The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-22

and he will work no more than enough to supply them, just because he is a negro All more than that-all laying up of store for a future that may never be lived, all labor for the moral or intellectual satis- faction of labor-is rejected by him. It is not that he is unable to work. With his sturdy physique. with his endurance of sun, with his strangeness of dyspepsia. to nerves" to every i'll, except rheu- matism and "age' he could and should be the most useful helper of the planter and farmer. In the North, where he Is un- auestionably influenced by his surround ings, he is, in exceptional cases, as faith ful and industrious a man as one shall find. But usually where he excels he has gained power of mind and habit of con- tinuity through schooling of the hand as well as of the head. When the black people were kept busy they were not a vicious race. They would not be that now had they not been demoralized by carpet baggers and the like. The common cause of lynching in the South is not chargea- ble to negroes as a body. It Is chargea- ble to the negro tramps-whom police in towns have driven out into country parts. That, however. Is a question apart from the question of lazineSs and shiftlessness, which is practicable of the uncontrolled negroes anywhere. And that is the sub ject with which Dr. Mcconnell deals.
 Work Is seldom done well unless 1t re- suits from habit formed at an impress sionable age. There are elderly negroes who will never be enthusiastic laborers, or large earners, but there is no req son why the younger generation should not be forced to toll for the good, not merely of the country, but of the col ored race itself, and to repay the whites who have "carried them" since enamel patton. This. the shallow might say, would be slavery over again. Not so; 1t would only be preparation for a free life, and is no more to be compared with in- voluntary servitude than is the school ing which must be undergone by the white child to fit him to be a citizen, self-supporting man and an endurable member of the human brotherhood Ap- premiership. as advocated by Dr McCon- nell, would widen the industrial powers of the negro It would or should change him from the creature of chance, wait ing time and disposition to labor. to a deft-handed, sure eyed. quick-minded ar- tisan; it would inculcate habits of clean living; his enforced constancy and econ omics would beget in him a habit of thrift: the wider touch with men and the world that comes of mechanic skill would develop him mentally, and with increased mentality would come that self restrain which Is his need
 But 1t was not our purpose here to do more than to refer to Dr McConnelrs strong statement, with a view to incit- ing readers to its natural perusal He deals fundamentally with a situation of great evil and deals with 1t not only as moralist but as a statesman He goes to the bottom of the subject. which he is considering, and he sets forth many pro- found thoughts, as well as suggests more Not only the needs of the negroes are considered by him but also the needs of the whites. The negroes need to be made to work and the whites need the negroes to do that share of work which they should be made do. The whites dd their share of the common work-and have also to carry the added burden of the work which the negroes shiTk. That Is unfair and the doctors exhibition Of the fact is most impressive.
 His remedy is the best one we have vet met. He Is very wise in what he says about the fact that the negro Is child. regardless of the question of years | Al the age of he Is child and at the age of 50, 60 and 70 he is also child, de- pendent. lazy shiftless and quite likely to show the faults of juvenile years crys- | talized into vices by time. Childhood with whites is measured by duration or years. The childhood of blacks Is life
 long The duty is to look. the fact Tn
 the face and to act accordingly