Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1901-05-04
SITUATION IN THE SOUTH.
What Preacher Parkhurst Thinks of This Sec.
finn

What Preacher Parkhurst Thinks Of This Sec
tion.
| DR.. Parkhurst, who has just been in
the South a week and two days, said
in his sermon in the Madison Square
Presbyterian church Sunday morning,
that "the South Is wretchedly ignorant
and lamentably poor" and that the
poverty is partly the outcome of the
shiftlessness which has been for so
many generations the hereditary pos
session Of the Southern people as to
have become in them a permanent ge-
MUS" He said also: 1.-THE less the Ne
gro talks about his civic rights under
the constitution, particularly the right
of suffrage, the better it will be for him
and the sooner he will attain to all the
rights that justly belong to him.
"All just discussion of questions Of
race and of education now agitating the
South" he said, must proceed in the
light of the fact that the Southerner
does not like the Negro, and is fearful
of what may be the eventual conse-
uuence of having so large Negro ele-
ment in the population. He does not like
the Negro any better than the average
Northerner does, and of the two, the
white men Of the North and the white
men of the South, carry themselves to-
ward the Negro with just about the
same amount of Christian considera-
| ton.
"Only Of the two, the Southern white
man has, perhaps, this advantage, that
he does not make quite so f1amboyant
pretence Of loving the Negro as does
his Northern confere. He dislikes
the Negro and owns up to it; the white
man in the North dislikes the Negro
and lies about it. 1t is more a differ
ence of frankness than of admiration.
"The undiscriminating act by which
Negroes had conferred upon them the
right to vote was one of those blunders
| that it is not easy to escape from once
| it is committed; but which, 1t would
seem, we ought to have had Northern
craftsmanship sufficiently intelligent to
prevent. And this position is one that
| is to be taken not so much in the inter-
ests of the Southern whites as In the
| interest Of the Southern blacks. The
premature yielding of the prerogative
has built up wall of antagonism to
the colored race that only shuts out the
race from the prerogative. The coun-
sci, therefore. that both the Northern
and Southern friends of the Negro are
giving to him is to keep quiet upon the
whole suffrage matter, to keep out of
politics, not to insist upon his rights,
but to attend industriously to the work
of getting himself we'll ready, to learn
to work, to learn to love to work, and to
get as much as he can into his now
empty head.
1.-The less we up here talk about ra-
cial questions the better. 1t is the ra-
cial question that to the Southern mind
is the sensitive nerve of the entire sit
uation. 1t is hard enough for them
now to get along with the Negroes, and
everything that the North does for the
Negro only makes the situation more
strained and the Southern white man
more nervous and touchy, unless with
every Northern dollar that is laid out
for the education of the poor blacks an
answering dollar is appropriated for
the education of the poor whites. If
you have read the somewhat virulent
structures which Governor Gambler has
just perpetrated on the Ogden party.
you have observed that his indictment
does not level itself against the proffer
of Southern interests or Northern mon
ey given in aid of the South, but
against the proffer Of such aid as Will
put the uneducated white people at in
creased disadvantage in their competi-
tion with the black people. The COVER
nor has a rather grabbed way.of phras-
ing himself and doubtless represents
large body of his constituents, but
there is in his attitude an element that
is neither surprising nor void of sound
sense. And the unfortunate part of 1t
is that he could not have seen his way
clear to accept the invitation that was
rendered him to meet the Yankees and
come close enough to them to find that
what they would like to do is not to
help the whites, but to help the South,
which is wretchedly ignorant and la
mentally poor
This poverty is partly the result OF
the war and partly the outcome Of the
shiftlessness Gncident, perhaps, to
more tropical climate than ours), which
has been for so many generations the
hereditary possession Of the Southern
people as to have become in them a
permanent genius. But, shiftless as
they are, they are dreaming Of some
thing better, and, whether white or
black, there is growing up in them
desire for wholesome practical educa-
ton. They want better schools and
better teachers, but there is no money
to pay for them. Why does the gov
crnment not revive the Blair bill and
come to the relief of it's own children
1 do not like to refer here to any moot
ed question, but I am going to say that
when I see the general government, in