The new age. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1902-190?, 1902-07-12

belle and the public scavanger of her
city, with all the filth and foulness OF
his calling on his person and in his
blood. The very words are sickening.
And the idea, 30 coarse and repug-
nant to every finer feeling, could
have originated only in the brain of
the widest theorist, ignorant of con-
ditions, and hurried by his negrophile
propensities and desire to do justice
to the black man into entire forget
fulness of the rights and feelings If
the Southern white man.
There seems to be no essential con-
dition of casualty between the pre-
vious bondage aid suffering of the
negro and the assumption by him Ut
for him, on emancipation, of any equal
ity with his former master other than
the grand and fundamental equality
of man to man before God and the
national law. Emancipation could not
eradicate the essential inferiority of
the negro. No such conditions exist.
ed as in other states of slavery-in
Greece or Rome. for example, where
the slave was often of kindred blood,
and even higher born, bitter educated,
and of finer tastes and feelings than
his master. Emancipation there
might naturally be followed by an
approximate equality between the ex.
slave and his former master. But
the negro when enslaved was-a ne.
gro; and the emancipated negro was 3
negro still. Freedom had not made
him a new creature. He was, indeed,
better than when he entered slavry
but his Emancipation had not changed.
and could not change, the fundamental
features, the natural inferiorit yof the
race.
CD But the negro has inalienable
rights.
When the North had erred in ap.
Iproaching the negro question with the
assertion of the equality of the races
and seeking to solve 1t on that un.
sound postulate, the South has, much
more previously, erred in precisely the
opposite direction. For our section
has carried the idea of the negro's in
feriority almost, il not quite, to the
point of dehumanizing him. This is
an unpalatable truth; but that 1t is
the truth, few intelligent and candid
white men, even of the South, would
care to deny. Blatant demagogues, pc
litical shysters, counting favor with
the mob; news sheets, fiattering the
prejudices, and pandering to the pas
sions of their constituency; ignorant
youths and loud-voiced men who re
ceive their information at SECOND
hand, and either do not or cannot see
these, and thir followers, asser
, gro is fairly and kindly treated il
, the South, that the Southern white
, man is the negro's friend. and gives
r him even more than his just desert
; But, If we care to investigate. evi
, dences of our brutal estimate of thu
, black man are not far to seek. TIL,
hardest to define is perhaps the mos
3 impressive-the general tacit atti
tude and feeling of the average South
!. ern community toward the negro. HI,
is either nothing more than the beas
: that perishes, unnoticed and uncare'
1 for so long as he goes quietly abou
r his mental toll Gas a young man re
y Gently said to the writer, "The farme
r regards his niger in the same ligh
:. as his mule" but this puts the matte
e far too favorable for the negro): OF
y II he ahappen to offend. he is punishe
y as beast with cudse or kick, an
with tortures that even the beast
4 spared; or. IL he Is thought of at all .
) a general way, it is with the most al
a solute loathing and contempt. He
y either unnoticed or despised. As 70
4. his feelings. he hasn't any. How fe'
l. alas how few words of gentle
4 ness and courtesy ever come to tn
If black mans ears, But harsh and in
o perious words, coarseness and cursinl
l. how they come upon him, whethe
d with excuse or in the frenzy of unju.
1t and unreasoning passion! And hi
It rights of person. property. and san
e. tIty Of home-who ever heard of tn
e. rights" of a "nigger?" This is tn
Of general sentiment. in the air. intang
II BILE. but strongly felt; and it IL. in
re large measure, this sentiment ths
IS creates and perpetuates the negr
ID problem.
IT II the negro could be made to fe'
10 that his fundamental rights and pri'
h ileges are recognized and respecte
ID equally with those of the white maj
g that he is not Disseminated againE
both publicly and privately simpl
n and solely because OF his color, that h
,f is regarded and dealt with as a re-
d. ponsible, IL humble. member of 3,
" ciety the most narnlexinq feafurac =