The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-09-14

paIed by this w0rE.-A aSIAIi4St'iA SheA' NEGRO COMMUNITIES IN MIcHI-
 GAN.
 There is a community in Michigan which throws some light on the mooted question whether negroes are fit for the higher duties of citizenship. The last census report shows that Cass county,
 Michigan, Eas a population of 9,2fO
 white persons and 1,56s colored. It isl an agricultural county with no large towns, and the proportion of coiored
 population is remarkable. The negroes
 constitute a large majority of the popu-
 Iation in two townships of the county,
 viz. Calvin and Porter townships. The
 total population of Calvin township py
 the last census was 1,27l, Of whom 5l were white and 759 negroes. The total
 population of Porter township was l,SlO,
 and the proportion of negroes IS neafiy
 as large as in Calyia township. The
 history of the community dates rom
 1s40. when a few Quakers from the
 south located there and encouraged tu-
 gitive slaves to come there and settle,
 which they did in considerable num-
 bers. The present colored population are the descendants of these runaway
 slaves, and whatever they have accom- pIished they owe to their own uuaided efforts. Beginning in poverty, they have progressed to affiuence. Starting in illiteracy. every one of their descend- ants of school age is now Q pupH ln schools of their, own estaoilshment.
 The townships in which they constitute | majority are said to be as well inn
 proved as in any county, good houses and improvements being seen on every hand. A correspondent who. recently visited there says, the country resem- bles any other farming community, ex- eept that nearly all the people one sees are black. Coming to particulars, the correspondent says: ass ,s <
 l Some of the negro residents are ths most prosperous men in the township l 'BilI Allen, stock raiser and trader 1 has as high a standing for honesty ana liability at the Chicago stock yards as l has his average white brother. He | owns seven hundred acres of land and has four hundred head of stock on his place. all paid for. Mir. Alien wast jus. tica of thepeace in Calvin township fol eighteen years and resigned finally be, cause it took too much of his time iron his farm. gS*@ x x Bsss% Y S .Is Samuel Hawkes. pays the largest ta' of any one, white or black, in Caivlf township. He owns five hundred acre' of land and is said on good authority t II be worth ffftyathousand dollars. c. "
 Bum. another.slegro in the township
 owns two sawnrills and much other req 'l estate, and issTeputed to be worth
 similar amounts Cornelius Lawson, tn supervisor of the township, is 3 negro He has lived there since 1878, retaining the office until two years ago. In lSS he was elected supervisor, and he ha been reelected yearly since. He is
 farmer, as is prta sically every other ne gro man in the township. There are eight schools in the town : ship. four of which are taught by ne ? groes and controlled by negro schot officials. Regular services are held l 5 three churches! two of which, MethG } dist and Baptist, respectively, are al :. tended by negroes and have negro pas e tors. Both have neat and attractiv
 buildings. There is negro brass ban e and there are two negro physicians l !, i the township. # 55=-. I Although the negroes are maJorit s in one of these townships, and nearly I majority in the other, there has nevt n been any friction at elections nor an e trouble about office. There has nevi e been a race war in the township, an Il the bugaboo of f.social equality" hs h never asserted itself. The negroes a e tend strictly to their own business ar n the whites are so busy attending
 II theirs that they have no time to mai Il trouble. The affairs of the towlash d are as well conducted as those. of al e other township in the state. and the ts
 collector is always one of the first
 e settle with the county treasurer.
 is The success of this large negro con '- munity disproves the contention ls e some that the negro has no power of il '- itiation and no ability to make contin' J. ous and unaided progress toward eiVi j. zation. It shows that, given a Whi h mans chance, they can do as we'll s. the average white man, at least in v d cations that do not require high ord d of intellectual culture. It shows, fu ,r ther, that Booker T. Washington
 re right when he says that salvation IS the negro depends upon industrial ed 6 cation and work k--Jndianapolis JourT