Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-04-29

NE SEES FOR HIMSELF.
Massachusetts Mans Impressions Of the Me-
gro and Conditions which Surround Him.

4
Massachusetts Mans Impressions Of the Ne
gro and Conditions which Surround Him.
Mr.. G.. r. Simonds, of Barre, Mass.
who has been spending several months In
Charleston, Aiken and Summervilie, has
been writinga o series of letters for the
Bare Gazette anent the climatic, social
and political conditions of this State.
These articles will serve to give the read
ers of that journal a much clearer under
standing of the conditions under which
South Carolinians Tabor and the many
advantages which they enjoy. Mr..
Simonds is q wealthy fruit-grower and q
man OF prominence in his section and
question cannot fail to leave its impress
upon thoae who peruse his articles, espe-
cially the one just published under the
caption: "The Sunny South--South
Carolina and it's People, Socially and
Politioally-T Color Question"
In treating of the negroes from po-
litical and social standpoint he writes:
In State and local matters white su-
premacy is maintained by eliminating
the blacks from the primaries, under the
law, which, like that of Massachusetts,
allows political committees to make rules
and regulations. To the average North
erner this condition of affairs seems at
first unjust and unwarrantable under the
fifteenth amendment tot the Constitution,
and to secure true light on the subject
and satisfy ones mind that the end justi-
fies the means, it is necessary to live
among them, study their characters,
traits and habits, observe their loose
morals, violations of chastity, propen-
sity for appropriating the property of
others, Incidence, intemperance, ignor-
ance and general shiftlessness aud unre-
Irnh VaN
the negro, it is admitted by all that an
injustice is done to o number who are in
telligent, educated, industrious, law
abiding citizens, some of them teachers,
deyoting their lives to the uplifting of
their race. No one speaks disparagingly
Of such. Booker Washington is COM
mended in the South for his work in the
line of industrial education, but it is the
rank and file of which we speak-the
present and rising generation, and not
the older generation, which is respected,
the old slaves being by far the best citi-
zens, while the succeeding generation in
clude tho 'no-accOunt niggers,' as the
street loafers and toughs are called. In
dustrially the colored man has a better
show in the South than in the North,
where the labor unions will elbow him
out, and although he is not employed in
the cotton Wills here, he is employed in
the outside work and in most of the
mechanical trades, but socially and po-
litically he will not be tolerated, except
as one of an inferior race. His property
rights are fully respected, and, in this
section, at least, the courts seem impair
tial, although no colored men sit on the
juries. At a recent sitting of the su-
perior court in Aiken county the writer
listened to an eloquent plea by the Con
gressman- elect from this district in behalf
of his colored client, who was guilty
enough, and secured for him light SEN
tence. Personally the negro, if he does
not attempt to usurp the white mans
place politically or socially, is thought
more of and used better here than in the
North. The race seems to be making
very slow progress In the way of owning
houses and aocumulating property, al
though there are cases whore industry
and self-denial have been practiced and
homes paid for in a very few years. The
colored people of Aiken arc much above
the average in thrift and intelligence,
and over twenty per cent of them own
homes. The appointment of w. ID.
Crum, the colored physician, as Collec-
tor of the port of Charleston is uniyer-
sally condemned, although DIR. Crum is
admitted to be an intelligent and edu-
Gated man, but the claim is that it will
have bad effect on the rank and file,
who will feel that it is the race, and not
the man, who is elevated, and become
arrogant and intolerant. There are few
sense who can see their race as the
whites see it. One such, an educator,
the writer recently interviewed on mat
ters pertaining to mis- race as follows:
"Do you think, in the light of recent
events, that it was wise to have extended
universal suffrage to the race at the close
of the warp
NJo Oh ~
tionary period of twenty or twenty-five
years."
(Which, In your opinion, has aroused
the most feeling in the South against
President Roosevelt, his political ap-
pointments or inviting colored people to
his funotionsP"
''The latter, by all means. 1t is an
unwritten law that any man may invite
to his own table whom he sees fit, but
that public reception, negro women who
were not educated or refined, and whom
l should hesitate to invite to my
house."
els It the best element of the colored
race that takes an active part in politics?''
mo; 1t is men preferring politics to
hard work, looking for an easy job, the
same as many of your .whi politicians
In the North are doing"
''How, in your opinion, can the race
best be elevated?'
"By an industrial education. Teach
the mind to think, the heart to direct
and the hands to accomplish, Is the best
that can be done at present"
Gould Tuskegee and Schofield indus
trial schools be established in ever,
county In the South, and the colore6
youth be induced to attend them, the
race problem, which causes so much agi
tation at present, especially at the North
would, In 3 measure, &c III q fair way
toward "a solution in due course of time
but bestowing political preferment or
the race is worse than useless, and while
Northern people of good intentions are
planning conventions to discuss the ques-
tion they know SO little of, unless their
efforts result in industrial education
they had best let the question settle
itself. The people of South Carolina are
very strong In their likes and dislikes,
and ills quite noticeable that when they
critioiRa Preaidant Rnnaaxalt thau nan