The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-12
RACE PROBLEM SEEN FROM
STANDPOINT OF THE CENSUS
The Conclusions Reached Without Race Prejudice by
Discussing the Criminaty of the Negroes
Simply Startling.
BY REV. 8. A. STEELE.

q Il
zen. The census shows that it does not
He is increasing rapidly in criminality.
The more intelligent he is the higher the
per cent. of his criminality. To educate
him. in the sense in which that term is
meant when used in reference to white
people, is to unfit him to be a citizen.
The Southern States would be perfectly
| justifable, on the strength of these con-
clusions not only to allow the negroes
onlySthe proportion of school money de-
rived from the taxes they pay, but in re-
fusing to educate them at all. This is a
startling conclusion, but there are the
facts. Education up to the present time,
as the census shows, increases the Grim
inality of the negro race. Can a State
afford to support a system Of education
that produces this result? y
3. These conclusions prove that Booker
Washington is the most dangerous leader
| the negroes ever had. He goes North
| and makes speeches. like his speech in
| New York on February 22d, that keep up
| the delusion, both among the whites in
| the North and the blacks at the South
that education and property will solve
| the problem by elevating the negro to
| be the equal of the white man. He does
not put it quite so plainly but that IS
what he means underneath the smooth
and fallacious philosophy he so glibly
dispenses to credulous ears He tells the
Northern people the race is improving;
| the census says it is, degenerating from
its character in slavery. He says eds
cation Will elevate the negro; the census
says it increases his criminality. He
says the possession of property will make
the negro the equal of the white man;
the census shows that Athe forces that
| lift up the white man drag down the
negro. Booker Washington is leading the
negroes straight to a precipice. The false
ideals he inculcates, the impossible hopes
| he eXcites, the utterly misleading SYM
pathy he enlists in behalf of the negro,
only makes more certain and bring nearer
| the inevitable issue.
| Booker Washington makes much of
what he regards as evidence of the
racial vitality of the negro; that un-
| ike the Indians, and other races, instead
| CT dying out in the presence of a superior
| race. the negroes continue to increase,
| and from four millions at the time of
| emancipation have multiplied to nearly
ten million now. But he overlooks the
| fact, in which the whole significance Of
the problem lies, that the negro race in
| America has never really come in con-
! fict with the superior race. Let that
conflict once begin, everything points
to it's beginning now, and the boasted
increase of the Africans will be a thing
OF the past. AS a slave, it was to the
interests of the Southern people for the
negroes to increase. AS a free man, all
| the notions of their neighbors to the
contrary Notwithstanding, the Southern
| people have wished the negro well. They
have given him the protection of the law
| and a fair chance to live and be happy.
| They have spent over a hundred million
! dollars on the experiment of his educa
| ton. Instead of improving he grows
worse Both morally and industrially he
/ is below the level of the position he
| held as a slave. After thirty years
! trial under the most favorable circum-
stances, the statistics show that he is
Incapable of freedom. He is rapidly
arousing the hostility of the Anglo
Saxon people among whom he lives in
this country. Let that hostility become
the permanent attitude of the dominant
race, and the doom of the negro is sealed
/ There is far less danger in the insane
rawlings of such black madmen as Hayes
and Dewey than in the plausible policy
OF Booker Washington, which, under cover
of the vague and popular phrase 'fndus
trial education" ipsinuates into the
minds of the negroes dreams of social
equality with the whites. The wisest
educator among the negroes today is not
Booker Washington, but W. H. Council,
OF Huntsville Alabama. Council care
frIlV avoids teaching his 10 h
surd doctrine that has drawn Northern
help so largely to Tuskegec, that the
acquisition of property will obliterate