The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-15

saSSN HI HIS A6tOAs Uy RCcRiC Wksg AA1<~f >AsS hoped that the new generations coming
 up would have better and truer members of society. The negro cannot complain of the justice and toleration of the North ern people. But the citizenship of the North is just like the citizenship of the South when a true insight into the black mans character is obtained. and an in- tense feeling against a race as that shown against the negro by the Northern white man who goes South and there abides for a few months. In every portion of the North the writer has met and talked with men who have resided in the South, and they were generally Republicans be- fore they went into the Southland. In every instance there is 6 feeling shown and expressed against the negro stronger than was ever found in the heart of the average Southerner who has dwelt for generations facing the conditions which so quickly become unbearabie to the Northerner. He has seen some bad ne- groes in the North, but a visit to the South became a liberal education on the race question.
 A great many Northern men are ready to say to their Southern brothers now that they are content with the lesson al-
 ready learned. and that if the South will
 take back the negroes and keep them down there no requests will be made for c return. If 1t did not already promise
 tempted to say that 'the joke is on us." Mixed Public Schools.
 Educationally, the Chicago negro has though IA per cent. of the illiteracy of the negro voters of the entire State is found here The schools are mixed. and
 there are a number of negro teachers. Side by side the white children and the
 black go through the different grades of school work, and the teacher Is required to show no partiality. There are now more than 46.0O0 negroes in Chicago and
 until some leader of men, possessing cour-
 age and stamina and a disregard for tenn
 porary political expediency, takes the in- itiative, there will be no change from the
 present conditions.
 Most of the trouble in the schools grows
 out of the mixed conditions, and the
 blacks are generally promoters of discord. In all of the schools the old, old story is retold. In the primary work the negro pupil progresses, and in the higher work they lag and most Of them drop out. Some graduate. and few even look to- ward a higher education. but there is no place in the North for the negro college graduate to find use for that higher edu- cation except in a few instances. In cler- ical work they are not only not employed, but they are not wanted. In the profess sions they generally ea<e out a precartous existence. mingled almost entirely with their race. Among all of the dental grad uates traced by the writer thus far only one has reached beyond the most ordinary degree of knowledge and skill, and the rest fall so far short of requirements that they are merely pitiable examples of mis- spent effort. In pharmacy two of the Chicago negroes have found abiding places. one of them perhaps being per manent.
 The negroes here find their ways to places as porters, janitors, cooks, coach- men and other like means of livelihood. and even as coachmen they are giving way to the increasing employment of the white hostlers because of the latter's more merciful and conscientious treat ment of horses. The negro barber is rap idly becoming thing of the past. and the old shops. where black faces shone in years gone by, have changed the order of things and taken on Lne white barber. a change which has generally been vol comed by the patron Of the North.
 Thus the black high school graduate emerges from his classes with no position in sight better than that of his unedu- cated fellow, and he soon takes his place a discontented worker among the menial classes in the city, feeling that he aas been pursuing a shadow instead of the substance. and that his years spent in pursuit of knowledge have really brought him nothing
 This condition is well worth thinking about when 1t Is recalled that most of the negroes in prison are more or less nd1 lad nF kIz,,a I,.o pretentious schools. There are thirty ne- gro lawyers here and more than that many doctors. The usual complement of negro ministers of the Gospel may be also found within the city limits
 Neglects Manual Training.
 In the English high and manual train ing school here among the hundreds of students there is not a single negro to be found, though the doors are opened wide for the black pupil In the history of this school there has been but one ne- gro graduate, and he found a market for his ability in the South. No school in the North has sought his services and he made his way back into the land from which his people came and found the avenue to life he vainly sought in the North.
 The negro student in this remarkably we'll regulated school has failed to inn press his aptitude for the work upon any body. though several of them have tried with all their might to master the work set before them, failing again and again in their examinations and coming back to try once more. only to finally yield to the inevitable and drift out among the porters and the janftors. One young fel- low kept at it with patience. Like nearly all of the negroes in this particular school he progressed well in the first and second year, though all their work is generally and indifferent The usual fail ure came in the third year work. He tried 1t repeatedly with the same sorrowful re- suit. He asked for another chance and 1t was given. Finally he was told that he was wasting his time; that he was 2 years old and should go to work and assist the family to make a living. He in few days and said to those at the school: Pm not going to work. I'm going to be lawyer"
 The negro in Chicago looks upon an as merely a pathway to a pro- fession. In other walks of life the time passed in gathering learning is thrown away, the negro fails.
 The master builders and the bricklayers' unions of Chicago have an agreement that all hricklayers' apprentices must attend school during certain months of the year If they fail penalties are invoked. The | rule Is strictly observed. Though brick | laying is the occupation of many negroes, | there Is not bricklayers' negro appren- lce attending the schools. When study | Is required the negro youth who is ambi- | hous to use mortar and trowel gives up |