The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1904-01-27
ylRDlNAN'S STRONG VIEWS
NEW GOVERNOR soF MISSISSIPPI
MAKES SENSATIONAL ADDRESS.
o,o blacks Get Worse Instead of Better,
Says o'@ON' Wv
and Assault Upon Women is caueed
gv Desire for Social Equality

pv 0esire for Social Equality.
T. his inaugural address, delivered
hofore a Joint session of the two houses
1.-THE Mississippi legislature, Governor
ronas.E. Vardaman declared that the
laying tendency of the negro to COM
-. criminal assault or white women
:, ,othing more nor less than the man
;fostations of the racial desire torso
al oona)itv. In strong terms he &C.
dared that education is The curse OF
the regro race, and urged an amead-
roant to the state constitution that
will place theIdistrib9tion of the com-
uoon school fund solely within the pow
~ If tine legislature. Continuing hiG
discussion of the negro question, Gov
ernor Vardaman said:
GAS race he is deterioratng NOR
aIIv every day. Time has demonstrat-
Oh that he is still more criminal as a
froo man than as a slave, that he is
increasing in criminality with fright
ml rapidity, being one-thlrd more
criminal in 1890 tkan he was in 1880.
EDUCATED MORE CRIMINAL.
uTbe startling facts revealed by the
census show that chose who can Gead
and write are more criminal than the
iIiterates, which is true of the other
element of our population. I am &d-
vised that the minimum illiteraey
among the negroes is found in New
England, where it is 2l.7 per cent.
The maximum Is found in the black
bel5-Louisiana Mississippi and South
Cspollna-where it is 69.7 per cent.
And vet the Negro in New England is
four and one-half times more criminal,
hundred for hundred, than he is in the
black belt In the south, Mississippi
particularly, l know he is growing
worse every year. You can scarcely
pick up a newspaper whose pages are
not blackened with the accounts OF an
uncomfortable crime committed by
negro brute, and this crime / want to
impress upon you is but the maQifes-
tatior of the negroes aspiration for
social equality, encouraged largely by
the character of free education In
vogue In the state by levying tribute
upon the white people TO maintain it,
tCHANGE PLAN OF EDUCATION.
"The older classes of negroes are
not responsible tor this terrible cOndi'
ton or for the criminal tendency OF
their race. Nor do | wish to be under
stood as consuming them for it. am
not censuring anybody, nor am | in
spired by i'll will for the negro, but |
am simply calling attention to most
unfortunate and undeniabIe condition
of affairs. What shall be done about
it? Simply something must be done.
My own idea is that The character of
education for the negro ought to be
changed If, after years of earnest
effort and the expenditure of fabulous
sums of money to educate his head we
have only succeeded in making Grim
mai out of him ana imperiling his
usefulness and efficiency as laborer,
wisdom would suggest that we make
another experiment and see if we can
not improve him by education of his
hand and his heart. There must be
moral sub-stratum upon which to build
or you cannot make desirable citi-
zen."
This is the essence of the platform
on which Governor Vardaman was ell
ecEed in the state campaign last sum-
mer.