The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-19
Es::1s;a,Rl!lsk7
DEFENDING THE SOUTH.
Two Ways to Guard the Good Name of the South-A Letter from
 MT. Murphy.
Editor The Advertiser:

| That the cases Of peonage in Alabama
 parent to any one who has any general access to the expressions of contemporary | opinion.
 | Hesitation of especial friendship for the | South, have changed their mood from ap- | preciation to concern. That any evil in
 Alabama should invite unmeasured criti-
 cism from the Northern journals of the | narrower sort need not have occasioned
 surprise to anybody; These journals are,
 of our situation lies in the fact that the | peonage cases have attracted to the South | the severe censure not merely or the
 journals of narrowness but of many jour | nals, Democratic as well as Republican, | which have long ma infested a wise under
 standing of our Southern difficulties and
 wide influence In the south's behalf The | peonage cases have not only hurt us with our enemies; they have hurt us with our | friends.
 It is natural. therefore, that the sons of the South should come earnestly and viz | orously to her defense There are. I l of the South may well be undertaken. In | the first place, those who love the South may do all in their power to show that 1t
 is unreasonable and unjust to charge spe- cific evils at the South against all our | people. Crime In Alabama no more rep | resents Alabama, than crime In New York represents New York, Cases similar to these instances of peonage have recently | appeared among the Italian labor of West Virginia. These eases were fully exposed
 in the issue of The Outlook, of New York, l under date of June B. From time to time | such cases have appeared. North and | South, among the ignorant and more help
 Everywhere there are are crimes crime against the the | ignorant and the weak and the sentiment | or the great masses of our people, North | or South, is touched with shame and
 horror at such crimes, and is soundly and l earnestly in favor of the punishment of
 those who perpetrate them. This is we'll Illustrated by the fact that the first men | indicted in Montgomery under the peon-
 age charges, preferred to plead guilty
 rather than face the chances of trial be-
 fore, a local jury. When, therefore, one
 of the. evening journals of New York city | recently ventured to imply that the peo- l pie of Alabama are as whole brutal to
 negro are protected by the silence of our press and pulpit I took sincere satisfac- 1 ton in publicly calling attention to the | injustice of the charge.
 It is my duty to give most of my time | to the work of travel, of travel North and South. and in the course of the many
 unusual opportunity to see conditions at many points and precisely as they are. It | IS my deliberate conclusion that there are uine personal kindliness toward the negro than can be found either if Boston or New York. Our Southern people, espe- ctally our people of the better classes, show to the negroes with whom they are | brought in contact a degree of generous consideration accorded to no other ser
 Sant class as.;saay anywhere else in the world have had occasion to speak of the rela- lions between the races at the South.
 That there are grave abuses in Alabama, that there are instances of culpable bru- | taiity and of revolting injustice is true. It Is not true, however, to say that these
 abuses are to be charged upon the char acter and conscience or our whole people, We may well defend the South, therefore, from those who would misrepresent us from outside.
 But what shall be our attitude toward
 the men who, by continuing in crime are the real allies of those wno would mis-
 represent us from without? The men who nave injured Alabama are not those who nave told about peonage, but those who have been guilty of it. The people who
 are really her worst enemies today are
 not the. critics at the East but the men whose brutalities are furnishing to the East the texts for criticism and the occa- slons for prejudice.
 our beloved State, let no one imagine that
 we can end the criticism in any wise or
 honorable way except by ending the
 exposure the cost of the exposure to the
 name and, fortune Of the State could not
 be so great as the presumption that might be created by any attempt to pro-
 tect injustice or to conceal abuses. Let us. therefore, keep clearly and
 steadily in mind the fact that Alabamas s
 real enemies her real detractors, are
 right at home; are the men who are prey ing upon the weaknesses of an unfortil-
 nate and helpless race. Their offences are
 crimes not only against the wretched ne-
 groes concerned put against the good
 name and the traditional kindliness ot the
 south. These deeds are offences not
 merely against the new South, but against
 the best spirit of the old. The old South in winch l was born was a South which dealt considerably, tenderly and gener-
 ously with the human beings which were
 born into the fate of bondage. Bondage, 10 many or our slaves, was kindly and
 happy servtude. 1t was never, under the masters of true and gentle breeding, a condition of. infamous servlity and of
 wanton penalties. Today however wheth- CT under the conditions of unkindiiness or
 klndliness there is no place in our coun- try Tor slave or pseudo-slave. The man Vho attempts 1t at the South really at tacks the South. The man who Is guilty of peonage, or who, whether guilty of technical peonage or not, is passing his policy of employment upon cruelty and wrong. is the man who is injuring Ala
 bama. It Is from this man, as well as rom the critic of the East, that the South needs persistent and vigorous defending
 He Is inJuring Alabama industrially and politically. He is injuring her industrial ly, because he is spreading alarm among the masses of our negroes in the country Is unsettllng their labor, is driving them 10 the towns and cities where they may usually hope to gain the ampler protec- uons of the law. He is also creating con- ditions of violence and unrest, is diverting the movements of desirable immigration ana Is embarrassing the development Of those properties which depend. however subtiy. upon the general sense of social stability and security.
 He Is injuring Alabama politically, be- cause he is making "capitaF' for the tra- ducers of the South and is helping more powerfully than any external enemy to arouse those passions and sentiments which may again create "the solid North" The South for twenty years has found much protection in the fact that she has had strong allies at the North strong allies even in Republican States and among Republican journals It is to her every interest that this alliance should not be wholly abrogated and that the na- ton should not be arrayed solidly against our interests and our peace. For the sake clple we might well be willing to lose all; but We are not ready to forfeit any hon est and cordial friendship for the sake of those who, forgetting what is due to their religion. to their civilization, to their manhood, and to the nobler traditions of the South, are dealing in human beings like cattle and are then subjecting them to conditions which their cattle would be spared.
 l believe there are few such men. Bit. few or many. Alabama must be defended from them Their exposure and conv.c- ton is the best defense of the name and fortune Of the State,
 Our defense of the State against them will be our ample detense against the critic from outside. His case against the South falls utterly to the ground when it Is shown, as is being shown m the cases of peonage. that the South is frankly fac ing the situation and IS reaching and pun ishing the guilty. Where it Is demon strated that the South Is resolved to deal and is competent to deal with the legal and moral issues local to the South, there can be neither excuse nor Justification for