphans and half-orphans
have n natural bent toward moral de-
prayity.