Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-01-26
THE RACE QUESTION AGAIN.

Will the democratic party attempt to
make the race question an issue in the
coming campaign? Have the demo
Gratis of the south responded to the
crack of the German whip for the op.
preston of the negro and will they
under his leadership wage the bat
tie for the presidency? Incredible as
such propositions may seem the posi-
ton taken by many southern demo,
cratic leaders gives rise TO the above
queries. For a year past north and
south, there has been special attention
called to this matter. As the result OF
this discussion there seemed to be a
general consensus of opinion that the
negro question must have many years
for it's settlement, that legislation
alone would not suffice to effect sat
I isfactory outcome
| In opposition to this popular verdict
comes now Governor Vardaman of
1 Mississippi in his inaugural address
| declaring that the present education
! Of the negroes has served only to
make criminals, to cause them TO de-
sire social equality and advocating rad
ical legislation in the treatment of this
question. even to the repeal of the lif-
teenth amendment of the federal con-
stitution. In this connection Governor
| Vardaman says:
AS a race, the negro is deteroriat-
ing morally every day. Time has de-
monstrated that he is more criminal
as a free man than as slave; that he
| is increasing in criminality with fright
| full rapidity, being one-third more Grim
! inal in 1890 than in 1880. IS In
| south Mississippi particularly know
he is growing worse. You can scarce
\ ly pick up newspaper whose pages
are not blackened with the account of
an uncomfortable crime committed by
a negro brute, and this crime want
to impress upon you is but nantes
| tation of the negro's aspiration for So
cial equality, encouraged largely by
! the character of the free education in
vogue, for which the state is levying
tribute upon the white people to main
| tain"
If Governor Vardaman has been cor
rectly quoted in the Geographic dis
patches he does not go far enough
back in history in the discussion Of the
negro question. Transplanted from
the barbarism of the African jungIes
the negro was forced to spend the
first several hundred years of his life
in this country in bondage. Kept i'll
ignorance this people was forced to do
mental labor under the crack of the
lash. Not only were these people kept
in subsection physically, but SO far as
morals were concerned, they remained
in the lowest strata Then came the
emancipation proclamation by which
the millions of this race were set at
liberty and the fifteenth amendment
gave to them all the rights and privi.
leges of American citizens.
With their previous history and
training it could only be expected that
their progress would be exceedingly
slow. Hundreds of years would be
necessary to bring them UP TO the
standard of literacy possessed by their
fair skinned fellow citizens, If they
should ever be able to obliterate the
great lead then existing. Not half a
century has passed and yet the colored
people Of the United States have made
remarkable progress. AS a race they
have removed themselves far from
barDarism and ignorance by which
they We're once inthralled Literacy
and thrift has become more common.
Though slowly, tho negro is coming to
more intelligent citizenship.
That the crime which Governor Var
daman mentions is evidence of de-
sire on the part of the colored people