The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1903-02-17
TILLmAN ExpoUNDs NEGRO QUESTION.
Repeats HIS Well Known Views at New
York Banquet No Solution Of Race
Problem.

VI oou|h Caroina spoke tonight at the
banquet Of the New York Press club.
He said in part
II cannot understand why | should
have been the only representative of
the august body of which l am a men,
ber. Now l have no message which
| have come to deliver to you. In my
| experience have found that the better
| acquainted the gentlemen of the press
become with me the better they like me.
But ask no favors Of you. come from
State where the people do their own
thinking and their own voting.
81 think this is an occasion on which
| ought to get evenwith the press. You
have 365 days in the year in which to
make and mmakc public men but you
don't make and mmakc them in the
State of South Carolina.'
Referring to the negro question, he
| said that President Roosevelt had raised
subject that will not easily down. 1t
had brought forth Il number of com
mcnts from prominent men Of the North
and had raised storm in the South.
After mentioning Il number of these
comments and the men who made them
he said:
"You have had this subject i,c"se,
vctcd, Hannaed, Irelanded and finally
Smootcd, and now it seems to me it is
about time that we had some one who
knows something about it, say some
thing. What are my qualifications?
HIS PERSONAL HISTORY.
First, he said, he had been nurscd by
negro NANNY. Then although he
had not served in the Confederate army,
he had tried to join it, and had been
prevented only by an accident that de-
priVed him of his eye. Lastly he had
| been upon the ground and seen the raw
| ages Of thc war.
81 know something of what this race
question has cost this country. Many
of you who write so tlippantly about it,
! know nothing about it" he continued,
land if you write about so grave a sub
jcct when YOU know nothing of it you
are no less than criminals.
| Mr. Roosevelt was very wise in say
| ing it will take the best thought of both
sections Of this country to solve the
problem"
| After an impassioned recital of the
pcrils of the white population ol.~tne
| South thrcatssacG. Wy 'tie increase Of the
! power of the negroes in the past few
years he said:
| 1--WE were compelled by the cxigcn-
cics of the situation to use the shot
| gun and tn, tissue ballots, and we used
| both. Why! Because in the State of
| South Carolina there were 10000 more
| negro voters than there were white
| voters"
He said that they in South Carolina
had established their free schools and
| that ever since there have been more
negro children in those free schools than
white children.
''Do you think it was our purpose to
raise these negro children toa condition
Of enlightenment in order that they may
| govern u.s." he asked.
"Ry the Holy God, MOI" he cried.
"rhrcc months ago" he continued,
"thc President wrote a letter in which
he said that when a negro showed HIM
self qualified to fill public Office he was
unwilling to shut the door of hope in his
| facc.'
Commenting on this Senator Tillman
said that if the present condition of
education continued and the negro is to
gain control Of the State of South Caro-
lima and the white becomes subornatc,
the deplorahc result would be that i'm
a hundred years, the population would
| be half mulatto. He had nc practical
solution Of the problem, he SAID unless
it be that the North take its share
of the blacks, "if you love them so
well.