The colored American., 1903-06-20
Mr. ParkhurSt
Answered.
The Tide of immigration a Dangerous
Foe to American Institutions-Got
am Notes.

New York, N Y, Special.-In the
vexatious discussion of the Negro
problem which is heard everywhere,
it is refreshing to read from the pen
of a black man, warning to Ameri-
can citizens against an issue which
promises to assume infinitely more
perpleXing, if not dangerous proper
tions. than the color question; and
that is. the flood of immi grafton that
is sweeping over the country. With
the records showing the incoming of
nearly 100000 foreigners to these
shores every month, the saying that
America is the dumping ground of the
worlds refuse changes from a mere
by-word as it were, to a serious con-
Sideration. Mr.. CaSwell G. Henderson,
one of the best known colOred Repub-
hcans in the county of New York, and
a man who occupies a substantial po-
Sition in the community, in speaking
of this, and also in answer to the Rev
DR.. ParkhurSt on the Negro question,
says:
1T is really too bad that the Rev.
DR.. Parkhurst does not desire to take
up his residence in the Southland.
Methinks he would be made governor
or mayor of some populous State or
city, as reward for his learned dis
sertation on the colored man, whom he
styles niger That word ''nigger,
by the way. stands in the same sort of
i'll repute that Mick 'Ginney,' 'Shee-
n.y. etc. occupy as terms of derisiOn
and contempt applied to individuals
of certain races. 1t must be that the
reverend doctor went in poor company
in the Southland to have added to his
vocabulary a word that is pure slang,
under whatever authority one may
seek for it. He gives as one excuse
that the colored man himself uses the
term. In doing this he acknowledges
that the colOred race is an authority
for the word of such fitness and stand
ing that it is recognized by him. This
being so, it is only a step for the doc
tor TO resume the fitness of the col
ored men in other directions. =
Il had always expected better things
of him; for | believe that his profes-
sion teaches the universal brotherhood
of man and the fatherhood of God.
Can it be that he is receding from the
best dictates of his heart and con-
science, or is he losing the courage of
his convictions? Emphatically, if God
teaches universal brotherhood, asSimi-
lation of an intimate kind is not only
suggested. but required. Further
more. before DR.. Parkhurst gave his
expert ouinion on the unfitness OF
should first have considered the un-
fitness of the foreign immigrants who
swarm to this country to the number
of 63S, Ola yearly, a large number OF
whom are recognized by every intelli
gent person as the very scum of al
Europe. Let me say most earnestly
that there is the problem of this coun
try. a problem that will shake into
nothingneSS the so-called Negro prob
lem In the former problem you viii
find the origin of strikes, labor trou
bles, mismanagement in State and
city government, bribery, corruption
dynamite plots, riots, and-but it is
unnecessary 10 add more to prove the
unfitness of a large mass of the immi
grants for citizenship, assimilation
and AmericaniZation. :" Tht
basal fact of the Negro problem i:
prejudice. which is as unreasonable a:
il is difficult to understand. Wipe tha
out and you have no problem. The
ideal American who cOntended fol
principle and right before the Revo
luton and for justice and opportu
nity for all in the civil war, has al
most passed away. The present type
and ideal is much inferior. Let US 81
back to the old standards that laid