The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-29
JUST so EVERYWHERE.

L
 Another evidence of the immutability of race instinct as well as of its uni versal application, comes from Illinois. a State where antipathy to colored people is pronounced and aggressive. In the little town of Bellville there is barber shop owned and run by a white barber. A colored preacher went in to get shave and was refused. He brought suit for damages under the equal rights law of Illinois, which prescribes that all per- sons within the jurisdiction of the State "shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of tfe facilities of barber shops, and if any citizen is denied this equality it is the intention that he shall have his remedy in a penalty clause, which prescribes a fine of from s5 to $500 against the barber. the proceeds to go to the aggrieved party"
 That law is certainly explicit, and the case was tried before a jury composed. presumably, of men who occasionally tear their hair over Southern race dis elimination. Of the result The Chicago Record Herald says:
 But the law had no effect upon the jury in the justice court which heard the case of Thompson versus Baumgarten. It took that body only two minutes to decide for Baumgarten. and thus to show that the race distinctions just as the public senti- ment of the South does. In such circum- stances. too. the law. which of course shops. is bound to remain dead letter unless there are repeated and vigorous prosecutions through the higher courts.
 Such verdict would have been natur- ally expected of an Alabama jury, and it would be an equally natural thing for H. linoisians and other Northern men to shed some tears over the intolerance of Southern people. All that would change no facts, alter no conditions nor remove any racial antiquities. And the verdict teaches, as The Record Herald observes. that "the social question that is involved will never be settled by law. Federal or State. Neither will it ever be settled by one section of the country for another"
 The Record-Herald has learned, as many others north of us are learning, that the racial feeling is not confined to either latitude or longitude. It crops out north of the line as it does south, and shows. itself under the same circum- stances It is perfectly natural feeling, implanted in us by the God who created us, and neither time nor locality will eradicate it. Nor will this feeling and the discrimination to which it gives rise ever be wiped out or silenced by human laws. The State of Illinois might place law on it's statute books declaring that there shall be no discrimination between the sexes in any of the duties, employa ments or occupations of life, or it might enact that minors should enjoy all the rights and privileges of adults, but does any one suppose that such laws would be enforced? To think so would display woeful ignorance of human nature, and law abrogating race distinction is equally intellectual and will always be so while human nature remains as it Is.
 And The d-Herald Is equally cor rect in saying that this race question will never be settled by one section of the country for another. It is one matter that the people of Alabama and the peo- pie of Illinois and the people of every themselves. It is sheer impertinence for Oile StCtiOh lO lnleTIeTe WlLn another, or to prescribe rules and regulations for the government of the people in their re- lations to each other. Illinois may pass laws forbidding white barbers to refuse to shave colored men. and the white bar bers will evade the law, as they should do, but 1t is none of our business No rule, law, ordinance. regulation or en- actment can force white barber shops in Alabama to serve negro customers, and 1t is none of the business of the people of Illinois. The Congress of the United States might pass a law abolishng all race discrimination, but the army and navy and all other powers of the governE ment could no more enforce 1t in Illinois than in Alabama. In some respects the doctrine of States rights is still in force and will continue to be. Equal rights in barber shops" Is an irridescent dream in Illinois as it is in Alabama. and right ly so. There is a large supply of human nature all over this land of ours.