The Washington times., 1901-10-31
Governor Ayeoek,s Address.

opposition.
Governor Aycock's Address.
Governor Ayccck. of North Carolina,
in opening the Negro State Fair at Ra-
leigh. delivered an address which ought
to and probably will command a great
deal of thoughtful attention in both the
North and the South. The press syn
opsis indicates that the Governor dealt
mainly with the question of social
equality While the tone of the address
was kindly throughout, the Governor
made it sufficiently clear to his audi
tors. the most of whom were negroes,
that they could not expect ever to be
accepted by the white people of that
section as social equals. But he did
not stop here. He also showed that
such acceptance was not necessary for
the well-being and advancement of the
colored race. In doing so he struck the
very kernel of the question, and ex-
posed the fallacy of a large part of the
argument made by those who have as
sumed the championship of the negro.
So far as the mere matter of suffrage
is concerned, there is little reason to
doubt that it will be settled, and settled
right, in time. The solution lies in the
education of the negro. If the constitu-
tional amendments touching negro suf-
frage. instead of undertaking to enfran-
chise ali of the males of voting age, re-
gardless of their mental equipment, had
merely provided that they should have
the ballot when they attained a certain
degree of education, that phase of the
question would never have been a
serious one. The mistake lay in taking
a million of them, of whom probably
ninety-fiVe per cent did not know one
letter of the alphabet from another,
and placing them on footing of politi-
cal equality with the most scholarly
and accomplished white men of the
South. Whatever may have been the
purpose in view. the unwisdom of such
a course is perfectly clear. This mis-
take has been the main cause of the
race troubles in the South.
The extremely ignorant man is never
a close observer Of proprieties. AS a
rule he is not capable of discriminating
between liberty and license. and not in
frequently he assumes that in order to
show that he is free man he must be
insolent and obtrusive. This is not
peculiar TO the blacks alone but in their
case ii did create a condition that was
extremely offensive to the whites. The
idea of political equality naturally led
many negroes to assume that it meant
social equality also. They could not or
would not differentiate. Nor Is this so
strange when we consider that most Of
the white champions of the race are
constantly inveishing against the in
justice Of treating the colored man as a
social inferior.
Governor Ayeock makes it perfectly
patent that whether the negro's posi-
tion is 10 be deemed inferior or not. he
must at least recognize the fact that
there is Hne Of demarkation between
the races which can never be crossed.
and that. however much the negroes
may improve themselves mentally. they
must expect always to move within
their own social circle The reason for
this is Obvious. Nature has drawn the
line. The chronological question Is
wholly different from that which pre-
sents itself in relation to the comming-
ling of the various Caucasian races;
but the distinction is frequently con
founded by persons in the North who
undertake to discuss II. The son of an
ignorant immigrant from Europe may
be and often is an educated and accom-
plished American whose personal attri-
butes give little or no suggestion of his
ancestry. But no matter how highly
educated the colored man may be his
physical race characteristics are always
in evidence.
Many in discussing this feature of the
problem airily wave away the question
Of color, and declare that mental and
moral qualities alone should be consid-
cred. The trouble is that the mental
and moral cannot be segregated from
the physical. for the mind in all its
varied workings manifests itself
through physical organisms The very
people who insist upon social equality
for the negro would never think of per
mitting one to marry into their fam
lilies. But why not, If the mind only is
to be considered? The answer is that
there is something repugnant in the
idea of such a physical association.
Social equality involves physical asso-
citation more or less intimate, and this
is why the whites object 10 it so strenu-
ously
In the South It has been argued that
education will not solve the problem,
because all the education in the world
VIII never make the negro anything but
a negro. The latter part of the proposi-
tion. of course. is true. Nevertheless,
IT is not TO be doubted that "A general
education Of the colored people will
greatly tend to prevent much of the
friction which now exists. The edu-
Gated and intelligent man, white or
black, will not generaly obtrude him
self where his presence is socially OBJ
jectionable. There are exceptions, of
course, but those are sporadic cases
with which society can easily deal
Governor Aycock clearly recognizes the
yalpe of education as an important fac