Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-17
THE MuLATTo QUESTION.

|nulatto as a separate and distinct Is
lsue. Mr. Stone who is a member of the
Icommittee appointed by the American
Economic Society to investigate tbs
conditions of the negroes of the unitec
Estates charges the mulattoes with In
letting the naturally "docile, tractable
and unambitious" full blacks to deeds
Iof violence and revolt against exist
ling conditions. He points out that the
Headers and prominent men of the ne
gro race are half white and that its
achievements have been accomplished
by mulattoes instead of negroes, and
linferentially argues that the white
blood is res ponsible for tie intellectual
las well as the vicious tendencies of this
iciass. While representative mulattoes
are striving for the hetterment of the
icolored people, other halfbreeds are
stirring up sedition and opposition to
the ruling class.
Mr.. Stones article is In line with the
Gated mulatto usually hates the white
race which socially denies him and de-
spises the blacks as beneath him. In a
conversation some months ago an edu-
Gated mulatto, graduate of Fish Uni
versity and man OF more than ordi :
nary intellectual force and attainment,
| tributed to his class by Mr.. Stone. He
plainly avowed his hatred toward his
fathers race. of which the meanest and
most ignorant might refuse to set at
| table with him or recognize his edu-
Gated and refined wife. who is almost
white, as a social equal. The blacks of
his own race he pitied and despised and
these, he asserted, are the sentiments
of nearly every mulatto who has brains
/ and education. He understood the
power of the brainy mulatto in infiu-
encing his duller and illiterate forbear
in the south kindled by the class ac-
cused by Mr.. Stone. This man Is
member of church and leads an up
right, Christian life, but the bitterness
in his soul against his position politi
cally and socially overcame his pru-
dence and he told the truth. He would
be the last man to light the torch of In
surrecton. but there are others of his
class with his ability and without his
moral fiber.
The negro. like the white man, says
Mr.. Stone, responds more readily TO
bad influences than to good, and the
example and precepts of hundred men
like Washington and Du Bots may be
easily counteracted by the advice and
influence of men of whom the mulatto
type unfortunately furnishes too many
examples. Booker Washington may IN
all sincerity preach the gospel of labor;
he may teach his people, as a funda-
mental lesson. the cultivation of the
friendship and esteem of the white
man; he may point out the truth that
for the negro the privilege of earning
a dollar is Of much greater Importance
than that of spending 1t at the white
mans theater or hotel; yet all these
lessons must fail Of their fullest and
best results so long as the negro's mind
lis being constantly poisoned with the
radical teachings and destructive doc
trine of the mulatto of the other school.
Speaking of the influence of those
mulattoes who are honestly doing their
best for the uplifting of their race he
says:
THE varied tragedy Of human life
furnishes few more pathetic spectacles
than that of the educated mulatto who
lis honestly seeking the welfare OF
race with which baleful commingling
of blood has inexorably identified him,
who is striving to uplift to his own
level people between whose ideals and
ambitions and capabilities and his own
a great gulf has been fixed by natures
laws. Frequently inheriting from the
superior race talents and aspirations
the full play of which Is denied him by
his kinship to the inferior-thru no
fault of his own he is doomed to be an
anachronism in American political and
social life. A general mind should not
too weepingly condemn his occasional
outbursts of bitterness, but rather Won
der that they are not more frequent
their numbers diminish or increase, and
their great influence be potential for
good for evil will the problem of
the future become the problem of
the color-line. But that of the pres
ent, whatever 1t may be adjudged to
be. is still the problem of the negro.
While it so remains, let US treat 1t as
such, by considering 1t IN It's simplest
terms; and in seeking the real good of
the real negro let us invoke the aid
of the best and wisest of that class
with which he has so long. and to SO
little purpose, been confused"
-------------------
Excursion to ST. Pau; and Minneap sIis
Via Chicago Great Western.
Saturday, July 25th. 1903 three
dollars for the round trip. Spec