The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1901-07-13
TIMELY SUGGESTIONS.


in my Judgment the municipal
authorities in Southern towns and
cities are apdaly lax in enforcing
Iiheir yagraney ordinances against
The negroes to whom they apply"
writes James G. Bayles, Ph. D., M.
| A.. in the New York Times. "An
unfortunately large proportion of
this race needs nothing so much as
to be IMPRESSED with the lesson that
they must work or. go hungry.
They have not learned yet, for the
reason that. it has not been true in
their cases at any time, and is not
true now. Much too large pro-
portion Of the negroes are permitted
to hang around the towns, where
they have no visible means of sup.
port, and where, when occasion
offers, they become small criminals,
or, il may be, large ones. Such
negroes should be driven ont into
the farming districts, where they
will have less encouragement and
less opportunity to become danger
Gus public nuisances. That they do
not want to GO counts for very little.
1t IS possible to deal with them az
tramps are sometimes dealt With by
enterprising communities where they
have become jntolerable. The idle
negro is not wanted in the towns.
There are more Of his race there
already than are required for all the
employments open to them. On the
farms they are needed. In many
sections the cotton planters are short
handed and have difficulty in seaur.
ing the labor needed to cultivate and
gather their crops. Ten per cent
increase in the cotton crop would
add s25, 900, 600 to the wealth of
the South, according to the price of
the staple in the market, and to do
this is open to the negro if he wish
es to be useful and better his condi-
ton. To keep him away from the
towns altogether woull be impossi.
bic, no doubt, and perhaps it would
be undesirable; but it could be done
to much greater extent than it is
under very simple police regulations.
While it is doubtless true that the
negro can not be judged in all re-
spects by the same standards as che
white man without risk of Injustice
to both, he should not be permitted
to gain the impression that he is IN
any sense privileged character, or
that the community owes him a liy-
ing. To my mind, the most dis
couraging feature of the negro prob.
lem in the South issthat so large
population of the negroes are un-
willing to do for themselves what
they have every opportunity for do
ing, and that the number of those
who are idle, vicious, aud IL a way
criminal, is increasing. There are
many who will be disposed to blame
the white people of the South for
this deterioration, and find an ex-
pIanation for it in the discourage
nient of the aspiration of the blacks, |
resulting from taking away their
political rights. No one could hold |
this view who will travel In the
South with his eyes and ears open.
Indeed, he could not hold it intelli-
gently If he will make himself
familiar. with the condition aud ten
denotes Of the negro pepalation Of
New York City, where, with every
opportunity which political equality
IAN give him, the moral deteriora-
ton of the. negro is even more rapid
han We find it in any part Of the
South have yet visited. In the
of this anxious prob
EN-, which is fast becoming one of
rational significance, there is very
little room for sentimentality. 1t
practical in every respect. !"