The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-15
CLEVELAND CONTENT
WITH THE PROGRESS THE NEGRO
is MAKING.
BOOKER WASHINGTON'S WORK
is WARMLY COMMENDED BY THE
FORMER PRESIDENT.


Meeting Held in New York for
the Benefit of the Tuskegee
SchOOI-His Speech showed APP
probation of the Southern White
Mans Position and of the Difii-
cuIties Confronting Him.
New York April 14.-Former Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland was the princi-
pal speaker tonight at a meeting held
in the concert hall of Madison Square
Garden in the interests of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute.
Among those on the platform with
Mr. Cleveland were Mayor Low, who
presided; Booker t. Washington, Edgar
G. Murphy, DR.. Lyman Abbott, Presi-
dent Nicholas Murray Butler, and
Dean ]. VanAmringe of Columbia; w.
H. Baldwin, Chancellor McCracken of
New York University; John Dewitt
Warner and George f. Peabody. Mrs.
Cleveland sat in the gallery with Mr..
and Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, who are
Mr.. Clevelands hosts while he is in the
city.
Mr.. Cleveland, who was greeted with
prolonged applause as he was intro
duced by Mayor Low, said:
81 have come here tonight as a
sincere friend of the negro, and should
be very sorry to suppose that my good
and regular standing in such company
| needed support at this late day, either
| from certificate or confession OF
| faith.
"Inasmuch, however, as there may be
| differences of thought and sentiment
| among those who profess to be friends
of the negro, 1 desire to declare my
self as belonging to the Booker Wash
| ington-Tuskegee section of the organi-
| cation / believe that the days of Uncle
| Toms Cabin are past. l believe that
| neither the decree that made the
slave free, nor the. enactment that
suddenly invested them with the rights
of citizenship, any more purged them
of their racial and slavery-bred i'm
| projections and deficiencies than 1t
changed the color of their skin. be-
lieve that among the nearly 100000
| negroes who have been intermiXed with
our citizenship, there is still grevious
amount of ignorance, a sad amount of
Viciousness and a tremendous amount
of laziness and thriftlessness.
81 believe that these conditions in
eXorably present to the white people
virenment and under the mandate of
good citizenship, a problem which
neither enlightened self-interest nor
the higher motive of human sympathy
viii permit them to put aside.
South Entitled to Sympathy.
81 believe our fellow countrymen in
the Southern and late slave holding
states, surrounded by about nine
tenths, or nearly 100000 of this en-
tire negro population, and who regard
their material prosperity, their peace
and even the safety of their civiliza-
ton, interviewer with the negro prob
lem, are entitled to our utmost consid-
Grafton and sympathy and fellowship.
l am thoroughly convinced that the
efforts of Booker Washington and the
methods of Tuskegee Institute point
the way to a safe and beneficent solu-
ton OF the vexatious negro problem
at the South, and ] know that the good
people at the North, who have aided
these efforts and methods, have illus
trated the highest and best citizenship
and the most Christian and enlighted-
ed philanthropism.
81 cannot. however, keep out of my
mind tonight the thought that after
all we of the North may do, the real
ization of our hopes for the negro
must, after all, mainly depend, except
so far as it rests with the negroes
Reconsideration the sentiment and
conduct of the leading and RESPONSE
BILE white men of the South, and upon
the maintenance of kindly and help
full feeling on their part towards those
in their midst who so much need their
aid and encouragement
81 need waste no time in detailing
the evidence that this aid and encour-
agement has thus far been generously
forthcoming. Schools for the education
of negro children and institutions for
their industrial training are scattered
all over the South and are literally
assisted by the Southern public and
private funds. SO far as I am in
formed the sentiment in favor of the
largest extension and broadcast in
fluence of Tuskegee Institute and kim
derd agencies is universal, and 1 be-
lieve that without exception the ne
groes who fit. themselves for useful &C.
equations and service find willing and
cheerful patronage and employment
among their white neighbors.
Faith in Southern Whites.
st do not know how it may be with
other Northern friends of the negro.
but I have faith an the honor and sin
certify of the respectable white people
of the South in their relations with
the negro and his improvement and
well being. They do not believe in the
social equality of the race and they
make no false pretense in regard to it.
That this does not grow out of hatred
of the negro Is very plain. 1t seems to
me that there is abundant sentiment
and abundant behavior among the
Southern whites towards the negro.
to make us doubt the justice of charg-
ing this denial of social equality to
prejudice, as we usually understand
the word. Perhaps it is born out of
something so much deeper and more
imperious than prejudice as to amount
TO a racial instinct. Whatever It is,
let us remember that it has condoned
the negro's share in the humiliation
and spoilation of the white men of the
south during the saturnalia of Recon-
struction days and has allowed a kind
ly feeling for the negro to survive the
time when the South was deluged by
a perilous flood of indiscriminate, un-
intelligent and blighting negro suf-
frage. Whatever 1t Is, let us try to be
tolerant and considerable of the feel
ings and even prejudiced racial in
stinct of our white fellow countrymen
of the South, who in the solution of
the negro problem must, amid their
own surroundings, bear the heat of
the day and stagger under the weight
Of the white mans burden
"There are, however, other considera-
tons relating to this feature Of the ne