The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-16
NORTH AND SOUTH
 MUST "GO SLOW"
NEGRO PROBLEM REoUIREs IN-
 FINITE PATIENCE AND CARE.
Much Harm is Possible-views of Two Sections of Country So Widely Divergent as to Be
 Difficult to Reconcile.

Raymond's Washington Special to chica- go Tribune.
 With all it's iniauities, with all its in- justice u the black man, the poiical situa- tion in the South Is one which should not be rashly disturbed. "Go slow" Is the best possible motto for statesmen both North and South when dealing with any of the curious political aspects of the race question. By this do not mean that there is not greater opportunity for Improvement, because there is. do mean to say. however. that the northern enthusiast or the Southern conservative who assumes rashly to disturb existing political conditions in the South must take the responsibility. perhaps, of infiict- ing vast harm upon the entire country.
 I have become deeply impressed. in studying the negro question, with the idea that the Southern man Is too close to the negro and the Northern man too far away. Somewhere between these two widely different points of view must be found ultimately the solution of the negro problem.
 Many Sides to Problem.
 At the present time that problem is so complex, 1t has so many curious rami- fications 1t involves so many side issues, 1t concerns such vast interests for the welfare of mankind itself, that it should be approached only with great delibera- tion Southern people are absurdly touchy on the negro question, but, on the other hand. northern people are prone to ap- ply to the South strict rules of absract justice which would never obtain In the North. There is no possible doubt of the fact that If in New York or Illinois half or two-thirds of the people were black men the white contingent would rule them none the less. and it would proba- bly do 1t by methods quite as repugnant to ordinary ethics as anything which has been adopted in the Southern States. | l do not believe any intelligent, fair minded, and liberal Northern man can spend even few months in an exclusive investigation of the race question without becoming convinced, as I have become convinced, that the granting of suffrage to the negroes immediately after the war was horrible blunder.
 Many Fitted for Suffrage.
 Here and there one may find an abund- ance of negroes who are eminently fitted to exercise the right of suffrage There are thousands of them. and they are not l at all confined to the college progessors or the philanthropists. The negro schools have been, and still are. turning nut a class of educated black men and women | who are born in America, who are acquir- ing property interests. and who have quit enough education to enable them to make an intelligent use of the ballot. It must be remembered none the less that the great mass of the negro population of the South. embracing many millions of men and women. is not wholly unfitted to exer- else the right of suffrage, but if given the ballot at this stage in their race history would undoubtedly become a menance to the welfare of the nation
 There Is vast deal of difference be- tween Professor Dubois of Atlanta Uni versity and the half savage laborer In the rice fields, or in the cotton islands on the Atlantic coast. The dificulty of the problem lies in the fact that for every Booker Washington there are about BOO . 900 debased and .dehasing negroes. Rough ly speaking, one-ninth of the population Iof the United States Is made up of negroes of various degrees of blackness. In the Southern States they constitute an actual majority of the population in vast num- Der of counties and Congressional dis tricts. L
 Legalsvote q Balance of Power.
 The negro vote If cast solidIy and counted honestly, would elect enough Uni ted States Senators, in all probability. to become balance of power in that body. They would elect large per centage of the members of the House of Represnta tives from the So.thern States. The re- suit would be that all Of the property in- terests of the South would practically be olsfranchised. Even without the evils of | carpet bagism, 1t is easy to figure out that within few years after the appli- cation of an unqualified manhood suffrage Tor the negroes, they would control the Southern States politically. socially and morally, and would either destroy the cuI- tured. wealthy whiae class or drive it Northward.
 The existence of such busy commercial and industrial centers as Atlanta and Bir. mingham Is absolutely dependent upon the brains, the energy. and the capital of the white man. Withdraw these, and the cotton mill. the blast furnace, and even | the fields of cotton, cane and corn would have to be abandoned. The negro as a race in America is hundreds of years ahead of his brother in Africa, and that | Is much to his credit but that does not alter the fact that he Is thousands oi years behind his white neighbor.
 Equal Rights Not Equal Justice.
 It is simple thing to stand in a Northern pulpit or sit in Northern office chair and speak or write about equa rights, the genius of the American con. stitution, and the beauty of a free ballot but the political situation in the South is not a matter of theory. but of fact. If fl happens to come in conflict with ouI American institutions, so much the worse for the institutions. Looked at from the standpoint of theory the existing political situation in all of the Southern States is g cruel outrage and a manifest violation of the basic principles of the declaration of independence. but when you look al the thing in the light of social, commer cial and moral conditions 1t Is easy to See as l have seen. that to disturb present conditions rashly. to listen to the voice of ignorant Northern demagogues, woulC be disastrous. first to the white man. bu ultimately and most completely to tn, black man.
 As a result of my travels throughou the South have become more and nor, impressed with the fact that the hest in terests of the negro are not in any wal Identified with politics. Whether he ha or has not the ballot is a matter whicl