The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-06
The RACE PROBLEM
Census Bureau Statistics Show That
It Is Exclusively a Southern
Matter.
Fully SO Per Cent of All Negroes in
the Country Live South of
Pennsylvania Line.

From The Journal Bureau, Room IS, Post Build.
ing, Washington.
Washington, July 6.-The people Of the
north in their attempts to suggest a
satisfactory solution of the negro prob
lem, ought never to lose track of the
highly important fact that the negro pop
ulation is largely massed in the south
ern states; and yet they. do lose track of
It, for at times they appear utterly blind
to the point of view of the southerner,
who has the negro on his hands, and is
daily compelled to endure many things
which, If brought closely home to the
north would quickly make that section
as radical in it's attitude towards the
negro as the south.
| A very. Instructive pamphlet on the
geographical distribution of population
based on the last census, has been issued
by the census bureau, and from it may
be gathered much that is Instructive re-
garding the negro question. For instance,
99S of every 1000 negroes in the country
are to be found in the regions drained
into the Atlantic, south of Pennsylvania,
and 81 per cent of them are$in the lands
drained into the Gulf of Mexico.
/ Ihese are familiar facts, and yet they
are frequently overlooked by the north
in its academic discussion Of what is
perhaps the most perplexing social prob
lem now confronting the nation. The
!
die west, the far west, or the north, is
trifing. In what is known as the lake re-
g1on, embracing the northern. portions
OF New York, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois,
and all OF Wisconsin, Michigan and near
~ all OF Minnesota, there are to-day only
u'14o negroes' or not as many as are
to be found in single counties in some of
the southern states. The prairie region,
embracing the country drained by the
Ohio and the upper Mississippi valleys,
has less than half million negroes, or
about one to each square mile of terri
tory; while on the southern Atlantic sea-
board the average is about twenty
negroes per square mile. The great
plains, embracing the country between
the Missouri and the Rocky mountains
as far south as southern Kansas, contain
only $4,000 negroes, or one for every
block Of thirty-five miles of territory.
i ... The Black Belt.
The black belt is a very real thing, and
no amount of dispassionate discussion
and volunteer advice from the north can
make it anything else. 1t has been said
that if that belt could, even for a few
weeks. be transported to New England,
1t would cause the population there to
become intense negro haters; and this is
probably true.
Senator Tillman, in his winter addresses
in northern cities typifies the radicalism
| " tliC oouIH 81 ldI DIS The negro is con-
cerned. In Minneapolis he was listened
to without sympathy, because few of his
hearers were able to appreciate from
actual contact with the blacks just how
much Of justification there was for the
, position he takes. - !.
The census figures call attention to an
other startling fact in connection with
the negro, and that is his rapid increase
in numbers, and his increasing numeric
strength in the black belt, where he is
holding his own with the whites. AS the
:. center ofqpopulation moves westward: ii
) would naturally be supposed that It would
take the negro with it, but it does not
The black. man is fastened to the south
and will not willingly live in any other
part of the country, except as he is edu-
I Gated and made able to compete success.
! fully in the struggle for existence with
the whites. This means that the best
I that there Is of the negro race has come
!, to the northern states, and is now to be
= found in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wiscon
= sin, Minnesota, and other northern states
e The refuse,-that part Of the race which
e is sunk lowest in degradation and shame
j. less vice and ignorance,-remains a fix
9 ture in the south. 1t is from the ranks
: of this lowest class that brutes in human
form go forth to prey upon the Wome1
and children Of southern homes.
Senator Tillman was criticized some
what in the north last spring because h
had no remedy to suggest. This wa
e hardly fair, because his critics have n
more remedy than he
e The net effect of the census figures i
v to suggest that the people of the north
n who are not in contact with any of tn
e distressing phases of the negro question
$ should be slow to assume superior in
: telligence and virtue when discussing II
and should strive more completely i
IS their discussions to put themselves int
|. the place of the southern white man.
n The idea Of educating the negro an
3, thus causing him to be comparatively in
10 dependent and no longer menace to an
lie section Of the land, finds it's best ex
n ponent in Booker T. Washington, who's
IS work is now generally believed to poin
y toward a real solution of the problem
------ .--- w. w Iermane