The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1903-01-17

the race issue in the South the
Southern people will be equal to
the emergency. They have con-
fronted conditions no less trying
in the past, and they came out
of the struggle with clean hands
and stainless honor
DR.. AZDEREAN'.S TIE u.s.
The Gazette reproduces be-
low a portion of the dmirable
address delivered a few days
ago by Dr.. E. A. Alderman to a
New York audience. It is a
clear exposition of that all en-
crossing question, the negro
problem, and for that reason it
is worth careful reading. DR..
Alderman's views on public
issues are at all times interest
ing and instructive, and he has
evidently made a study of this
one with the purpose of arriving
at logical conclusion. Though
we see in this address but a
vague reference to the end of
the great social problem in his
suggestion of "sCme sort of edu-
catiOn,' it is such a truthful
statement Of the conditions that
obtain in the South, we gladly
give it space in the columns Of
The Gazette for the benefit of
those who may not have had the
opportunity of reading it.
There are 100000 negroes
in this nation" says DR.. Alder
man. land 100000 of them are
in the South-what is the mean
ing of this fact to the future of
our national life? That is the
negro question. We know what
the negro has meant in the past.
He has called conventions, Sc
parated States, and amended
Constitutions, and marshaled
armies, and set battle lines in
motion, and shed blood and
changed ideals. What is his
meaning to the future? He is of
wholly divergent ethnic type.
He is in a different plane of de-
velopment, centuries behind the
white. He is an American citi-
zen. Wherever social equality is
unthinkable, all other sorts of
equality are difficult. God made
US white, and it is our business
to stay white. The mongrel is
like the cross between the grey
hound and the bulldog-he can't
run and he won't fight. If the
nation could not endure half
slave and half free, how shall it
grow one ninth black and eight
ninths white, or three fifthS
white and two fifths black? How
shall this backward man, of DIFF
ferent ethnic type, become a
part Of the national life for the
national good?"
Slavery put the negro under
the bottom and held him there.
Reconstruction put him on top
and held him there. God knows
neither plan worked! The negro
is here to stay. Annihilation or
deportation touch the levels of
crime and stupidity. There is
one other thing to do. Make him
fit to stay. How can that be
dOne-has it ever been done?
How are the English doing it in
Egypt and Jamaica? No man can
see to the end of tangled social
problems. Prophecy is not
foresight, and the hindsight of
mediocrity is better than the
foresight of genius. Some sort
of education is the answer that
leaps to the lips-what sort of
education? The sort that sees
him as he is and where he is,
and how he uses what he gets
and the sort that touches him
where he can take hold and still |
touch life, and that carries him
as far as he can go and still |
touch life. but, perhaps, a
broader life. Again I say I can
not see the end. There is no
end; but, at least, the eyes look
along this way. To have
sight of 100000 untaught
black freemen is to look down
into hell. There isn't but one
thingtO do with a human being
in this world, and that is to give
him a chance. The problem of
the stronger is to find the way.
The problem of the weaker is to
adjust himself into the way and
use the way. 1t is all nonsense
TO think of the South as opposed