The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-09-01
IS THE SOUTHERNER
HIMSELF IOBLAMt2
Does GIorifcation of Booker
Bear Such Fruit ?
NEW VIEW OF THE MATTER
The Negro Moses May Lead His People Into a
New Land but its Milk Will be Red
and its Honey Taste Of
Gall

Gall
To the Editor:-Your brave and manly |
editorial on the dining OF Booker Wash
ington and party at Hamlet deserves the
commentator Of all thoughtful citizens.
The excuse given by the hotel keeper is
as asinine as it is puerile. 1t is adding
studied insult to premcdltated injury.
The races are practically placed on an
equality when he asserts that the color
that predominates gets the dining room.
Last summer l was returning from At
lanta, and our train met at Hamlet the
southbound train carrying probably two
hundred negroes TO a negro convention
at Atlanta. Most of them rushed Tor
the dining room, but they were sent
around to a side room where breakfast
was prepared for them. There vas much
| grumbling and several refused to eat
elsewhere than in the regular dining
room. But today the tables are changed
and why? Because papers conducted by
the white men of the South eport every
act of the great Booker Washington, and
the chance for an advertisement was too
good to be lost.
believe and have long believed that
the SOUeI second thought VI I'LL IIllS
and generation VIII affx on Booker Wash
ington the stigma of being the greatest
and most appalling curse that ever be
fell. the negro or any other race.
The stupendous injury he is doing to
day by implanting in the hearts of thou
sands of his race, the seeds of an ambl-
ton impossible Of frultlOn, can never be
estimated. Behind and beyond his gilt
tering gencralities, and meaningless platl-
tudes on industrial advancement, ms fell
low negroes see the man himself. See
him saying to them, Hope on, hope
ever; where | have eaten you may eat;
where | have been feted you may be, and
the exalted position | now hold is yours
ii you have but the courage to grasp it,
And he Winked the other eye.
Mr.. Editor, | have no reputation as a
political economist or sociologist, and
having none have therefore none to lose.
SO | venture the further assertion that
the most potent factor in all this unfor-
tunate race agitation today is the South
err man himself.
You truly say "the man who does any
thing to make the color line less clear
and distinct, consciously or unconsciousiy,
is an enemy to Southern civilization
Well, that is just what the leading men
of the South have been doing for years
in placing Booker Washington on the
exalted pinnacle he now occupies: that IS
what boards of trade have been dong
in welcoming him with open arms; and
that is What men singly and collectively
have been doing IN hailing and acclaim
ing him as a, new Moses who would lead
his people IN a new land Of milk and
honey. There IS no doubt the land will
be new, but the milk VIII be red and
the honey like unto gall.
But IT the present appreciation and
CCngratulation of the Southern man con
tinues, who will dare set his metes and
bounds?
The question of the ultimate disposition
OF the negro race can now be justly called
a problem, for it is national in its scope.
For its solution there are now as many
theories as the now famed leaves of
Vallambrosa. But to my mind after
education and all the other forces for
good now potent in the civilization of
today have been tried in vain, two meth
DDS, and only two Will be found Of any
avail, emasculation and segregation.
By the former procedure on the guilty
party we would, l believe, Danish for
ever from our records the nameless crime.
Its perpetrators would go forth with a
mark more miserable than that Of Cain.
They would be as Ingalls, characterized
the mugwumps, beings abhorred by wo-
men and d~espised by men. They would
IN truth be a column of contumely by
day, a pillar of reproach by night. But
this is but a minor view Of the subject. In
its most comprehensive sense, it means
taking from the degraded of both sexes
the power to procrcate their kind. 1t
means that We have within our power
by lawful means, a method that Will
abort the spawn of confirmed criminals,
and the degenerate of both sexes. 1t is
a subject worthy our most earnest con
slderation. 1t would be bat a logical
sequence of that law higher than all
other laws-the law Of self-preservation.
That the Southerner is d better friend OF
the negro than the Northerner has been
told over and over again. and it is true.
But how much of this friendship is based
on the negro DIS we know him today, and
how much does the memory Of the fdel
ity of the old slave negro a|ctuate US in
our dealings with his descendants?
Introspect, calmly and deliberately, and
can you find a single virtue of the faith
ful old s~ervitor transmitted to the negro
o. today? Would you trust MN with
your family and your property a. Of
yorc?
DR.. Paul Barringer & think that is the
name) a member Of the faculty Of the
University of Virginia, IN q recent article
claimed that the negro is retrograding
into savagery. If this is true. and many
believe it, What does the future hold. and
what Is expected from Us? For Roosevelt
and his ilk. We have no word OF CEN
'sure; they know no better. He talks Of
his Southern ancestry, yet he Is as igno-
rant OF Southern conditions as if he had
been born In Kamskatka. The solution
Of the question lies with the MEL of the
Southland and with them alone. But
action TO be effective must be Immediate.
Let Booker Washington and his doings
be dropped by the press of our South
land. Judge him by his actions and not
his words, and place him where all ne
groes should be placed-in a class by
themselves. Have a dead line in bust
ness, in politics, in every relation of life.
| Segrcgate bv precincts and WarG. then Nv