The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-03-14
NEGRO AS A LABOR MACHINE.
The Race IS Warned to Keep Away
From Politics and Get to Work.

The Race IS Warned to Keep Away
From Politics and Get to Work.
Chicago Times. Herald.
"ro raise dead issue is not my ob.
jcct When the new generation goes to
see Uncle Toms Cabin they bGlicvc'all
Southcrncrs were btutcs, that the
bloodhOunds and the lash and the oaths
0 fLcgrcc typiticd the South before the
war, the slavcholding South. That is
false"
+. llopkinson Smith, marine engineer
and author, thus summed up his reason
for dcnouncing Mrs. Bccchcr Stoves
rcVolutlon' causing book. He was at tho
Great Northern hotel and WAS about to
leave Tor the Art Institute to deliver his
lecture. Hc looks the man Of the world
and the man Of affairs rather than the
man of letters. His clothes and his
manner OF wearing them arc those Of
New York. But about him is touch
of the elegance Of the old time South as
wei! as much Of the general goodfcllow.
ship OF the present day American. His
face shows his executive ability, his rrac-
teal force, and only the eyes reveal the
dreamer. the poet behind the wording
He described the old South
"Ihc slave system WAS partriarChal.
we took care ni our negroes aS we did
OF our animals aud valuablcs The able
bodied men aud women worked, but the
mammics and ancient unclcs, like the
little children were cared for till they
died. They were fixed charges upon the
land
No, don't think Mrs Stoves book
WAS any nearer the truth concerning
conditions in the gulf States than it was
concerning those in the border States.
'l, S>,, ~ A e
the same blood and temper rs the North
crn people Americans arc never cruel.
We ale not y brutal race. Americans
treated their negroes well. The only
instances Of brutality to negroes in the
South are the lynchings that now take
place, but unfortunately the Northern
people are ne swift to lynch rs we are.
"Tl.c truth IS white men will not stand
crimes against their women. And who
ever heard OF negro crimes upon white
women before the war? They did not
exist. When the greatest American,
Abraham Lincoln, signed the enamel.
patton proclamation by a stroke Of the
pen 100000 ignorant, childish, semi
savage black men became free to order
their own lives.
"Thcy didn't know what freedom
meant, and the carpet bag COVER lmcnt
further dcmoralized them. \ nigper
who found himself no longer slave put
up shack III the next vacant pasture.
He had always been furnished food, and
| SO he stole his late masters chickens
The race had been dependent and SO
| first Of all it became a race Of thieves.
Left 10 themselves and their own
original instances they developed i'm
morality and became droncs.
"Thc result was the killing of the
| niggcr. Four millions Of them died
twenty years before their time. Idle
ness, vice, starvation. disease killed
them. Only lately old Aunt Chloe in
| Cincinnati told me with tears flowing
down her checks how she had to leave
her old master when sh- became free
and how she had suffered rdships
ever since.
"Thc new Miggcr, lie wno was born
since the war and who since infancy
has had to rely upon himself, is new
factor He may survive. But he has
got to get out Of politics and he has 20,
TO quit being dronc. believe Booker
J.. Washington has told Of the right
idea The niggcr must get over the
idea that he is gentleman and the no
ton that he can give himself gcntlrmsnly
airs
"lle must regard himself, as Booker
Washington tells him. as labor mach.
inc. AS cellar digging machine he
is worth IS cents q day; as book. max
ing machine - a day; rs machinist
machine he may become worth 81 day.
Unless he be q digger, shoemaker or
something, he is no account and worth
nothing to society. Going into politics
will not save him, neither will playing
the gentleman. When he is some &C
count tho white man will employ him
a Il trnN l., oil 1n, l,f, 1,ol,
himself and no longer.
Il am asked: Pray, Mr.. Smith, do
you believe in slavery?' l say do
not And, MIR. Smith, arc you not
glad the negro is frcc?' i am. "Thrn
Mr.. Smith, is not the negro better Off in
the South than he was before the war p
answcr, Not by 102 per cent?
| Mrs Stoves book misrcprcsents
each section to the other. 1t made DOS
siblc John Browns raid 1t intlamcd
the North and maddcnc1 l the South. 1t
provoked the irrcprcssiblc conflict,
made it irrcprcssible, in fine. But for
IT the war and its slaughter might have
been aycrtcd. 30 might the wholesale
| dying of of tho old negroes, the dc.
moraliHation and resultant criminality
| of tho race.
"Thcrc would have beer. littlo Of q
race problem then today. The South
would have been persuaded to take q
money substitute for its slaves and the
freed negroes would have remained un-
der the tutc'agc Of their former masters
and united with them in the familiar
intimacy Of the old plantation life
Mrs. Stoves book is to be classcd
with Rousscaus 'Contrat Social as
epoch. making in its effect. There is
such sue a thing as the literary Carrie