Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-15
TIME AND OPPORTUNITY
BUT NO COMPROMISE


BUT NO COMPROMISE
The negro, as a subordinate element of
our society, is entitled to the justest, If
Justice is graded, the justest possible
treatment that Christian enlightenment
can afford him. His historic, ethnic, an
atomic and personal features, all Of which
may be summed up in his racial charac-
teristics, debar him from the perfect SYM
pathy of the white man, here in the white
mans land. To illustrate: A horse or
/ bird, even one of beautiful plumage, can
never elicit all our human sympathies,
| for there are differences between them
| and US, and, as sensate beings, they chal-
| lenge our sympathy to the extent of kind
ness. never OF cruelty. Only to the extent
| of adequate punishment for correction or
! restraint should kindness be withdrawn.
Now add intelligence and psychological
| functions to the beast or bird, if possible,
and our sympathies under the law of love
| would, of necessity, increase; but could
| never be perfect, for they are still beast
or bird: The law of love would not forge
me into the cage with the bird, nor into
| the stall with the horse.
/ While in community with the living GER
tain sympathies are due to humanity not
| grudgingly but fraternally. The law OF
| love must have its perfect work; but for
this reason, must bed with the leper?
| The Creator has drawn the distinction.
/ He has separated the races by the color
of their skins, not to mention their odor,
and capillary covering. and made distinc-
/ tions, that the white man nor the negro
has the right to disregard; for no step,
| tending to personal degradation or nation
J al degeneration, in breach of the indicated
law. can be taken with impunity.
While the inferior race is under our
pupilage, he should have right to life
| disciplinary liberty, and education, for
| oil he Of whatever
! kind, by personal exertion; from the state
| only the three RS; from the churches
| all the religious instruction possible.
1 He was stolen from his home, or pur-
1 chased from his parents or tribal prince
/ in tort of his rights. Whether he has Deen
compensated is not up for discussion. He
/ has a right to claim return to his native
| land. by contribution of his captors and
/ subsequent holders, or of his voluntary
act
He longs to be home again. His home
| sickness he does not understand, 1t is
/ nostalgia, though, all the same. HIS rest
| lessness, complaining, unnatural longing
! for place he cannot I'LL or get, is the dis
/ ease. Send him home. and his song will
/ be jocund and happy, as it was IN MS
! natural element, slavery. Send him home,
| and he will forget the burden OF lie. II
/ they must be cured, here in our land, OF
! this inconsistencies. in other WORDS II
] they are here to stay, if they are 10 De
4 cultivated to Their appreciation OF ciu-
| zenship." then they must be given all the
facilities for the higher education TO
| round out the development of the race.
| To use a parody on a remark from the
! Atlanta Constitution. The white apostle
/ of the idea that 1.-The negro IS mere 10
STAY" with full citizenship, and that his
role will always be to till the soil and
serve the simple handcraft and domestic
! callinss is a fadist, il not fool, and
/ his pleas darken counsel rather than help
his kindred
| while in the white mans land he has
| properly. almost virtually only the rights
/ of an alien, a ward, and the white man
his guardian If it has apparently other
wise happened that fun citizenship and
political rights have, in the throes OF a
/ revolution. been given him. nature denies
| the propriety of the law and his claim, and
| Flaw passed at variance with the wise
| discretion of and contrary 70, as well as
| in violation of the rights of community
must lack that virility that gives law It's
| lucrative force Such must be eventually
| repealed. or stand on the statute book an
! historic evidence of legislative folly.
/ Nor in the correction Of such laws, is
| If unIindness or injustice, at any time.
| even in revolutionary method, to restrain
/ the right so violently given, for such ao-
| rogation will remove friction, ana concen-
trate the negro's mind upon return 70
| his native land, and explain to him what
| is troubling him.
| The wise negro will labor to improve
] himself and his worldly fortune, to make
| possible the emigration. The higher his
| education the less his contentment, as ne
| sees. and, from education, becomes more
sensitive and sensible Of the impossibili-
ties IF his situation. Liberal nor technical
Education. nor wealth, nor land, or talent
can remove the color of the skin. thin the
lin. unhatten the nose, or reform his
Ossial anatomy.
would it not be a shameful reflection
upon our ancestry, purest strain OF MS
toric races. TO permit this fair heritage 70
lapse into a mulatto hybrid--Glories for
| got+eni Honor lost-Exclusive white su-
nrenacv or none. Let the land be desc
late the forests a wilderness, till some
more strenuous people, with nerve OF
virtue. recivilize the land. and plant
better strain of the historic nations IN our
stead.
Now while he is preparing his mind and
| setting his house to rights for the depar-
tire If he show amenity, he must be
treated humanely and kindly, restrained
and punished commensurate with MS
crime. and only in the person OF the GRIM
inal after due process OF law, only one
crime making an exception. For That ne
| will be dealt with fiercely, in measure as
| near commensurate d. AAeNy ~
I unsnealxable enormity Of the act OF out
Iawrv. If the law lay first hands on him
the superior court will give him terse,
nervous. sham trial, in an improvised and
slightly adjourned term Of Judge Lyneh's
court. If Judge Lynch, the simon pure,
get his hand on him first, then the herc-
est. justest process possible VIII follow
+ha crime. a process and execution most
Iil-alv 10 produce terror, and deter others
from the shameful crime Of the brute upon
/ Innocence and virtue.
JAMES ]. SLADE.
TIE SILK CULTURE