The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-10
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n ORGANIZATION EAILURE.
 The story Of the nine survivors of the party of afty-six Georgia negroes who went to Africa as pioneers in a cotton growing revolution is sad and suggest i've one. This little colony of pioneers was sent out partly through a mistaken philanthrophy and partly as an effort by certain interested parties to supercede the South as a cotton growing region. The philanthropists. with their mistaken views of racial conditions in the Southern which would prepare the way for a gem eral exodus to Africa. Those who were jealous of the souths importance. and its practical monopoly of the great cot ton industry, hoped to open up another home for the cotton plant and soon make the world independent of our Southland.
 Those who engineered or encouraged this plan knew they could have no hope of training the native Africans. They are naturally too lazy to work, and the abund- ance of vegetable food to be had Mith little other labor than the gathering and eating render them indifferent to effort or exertion of any kind. The only hope of getting competent labor was to procure from the Southern portion of the United States negroes who were accustomed to work in the cotton fields and who, it was thought, would be at home in tropical Africa. These .ifty-six negroes were in- tended as the advance guard of great ~x..Rxl ala x,l~a %tx1 Fra the South and build up a mighty cotton empire in Africa. And the movement had the active encouragement of some mis- guided Southern men who ought to have known better
 The result has been failure. As one ed this country. gaunt, hollow-eyed and ragged. eager to get back to the South again." It seems to be a matter of much surprise to many to find that our negroes were not healthy in the country of their ancestors. but there is nothing astonish- ing about it. It Is true that Africa is the original home of our colored people. but it is also true that centuries have passed since the bulk of them left their native land; centuries in which they have become accustomed to climatic conditions entirely different from those of Africa, and to modes of life which bear little re- semblance to those of their remote ances tors. It is not to be wondered at if these negroes, men, women and children, trans ported direct from Georgia to hottest Af- rica, should sicken and die almost as rapidly as Southern whites would have done under the same circumstances and conditions. It would have been surprising if it had been otherwise.
 Thus another jar is administered to the negro deportation fad Some very excel lent men in the South have allowed them selves to believe that the race question can be settled at once by sending the negroes to Africa and that it can be &C., complished in no other way. It is all mistake. There need be no friction in the South If the whites>of the South will pur- sue the proper course. Just and humane treatment will make the negroes content ed. If any of them desire to try their fortunes in some other region or country let them go. Many of them could well be spared. It would be we'll for the South if quite a number of colored people would find homes elsewhere, if they do so vol untarily, but deportation against their will is both impracticable and unjust. If numbers of them wish to emigrate they should be allowed to go in peace. If they prefer to remain here they should remain in peace and should be protected and treated with justice. They cannot go to tropical Africa without some preparation and hope to be contented and healthy, and there is no humanity in sending them there. There may be tropical regions, Tn Africa or elsewhere, where they could live and become profitable ,laborers, but there are other regions where they will die off just as white men do. There can not be. and should not be. anything like general deportation. It will not be best for them or for the South