The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-04-19
SOME RECENT OPINIONS ON THE
NEGRO QUESTION.

There is so much being spoken, writ
ten and printed in the north, gener-
ally by cock-sure fanatics who are real
ly utterly ignorant of the negro ques-
ton and negro character. that it is an
idle job to examine what is said. All
that appears in the south about the
negro question is neither wise nor well
based. Extreme men are not apt to
take the most judicious and safe view.
In the north fanaticism and ignor-
ance have been raving and foaming
for years over ly%nchings in the south
while completely ignotant of the dread
full crimes-rape and murder-that pro-
voke them. The New York %lndepend-
ent is a ~negrophilist organ of extreme
bitterness toward the south. We do
not see it now, we are gratified to say,
but we nov and then meet with refer
ences to some of it's splutteringS. 1t
has seen a bit of truth lately as to
lynchings. 1t is late in recovering it's
sight partially. The Charlotte Presby
terrain Standard. which is as able a re-
ligious paper as we know of in the
American Union. has this about the
Independent, which publishes a COM
munication from a Presbyterian minis
ter who was educated at Union Theo-
logical Seminary. New York. The
Standard says:
cit admits three facts with regard to
these ~lynchings. first. that the mob is
an absolute automatic mass. as devoid
of rational free will as the lightning or
49, = ILL., ~~~ &Ls 4h~%
the Independent and it's ilk lave been
abusing the south for it's mobs instead
of attempting to remedy the provoking
cause. The con fact is that the
fearful crime is or the increase. So
great is the alarm in the section from
which his letter was written that in
all weathers the terrorized women fol-
low their husbands to the scene of
their work to be near them for protec-
ton. The third fact is that three of the
members have been punished for their
connection with it. one by incendiar-
ism, another by having his house shot
into, and the third by the loss of a
three-year-old child by accidental
shooting. That shows what the In
dependent does not fully recognize: the
sympathy of the negroes with these
dastardly criminals as manifested both
by their protection before punishment
and revenge afterward."
Such papers as the Independent,
Philadelphia Item n numbers of New
England sheets have done a world of
injury to the cause of the negro, have
put neo and dangerous ideas in
his head and really increased the crimes
that are so severely n promptly pun
ished. The wisest men in the north
now see the folly and gravity Of
the course of that section in giving
the ballot to ignorance. superstition
and immortality and ~essaying for the
meanes political ends to put the slave
above the former master and grind him
to powder under the iron heel of mad
dened. laundering power. 1t has cost
a vast deal to the whites and to the
negroes themselves. The Standard
closes with these serious. impressive
words:
There is a race of rulers on this con-
tinent and they did not come from
Africa; they came from the Germanic
peoples, who nave protected the honor
of their women with their life blood
since the days of Tacitus. perhaps long
beore. And we wish We could sound the
warning in the ears of every negro and
every fr1enQ OIL the negro. north ana
south. that the Identification of the
race itself in the crime which individ-
uals commit will lead some time to
such a punishment of the race as will
amaze the world"
President Ct. T. Winston. of the y.
c. A. & NJ. college. at Raleigh, made an
| address in Philadelphia on tn 18th be-
fore the American Academy of Politi-
cal and Social Sciences He discussed
the relations between the whites and
blacks in the southern states. He re-
CARDS the negro race as "a child race
and says that in order for the two
races to live in peace the negro must
withdraw from politics and he must
increase his efficiency as a aborer. We
copy a passage.
THE negro race is a child race and
must remain in tutelage for years to
come; in tutelage not of colleges and
universities. but of industrial schools,
of skilled and efficient labor. of char
acter building by honest work and hon
est dealing of good habits and good
| Of respect for elders and su-
| periors, of daily employment on the
| farm. and in he household. the shop,