The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-18

mometef, with which We could measure the mental capacity of the different per. sons who compose a race. and set down on blackboard the figures that repre- sent them at the different levels in which they would be shown, judge that the outlines of the diagram, that would re- suit, would assume the shape of . triangle. or of figure small at the top and widening out at the bottom. The ngufes representing the most capable very few would occupy the apex and in gradually increasing lengths would be the lines that represent the less and less capable. so that our diagram would widen out. because the lower lines would include the more numerous less capable. Each race would have its own peculiarly shaped triangle.
 While the triangular diagram, that would represent the negro race in Ameri- ca' might to some slight extent, be seen to have ben flattened at the ex- treme apex by the subjugatins efrects of slavery, all the rest of the lines would be found raised in their levels. and the result would be a general uplifting of the whole mass I,-
 very few men work disinterestedly for the good Of others. Missionaries are sacrce. Altruism between races is not yet fully developed. A whole race never exerts it toward another race. The southern whites were not better than other white men. As a race, they were not naturally born missionaries, still, even to put selfish motives on all their enorts towards the negroes, and hare selfishness was not by any means the rule. in the two centuries they held. them as slaves. through several generations which Is an impossibiy short time. nat uraily and usually, for any marked race improvement. artihcially they did more ana better missionary work than had ever before been done on the same numbers or that kind of material. The results could not have been accomplished as fast. or as well. in any other way. There mas never before been anything like 1t In history. The very discipline of slavery. even with It's instances of cruelty. which were the exceptions and not the rule. con tributed to bring the improvement about all the more rapidly.
 nave little patience with the cart expressions frequently heard, explaining the secondary and dilatory habits of the negroes in the South In the very large majority since their freedom, in their not recognizing and not helping in industrial, social and political efforts for the im- proVement or the section, as due to their previous condition of servitude. This S~SAA' hO thhPiy tItht InelT D2cK- wardness Is due to their ensavement. In my opinion, nothing in the iong length or their race evolution has ever happened that Improved them faster. The trouble is, the Job was but begun. Natural race growth Is harder and slower than that. Ihey were by no means brought to the level Of the Europeans. who had come 10 tneir grade through ages of hard effort. Lne negroes can not yet run European civilization at a European level.
 Tnere IS no doubt their average mental ny has been improved since they were brought to this country. Still. the lower level of their inherent intelligence vet prevails, and renders them an incubus upon the whole section they occupy. The same passive traits of character that mace the negroes slaves make them now aiaggfng burden upon the country. They are not dangerous enemies. nor. serious business competitors. they do not readily plot nor combine; their principal hurtfui- ness comes from their inertia.
 If there had never been any miscerc- nation or the races in the South things would have less dangerous aspect. The fuilblood negro Is not as a rule. a dan serous member of society. So far as the real negroes go, the talked-of separation or the races might be much more easily accomplished. There would probabl ha about as much active opposition on their part TO such a move as existed when they were brought to this country. They would still be found to be a massive lnoinerent sort of people. easily per- suaded and readily forced Into any meas ure The entire impractica bility of such scheme rests principally, SO far as the negroes are concerned, upon their greatly increased numbers and the absence of any direct pecuniary profit to the parties Wno would engage in the transportation. They could not make money by if. as they did in the first instance. Disfran- cnlsing them in one section and enfran- ch'sins them in another would not move any respectable number.
 A large number of negroes now nart,c. uiariy In the neighborhood of the towns nave In them grades of white admixture ana inherit traits from their white pro. senitors These. in much the larger mart are the educated ones. and constitute the unsettled. the unruly, the dissatisfied. the contentious. and opposing elements among them. They make the more dam gerous classes because, while there are grades Of excellence among them, they are too irregular in their hereditary com position to prove stable or reliable. They would not for these reasons be able to maintain stable European civilization. They would not be united or unselfish in their own movements. They would be contentious, and would fall apart Such people always prove such in an aprre-