The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-16

state ana the Mayor Oh bnu CALy W0iV VA
the Same stage with him, he appealed
earnestly for race harmony and said that
whoever stirs up strife is an enemy OF
both races. He instanced the refusal
of Georgia to restrict the negroes edu-
cational advantages and the cam
paign against peonage in Alabama
as substantial indications OF the good
will of the Southern whites to the negroes.
Knowing that the negro could never
win in a fight with the superior race, he
would conciliate and cultivate peace
between the two races as necessary to
the material progress Of the blacks, on
which he bases his hopes He does not
encourage resistance to the disfran-
chisement Of the negroes, but would
have them let politics alone and go
ahead accommodating wealth as the first
necessity.
As DR.. BAssETT says, 4of all the ne
groes who have undertaken TO advise the
race President WASHINGTON is the one
who leans most to the white people, Yeti
is remarkable that @he has received more
criticism from the whites than any other
prominent negro" To DR.. BAssETr
this negro leaders persistence in incul-
eating friendly sentiments toward the
whites, in spite of such criticism, seems
a fine tribute to his character"
The tone of Prof DU Boss book, The
Souls of Black Folk, might be regarded
as peculiarly offensive to the white senti-
ment Of the South, but DR.. BAssErr
treats of it with complete judicial COM
posture. This Northern-bred negro cries
out against the discrimination under
which his race is compelled to rest; but, as
Dr. BAssETT says, it is the cry of man
who suffers rather than the reproach Of a
man who hates; it is plea for soul
opportunity, and it bears the evidence
that the author while he was writing
realized the hopelessness of it all" Prof.
DU Bols does not believe in BOOKER
WASHINGTON S gospel OF material wealth.
The soul, he says, is more than the body,
and the only hope for the negro is in the
higher life," in "the development Of
culture, the opportunity TO develop in
the truest way which is open to any other
citizen OF America.
Instead of denouncing all this as an
impudent plea for social equality" DR..
BAssETT says of it calmly, if there is
any force in the argument that the white
race should have higher education in
order to develop its own leaders, there is
the same force in a like argument as
applied to the negro race The negro,
he foresees, is going to have in the future
severer competition than he has had
in the past, and if he expects to stand the
strain he ought to use every moment
in putting himself in a self-supporting
and elf-directing condition under the
direction of "a large number Of wisely
taught leaders, men of great moral
weight and men Of broad character. If,
then proceeds DR.. BAssETT, higher
education will make such leaders-and
who can deny 1.-THE ought not for
day to think Of abandoning his higher
education"
nizes, do not comprehend the very
tcrminology of higher education" and
therefore . it may safely be said that
there will never go to the negro colleges
and universities enough students to les
sen materially the number of negro labor
ers": but the exceptional negro does
exist, and every day he is more frequently
encountered; for him the door of oppor-
tunity ought to be open" So far as
Prof. DU BoIs has succeeded in calling
attention TO the importance of this side
Of the problem his book has done good
in the estimation Of DR.. BAssETT.
We have made these quotations from
Or. BAssErr's paper simply to show
again the breadth Of view of this subject
which is taken by Southern men of educa-
ton, and how independent are their
minds Of the restraints Of merely race
prejudice. No man Of Harvard or Yale
could look at this question more literally
than does this North Carolina professor,
and, moreover, he speaks with the author
ity Of an actual knowledge the others
have not. This spirit DR.. BAssETT would
extend among educated Southern men,
SO that in the long run the plea Of BOOKER
WASHINGTON to his race for peace and
forbearance " may find willing response
in the ears Of few brave Southern people
who do not love the crude animalism Of
the passion-wrought masses.
In concluding his paper Dr. BAssETT
treats contemptuously the theory of
recent book entitled THE Negro
Beast "a theory propounded a few days
ago by one Of our correspondents. He
finds " it impossible to conceive of a
more stupid book" Putting over against
it the black mans book, The Souls of
Black Folk, he asks, as his final words,
can beast write book like the
latter?"