The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-22
MAKE HIM WORK BY LAW.
Dr. McDonnell's Statement and Solu.
 tion of the Negro Problem.

To the Editor of The Brooklyn Eagle:
 By the passage of time some things are becoming plain which people couid not see. or would not see, even as late as ten years ago Let us look at the facts as they stand.
 To begin with, let us remind ourselves that one person out of every eight in thls country is negro. The blacks constitute population of approximately ten mill lions-three times as many as the whole population of the United States at the time when the Government was founded nearly enough to people three cities the size of New York. They are separated from the people among whom they dwell by social barrier which is impossible. They refuse to mix with tine blood of the land. They are unassimilable.
 Until lately it has been assumed by the people of the North that this social fact had no bearing upon their political sta tus. that political right and action Is Tn no wise related to social status. The as- sumption Is wrong and always has been wrong. Citizenship in a real democracy presupposes social equality. It does Lot create it; it starts from it.
 It is by a true instinct that the whites of the South among whom the negro es live. have made up their minds to take away from them the citizenship which they have practically enjoyed for the last forty years. And the people of the North have tactily concluded to let then, have their way in the matter
 
 The result will be. and will be soon, that there will be found in the midst of the body polite some eight or nine millions of people sharply separated socially from the mass, and without political status. This stage having been reached. the ques- tion arises. what is to be done with them and for them?"
 The first and easiest answer is, 'Iet them alone to work out their own dcs- tiny" But this short answer need not occupy much attention. It is short-sight- ed, cowardly and perilous. They cannot be left alone with safety to the public. Some definite and coherent plan and pur- pose must be adopted. They must be treated either as citizens, aliens or wards. Citizens. speaking generally, they cannot be. for generations to come. If dealt with racially as aliens. race separation will deepen into race antagonism and hatred. We may as we'll face the fact that we have among us eight or nine mill Hons of grown-up children, but with the appetites and some of the capacities of SEoWh men, anu with the DackWardneSS and helplessness of children. Let 1t be un- derstood that am speaking of the race in bulk
 They have behind them their savage and tropical ancestry. They have the careless indifferent and lack of fore thought, the dislike of sustained and con tinuous labor, those feeble and fickle moral ideals which it has taken ourselves thousands of years to outgrow and leave behind. They are here, a burden upon the national concience and the national intelligence. What can be. done with and for them? What ought to be done? Have we the moral strength and earnestness to deal with them-kindly, and, if need be- sternly, for their good?
 At this point a noble band of men, best represented by the Southern Education Board, take up the question. They con- tend that the first step is to educate them, educate their brains and hands, And thus slowly upraise them to better things. In this contention they are entirely right and right nobly are they addressing them selves to their task. But there is one thing which. as it seems to me, thev overlook. That is, that if the great mass Of negroes are to be educated, they must be educated against their own will. If IS no reply to point to the fact that they are cage rto send their children to school and are clamorous for more school houses