The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1903-08-13
WORK FOR NEGROES.
New York Man Thinks Labor Solution
of Race Problem.


at close range in Maryland. Writing
from Easton to the Brooklyn Eagle,
Or. Mcconnell suggests that the most
practical solution of the race prob
lem is work for the negro. If he will
not work he must be made to toll
In fine, compulsory labor, according
to this New York student OF the race
question, is the only solution of the
problem.
Dr. Mcconnell makes plausible
and even an impressive argument in
support of his theory. Some of his
Northern friends, who do not know
the negro as well as the New York
clergyman does, will doubtless
be shocked at the suggestion that
the colored brother should be made
the victim of a system of enforced
labor. DR.. Mcconnell, as if in antici-
patton of their objections, recalls the
fact that in "good old Colonial days"
there was an institution in New Eng
land known as the apprentice sys-
tenn. 1t applied not only to children
who had no protectors, but to shift
less men and women. If the latter
were inclined to live by their wits or
by the sweat of somebody else's
brow, the town authorities appren-
ticed them to persons who would
make them work and, in return for
their labor, would care for them.
Some such system as this, with fair
scale of wages, should, in DR.. McCon-
nell's opinion, be put in opera
ton in the case of those Afro-Ameri-
can citizens who regard honest toll
with disfavOr. That the good Doc
tor feels very strongly on this sub
ject is made plain by the follow
ing extract from his letter from Eas-
ton:
"Within sight as | sit here are the
cabins of dozens of negroes. 1t is
harvest. The farmers are unable to
secure laborers to save their grain.
The rOadmaster cannot get men to
repair the highways. The house
keeper can get no helpin her kitchen.
They are all ready and anxious to
pay for the labor they need. Here,
also, are idle cOlored men and women
sitting about the doors of their
cabins, or lying in the sun. Next
winter, as last, they will be begging
and pilfering Why should not "a
truant officer for grown children have
thepower to send this stalwart young
negro whom l see sauntering about
to Mr.. Blank, who wants man in
the wheat field, fix the terms oflabor
and payment and see to it that they
are kept? Why should he not send
this strapping colored girl to work
in Mrs. Blanks kitchen upon the
terms that she be paid a certain
wage which he shall fi4 and that she
be taught to cook?"
1t is to be feared that DR.. McCon-
nell wants the colored brother to
take a view of life altogether too
gloomy and serious for the African s
sunny and care-free spirit. The lilies
of the field toll not and neither do
they spin, yet they manage to get
along quite comfortably. Why should
heavy burdens be imposed upon the
brother in black; why should he be
compelled to dig and plow, cut wood
and carry water, when his soul
rebels against such fatiguing occhpa-
tions? Why should Afro-American
women be forced to cook and launder
and do house-cleaning if they have
no inclination for such menia1 tasks,
if their proud spirits yearn for more
aesthetic and ennobling employment,
or if, as is not seldom the case, they
prefer to spend their lives in elegant
idleness? 1t may be true, as Dr. Nc
COnnell suggests, that if these spoiled
children of Ham do not work they
will "pilfer and beg and will crowd
the jails and alms-houses. Still, there
are thousands of people in DIR. Nc
Connelfs latitude who believe it is
the negro's inalienable right to do as
he pleases, to enjoy life and liberty
and to pursue happiness, even if his
mode of living lands him in prison or
makes him an inmate of the aims.
house. A great cry of horror would
be heard throughout New England il
any attempt should be made under
color OF the law to compel him to
perform disagreeable tasks, to earn
his bread by the sweat of his own
brow and not by invading the meat
house or the granary of white people
not too proud or too lazy to work
The white man must bear his burden
and not presume to interfere with the
colored mans divine right of shirk.
ing labor If it is distastefnl to
him.
i Our esteemed contemporary, the
Brooklyn Eagle. thinks very highly
OF Dr. McCOnnell's suggestion '.The
negroes" it says, "need to be made
to work, and the whites need the ne
grOes to do that share Of work which
they should be made to do" The
Eagle takes a cruelty practical view
OF the subject 1t has no regard at
all for the feelings of its sable breth.
rem who prefer to lead a butterfly
existence. 1t believes in the doctrine
of utility, whereas the colored man
who regards toll with aversion has
no faith in any doctrine which would
impose the burden of labor upon him
and compel him to exercise his mus
cles when his soul Graves repose
There seems TO be a conspiracy
against the peace and dignity o
black men and women who desire tC
live in ease at the expense of com
monplace white people who work fol
a living. If this conspiracy. which
has now extended to New York. i:
not nipped in the bud, the time may
, come when the oppressed coloret
brothers right to lead a toiliess life
to be a vagabond all his days, vii
no longer be respected, and wher
such cruel suggestions as those offer
ed by DR.. Mcconnell will be seriousl,
considered. Those who believe in th'
, gospel Of laziness and shiftlessnesi
should administer a stern rebuke tt
IL N@-l~ l..