Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-23
NEGROES ARE ADVANCING
COlOred Missionary Speaks Of Races In.
tellectual Growth.
RED MEN STAY GOVERNMENT WARDS STILL
Blacks Prosper ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
dians Make Va Progress.
Church Has Not Yet Eject
lively Helpe Them.

NEW LONDON, Conn, Oct. 22.-Reports
and addresses on missions occupied the
attention OF the delegates at this mornings
session Of the convention Of the American
Missionary association.
In an address on Indian and Alaskan mis-.
sions Rev. Dwight NJ. Pratt, D. D., OF Gin
cinnati affirmed that the Indian can never
be redeemed and uplifted and fitted for the
duties and responsibility Of citizenship by
the civil government.
The vast sums expended by the govern
ment for this purpose in the last thirty
years, he said in effect, had accomplished
but little. The Indian today is as much a
ward OF the nation as he was a generation
ago. II the Indian Is ever to be educated
to citizenship and Christian manhood, II he
is ever to be emancipated from the nursery
and from his swaddiing clothes and made
an Independent and constructive factor In
our national life. IL must be through Just
such vital and effective work as is done by
this association.
Rev. Fl. A.. Bridgeman Of Massachusetts
spoke on missions in Porto Rico. He said
that modern missionary enterprise and
American Christianity were on trial in that
island. Its governors he averred, come
home and paint in roseate colors. the prog
ress Of American ideas. the eagerness Of
the people for self-government and their
growing efficiency therein.
But, he continued, ask a Christian leader
like DR.. G. J. Ryder, who has spent weeks
investigating moral conditions not only in
the seaports, but in the mountain districts,
to tell you what he has seen and heard and
the moral status Of the people will seem
appalling.
Centuries Of misrule, the exactions OF an
oppressive and often immoral ecclesiastical
system, the baneful influences Of a soft
tropical climate have produced a people,
inert, childish, ignorant and impure. Amer
lean Christianity has a big task before 1t
and one demanding the generous outlay Of
money and not less generous Offering of
consecrated personality.
Chinese missions we're considered in a re-
port and address by Rev. Harlan p. Beach,
d. D., of New Jersey, and a view OF educa-
tional work in the south was presented by
Rev. Edward H. Byington Of Massachusetts,.
The evening session was addressed by
Prof. Charles f.. Scott Of Lares, Porto Rico,
on the work among the Chinese and Porto
Ricans. James +. Cross of South Dakota
gave an interesting account of the work
among the Indians and Rev. J. H.. Higgin-
botham Of Kentucky spoke OF the condi-
tions among the white mountaineers in the
south.
Speaks of Negro Advancement.
Rev. H. Proctor, colored. of Atlanta was
the advocate OF the southern negro and his
remarks we're continually interrupted with
applause.
He said:
When you begun your work among us our
mental ability was greatly deprecated. II
xuaa aqfd Wa could nor read. our eyes were
too sleepy, but we learned to read. We
could not learn TO write. our fingers were
too clumsy; but we did learn to write. We
could not learn TO count. our skulls were
too thick; but we did learn to figure. We
could not learn science, our intellectual
stock was watered; but we did learn the
sciences.
notion when he said that II a negro could
Contugate the Greek verbs he would be
willing to admit him 10 brotherhood. Some
time ago l stood by his moss covered tomb
in Charleston and thought of what he said.
Could / call him up tonight / could tell Of
young negroes in the Carolinas who could
conjugate Greek verbs with as much IA
cility as his closer kin. l would tell him OF
negroes in Harvard. Yale and Chicago uni
versities who can ~conjugate that verb with
as much accuracy as he. Moreover, could
tell him of a negro who has written a Greek
book which has found his way to Harvard
that Calhoun never did. Today nobody
doubts the negro's ability to. learn.
What Douglas has one in eloquence,
Washington In education, Dunbar In poetry,
Tanner In art and Dubois in scholarship
has demonstrated TO the world that there
IS no race in brain.
Possessing nothing at the close of the
war, shut up for the most part from gain
full pursuit, the colored citizens today pay
taxes on $500. O00. 200 worth OF property. In
my state Georgians have dug $4,000 900 out
of their native red hills.