The gold leaf., 1904-04-14
RACE PREJUDICE.
An Observer Of Current Events
Philosophers

MI VUSVI VCt " Vut Oul 6VOuSS
Philosophers
On the Subject as q Result Of Various
Discussions On the So.calied Negro
Problem, Lately Brought into Even
Greater Prominence Through Recent
Legislatiou-Polltical Treatment oi
Negro Unwise and Unreasonable.
EDITOR OF BALTIMORE NEws:-As @
constant reader OF current events and
a close observer of conditions about
US, l have been greatly interested iu
the various discussions OF the so
called negro problem, lately brought
into a greater prominence through
recent legislation on the subject.
1t seems to me that the most radi-
cal and chimerical views of cores
pondents on the subject come from
persons who are either densely ignO-
rant of the real conditions or are
afflicted with a sort OF namby-pamby
sentimentalism in regard to the whole
question. If a matter of fifty years
spent in the South-between the
States of Georgia and Maryland
would entitle one to have a practical
opinion on the subject. then the
writer, whose forefathers were all
slave owners, imagines that he has
sense enough to form a good idea as
to the true inwardness OF the ques-
ton. 1t is also more reasonable to
suppose that such an experience
would give one q clearer insight into
the situation, which SO vexes the
truly good negrophists OF New Eng
land and others who love the negro
at long range than those persons
who have never lived down South.
AS stated by a recent writer in the
Philadelphia Ledger, it is inexplicable
that so many of US have ignored the
feet that the negro is a man of
another race. His instincts, his capa-
bilities, his physical, mental and
moral nature are his own, and not
ours.
The negro is the product of a soil
and conditions from which the white
man was transplanted before history
began. Three or four generations
removed from parents who were saw
ages of the Congo or Senegal have
not changed the character of the ne
gro as fixed by centuries OF savage
existence. His physical organiza-
tion is not that of the Caucasian.
His moral habit is mystery to the
white man, and he is not by nature
formed in submission to law. Primi-
tive instincts, tropical passions, mo-
tions from out of the darkness of un-
reason are strong in him.
With only a rudimentary concep-
tion of social obligations, he has been
forced to undertake the part OF a free
man in a free civilization. He has
even been compelled, by one OF the
most gigantic of all historical errors
to pretend to assist in the political
administration of a nation, whose
ideals it has required the whole
history of the civilized world to
evolve.
In other words, the negro is a |
1omesticated savage, and he has
been boosted into an unnatural and
position by the fortunes
Of war. A large per cent. of the race
are mongrels, they seem to inherit
The vices and not the virtues of their
parents.
The political treatment OF the ne
gro in the United States since his
emancipation has been both unwise
and unreasonable. 1t has been based |
On a mistake so complete as to con-
stitute q national alteration. The
ruits OF it are seen every day in the
outbreak of negro crime
and it seems that the black popula-
ion is breeding terrifying numbers
of rowdies, vagabonds and brutes.
There is nothing surprising in this. |
LIS it reasonable to remove a savage
race from its environments OF un-
centuries and then presume
that it's first generations in civilized
ands will conduct themselves like q |
people trained in the arts Of civilized
life for ages in a zone which alone,
IS all history proves, progress is
possible.
And yet, some OF us expect that the
stroke OF a pen or an act OF Congress
will at once transform this domesti-
:ated savage into a proper citizen,
With civil and social rights equal to
The most enlightened. Aud when the |
majority of our thinking people rebel
1t the premium put upon ignorance
md venality, and try to put curb
upon it, at the polls, and to avoid
the enforced contact with Disagree
able persons in public vehicles; then
our sentimentalists and gooIy-goody
'olks try to make it appear that the
owly brother in black is being i'm
posed upon.
Had We not better look upon the |
negro problem as a question, not OF
but OF anthropology?
Would it not be best to recognize |
that universal race prejudice, which
s worldwide and as old as the his
tory of the human race, and bow to
the inevitable law Of the survival OF
the fittest? |
We of the South believe that we are
more kind to the race than are those |
of New England. In the Southern
States no negro is debarred from
earning an honest living in any hon.
orable occupation he is fitted for He
may be seen working everywhere, be-
side white men, and no one wishes to
stop him. When some brute commits
a horrible crime on a white woman
or q child, the neighbors speedily put