The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-16
TIE SOLUTION OF THE MATTER.

TEE SOLUTION OF THE MATTER.
 Of late we have been hearing great
 deal about negro deportation and negro segregation. It has been intensified by | the wholly untenable speeches of John | Temple Graves, whose talents and gifts could be much better employed. One or | his contentions-that a State should be set apart exclusively for the negroes-is so absurd that one is led to wonder how he could have seriously made such. proposition.
 Can Mir. Graves tell us how our Govern- ment is to go about conhscating State? Does he propose that the Government shall take forcibly possession of one of the States of the Union, order the whites out | and order the negroes in. If his plan is to purchase a State from somebody | who has one for sale, does he know of any law common. Federal or State, which would force the inhabitants of such pur- chased State to sell out and leave? Or, does he propose that as many whites all the negroes in on them? We fail to see how that would settle the race ques' ton.
 Again, how shall the negroes be re- l moved to the State, when 1t is made ready | for them? We know of no law by which peaceful citizens can be forced to aban | don their homes and take up their resi- dence in another place. And this objec- | tion applies with equal force to the prop
 osition to colonize all the negroes in some
 of our newly-acquired possessions. If we could set apart a territory large enough to
 accommodate all the negroes in the | United States, we have no power to force | them to emigrate to it Our Government has no more power to force the black
 people out than the white ones, and l Congress cannot make such law. The
 negroes are citizens and cannot be sent out of the Union against their will. If | the power to do so existed, the act would
 be a greater wrong than was their orig
 inal importation.
 l All this plan of negro deportation is not only impracticable, but 1t Is morally and industrially wrong. The negroes are part | of our population, and they are neces- sary part of it. We do not subscribe to the theory that white men cannot do the
 work that negroes do. for it Is not true. White men adapt themselves to all places and conditions, and wherever negroes work white men can train themselves to work, if necessity requires 1t. And we do not deny that it would be a good thing for the country and for society if the idle and vicious negroes would leave 1t. There are too many of them, especially in the cities and towns, who are a genuine curse | to any community. If the majority of this class could be induced to go to Africa or anywhere else 1t would be better for
 the white race and better for the negroes who remain
 But to get rid of the undesirable ne- groes and retain the desirable ones is
 problem which no Solomon has been able
 to solve. We doubt if any one will arise
 who can solve 1t. The next best thing
 is to make better citizens of all of them.
 Education will do much in that direction
 Example and training and encouragement l will do much more. In the honest, indus
 trious class of negroes, we have an in-
 dustrial population which cannot be sur
 passed and which could not be replaced
 in many years, if ever. They are, in the
 main, the best laborers the South can
 have.
 The white race has a duty which Is inn
 perative. It is a duty which is demanded
 by justice. by humanity and by self-inter-
 est Ours Is and will ever be the govern
 make the laws and enforce them That
 being so, that principle of eternal justice
 which bids the strong protect the weak,
 makes it our duty to protect the negro in
 all his legal, industrial and social rights. We should see that he has equal and
 exact justice in the courts, that the laws bear alike on the black and the white, that he be paid for his labor just as the white man is paid, and that no advantage
 be taken of his ignorance and credulity. We do not abate one jot or little of our belief in the supremacy of the white race. That right is God-given and will be main
 tained in the future as in the past But
 the very fact that the white race is the
 supreme, controlling and governing race
 in this country. intensifes the duty of that race to protect the weaker. While
 we are ruling others. let us rule ourselves } and let justice and humanity control all our relations with the colored people We
 need them here. and here they will re- main, and 1t will be largely our own } fault if they are not useful and orderly members of the population.
 We are not of those who hold that the inherent nature of the negro can be en. tirely changed by education or by train ing. He has some qualities. some pecu- liarities and some defects which nature planted in him and which cannot be erad.
 icated. We admit this. but his good qual.
 tiles can be encouraged and compensated and his bad ones represscd. So shall wt
 make him useful. contented and self
 sustaining. Keep the negroes among us
 give them the full protection of the laws and let them have justice in all things That is the solution of the race ques , ton.
 In speaking the other day about th scarcity of cod-fish, we overlooked on e important feature of the matter, and tha is the delectable compound known as cod
 liver oil. We don't know whether tn