The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-16
CLEVELAND ON THE
BURDEN OF DIXIE
DeepSympathy forthe Whites
of the South.
NEGRO lITILt CHANGED
Cleveland Declares Booker Washington is De-
ing Much in His School TO Solve
the Probl,m That Confronts
the Nation
(By the Associated Press.)


New York, April 14.-Former President
Grover Cleveland was the principal
speaker tonight at meeting held in
the concert hall of Madison Square
Garden in the interests of the Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute
Among those on the platform with
Mr.. Cleveland were Mayor Low. who
presided; Booker T. Washington, Edgar
G. Murphy, DR.. Lyman Abbott, President
Nicholas Murray Butler and Dean ]. Van
Amringe, of Columbia; w. H. Baldwin,
Chancellor McCracken, of New York
University; John Dewitt Warner and
George f. Peabody Mrs. Cleveland sat
in the gallery with Mr. and Mrs Andrew
Carnegie, who are Mr. Cleveland's hosts
while he is in the city.
Mr. Cleveland, who was greeted with
prolonged applause as he was introduced
by Mayer Low, said:
81 have come here tonight as sincere
friend of the negro; and l should be very
sorry to suppose that my good and
regular standing in such company need
ed support at this late day either from
certificate or confession of faith. mas
much, however, as there may be differ
ence of thought and sentiment among
those who profess to be friends of the
negro, / desire to declare myself as be-
longing to the Booker Washington Tus-
kegee section of the organization. | be-
lieve that the days of Uncle Toms Cabin
are past. | believe that neither the de-
cree that made the slaves free, nor the
enactment that suddenly invested them
with the rights of citizenship any more
purged them of their racial and slavery
bred imperfections and deficiencies than
it changed the color of their skin. / be-
lieve that among the nearly nine mil
lions of negroes who have been inter-
mixed with our citizenship, there is still
grievous amount of ignorance, a sad
amount of viciousness and tremendous
amount of laZiness and thriftliness. I
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 sympathy will permit them to put
aside / believe our fellow countrymen
in the Southern and late slave-h holding
States, surrounded by about nine-tenths
or nearly eight millions of this entire
negro population, and who regard theii
material prosperity, their peace and even
the safety of their civilization inter
woven with the negro problem are en-
titled to the utmost consideration and
sympathy and fellowship. l am thor
oughly convinced that the efforts of
Booker Washington and the methods of
Tuskegee Institute point the way to
safe and beneficent solution of the vex-
atious negro problem at the South; and
| 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.
l cannot, however, keep out of my
mind tonight, the thought that with all we
of the North may do, the realization of
our hopes for the negro, must after all,
mainly depend except so far as it rests
with the negroes themselves, upon the
sentiment and conduct of the leading and
responsible white men of the South
and upon the maintenance of a kindly
and helpful feeling on their part towards
those in their midst who so much need
their aid and encouragement
II need waste no time in detailing the
evidence that the said encouragement
has thus far been generously forthcom
ing"
NO HATRED OF THE NEGROES.
81 do not know how it may be with
other Northern friends of the negro, but
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 well being.
They do not believe in the social equal
fty 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 pain. 1t seems to me that there is
abundant sentiment and abundant behav-
Tor among the Southern whites towards
the negro, to make us doubt the justice
of charging this denial of social equality
to prejudice, as we usually understand
tho word. Perhaps it is born out of
Soncthincv en- much dpppCr and more i'm