The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-12

service lately by discussing the Negro
problem in it's editorial columns. These
editorials are calm and judcious in their
tone. They represent the thought and
the convictions of our best people on
the subject which is of overshadowing
Importance to the future of this country.
The Times Democrat recently reprinted
an article contributed by Col. Robert
Bingham, of North Carolina, to the Eu
ropean edition of Harper's Monthly for
July, 1900. In this article Col. Bingham
discusses the criminality of the negroes,
and the conclusions he reaches are simp-
ly startling. These conclusions are clab-
orately supported by statistics taken
from the United States census. And
these statistics are entirely free from
the suspicion of race prejudice" for
they were collected by Professor Wilcox,
of Cornell University, a native of Massa-
chusetts and Or. Winston, president of
the North Carolina Agricultural and Me
chanical College. These are the conclu-
slons:
1. The negro element is much the most
criminal in our population.
2. The negro is much more criminal as
free man than he was as a slave.
2. The negro is increasing in criminality
with fearful rapidity, being one-third
more criminal in 1890 than in 1880.
4. The negroes who can read and write
are more criminal than the illiteratc,
which is true of no other element of our
population.
5. The negro is nearly three time sas
criminal in the Northeast, where he has
not been a slave for hundred years, and
three and half times as criminal in the
Northwest where he has never been "a
slave, than in the South, where he was a
slave until 1865.
6. The negro is three times as criminal
az the native white, and once and a half
times as criminal as the foreign white
consisting, in many cases, of the scum
of Europe.
Z. More than seven Ienths of the negro
criminals are under thirty years of age
The editor of the Times Democrat
says: These conclusions are sustained
by an article by Prof J. R. Stratton's
printed in the North American Review
for June, 1900. Professor Stratton points
out that, according to the census of 1890
the minimum illteracy of the negro is
found in New England, where it is 217-10
per cent; and the maximum illiteracy
of the negro is found in the so-called
black belt of South Carolina, Mississippi
and Alabama where it is 657-10 per cent
And yet the negro is four and half times
mere criminal in New England, hundred
for hundred of the population, than he
is In the black belt
The editor of the Times Democrat calls
these Conclusions little less than start
ling" He is right. Mark you, these are
not deductions of Southern prejudice
against the negro, but the sober results
of official statistics obtained by impartial
students of our social and chronological
problems. They force upon us certain
other conclusions.
1. In the light of these conclusions
the North is wrong in trying to deal
with the negro as a white man. l say
the North, because since 1865, for nearly
forty years now, the North has been MAD
aging the case, and tie negro we have
now is the product of the policy adopted
by the North. The North has made the
present negro. These statistics show
what he is. There Is a physical and NOR
al inferiority in the negro to the white
man that renders him incapable of the
same treatment Mr.. Lincoln saw this,
and frankly stated it. He said: Il am
not, nor ever have been, in favor OF
bringing about in any way the social md
political equality of the white and black
races. | am not, nor ever have been, in
favor of making voters or jurors of the
negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold
office, nor to intermarry with White peo-
pie. There is a physical difference be-
tween the white and black races which
will forever forbid the two races living
together on terms of political or social
equality. Inasmuch as they cannot so
live, while they do remain together there
must be the position of superior and in
ferior; and l, as much as any other man,
am in favor of having the superior posi-
tion assigned to the white race" These
are the words of a statesman and an
honest man, looking at the question from
the standpoint of government. Equally
strong are the words of another great Abb
oltionist Oliver Wendell Holmes said:
mo abstract principle of beneyolence
can reverse the great family instinct
that settles the question for us. The
Creator has hung out >the colors that
form the two rallying points so that they
shall be unmi stakable, eternal Nay,
there is hardly a single sense that does
not bear witness to the ineffaceable dis
tinction of blood. The white man must
be the master in effect, whatever he is
in name
The trouble with the race problem is
chiefly due to the attempt of the North
to contradict nature, and treat the ne
gro as a white man. He is not capable
OF such treatment. These statistics
prove it. / have just read a quotation
from the New York Independent in the
Manufacturers Record, in which the In
dependent, referring to the selection of a
successor TO DR.. Curry late agent of the
Slater Fund, said: LAS far as the Slater
Fund is concerned, it should be under
stood that there is not one kind of edu
cation 10 be provided for the white and
another for the black, but that the same
chance is TO be given to each, and ii is
not to be assumed that either is to be
permanently subject or dependent race.
Those words express the doctrine of the
North, and that doctrine is wrong a
heresy responsible for the sad results the
census indicates.
2. These conclusions prove that the