The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-31
Mr.. President and Gentlemen:

With your permission, / shall speak to.
night upon the race problem. or, to be
more accurate, the race problems My
excuse, if any excuse is needed, for Sc
lccting for discussion this somewhat worn
subject, will be found in the unusual in
terest lately manifested in this subject in
the North, accompanied with a disposition
TO consider it from broader, more prac-
teal and decidedly less prejudiced stand
point than heretofore
While the day of rancourous and mis-
chievous discussion of this subject. both
in the North and the South-discussion
too often based upon inference and con-
lecture, or even naked prejudice-has not
altogether passed, there is a gratifying
disposition on the part Of the leaders of
thought In both sections to discuss it
calmly, conservatively, and with good
temper While the North does not admit
that the negro question is an exclusively
Southern question, and while it does not
admit that any settlement which the South
may propose of this question which does
not meet the approval of the judgment
and conscience of the country at large
can be a final settlement. it does admit
that it is a question in which the South
is more deeply interested and which 1T
understands better than any other sec
tion and finally, and of still greater i'm
portance it shows growing tendency to
concede that the attitude of the South
towards the negro is not only honest and
sincere. but that its contention that the
negro, in his present condition, Is incom-
petent for self-government and that, there
fore, unrestricted negro suffrage IN the
South is a public menace, find substantial
support and confirmation in the actual ex-
perience of the South and the country
with the negro as a voter. This l under
stand to be the present attitude of the
North towards this question-an attitude
which the South greatly appreciates, and
hich Is. in my judgment, a decided and
noteworthy advance, not only towards
satisfactory settlement of this question
but of other causes of sectional misun
Outstanding and disagreement.
Speaking from the Southern standpoint
and speaking to the North, 1 want t.
say here tonight that because the South
Is more vitality interested in this ques-
tion than the balance of the country and
because it understands its inherent dan
gers better than the balance of the
country, it is more anxious than the
balance of the country is or can possibly
be to see it settled settled, not
as some suppose, IN the in
tercst of partisanship or sectionalism or
race antipathy, but settled righteously, in
the interest of both races, for the COM
monweal. and in consonance with the
equities and exigencies of the situation.
In the outset / said the question which
confronted US was not a problem, but
series of Problems The emancipation, en-
reimbursement and the permanent pres
ence in our midst of the negro present
three problems. namely: a social problem,
political problem and an industrial
problem.
The social problem thus presented was
one which the South could settle for itself.
independent of the rest of the country,
and it has settled it, so far as it is con-
cerned, and settled it irrevocably. Upon
that question there is not now, and there
has not been at any time, any division
among white people of the South One
and all. now and at all times, they re-
fuse. as they have always refused, to even
so much as consider the suggestion of
social equality or social intercourse with
the negro. In their view, that would
mean degradation for the white man.
black man: and, so feeling and believing,
they desire not to see the social chasm
which now separates these two races less
ened. but rather to see it broadnened and
Hidened This is a Southern condition
which is memorable and nothing-abso-
lutely nottingham change it.
1t may not be, and probably it is not,
in the power of the South to settle for
elf 1sy he Of he
country the question of political equality
between the races, but it has attempted
to settle that question in a way reason
ably satisfactory to itself and in a way
which, if undisturbed, we believe will
prove reasonably satisfactory to the North
also. BY one device or another, we have
taken the ballot from the illiterate negro;
not, as some times charged, for political
OF race advantage. but, as we believe, for
his good and for the countrys good and,
speaking broadly, for our own salvation
The manner of his disfranchisement, in
scme instances at ,least-as in the cases
of Louisiana and North Carolina-may
seem harsh and inequitable, but, as a
matter of fact, it is neither Properly in
tcrpreted, these apparently discriminating
provisions simply declare, what expert
ence has conclusiveIy proven that the
negro possesses no inherent capacity for
self government such as our race I'M
doubtedly has. and that he cannot safely
be trusted with the ballot until he shows
an attained capacity to uses it with due
intelligence and patriotism. The consti-
tutionality of these acts has been attack
ed That is a question for the courts, and
We are content to leave it to the decision
of the courts. But the question OF re-
ductiOn of Southern representation as a
result of these dIsfranchlsIng acts
Is largely a question of pub
ne policy, appropriate for discus
sion IN the forum of public opinion. Why
should our representation in Congress and
the electoral college be reduced on ac-
count OF the Acknowledgement of the lg-
nOrant negro? Under our present plan,
and fundamentally representation is and
should be, based upon population and
not upon votes. When all adults vote,
there are, upon an average, four non
voters 10 every voter. These non-voters
are as much subject to the law as these
voters Their lives their liberty their
pripertv the Droducts of their brain and