The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-23
The Negro Problem.

.
seems to be getting more acute Here
are a few phases of it within a few days:
negro law-breaker at New Orleans
refused to surrender to the authorities be-
cause, he said, he would be burned in
oil. So. revolver in hand, he rushed to
his death.
The Rev. Thomas B. Dixon, a, preacher
and lecturer of note, who has appeared
In almost every portion of the country,
and has Won some fame as author Of
novel dealing with the negro problem. pre-
dicted in Cleveland yesterday the coming
Of race war, 'the most terrible con-
H1ct the world has ever SEEM sort of
negro st. Bartholomew massacre, which
will result in sweeping the black race off
this. continent
Judge Augustus Van Wyck said at the
banquet of southerners in New York Sat
urday night that the problem would be
solved If it should be left to the southern
whites.
- Booker T. Washington pleaded yester-.
day for national conference on the sub
ject, and dwelt on the fact that the negro
is here to stay, and that his numbers
increase amazingly, Notwithstanding the
adverse conditions. The negroes now num-
Der near 100000 Mr. Washington de-
clared that, every year since the first
slave. vessel touched American shores the
negro has gained in civilization.
Elihu Root, secretary of war, not long
ago declared in a public speech that negro
suffrage was failure
The race question in the south, and,
for that matter, in all the states,'' saws
Senator McEnery of Louisiana, "is no
nearer solution than when the negro was
liberated and the elective franchise be-
slowed upon him. y - The white
race will always control, subdue and keep
in subjugaton the inferior races. The
question is a daily one, What to do with
the negro? The answer is to let him
alone and let him work out his own des-
tiny on lines fixed and Interchangeable. y
These lines, Senator McEnery thinks, are
those of perpetual subserviency to the
whites, the lines of a race doomed to
helotage.
Harper's Weekly. suggests the purchase
from Mexico Of two or three thinly pop
ulated states on the northern boundary OF
that republic, Ito be settled with southern
negroes; the Understanding being tina,
they are to be black mems states. Senator
McEnery declares that the south wants
to keep the negro and needs him.
A bulletin of Atlanta university, just
issued, on "The Negro Artisan is full
Of hopeful facts Of $50 firms, employing
$500 skilled negroes, most report that
they are as good or better than the whites
and that they are improving in efficiency.
A senate committee has voted in favor
of rejecting the appointm of DR.. Crum
as collector of the port of Charleston be.
cause he is a negro
There is almost no disposition in the
north to take any steps toward the solu.-
ton of the problem that are not approved
by southern whites. There will never be
another force law or an attempt to enforce
those we have.
From this medley Of solutions and ad.
missions Of failure, with a, rift of hope
here and there, one turns in despair. This
terrible race question perpetuates section,
al lines, battles our democratic theories
Of equality, sets at naught the great doc
trine of the Declaration of Independence
and gives us a natioral disgrace and
thousand crimes that remind us that crit
Iicism begins at home the moment w,
Idirect attention to the shortcomings O
other countries. There is no solution t,
be prescribed The negro must do hi
best undsr the conditions, the white mus
do his best, and both must look to tn
u work of time. The curse of slavery i
still upon the nation though the bondman'
|chains are broken.