The leader., 1903-10-21

voting strength, and much less
in proportion to their voting.
strength in the party with which
they usually cast their votes.
Even where colored man holds
office in the North, it is a colored
man who has commended himself
to the white people of the COM
munity, because in no instance
is there colored majority in any
considerable territory in the
North.
It is different in the South.
In many>sections the black popu
lation outnumbers the white, and
if every male adult voted, the col
ored population could fill all the
Offices with negroes selected by
the colored population, regardless
of the opinions of the whites. 1t
is hardly fair for man who lives
where white supremacy is not
menaced, and who has never lived
or visited the black sections, to
state dogmatially what ought to
be done by the white people who
have lived under the reign Of the
carpet-bag Legislatures. The adj
ministration of government DUR
ing the reconstruction period just
after the war took on a sombre
hue that the people of the South
still remember, and they have
reason to dread a return to it..
The question which the white peo-
pie OF the South have to meet is
whether the white race, with its
more. advanced civilization and its
higher ideals, shall permit its pro-
gress to be turned backward by
the dominance of the black race.
This is the question which the
citizen of the North has never had
TO contemplate.
The Republican Office holdef
who is drawing a salary given to
him by colored voters is hardly in
position to set himself up as ali
impair tial Judge as to what should
be done by the people of the South
who live under the shadow of the
race problem. 1t is no reflection
upon the black man to say that he
| is behind the white man in pro-
gress. 1t would be miracle, in
deed, if in a period of forty years
the slave could become the intel
lectual equal of his former master.
For centuries the white race has
been toiling up the hill, and it has
not by any means reached the top,
However rapidly the black man
may have advanced, who is SO
blind as to say that the Caucasian
is not in front? This question
cannot be settled by comparing a
few individual cases; it must be
Judged by the masses. If the black
man was inhabiting this country
and a few white men without in
vitation and without necessity en-
tered his domain, attempted to
bring him into subsection and then
to exploit him, the case would be
different. That condition we have
now to meet in the Philippine
Islands, but not here. Here the
white man and the black man are
living together, and while they
live together one race must be
dominant. Lincoln expressed
what every white man, must fee
when he said that as the two races
could not live together on terms
of perfect equality, he was in
favor of the race to which he be.
longed "having the superior pc
sition.
/ Unless all arguments in favor
of civilization are without founda
ton, the superior race, if domi.
nant, would be more con
siderate toward the inferior race
than the in ferior race
would, if dominant, be toward the
superior race. A superior race
when dealing with an inferior lace
where it is restrained, first by its
conscience, and second by its view
of its own interests; it is
fair to assume that the superior
race will be more responsive t.
the dictates of conscience and viii
take broader view of its own in
terests, than an inferior race will
To make the application, the white
people of the South, if in contro
will be more apt to deal justly
with the blacks than the black
! would be, if in control, to dea
Justly with the whites. And TIN
whites, il in control will be NOR
amenable to public opinion ant
will take more comprehensive,
view of their own interests thai
the blacks would if in the sam
position. A people differ not s,
much in the possession Of a selfsl
spirit as they do in their breadth
: of view when they consider thei
own interests. The man VIII,
: steals is selfish, and yet the maj
who refrains from stealing take
better care of his own interest
than the man does who steals. /
the white people of the Soutl
J make laws that are unjust to tn
: blacks, the more intelligent black
will leave the South, and th
J whites of the South will suffer be
casue of the absence of a refnin.
and elevating element among tn
} blacks. The provision which th
white people Of the South have
at heavy expense, made for tn
education of the negro, shows tina
they realize that it is to their in
: / foroct tfa paico fbn ctayaropd on,