Connecticut western news., 1903-04-16
FOR WHITE SUPREMACY
Former President Cleveland's
 Stand on Negro Question.
LEAVES RACE PROBLEM TO SOUTH


 Cooperation of White NeishbOrs,
 and North Must Respect Southern
 Opinion.
 New York, April 15.-Former Presi- dent Grover Cleveland in an address in the concert hall of the Madison Square Garden placed himself une- quivocally upon a platform favoring the domination of the white man in the south, though he advocated no less wig orously the education of the negro and a fair discharge of the white mans ob- igation toward the race formerly en- slaved.
 In the audience he addressed, which filled the hall to its capacity, were strangely mingled negro men and wo- men, with many representatives of New York aristocracy. both of wealth and of brains. The meeting was called in the interest of Booker T. Washing. tons Tuskegee institute in Alabama,
 The Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott empha- sized the former presidents position when, speaking from the viewpoint of a northerner of New England proclivi ties and of abolitionist sympathies, he openly indorsed the doctrine that for the negro of the south the right of suf, frage must wait upon education.
 Mayor Low called the meeting to or der after escorting MT. Cleveland to the platform and introduced the speak CTS. MT. Cleveland's address was in part as follows:
 believe that among the nearly 9,OO0,- 900 negroes who have been intermixed with our citizenship there is still a griev- ous amount of ignorance, sad amount of viciousness and tremendous amount of lazness and thriftlessness. 1 believe that these conditions inexorably present to the white people of the United States to each in his environment and under the mandate of good citizenship-a problem which neither enlightened self interest nor the higher motive of human sympa- thy will permit them to put aside. I be- lieve our fellow countrymen in the south ern and late slave holding states, sur rounded by about nine-tenths, or nearly 800, 900, of this entire negro population and who regard their material prosperity, their peace and even the safety of their civilization interwoven with the negro problem, are entitled to our utmost con sideration and sympathetic fellowship.
 Booker WnshinEton's Policy Right.
 I am thoroughly convinced that the ef- forts of Booker Washington and the methods of Tuskegee institute point the way to a safe and beneficient solution of the vexatious negro problem at the south, and 1 know that the good people at the north who have aided these efforts and methods have illustrated the highest and best citizenship and the most Christian and enlightened philanthropy.
 I cannot, however, keep out of my mind the thought that, with all we of the north may do, the realization of our hopes for the negro must after all mainly de- pend-except so far as it rests with the negroes themselves-upon the sentiment and conduct of the leading and responsi ble white men of the south and upon the maintenance of a kindly and helpful feel ing on their part toward those in their midst who so much need their aid and en- couragement.
 I do not know how it may be with oth- CT northern friends of the negro but I have faith in the honor and sincerity of the respectable white people of the south in their relations with the negro and his improvement and we'll being They do not believe in the social equality of the race, and they make no false pretense in regard to it. That this does not grow out of hatred of the negro is very plain.
 It seems to me that there Is abundant sentiment and abundant behavior among the southern whites toward the negro to make us doubt the justice of charging this denial of social equality to preju- dice, we usually understand the word. Perhaps 1t Is born of something so much deeper and more imperious than preju- dice as to amount to a racial instinct. Whatever it is, let us remember that tt has condoned the negro's share in the humiliation and spoliation of the white men of the south during the SaturnaSia of reconstruction days and has allowed a kindly feeling for the negro to survive the time when the south was deluged by a perilous flood of indiscriminate. unin- telligent and blighting negro suffrage.
 Need of Tolerance.
 Whatever it is, let us try to be tolerant and considerate of the feelings and even the prejudice or racial instinct of our white fellow countrymen of the south, who in the solution of the negro problem must amid their own surroundings, bear the heat of the day and stagger under the weight of the white mans burden.
 There are however, other considera- tions related to this feature of the gro question which may be regarded as more in keeping with the objects and purposes of this occasion. AS friends of the negro, fully believing in the poss- bility of his improvement and advance ment and sincerely and confidently la boring to that end. it is folly for to ignore the importance of the ungrudging cooperation on the part of the white peo- pie of the south in this work, Labor as we will, those who do the lifting of the weight must ba those. who stand next to 1t.
 This cooperation cannot be forced, nor can it be gained by gratuitously running counter to firmly fixed and tenaciously held southern ideas or even preiudces. We are not brought to the point of doing or overlooking evil that good may come when we proceed upon the theory that be- fore reaching the stage where we may re directly and practically confronted with the question of the negros full enjoy ment of civic advantages or even of n! his political privileges that are imme- diately before and around us ques. tions demanding our immediate care ana that in dealing effectively with these w. can confidently rely upon the encourage ment and assistance of every thoug6ttE' and patriotic citizen of the land wAer ever he may live and whatever may be his ideas or predilections concerning the more remote phases of the negro problem.
 In summing up the whole matter there is one thing of which We can be absolute ly and unreservedly certain. When we aid Tuskegee institute and agencies Ike 1t, striving for the mental and manual education of the negro at the south we are in every point of view rendering him the best possible service. Whatever may be his ultimate destiny, we are thus help ing to fit him for filling his place and bearing it's responsibilities We are sow ing we'll in the soil at 'the bottom of life'' the seeds of the black mans devel opment and usefulness. These seeds will not die, but will sprout and grow, and If 1t be within the wise purpose of God the hardened surface of no untoward senti- ment or prejudice can prevent the burst ing forth of the blade and plant of the negro's appointed opportunity into the bright sunlight of a cloudless day
 Fund Raised For Clara Morris.
 New York, April 15.-At the testimo nial performance for Miss Clara Morris given by the friends and admirers Ot