The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-01

contrib uteS the most remarkable article
OF a decade to the South Atlantic Quar-
terly, of which he is the editor.
OF late years the pulpit and the chair
Of the college professor has too often be-
come the fomenter of strife and the
forum OF absurdiy. Chicago University
is the head centre for educated freaks and
the chief institution where men are taught
that it is wiser to put their trust In
Standard Oil than in the Water of Life.
But that is not the only institution that
harbors freaks who rush into print with
absurd statements and dangerous doc
which, if true, damn
the State of North Carolina, and doc
trines, which, II carried out, would de-
stroy the civilization Of the South.
Such freak is John Spencer Bassett, of
Trinity College. He is q student and writes
well. Somebody once asked Senator Joe
Brown. of Georgia, what he thought of
i; right smart fellow, but he 'haint'
got no sense" That will be the estimate
of Prof. Bassett by those who judge him
solely by the article that he prints as
the first contribution in the October NUN
Der of the South Atlantic Quarterly. There
is room for broad-guaged, iberal-mind-
name It should not be Intolerance
OF Northern or Southern sentiment. 7:
should respect the traditions, the convic-
tons, the views of all honest men. and
should print their contributions without
regar to whether they are in line witt,
the dominant Southern sentiment or not
But South Atlantic magazine, publish
ed in the South, should at least have
common respect for the attitude of nine
tenths of the Southern people upon the
questions discussed in its pages. Its mis-
sion should not be. as the South Atlantic
Quarterlys under DR.. Bassett's leadership
is. to create contempt for Southern ira
ditions and to try to revolutionize Southern
political convictions by species of con-
temptuous references to those convictions
offending every man who believes that
the Southern sentiment on the race qucs.
ton is wiser and saner than the New
England sentiment. Nobody can claim to
be infallible in his views upon the race
question. but even in the North the con-
viction is growing that the South un-
derstands it better than any other Sec
ton and that it will work it out more
wisely than those people who know moth
ing Of the race situation except what they
have read.
| In his remarkable article, remarkable
chiefly for the warp and wool of intoler-
ance of the views entertained by mos:
Southern people, Prof. Bassett makes some
declarations that will startle thoughtful
and sensible men everywhere, and that
will outrage the feelings OF the dominant
sentiment Of the South. That no injustice
may be done him in what we say, we
print elsewhere the full text OF his ar
| ticle
| We shall not in this article attempt to
discuss many of the offensive declarations
and absurd statements of Prof. Bassett.
Every reader will answer them for him.
/ self. His arraignment of the Democratic
leaders in the South reads like the old
time denunciations of 'Fire Alarm" For
aker and IS almost in the identical WORD.
employed by the negro Republican leaders
in North Carolina in 1898 when the intol-
cradle conditions called forth the White
Supremacy revolution that restored coed
government and peace to North Carolina,
after the orgie of rule by negroes and ul,-
worthy white men who put negro office
holders over white men and white women
His calling the race question cry" EN-.
ployed by the first men of the South las
a means of winning votes is an Insult
to every Southern leader from Lamar Ber
Hill. Ransom and Vance in the seventies
to Aycock, Simmons, Overman ana
the other patriotic leaders of North Caro-
lima of today The fact that Prof. Bas-
sett does not know that the race issue
in Southern politics is one created by
the Republicans and forced by them 10
the front shows his unfitness to write Of
anything that concerns the political or
racial questions from the standpoint OF
the Southern man.
Prof. Bassett sees general opposition
to the negro" manifested in the Souti.
moro strenuously than in the North
and in proof cites four things:
!. Restriction of the negro vote" SUIT
fIage was taken from the negro not be-
cause Of hostility to the negro, but as q
necessity to secure peace and good gov.
eminent. II is libel on the South to
say it alters its constitutions to injure
| weaker race. Governor Aycock in a re-
cent article in Northern magazine thus
gives the true reason for the adoption ol
the suffrage amendment in North Caro-
lima and the same reason governed in everp
Southern State: