The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1901-11-28
SOCIAL EQUALITY.
some Very High Authority.

Sonae Very High Authority.
DUTY OF CHRISTIAN PEOPLE.
| (Contnued)
The Biblical Recorder la sent out a
letter to a number of prominent men
in the South concerning the question
of social equality. Below we print the
letter and three answers:
Dear sir and Bro.-In view of the
general recognition on the part OF the
Christian people Of the Christian obli-
CATION to treat the coiored people kind
ly and helpfully; and, on the other
hand, in view of the profound aversion
to social equality, will you endeayor to
form a statement for the Biblical Re
corder Of what you conceive to be the
right and reasonable attitude for Christ
ian white people toward the members
of the colored racer
The question is put to a few OF our
leading men with view to finding a
clear statement of the attitude of the
Christian people of the South.
An early answer will greatly oblige
me and think the symposium will
have a good effect in every way.
FROM REV. w. R. L. SMITH, D. D., OF
RICHMOND, VA.
Respecting the Negro Problem, which
has been so suddenly and unhappily in
tensified, I have just two things to say ::
First, Jesus makes our moral and re-
llglous duty plain. He Is Lord and
Master. These people are our breth-
ren, our neighbors, our teIlow-sinness.
More than halt of them constitute a
seething mass of ignorance and Inn.
purity, at once revolving and danger
gerous. This Is bleeding, weltering
carcass on the roadside. The good
Samaritan act is mandatory. Our Lord
will not let us pass by on the other side.
We would not; we do not. In the
Spirit Of Christ, we want to help our
fallen brother rise. In Christian love
we teach his ignorance, and point him
to the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world.
In the second place, racial boundaries
cannot be abolished. SeIf-evident truths
need not be argued. The thing you
instin ctiyely feel and see demands no
proof. Our dining-room is the test of
social equality, far more than our par
lor. Eating together Is the highest
social act. People who eat together
intermarry. Mlscegenation attempted
in our country means an avalanche OF
civic and social horrors. Social separa-
tlon is the condition of the bene6cence
of Christian people, in the interest OF
the negro. Nothing will so quickly and
disastrously paraIyze this sorely needed
evangelism as the totally irrelevant
and unneeded agitation of this social
Issue.
Richmond. Va, Oct, 25, 1901.
FROM PRESIDENT A. P. MONTAGUE, OF
FURMAN UNIVERSITY.
The duty of Christian white people OF
the South towards members of the color
ed race may, in part, at least, be sum-
med up thus, as it seems to me-:
I. In matters of business to treat
them with exact justice, paying them
we'll and regularly for services rendered.
The contract system, under which ex-
fractions, unfair and unreasonable and
in return fer the fulfilment of which
little or nothing is paid the Ignorant
colcred man, should be prohibited by
law.
II. 70 promote among them me-
chanfcal aud industrial training and to
encourage the support of schools In
which reading, writing, spelling and
arithmetic are taught.
III. To evlnce profound and abid-
ing interest In their spiritual lie, and
to do this by conferences with their
preachers and With worthy laymen
by visiting occasionally their religious
services by urging them to send their
Young men, who are called to preach,
to institutions Qike Benedict College at
Columbia, S. Co. IN which theology is
taught, not politics; and by coopera-
ting with Christians among them In
determined effort to break up gamb-
ling and the drink habit.
Finally, we owe it to Christian civil
,zation. to our wives and our children,
and to the South of yesterday, OF to-
daV, and of tomorrow to discourage,
Quietly but with unbending frmness,
fhe slightest approach to social equality.
Such infringement OF social 1egula-
tions and customs, as they are to-day
among our people, can come only when
virtue shall lie s,rostrate, when honor
shall be but memory of an elder day,