Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-03-07
rlLLMAN's GREAT SPEECH
Discussion of Race Question Made
Great Impression on Senate.

Discussion Of Race Question Made
Great Impression on Senate.
Washington, March 3.-Senator Till
man has concluded his remarkable
speech on the race question. He made
a profound impression, and the predic-
ton is generally made that this address
will become a classic. Contrary to all
his oratorical traditions Senator Tillman
spoke with extreme temperatures.
Though he was discussing the race
question from the southern standpoint,
he approached the subject with absolute
caution and seemed TO be able, by a u
preme effort, to divest the subject OF
all passion and sectional prejudice.
The northern senators readily recog-
niZed SO remarkable an episode. Ii Is
probable that the negro question was
never discussed so eXhaustively and SO
tudicially by any prominent u
statesman before. Senator Tillman ap-
pealed to the sober sense of his north
ern friends In the senate. His speech
was manifestly not an el~ectioneering
document, and it was manifestly con-
structed for the purpose Of allaying
prejudice rather than exciting 1t. The
galleries were filled with well dressed
women, most of whom were delegates
to the Daughters of the American Rev
olution convention. To them, as 10 the
senators on the floor, the 1rebrand from
South Carolina, who was suspended
from the senate not so long age for a
personal attack on his w colleague,
| talked slowly, solemnly, dispassionate-
", and logically. He did not
the Colored people, nor did he apparent
ly misjudge northern sentiment. He
said frankly that New England friend
ship for the negro was born not or
hatred for the southern whites but OF
| ,I,,lnt, 1,nrpnra nf the existing con-
ditions.
Government to Be Respected.
This southern senator from the state
which started that rebellion declared
without hesitation that the sovereignty
| Of the national government must be re-
spected. that the slaves were properly
freed and tina the sole mistake lay IN
granting suffrage before the black peo-
| pie were ready to assume the burdens
of citizenship.
The keynote Of Senator Tillman'5
analysis of the northern sentiment was
that their love for the negro varied as
"the square of the distance" He allud-
ed in passing to the terrors of the car
petbag period, and he warned his
friends as one who had had experience
and knew whereof he spoke that he
could not open wide the door OF nope
to the negro in the south without shut
| llliB IL III liz ldNV vi 81 NiiNN ''NF
Senator Tillman justified the action
of the southern states in depriving the
colored people Of suffrage by declaring
that it was q matter Of self-preserNa-
ton. The whites could not submit TO
the domination of an ignorant black
race. He asserted that the colored peo-
pie today, as a whole, were not so Wen
disposed toward the whites as they
were Turing the days of slavery. AS a
man who had been brought up on a
slave plantation he declared that the
black and white races Of the south were
becoming bitterly a~ntagonistic now,
whereas they had been extremely
friendly during the days of slavery.
Fearful LEGITIMACY.
He produced some startling figures
obtained here in the District of Column
bia, showing that the ratio of illeg1tl-
mate births among the colored people
Is now about 26 per cent. of the IOtal
there having been a direct increase Of
more than 10 per cent within a dozer
years or so. He contrasted this I'M
morality with the fact that here II
Washington the negroes are given &
better grade Of education than any
where In the United States, having
separate primary schools, grammar
schools, high schools, manual training
schools. and even business schools.
Although the Indianola postofice was
the text for the speech, it was hardly
referred to after the opening sentences
The address was a dispassionate state
ment of the race problem from tn
standpoint Of the southern whites. The
fairness with which this was stated
and the entire freedom from sectional
ism made Tillman's plea for the south
ern whites n remarkable one. Tn
strength Of his argument was recoS'
nized on all sides, and after the senat'
adjourned prominent republican sena'
tors declared the speech ought to b.
printed in pamphlet form and circu
lated throughout the country, If, for NJ
other purpose, to show that there ar
two sides to the race question.