The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-02-17
CONNER SPEAKS
ON The SOUTH.
Tells of State of Feeling on
the Negro Question.
Whites are Unanimous in Their
Opposition 'sto the National
Constitution.

Opposition rat0 the National
Constitution.
Washington Feb. s14.-(SpeciaD-
The only problem in the south is the
negro problem remarked Judge !.
Conner, yesterday, speaking of his OBJ,
in the southland as result
of his trip to New Orleans and Atlanta.
Every other question is subordinate
to the race problem, in the last analy-
sis. OF course, politics enter more or
less into the daily life of prominent
classes aud the people have their views
as to social matters, religion, temper
ance, and industrial affairs, but the
dominant issue, always
with the people and the one of great
est interest is the negro question.
Judge Conner says there is no divi-
sion among the whites people of the
south upon the sproposition that the
negro should keep aloof from taking
hand in political affairs. AS long as
the colored man will give the ballot
box wide berth he has clear sailing.
When he undertakes to mingle with
the whites in the exercise of the rights
guaranteed to him in the constitution
he meets obstacles that. do not yield.
Furthermore they are; not likely to
yield in the opinion of Judge Conner.
Public sentiment among the whites
is all one way. The,.negro must be
made to keep his place'and in the opin-
ion of the southerners his place is out
of politics and on the farm. The mat.
er of theory does not enter into con-
emplation of.the question, at all. The
southern peopleisay they care nothing
about theory; with them it is condi-
ton: an ever present condition. In their
opinion this condition makes it a matter
OF the greatest Importance that the
negro should not be permitted to hold
any position that in any manner gives
him authority determination over the
whites
The people ,of the southldo not want
the colored man to leave them, they
have use forshim upon the farm, in the
! factory and in almost all avocations
where manual labor is required. In
these spheres Of activity he receives
good treatment at their hunds, in fact
| he is better treated in the south than
in Washington. The southerners haveA
no i'll will towars the negro, they say;
they simply insist that he must keep
his own placeswhich they declare to be
in the field of manual labor or as SER
want to do the bidding of the white
man.
Education is doing much for the
negro in the south but it is not solving
the race problem; on the contrary it is
complicating it. The higher the de-
gree of mental attainment acquired by
the negro the greater the desire to
come into possession of the privileges
guaranteed to him by the constitution.
AS he becomes educated and enligthen-
edshe becomes embued with desire to
vote and to participate in the affairs of
village. courtyard state government.
The greater the number of educated
negroes the greater the difficulty in
barring them firm asserting their
rights as American citizens and the
greater the effort and the more desper-
ate the means that must be employed
by the whites in circumventing them
| in their andaauOr
AS intimated, the white class, with
out regard to all other considerations:
politics, religion or social, is uni ted in
its determination that the colored man
shall not get d political foothold. Re-
publicans-and there are great mum
Der of white republicans in the south
while not SO outspoken or vehement
in their utterances, privately say that
this negro must be barred from politics:
that the conditions are such that the
white man must control affairs, politi-
cal and judicial andioflicial. Northern
ers OF the most rabid repu blican type
VINO make their homes in the south
very quickly come to take the view of
the race question held by the majority
says Judge Conner, and further these
northerners assert that self-protecton
makes no other attitude on the part of
the whites or northerners coming to
the south possible than that assumed
| by the white people,
On the other hand the negro makes
the claim that the constitution. which
the southerners heralds with great CHI.
thusiasm, confers upon him all the
rights vouchsafed to the white man,
with similar restrictions, He holds
that all other things being equal the
color of his skin should not bar him
from privileges freely accorded class\
no better equipped mentally than him
self to exercise all these privileges, in
Guiding participation according to law
in affairs political. AS he increases in
intelligence and numbers he presses
his claim and is met by increased ac-
tivity on the part of his sworn political
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