The Savannah morning news., 1904-07-07
THE RACE auEsTIoxIN rwo BILLS.


There are two bills pending in the
| Legislature which deal with the race
| question. One provides that there shall
! be separate cars for negroes on steam
and street railways and the other pro-
| vides for a separation of the school
| fund, the white schools getting the
school tax paid by the white taxpayers
and the negro schools getting the
school tax paid by the negro taxpay-
| ers.
The wisdom of these bills is ques-
tionable. They should not be acted up
! on hastily. Their Importance is so
great that it would be well for this
Legislature to refer them to the next
with request that the people give
them thoughtful consideration, and ex-
press their views of them to the SEN
ators and representatives of their re-
spective districts and counties.
Thus far Georgia has taken no step
against the negroes of which they
have a right to complain. She has not
taken the ballot from them nor has
she taken from them any other right
to which they are entitled. There is,
therefore, the best of feeling between
the whites and blacks.
It seems to us that the question of
separating the races in the street cars
is largely a local one. We have no
doubt that there are many people in
this city who would welcome such
separation, but would it, in the long
run, be for the best interests of all
parties concerned. We doubt very
much if it would. The negro
population is large and a big
element of the white popu-
lation is hard to control. 1t would be
difficult to prevent white people from
entering cars set apart for negroes
when cars for the whites were crowd
ed, or, if the cars We're divided into
compartments, it would be well-nigh
impossible to keep all white men out
of the part of the cars set apart for
negroes when no seats were to be had
in the part intended for the whites. If
the regulation were broken by whites
the negroes would also break it, and
then there would be trouble of a Sc
rious character.
And the trouble would be continuous.
1t would finally reach a point where
women and children would be afraid
to venture on the cars at times when
there was likely to be many negro
passengers. If there must be legis-
lation on this subject of separate cars,
let it be such as will permit the local
authorities to decide whether or not
they want separate cars in their re-
spective communities.
The idea of separating the school
fund has been a popular one in this
state for a long time, but whenever,
it has been proposed to enact it into
a law the level-headed leaders of the
state have been against it. and have
succeeded in preventing a distribution
of the school fund so that the negro
schools would have to depend wholly
upon taxes paid by negroes.
OF course, if the negro schools had
to depend on the taxes paid by people
of their own race these schools would
soon become practically worthless. One
result of this condition of affairs would
be that the negroes would become dis
satisfied and sullen, and the relations
between the races would be anything
but pleasant. Another result would be
a movement of negroes to other South
ern States, and for years to come the
farmers would find it difficult to get
al, % 60
Those who have land to rent would
find it practically impossible to rent IT.
No doubt that. in time, white immi-
grants would take the places aban-
doned by negroes, but it might be years
before farmers could get all the help
they wanted.
These are some of the reasons for
letting matters pertaining to the race
question alone for the present-until
at least, the necessity for taking some
action in regard to them becomes
more pressing than it is now.
There is no use going into the ques-
ton as to whether or not the negroes
indirectly pay a big percentage of
the school tax. II is certain at least
that their labor contributes largely to
the wealth from which the tax is paid
In reaching a decision in regard to
these questions involving race issues
the interests of society generally
rather than individual interests and in
clinations should be considered Hasty
action might be productive of mistakes
that couldn't be easily corrected.
Can a wilder. more exciting race be
imagined that that between the rail-
way train and the tornado. reported
in our dispatches yesterday? And
what an amount of nerve and quick
thinking was required of the engineer!
1t is true that he lost. His train was
blown from the track and wrecked, and
one man was killed and several injur-
ed; yet il is to be recalled to the credit
Of the engineer that he made plucky