The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-05-19
racH SECTION MUST SETTLE ITS
OWN PECULIAR PROBLEMS.

The most important utterance OF tue
past week in America was made by MI
Robert W. De Forest. of New York, pres'-
dent of the National Conference OF Chari-
t;es and Corrections in sessions at At
Ianta. That conference is one'of the most
annual meetings that Is held III
this country. 1t is attended by men OF ne
highest standing. widest knowledge. ana
broadest sympathy. The addresses are
valuable from every point OF view and IL
-structive as well as interesting Inc
president OF that conference, q New YORK
er-(by the way, New Workers seem TO
be given to saying what they think more
than men in any other State IN the
Union)-gave expression 10 some wise ahd
sensible statements that ought 10 be read
in every portion of the country. We
quote:
THE frank declaration repeated so Of
ten by Northern men in the Southern Ed
ucational Conference just held at Rich
mond that the negro problem Is essential
ly a Southern problem and must be solved
by the Southern people simply recognizes
a truth of far wider application.
The white mans burden Is different
in different environments, and not only
must those who do the lifting OF the
weight be those who stand next to 1t, but
those who stand next to it must be the
ones to decide how to carry 1t. Their
~neighbors, who usually have troubles o.
their own, though of a different kind, can
best aid by manfully bearing that other
part of the common burden which Is near
est to them.
4 come from New York, the city OF the
tenements, where people are so crowded
together that frequently twenty-four farm
lies are living on a lot no larger than %
feet by LOG; where there are men, women,
and children living in over $50, 900 darl;
rooms which have no more hight or VENT
lation than can sift into them through two
other rooms that separate them from the
outer.
ITO meet such conditions Is our part,
and one of our several parts, of this white
mans burden When l look out of tn"
windows of the train that brings me to
Atlanta, that metropolis of the new in
dustrial South, and see, as | pass through
Southern States, the rows of neat sep
arate cottages in which the working poo
pie of your factories are to be housed. l
envy you your immunity from this spe-
cial problem.
"The conditions of tenement life N
Northern cities have quite as much claim
on your sympathles as your negro condi-
lions have on ours, and may call as loud
ly for friendly advice, and do concern you
as closely politically, but could you, who
do not stand next to this weight and have
lad no experience In handling it, wisely
dictate, to us how to lift it?
"Just SO our Pacific States have had
their racial problems. We of the North
and South know of the Chinaman chiefly
as a patient laundryman, and when we
sec him toiling increasingly, even in the
late hours of the night, when toll to 9TH
ers has ceased, we are apt to think of
him only as a useful addition to our in
sufficient labOring class.
His proposed exclusion from the United
States came as a distinct shock, not only
to our sentimental conception of America
as a refuge for the weak and oppressed OF
all nations, but to- our practical desire L.
increase our resources OF labor. But we
soonfrealized that the Chinese burden rest
ed or our Pacific slope, and we acqulesced
Loyalty in their method of handling it.
Therefore, I am sure that / cannot
better voice the attitude of the Northern
members of this conference toward your
special burden-the negro p~roblem-than
to quote the words uttered only a few
weeks ago in New York by our honored
ex-President, Grover Cleveland"
He quoted from the recent address of
Mr.. Cleveland on the negro question.