The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-21

had more of the freaks.-Rev. S. c.
Smith. a.
1T is of no matter TO this country at
large that few black men are killed
and dismembered, but the brutalization
of the mob is what we cannot stand"
said Rev. S. G. Smith last night in the
course of his evening sermon, the sub
ject of which was: Must the Black
Man Coz"
In introducing his discourse, DR..
Smith said he would discuss the ques-
ton not from a Northern or Southern
or white or a negro point of view,
but from a standpoint achieved by
years of scientific study of the prob
lem which he believed to be the most
difficult which now confronts the
American people.
He compared the negro as he was
found on the west coast Of Africa,
without law other than custom, with
out political order beyond the tribal
association under chiefs, and without
order of family life even of polygamy,
with the American negro as he was at
the close of the Civil war.
Reviewing from this comparison
what slavery had done for the black
man, he said that it had welded the
colOred people of America into an or
der which, although an order of sla-
very, was superior to anything they
had known on the other continent.
Only the young and strong and the
physically sound were brought to this
country as slaves, Mr.. Smith said, and
hence the four and half millions who
were here at the close of the war were
the best body of block people on earth.
In slavery they had been improved
by being taught and cared for, and
enlightened to at least some extent in
the Christian religion, while in their
own country they had never had any
religion.
Slavery Advanced Negro.
Slavery" he said, left, the black
man immeasurably advanced, although
1t deprived him of any initiative he
may have had as barbarian"
Mr.. Smith briefly reviewed the Civil
war and it's cost in lives and money,
which he said was a tremendous price
to pay for the conquest of any idea,
and tremendous price for this nation
to pay for the freedom of the black
man.
Mr. Smith said that he had thought,
as boy, when negro suffrage was first
proposed, and he still thought as a
man, that universal negro suffrage was
one of the greatest mistakes of the
nation. He believed 1T to be a great
detriment to the white man and a great
detriment to the black man.
In spite of the 100000, 900 of proper
ty in the South owned by negroes he
declared that, ethically, the negro had
not been a success. The negroes OF
the South showed only the lowest form
of civilization, and those districts in
Northern cities which were given over
to negro population were the lowest
quarters of those cities.
He quoted statistics to show that
among the negroes the death rate is
much higher than among the white
population, and the percentage Of crime
greater. He contended that the negro
in America is retrograding and that If
the conditions that have been accentu-
ating themselves more and more for
the past thirty years are permitted to
continue, there will be, in fifty years
more, only a degenerate race fostering
in a dozen or more cities.
AS to the solution of the problem DR..
Smith said that the colonization plan
had been shown to be impracticable
and that the question could not be
settled by either home or foreign colo
nization.
Must Educate or Kill Them.
"The problem he said. "is ours and
brought the negroes here and we must
determine whether we will educate or
kill them. Lynch law, as it is called,
is an attack on all government and
contrary to all law. Even the barbaric
law of vengeance which preceded all
written law, limited vengeance to the
relatives of the man who had been in
jured. If crime has been committed
kill the man if need be; MAIN him If
need be, but do it according to law,
and administer the same punishment
to white and black alike 1t is of no
matter to this country at large that
few black men are killed and dismem-
bered, but the brufalization of the
mob, which is engaged IN such an out
rage, is what we cannot stand
Mr.. Smith argued that crime, as an
element among the negroes, WAS not
So much a result of slavery as of free
dem under conditions, in which the
white man did not understand his re-
sponsibility. He believed that if the
blanck man is to be redeemed from his
present state, it must be by education
Of the negro children, and that educa-
ton must be more than school inStruc-
tion. The negro children must be placed
under sanitary conditions and in prop
er moral and social surroundings and
taught to work. Money must be sent
11OIn sIU6 NOTlD III Ill1llOffS. OI QOlidTS
to accomplish this object
Mr. Smith declared that the Amer
lean people must not expect the negro
to accomplish in one or two genera
tions what had taken the white people
1000 years to do. A people could not
become great in one lifetime or two
lifetimes. and probably it would be
thousands of years before the present
problem would be satisfactorily worked
out.
Calls Booker T. Washington Freak.
He said that Booker I. Washington
should not be taken as an example of
the negro race, for he was anthropo-
logically a freak. He had been in
formed that Booker Washington was
part negro, part white and part indian,
and Intellectually he had proved him
self to be a freak. It would be well if
the country had more of those freaks.
but still it remained a fact that Wash