The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-06
THE HOME OF THE
 NEGRO QUESTION
SAMUEL PHILLIPS WERNER 

mense possibilities of the millions of na- tives in that continent. It would be a fearful waste of time and energy if the dawning era of great things for Africa must lead to the same melancholy ex- periments which have necessarily mark ed the progress of white relations to the blacks in the Southern States of Ameri- ca. There is much hope that this ex- perience will he taken for what it Is worth by the European nations engaged in the exploitation of the vast resources of the land of Joseph and of Cecil Rhodes. Those two men were alike for eigners in the land for whose benefit they wrought, and they alike found that the Africans, whether Hamitic Egyptians or aboriginal savages. could not meet the exigencies of their peculiar conditions without the help of the outsider.
 We have reached the conclusion that the method of restricted freedom Is the best way of dealing with the dark races. in America. or Africa, for the interests of all concerned.
 This does not mean any system of serfdom. slavery. involuntary servitude, peonage or other form of bondage. But it does mean state of affairs entirely different from that under which the high est races live and labor under the con ditlons of modern life.
 As before suggested, there is a period of youth for nations. peoples, races and ethnic strata as well as of individuals. Our race has universally placed an age limit as the requirement for admission to civic rights and privileges on the most cultured and best equipped of it's own members. Few will doubt that a well educated white youth of twenty years of age is better fitted to use the respon- sible privileges of. citizenship than the average negro of forty. Nevertheless q large portion of our race stand commit ted to the policy of admitting the latter to these privileges and of denying them to the former. There is no ground in history or reason for this anachronism.
 The sphere of restriction therefore for these races still in their minority is part ly political. How to provide for their proper political status is no light mat ter. But the prerequisite in all cases is to abandon the idea that the mere fact of their humanity gives them the right to complete equality in the matter of DO litiCal power At the same time there is no reason for making the basis of dis | Crimination the ground of race, color ol previous condition of servitude.' Tha much of the American federal constitu ton is perfectly sound. At the time o | the passage of certain laws, however based on thlS constitutional provision, tn' people of the United States were in nt | frame of mind fit to make wise and i'm | partial laws as the result of this or
 ganic law. In Africa the European ma
 tions will have a much better opportun
 ity to legislate wisely and permanent!
 on the subject.
 The political aspect of the subject di
 vides into four classes. suffrage. office
 holding, taxation. and military service
 What just qualifications for suffrage cal
 be made so as to minimize the evil
 from the numerical preponderance of tn
 weaker races in places where the Cau
 casian is laying the foundations of civ
 ilization? These qualifications ought t