The gold leaf., 1903-07-02
A PRETTY HOWDY-DO.
The Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
Loses Its Equilibrium and Credits
Senator Simmons With Feelings
and Sentiments Entirely Foreign to
Him.

Raleigh Post.
The esteemed Philadelphia Even
ing Telegraph, usually very conserva-
tive in it's utterances we will admit
| flies the tangent in the following
reckless manner:
"Mr. Simmons, the Black Belt Sen.
ator, who has no use for the negro
except to hitch him to plough
alongside of a mule, should take a
hint from Booker T. Washington s
recent address on the present condi.
ton and future prospects of the
AfrO-American in the Southern
States. Mr.. Washington is an ear
nest advocate of an agricultural life
for the colored man, but he notes,
and notes with regret, that, what
ever influence he may have in other
directions, his teachings go for little
in keeping the cOlored folk on the
farm. In spite of all he can say and
do. his people persist in leaving the
country and flocking into the towns,
taking the chance of starving in the
streets rather than contenting them
selves with good living honestly
earned in the fields. If Senator Sim
mons should persuade the Southern
people that the proper way to treat
the negro is to hitch him alongside
of mule, this tendency to desert
the country might possibly be
checked by the restraints OF straps
and buckles-and then again, it
might not.
''Mr. Washington gives two sound
reasons why the negro seeks the city,
either of which sufficiently accounts
for his preference, and both of which
are commended to the attention of
the Black Belt Senator and his kind
In the first place, there are not
lynchings in the towns. The law is
respected, and all citizens have the
protection of the police without re-
gard to their race, color or previous
condition. 1t is only in the rural re-
gions that lynchings, burnings at
the stake, and short-meter hangings
take place. In settled communities
where the law is respected, life is safe
and no man, however humble his es-
tate, is left to the mercy of mob.
Secondly, colored children can 60 to
school in the towns, and in many if
not most of the country districts
in the Southern States they are prac-
tically deprived of this advantage
The public school facilities, meagre
and scanty at best, are, in effect,
mOnOpOlized by the whites and the
blacks are left out. To prepare a
colored boy to be hitched alongside
of mule, it is not desirable and GER
tainly not necessary to give him an
education, and, consequently, in
communities where Senator Sim
mons opinions are accepted, the
schooling the negro gets is of the
most limited description. These are
the considerations that are driving
him off the land, where he might be-
come a useful and prosperous mem
ber of society, into the overcrowded
town, where the chances of his drift
ing into degeneracy are increasing
every day. What does Senator Sim
mons propose to do about it,"
In the first place Mr.. Simmons said
nothing of the sort attributed to
him above. Nor is it true that the
negroes in the districts do not have
as long-term schools us the whites,
which are paid for almost exclusively
by the latter. Nor is it true that
they crowd into the towns for police
protection. OF the eleven million ne
grOes in the South we venture to
say at least nine millions are in the
country. We venture again to as
sert that of those lynched ninety per
cent. or more are trifling, vicious
characters who make headquarters
in the slums OF the towns or cities
and go prOwling about the country
until they are finally caught IN
their crime. We assert again with
out any venture that Il negro who
behaves himself and attends to hi:
own business is safer today in the
country in the South than anywhere
in the North He can get work here
whereas he has hard time of it n
the best even in the city of Brotherl,
| Love of our contemporary.
;Sg Fewer gallons; Wears longer. sra