The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-23
THE HOME OF THE
 NEGRO QUESTION
BY SAMUEL RHTrLIPs VERNEK, in csntrsa Af1n, The caps to Cairo Railway. Afric

Cape to Cairo Hailwnys African Pysmiez. eta because the aceonnuiishment of it would | be accompanied by the development of a bloodthirstiness in the whites that would I react upon themselves and utterly destroy | their own civilization. It is n-Chris- tian. because it is at variance with the spirit and letter of the teachings of Christ, which have been the most not ent force in bringing the white race up to its present attainment from its say- agery of only a few centuries ago.
 The idea of assimilation has it's advo- cates more in practice than in theory In Africa, where the extensive system of certain whites having African woman for I concubines still obtains; in America where the intercourse between the races sfiii goes on to greater or less extent despite law or req son; in Boston where some white ern States where some white men cohabit with colored women, the practice of asst l milation goes on, whatever the people may say about its theoretical undersira- bihty. That this practice does not re- move any difficulties is too true to need proof The product of these unions always is classified, fairly or unfairly, with the lower race, and often become the most dfscontented. restless, and dangerous elements in either race. No one will contend that the higher race is any gainer by the process and the con- sensus of modern medical and anthropo- logical science is to the effect that such miscegenation produces ultimately re- suit combining the vices and weaknesses of both races with the virtues of neither The Abyssipians, pure dark race are now stronger than the Italians, Spanish. or Portuguese. which are the result of the process of assimilation. It hardly need be said that the pure white races, such | as the Swedes, or Germans, are stronger than either. Corporate assimilation with any race weaker than itself will weaken the stronger race. nor will 1t so improve the weaker so that it can compete with the existing pure races. Assimilation is | no better solution than extermination. In- deed. from the point of view solely of the interests of the white race, extermination of the blacks is better than amalgama- | ton.
 Segregation has its advantages. As | already pointed out, a certain extent of the segregation of the races is indispen- sable to the safe relationship of both. But as far as the assignment of specific geographic areas within which each of the ethnic divisions of mankind must be secure from the ingress of the others, it must be admitted that this is not com patfble with the necessities of the whole ,, economic situation. For the weaker l races must have the guidance, control and sympathetic inspiration of the higher, else they will fail to do the broad world-task. the performance of which is a condition of their very exist ence. Moreover, there are very few geo. lgraphical areas to which any one divis- ion could be wholly assigned on the grounds of special physical suitability
 For example, suppose 1t were conceived that all the negroes should be concen- trated in Central Africa. But it has al- | ready been shown that there is in Gen. tral Arfrica a very extensive territory in which the conditions for permanent Caucasian residence are fully met, and as a result which the Caucasian will ul- timately occupy these regions, despite all efforts to restrain him. The noun tains. high plateaus. and elevated valleys of the tropics are as suited to the white man as any part of the temperate zone
 and he will as surely occupy them as he has already taken up all the availa- ble parts of the globe elsewhere. Entire geographical segregation therefore is practicable only to the extent that 1t can be enforced in those limited areas where the conditions strictly admit of only those peoples who are suited to them, As this will, make the different races close | ble political and commercial contact, this remedy is at best only partial, and must be supplemented by other agencies.
 The idea of complete political, social and general equality of all races in the same territory has prevailed to a certain extent in some parts of the world for half century. The constitution of the United States contemplates such a condi- ton in our own land, but even that in- strument's implied attitude is strangely controverted by the position taken by Congress toward the Chinese. who are certainly as a race as deserving of fair treatment as the negro. Of course all impartial intelligent, and candid men now admit that legislation. organic law, or any other artificial device cannot do what nature has not seen 1t to do. A silk purse cannot be made from a sow's ear, however skiIful the mechanic. Equality is a matter of fact, not of law. AS men are not born free and equal
 Jefferson wrote his declaration under the stress of the fierce war of passion, just as the reconstruction statesman wrote the last amendments to the Constitution of the United States Both documents contain the same errors, likely to arise under the circumstances of their origin
 A wiser than Jefferson wrote: "The legs of the lame are not equal; so is a parable l III the mouth or fOolS. IT nature has not l seen fit to make the legs of every man equal, why should 1t be considered that she has made each man equal to every other7 It is the fools referred to by Solo, mon who have perverted the meaning of the parable. Jefferson's dictum is a beautiful parable, and there is a sense in which his intention is entirely true But the effort to regulate the large af- fairs of State on the assumption of the universal applicability of the famous declaration is alike foolish and fraught
 with the utmost danger. As a race neith-
 CT the negroes. Indians Chinese, Malays,
 Arabs or Esquimos, are the equals of the Caucasians, and no law, or artificial regu- lation whatever can do for them what a
 wise Creator has not chosen to do. What
 is needed in the premises is not the theo-
 retic and academic granting of impraeti-
 ble legal or political privileges, but the fulilment of Pauls wise exhortation to
 servants, masters, parents, and children,
 and the obedience of the mandate, ''In
 whatsoever state am, herewith to be
 content" The apostle did not mean here to freeze the warm currents of the l "strenuous lfe' at all, but he did mean Co indicate that within those bounds in