The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-06
PROF. sLEDD's MARES NEST.

whenever scholar, who nVeS In the
atmosphere of books and college life,
begins to discuss the Negro Problem, the
chances are nine out of ten that he will
put his foot in it. The truth is that the
most practical man among us knows very
little about that problem. 1t is one that
Time alone will solve. Theories and
plans, promulgated by learned men, all
vanish into thin air. The latest student
to get burnt by that red-hot poker is
Professor Andrew Sledd. of Emory
College, whose, contribution to the July
Atlantic Monthly has made the people
OF his town exceedingly angry" says
the Atlanta Journal. Prof. Sledd is a
native of Virginia, son OF the famous
Methodist preacher. DR.. r. N. Sledd. He
was graduated at Randolph Macon Col
lege, and is now professor OF Latin in
Emory College, located at Coyington, Ga.
So much indignation has been ex-
pressed about the article that the At
lanta Journal sent q reporter to inter-
view PrQL<( Sledd. he Sald:
81 wrote the article and published
vt after careful consideration. I regard
this negro question as one open for dis
cussion as we'll as one with two sidess
/ regard it as a question the support
of either side of which need not impugn
ones moral integrity or his allegiance
to the South. l feel that this question
should be discussed much as the cur
rency question or any other.
II have lived in six Southern States
and here as elsewhere l find illustrated
the truth of my statements. Understand
me, the two main points in the original
article are The negro belongs to an in
ferior race. 7 in no wise desire social
equality / do believe that / state a
general fact when l say that the negro
is dehumanized and treated lower than
a brute in the South. 1 believe that if
the white man can go to the negro's
church the negro should go to the white
mans church. If the white man can
have one thing in any of the public
utilities the negro should have the same.
If the negro tips his hat to me or any
white man, l or any other person should
do the same to him. and l believe that
the average white man of the South would
sooner kill negro than a forty dollar
mule
We cannot account for this last and
former statements upon any theory other
than that Prof. Sledd belongs to that class
who having ears, hear not, and having
eyes, see not" 1t is a SANDER upon the
Southern people, which the negroes would
cfr
man of the South would sooner kill a
negro than forty dollar mule" That
Prof Sledd could seriously make that
statement is proof positive that he lives
in his books-and reads too much after
Cable Trent and others of that school
and is profoundly ignorant of the char
South" He evidently, by "the average
white man of the South" does not mean
to include college professors like him
self and other professional men. His
average white men, are men about
whom he knows less than he knows
about the Boer, though he ought not to
have maligned them without having first
become acquainted with them and learn
ed that they are as free from enter
tanning the opinion he says they hold
as he is himself. If he will go among
the average white men in the South, !"
learn their spirit and temper, he win
write another article in which he will
admit that he wrote of them as he con-
ceived them to be after reading about
them in unfriendly literature, and not as
they are.
We take the following from the At
lanta Journal:
THIS is THE ARTICLE THAT CAUSED
OFFENSE.
Professor Sledd's article. which has
caused such n sensation at Oxford and
Covington, and which will be bitterly
resented by the people of the South is
printed in the July number of The Allan
tic Monthly and is entitled: The Negro: