New-York tribune., 1903-05-22
A CAROLINA MULE DRIVER.

The Indianapolis chambermaid who refused
to take care of the hotel room occupied by that
educated refined gentlemanly and eminent ciu-
zen of Alabama, Booker T. Washington is re-
ceiving tribute from the sort of people whom
we should expect to admire that kind of sell
respect In the list of subscribers for her
benefit we should look to find the name of nena-
tor T. N. Simmons, who at the North Carolina
Society dinner on Wednesday night explained
that the whole duty of the negro to be
"harnessed to the mule It has been supposed
for years that part of the duty Of the negro
when the white man went off fighting to keep
the negro in slavery was to stay on the planta-
ton and protect the white women and children,
and we never heard of d single negro who was
false to that trust. Il was the duty of thou
sands Of negro women to be the tender ana
beloved nurses of the white children of the
South. 1t was the duty of negroes to be the
skilled workmen of the South to be the preach
ers of industry and morality to the ignorant
mass Of their fellows. But now their whole
duty is to be harnessed TO the mule. Senator
Simmons in his arrogant barbarism is like the
i'll fated prince of The White Ship" who swore
He'd yoke the peasant to his own plough.
Is that civilization? Is that a reasonable
attitude toward a race to deny it opportunity
and then blame it for its degraded condition?
Nobody asks social equality for the negro. All
bis conservative friends urge him to stay on
the plantations, not yoked to a mule like
dumb beast. as Senator Simmons would have
him. but living there. where conditions most
favor him. a self-reSpecting life Of intelligent
industry profitable to himself and to the whole
community. That is what Booker Washing
ton is trying to make him. If the negro is
~
poverty and ignorance a slave in everything
but name, and that apparently is what Senator
Simmons wants. Would the Senator also enjoy
being in the furrow behind the yokefellOws
with "blacksnake," whipping the mule and
the negro with strict impartiality? That is the
hope held out to the good negro by this
apostle of Southern civilization and missionary
in the cause Of letting the South. (which under
stands the negro" settle his future in his own
way. Credit is due to Senator Depew for
boarding such slave driver right fl the pres
ence Of his sympatbizers. His tribute TO Cen
| eral Armstrong and bis noted pupil, Booker
| Washington, was noble and inspiring The con-
! trast between the Simmons scheme OF making
serfs and the Washington scheme CT making
men-useful, Industrious modest self-respect-
! ing men-was one which shamed even the
| North Carolnians. They had applauded the
mule driver who wanted more beasts but in
turn they cheered Senator Depew and his pre-
scripton for the solution of the race problem
for the benefit of both whites and blacks
The Simmons prescription seems to spring
from a desire to keep the negro as degraded as
possible and hold him by terror from becom-
| ing dangerous criminal The Washington prac-
tice is to raise him up morally and industrially
so that he may have no temptation to crime
| but may however humble be worthy and re-