The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-11-27
A SOUTHERN VIEW
The Negro the Best Laborer in the
Latin JJnion

Latin Union.
If some critics would allow the South
to express her view Of the negro instead
of putting one Of their own in her mouth.
there would be a far better understand
ing of many things and conditions In
this section, which are accepted as prob
lens by those who think themselves the
wise men of the earth. Now ray Of
light is thrown on the picture by Charles
j. Haden of Atlanta, when he spoke be-
fore the Illinois Bankers Association as
follows:
/. Among the resources of the South in
my Judgment, the best Is its labor. The
negro. the plain, toiling, laughing, we'll
fed negro, Ii the best laborer'i In the Latin
Union of nations. He belongs to no other
union. He will do more work and do It
more contentedly than any worker that l
have ever watched at his toll. and l have
seen and studied laborers from the Bay
of Naples to the Golden Gate. Working
In squads under leader, his step and
River, all hands in weaving way the
tasks accomplished are only equaled by
the volume of good cheer with which
they are performed. When his stomach
is full his heart Is light. My inquiries
among men Of experience as employers of
negroes elicit the fact that he was never
known to organize strike, except in
few cases where he was influenced by
his white co-laborers. Nowhere is prop
erty more safe from danger of strikes
and riots than In the South. | do not
believe that for twenty years there has
been a negro riot worthy of the name.
Tanks of printers ink have been con-
sumed in headlines of negro troubles
to every drop of blood that has been
spilled. The real negro problem Is to find
an anti-toxine that will cure the rabid
writer's and politicians who make of the
negro man of straw for pugilistic ex-
hibitions. The real negro at his plow,
his trowel and his pick Is utterly un-
conscious Of the war syntax waged In
his name and without his authority. Mrs.
Stowe dramatized the pathetic side of his
the tragic side; both are strained and
unnatural. Twenty-Five years ago learn
ed prophets wrote magazine articles ex-
planning how two races with equal po-
litical rights could not live side by side;
but the fact is. they have. We have
done many things In America during the
last century which had been declared i'm
possible by the sages. Wise Englishmen
Of King Georges reign were sure that
our republic would die in Its cradle. 1t
still lives, with serious doubts whether
King Georges monarchy will survive our
rivalry. ! have been in constant touch
with nearly all parts of the Southeast
for twenty years, and am prepared to
state as an absolute fact that there is
less friction along the color line than at
the beginning Of the past two decades.
There will be no negro exodus. nor colo
nisation. That Is the dream Of the rain
bow-chasers. He is the bone and sinew
of our substantial growth: send him
away and the locomotive will rust In
the roundhouse, and the sails nap Idly in
our ports. The sweat of his brow is in
every highway. in every railway en-
bankment, in every great improvement.
public and private: he has earned the
right to home among US; our people
are his friends; we know his status and
social and Industrial systems move In
perfect accord. Well may the North
yearn for that day when between her
labor and capital the same tranquil re-
lations are restored.
when the battle of Chickamauga was
fought / was an infant in arms, seventy
miles away. Not q white man was on the
plantation. The only guard we had
against the thugs and robbers that skulk
in the shadow of an army. were black
slaves That they were loyal to the trust,
even though their own liberty was In the
scale of war, is evidenced by my pres
ence here. the human document. Is the
freedman more debased than the slave?
Is he not still as faithful? Has the
leopard changed his spots? There are
fewer Of him now that. say Marse John,
and there are those among US, men and
women, who feel that the sun lost it's
iuster after Appomattox. who see moth
ing but disaster in the passing OF that
good old phrase from his vocabulary.
Others, far away, equally as honest, In
sist that good will on earth will not be
until the colored man Is In the circle of
the 400 What the negro wants. the rank
and file that make up the Drawn Of the
South, Is peace, and good wages. These
he gets. and he deplores as much as We
the disasters that SO frequently afflict
the North; the deadly vendetta of the
Molly Maguires that once scourged the
Schuylkill valley. the Haymarket mas
sacre of Chicago, the Gatlin gun riot
Of Cincinnati, the race war at Pana, ILL.,,
and the Homestead strike of Pennsyl-
vania. He shares with US that sympathy
t tT, your on Sec the vnicano of discprtentsd
labor, and hear the mutterings of a
trust-stricken country that suggest the
horrors of a commune. II 1t be secur-
ity for your homo AM your property that
you harbor from the storm and a well
come as warm as our Southern sun
shine"