The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-04-01
the NEGRO IN The SOUTH.
Walter Page Predicts an Ultimate
L.owIand Black Belt.

EUWidNU DldCN OOsIs
Two negroes sat down at dinner last
, night in a company that included
several prominent Southerners of this
city. The dinner was one Of the
monthly affairs of the Unitarian Club
at the Hotel st. Denis. OF the three
speakers Two were Southerners-Wal-
ter Fl. Page, editor and publisher,
and George Cary Eggleston, author.
Among those present was DR.. Jas. h.
Parker long a prominent member OF
the New York Southern Society.
There we're q few Southern women.
The negroes present we're William
E. Benson, teacher of Alabama,
and another colored educator, MI.
Brown, who left early, before the
speech making began.
Mr.. Eggleston, who spoke first, dis
cussed "The South AS 1t Was. !"
President w. b. Baldwin, Jr, OF the
Long Island Railroad Company, fol-
lowed with ssThe South AS It Is. !"
Mr. PAGE talked about 9 The South
AS It Is to Be- Both Mr.. BALDWIN
and Mr.. Page are members OF the
educational boards now engaged IN
Southern work under the leadership
of Robert G. Ogden.
ssDon't give the negro that sort OF
high education which makes him
aspire and dream of great things, but
gives him no power to do anything
practical after he has acquired it.
This was the keynote of Mr.. Baldwin's
talk. He declared that the South saw
greater growth In the last year than IN
all the thirty-fve preceding years. The
psychological moment for section
having SO per cent native born Amerl-
can population, he said had arrived,
and the last twelve month had witness
ed the beginning of a great education
al era.
ssThe question to be solved in the
South today he continued, is con-
dition, not a theory. There isn't any
theory about it. 'Tis as inconsistent
q condition as ever existed, but it's
mono the less real. Itwas brought
about by the past. There is no reason
for Us to discuss it or to criticse it
Theoretically. It faces Us and it must
be faced.
ssFor the mass Mr.. Baldwin de-
clared, "there should be Industrial
education, with higher training for
the one. in hundred who can use it.
Recently Mr.. Baldwin received from
a noted English educator the statement
that the educational methods now
started in the South we're just what
Great Britain must adopt to upllft her
unlearned people in far-awaY colonies.
Then he cot letter from London
asking him if Booker 7. Washington
could be employed at any price to go
to South Africa to study conditions
among the blacks there, with the view
Of reporting to British educators as to
methods that ought to be employed IN
educating the Africans.
Less than year ago, he continued,
four students Of Washington's Tus-
keeee School passed through here on
their way to West Africa, whittier
they had been called by the German
Government. They stopped at Mr.
BaIdWin's house on their way. When
one of them returned he gave the
railroad president pair OF common
cotton stockings, which now hang IN
the latter's home. These stockings
were made by the African negroes at
ter they had been taught, and the re-
turning teacher was asked what man
ner of men were the blacks out there.
s'Ihey are just like the rest OF us IN
Alabama, replied the Tuskegee
graduate. "All they need is teaching" !"
"The problem is the South s, - said
the speaker. "The difficulties and the
negroes are there. The South must
solve the question not the North. But
if we do not give our aid we must be
held responsible for our remIssness.
Free education is gaining. A little
while ago politicians in the South
we're afraid to speak it, but now four
State Governors are running on free
education platforms. This is the most
remarkable sign of advance that has
been seen since the civil war. "
Mr.. Page recalled much-heralded
theory that the negroes eventually
would all leave the South. He pro-
dicted that they would never leave.
The black population Of Alabama had
long been as great as that OF all the
original free States combined, and 1t
was still growing. In Wna6 nao oeen
known as black belts the color had
become blacker. The ultimate black
belt would begin in the wn-country
counties of Virginia and extend near
the coast down to the Gulf. In one
hundred years, Mr.. Page calculated,
all this strip would be habited by ne,
groes. On the other hand, figures had
shown that the whites we're gaining in
the uplands, and it was reasonable to
presume that they would be alone there
in due time.
Mr.. Page said there were more black
illiterates now than in 1865, when all
the blacks were illiterate. Education
had not been able to keep pace with
the growth of the race, nor could it
keep pace for hundreds of years to
come.
"And what is going to be the politics
of the South in future?" he asked.