The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-15
tongued. against

The deep damnation of his taking off"
A young negro lawyer of Brooklyn
is working out a scheme of negro col
onization which will be of the greatest
interest to sociologists, not only from
it's bearing on the Afro-American ques-
ton, but also as an industrial exper-
iment. Rufus L. Perry has for several
years been quietly getting options on
land in Suffolk county until he now
controls enough for the inception of his
scheme. He has also raised more than
half of the money required to start the
work and expects soon to get the rest
by subscription. His plan is, in brief,
to establish a colony for negroes alone.
1t will have its own rules and regula-
tons which will be tantamount to laws.
Violation of them will be punished by
fine or expulsion from the colony. Ne
groes of good character will be brought
from the South, and will receive APP
portionments of land on which cot
tages will be built for them. Facto-
ries will be built for capitalists, who
will be drawn thither by a guarantee
of all the labor they can use at a set
rate, probably lower than the market
rate. Perry has now the promise of
shoe factories, broom factories, knit
ting mills, and other industries. and
hundreds of colored people from all
parts of the South have sent in appli-
cations for apportionments in the pro-
jected colony, so there will be no lack
of workmen. Five hundred will be the
original number, which, Perry expects
will have grown to $4,000 within two
years. Outside capital.-white, of
course-will have its representatives
there In the form of superintendent and
oVerseers, but these will be merely day
residents. No white person will be
permitted within the colony limits af-
ter curfew. That 1900 acres of Long
Island land will be the only spot in
the world from which the white man
is barred as a resident.
So much for the scheme as outlined
by Perry. But there is another side
to it quite distinct from the industrial.
The protector Of the plan is a clever
and ambitious politician. Within Two
years. is scheme goes through, he
will haV n absolutely solid political
organizai n Of some eight or ten
thousand voters. Within this he will
control his county and WELD tre- ..
mendous power in state politics. That
he will be able to swing il as he wishes
is obvious. for he can shut out all out
siders and bar all politics but his own.
1t will be the unit vote perfected,
Whether the cry of mo negro domina-
tion" will be raised by the whites in
that vicinity remains to be seen. Many
of them declare that they will move
out Of the county. Some of the hot
headed ones are for organizing against
the negro Eruption and preventing II,
by force. II necessary. The land in that
part of Long Island, they declare, will
become worthless II the colored people
are permitted to build up their pri-
vate government there. and Perry has
this in mind, too, for he expects TO be
able to extend the bounds of his prin-
cipailty. He promises, however, that
the colony shall be absolutely orderly,
and that any member Of II who inter
feres with the whites, either within or
without its borders. Will be instantly
expelled.
The financial situation has not
cleared recently The stock market
has been left entirely 20 the profession
al onarafors and they have worked