Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-06-03
HAVE CHINESE In THE SOUTH.

hh ~ VlliNIuU lN I'LL OUUln,
10 meet the problem of the South
the problem of the form without
color of the ignorant aud shiftless
black, of the landowner handicapped
for lack of capable material, out of
which to mould his staff of employes
who are to till the soil and deyelop
the territoiy-to meet this yery grave
condition and overcome it, the Rev.
j. j. Lafferty, ID. D., editor of the
Christian AdUOcate, would import in
to this section of America one hun
dred thousand selected Chinese who
are to work for twenty years and
then return to the far East.
DIR. Lafferty discusses South Africa
and cudgels the Epglishman right
vigorously for his treatment of the
Beers who were forced to 'trek and
trek" until they got tired of treking,
and turned around and licked John
Bull few times. The editor ridi
cules the howl raised against the
Beers that they were Shareholders
"that is, made the black savages work
and would not allow loafing and
laziness." He scores "the London
fanatics" and reduces the black man
to the very lowest scale. When the
British won the fight because the
ammunition and the resources of the
Beers were exhausted, every negro
was "given his freedom" and Exeter
Hall, London, the menagerie of every
wild idea, screamed, beloved, and
brayed it's JOY"
''Around every town and city the
freedmen collect in huts, lay in lazi-
ness under the sun from dawn to
dewy eve refusing to work, while his
wife scrubs and washes and tends a
potato patch. He is a thief, loafer,
infested with vermin, and inviting
dlsease-growing worse and worse.
Missionaries from various denomina-
tions have labored for years among
the Africans, spending money with.
out stint erecting churches and
schools. We learn from letters of
Editor Palmore of the st. Louis .Ad.
vOcats, now in South Africa, that the
bulk of the negro Baptists, PreSby-
terians, Episcopalians, ETC., have
since freedom quit these churches
and joired negro denomination,
gone to themselves and going back
to their old habits of superstition,
witohcraft aud vileness. The mis-
sionares, sacrifice of good men, are
all likely to end in waste, loss,
failure ~
Under a subcaption "Facts VS..
Fanaticism," DR.. Lafferty shows that
the freedman" is worthless and that
South Africa is sinking backward
for lack of reliable labor. Lord
Miner and his council propose to in
troduce Chinese labor, to bring them
to South Africa on an apprentice
contract of twenty years, and then
return each one TO China. Here is
where DR.. Lafferty gets his idea, and
he puts it at once to use. He says
it is time to shut up "the experiment
stations" with the negro, who is a
failure. America should profit by
South Africa's experience-South
Africa with her Chinamen, who are
admirable workers and "live on the
rations of tame squirrel and the
wages of dime a day."
"And this" continues DIR. Lafferty,
''is the solution ofour negro problem"
The European emigrant will not
come South to be associated with the
negro. The Northern and Western
man farm hand class) has antipathy
to the negro. Our landowners, the
tiliers of the soil, cannot get farm
labor. They are handicapped"
Why should not 100000 selected
Chinese be brought to the South for
term of twenty years? They are
heathens. Give them this chance to
learn the true religion. Away from
their pagan temples, associates,
customs, our religion would have
better access to them. The encir-
cling pagan by Christian civiliza-
ton is great lever to lift him. He
returns to China, perhaps, Chris
tian. A Chinaman is miser. He
goes home ga capitalist" He will
bring the influence Of his financial
position to bear on his neighbors in
Pekin and elsewhere. A genuine
convert among the Chinese sticks.
China must be converted by Chinese.
The addition of such an amount
of steady, patient and intelligent
labor would give the South bulge
forward. 1t would be blessing to
the victims of hunger in the East, a
double mercy to them. And to the
South, it would give, if not solu-
tion to the problem" of black laZi-
ness, at least relief to our people.
Johnny Wise is right. The Ameri.
can white man of 1904 is tired of
the negro.
No backward race ever had such a
chance. The "chosen people" never
enjoyed the advantages of the negio
race. Savages for millenniums;
brought away from their degrading
environments, they were matricu-
lated in a school of industry, self
control, civilization, Christianity.
Since "freedom," what sums wrung
from ruined white men and poured
out by "philanthropists" (touched
with fanaticism) have been spent on
these sons of recent cannibals,
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