The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-02-28
NORTH AND SOUTH.

The meeting in New York last Sun
LAY at which DR.. Chas. ID. McIver
was one of the speakers, afforded the
basis for an interesting editorial in
the SIM, beginning thus:
.tSunday's meeting in Presbvter-
ian church in Fiftv-Seventh street, to
stimulate the education of both
whites aud blacks in the Southern
States might have been resented in
the South as Northern imperlinence
if the two most prominent speakers
at it, with the exception Of the negro,
Booker L. Washington. had not been
the principals of schools for white
Young men and young women in Ala
bama and North Carolina. respective
". The chairman of the meeting.
moreover, was DR.. Gilman, the presi
dent OF Johns Hopkins University, at
Baltimore. 1t was, therefore, repre-
sentative Of Southern sentiment pecu
liarly, and a sentiment which is
liberal and enlightened.
The SIN then goes on to say that
1.-The old-time opposition between the
two group. Of States-meaning the
Mort hern and Soul hern Statrs-he-
cause Of conflicting political and
economical interests and convictions
has now passed away" and that
while. in the last national election
the North and South was each prac-
ticallv solid on opposite sides. yet
this solidity implied no sectional
hostility but was due to other causes
The SIM discusses the disfranchise-
ment Legislation of several Of the
Southern States and says that they
have simply followed the example OF
Connecticut and Massachusetts in
applying the educational test to the
voters. but that the action of these
Southern States in applying the test
only to the negro is unconstitutional
and wrong, and that, .'if there is Il.
pressing need of more education for
whites as for blacks the shortsighted-
ness of discrimination which re-
moves the stimulus to j. from the
whites while it incites the blacks to
struggle to satisfy an educational
standard for the suffrage will ulti-
! matelv be made manifest" The two
last paragraphs OF the editorial run as
| follows:
at will be the same with the negro
| problem at the South. The solution
| will come in the course of the great
material development. industrial
revolution, which is now transform
ing the region and diverting its
thoughts and energies from any OF her
race and sectional question than the
| best means of utilizing the great adj
vantagrs in the Industrial COMPETE
ton it has in its negro labor. and in
| proximity of its great staple produc-
ton to the manufactures for worhiny
| ii up.
Even if. as the North Carolina
| speaker said at the meeting on Sun
| day. 1--WE Suuthsrners understand the
situation in the North great deal
better than the Northerners under
stand the situation in the South. >
our ignorance concerns onl Y specific
detaiS-though there is very much
loss of even that misunderstanding
than he aSsumes-and it does not ca
tend to blindness to the marvellous
transformation, political. social and
industrial, which is now proceedir &
at the South. Wall street is not act
ing toward Southern securities in a
way to Indicate any fear of a sinister
outcome of the new development"
This conclusion is quite graceful
and gratifying and will be appreci-
ated. The language just quoted is
in contrast with recent utterances of
the San. which has, since it became
Republican in its politics, lost much
of its former friendliness toward the
South. We are glad to see in the
most brilliant paper in the country
evidences of return to the senti-
ments which for many year. marked
it as one of the best friends this sec
ti,n had North OF the Mason and
Dixon line (Hharlptte Observer