The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-21
1Trs1ETonarrD coETEH-
 rnnAnY :.

we mean:
 Now. we understand perfectly the un- reasoning feeling-race instinct. is the
 m ne nss sosh fos dreas Ss rise S the negro. It is compiex sentiment. what is called social equality and, second vivtd memory of ,t the ,,,s exesssss saa,s from the educated negro has the South least of all to fear in either of those heard of colored physicians or clergymen pushing themselves into white society where they are not wanted? In the city of Nashville. the lending dentist is q whit, peopis yet none os them hay. ever ,y equaiity'' in his case. Education makes
 men gentlemen. aud a gentrs,rsa ies presence Is offensive. Similarly. on the | political side: the reason why the negro | vote supported srrp s.-bay domination In the South was M that 1t was s r an ignorant ,r,,,a l the graduates Of Hampton and Tuskegee | and Fisk and Atlanta. bs thotsht capa- l ble of advocating a policy of spollation and terror. such ss affrisnted the south in the reconstruction period1 Yet IL Is exactly against these educated negroes that the feslins in the South Is now run ming highest.
 l The EoSt Ialis lnto tHe tTIoT eHdt AaVos l Northern people do. and some Southern men. who ought to know better. are trou- 1 bied with the same false conception. That error Is their belief. whicn Is so often expressed, that educating the negroes will make all of them good citizens. and that the South has nothing to fear from edu- cated negroes.
 This kind of argument sounds almost amusing to those of us whose memories go back to reconstruction days. It was the educated negroes in our conventions and Legislatures who did most to fasten | on us the damnable conditions which cursed Alabama while the radicals were in power. and the real people of the State were practically helpless. The uneducated negroes were simply tools in the hands of the educated ones and their white brethren. It was the seducated negroes,
 with the cunning and malice of the devil himself, who came near to making this good State of Alabama unfit for the hab-
 itation of civilized men and women. If the State had gone down in irretrievabie
 ruin the blame or the credit would have
 been largely due to the educated negroes | It is not true that education makes men gentlemen" as fixed fact, and people. It Is nat always true of the white
 race, as we ail know. Some of the best citizens, the purest men, the most thor ough gentlemen that our civilization ever knew were uneducated. Some of the most thorough williams the world ever saw were educated men. Education does not make & gentleman nor the want of 1t make either a boor or a scoundrel A proper education does develop the good that is in one, makes him happier and more useful, but 1t is untrue to claim, in general terms, that it makes men gem
 tlemen.~
 And if this is true of the white race it is infinitely more so of the colored. Some of the most gentlemanly men we have ever seen were found among the
 eld-time slaves who had not the least fragment of education. Some of the
 greatest and most dangerous villains among the negroes are the educated ones.
 It was so in reconstruction days and
 it is so yet. It will always be 50. for edu- cation is not creative.
 Nothing we have said must be taken as
 an argument against educating negroes, ! for it is of them that we are mainly speaking. No one can truthfully say that
 the white people of Alabama. for exam pie, do not favor negro education. The
 money spent for that purpose is suffi-
 cient evidence on that subject, for nearly all that money comes from the white people. We want the negroes educated. It is ths one and only nope of making them better and more useful citizens. but the educating must be done along right lines. As we have before remarked. a purely academic education is not best for the negro or for the community in
 which he lives. The white people of this land will control in the professions, as
 they will control in rule and politics. That
 is beyond question. and to educate the negroes for doctors, ,awyers and the like
 is to lay up trouble.
 | The education that the negroes should
 have and the education that they must have to succeed in life is the kind that
 will make them better farmers. better
 mechanics and better men. They must
 be taught the dignity Of labor and in-
 structed in the way to make labor most
 useful and most profitable. They must be
 taught their duty as citizens, and, above all, they need to be Udus lted to know
 and feel that they must obey the laws
 of the State, of society and of morality
 and they must be made to understand
 that it is their duty to assist in enforc.
 ing the laws against their own race when
 necessary. The negroes need education
 and they should and must have 1t but
 no true friends of theirs or of society
 will advocate for them an education
 which will add to the number of the idle
 and vicious who are already a curse to
 some communities.
 Whether negroes like Dr. Crum and
 the others to whom The Post alludes would join in "a policy of spoliation and , terrorism" is a question more easily ask ed than answered. but we can assure that paper that We have no wish to see it tried. We tell The Post, reasoning from knowledge and experience. that If the col
 ored people should obtain absolute con. | fr0l of any Gtata