Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-09-23
PASSING THOUGHTS ON THE NEGRO
AND THE LABOR QUESTION.

We uoO hOR(N thdS VIC Auihi 3 10
ton Societies in the Northern Neck
would find solution in large meas
ure for our labor troubles, but We
can hear OF little doing along that
line.
That the negro has almost elimi-
mated himself as helper in this
section we have been forced to con-
clude, but we have yet believed that
ultimately there would be revulsion,
or rather reaction, and he and the
Southern planter would again come
into their own-s condition for both
man and servant that was never
more happy or fraught with more
beneficial and satisfactory results. We
may never see identically the happy
conditions of both the server and
the served that obtained prior to
aud for some little time after the
war between the States. Not only
the Constitution of the United States
but the constitution of the present.
day negro precludes any such af-
tiliation and resuscitatlon. Many
industrious aud willing citizens
among that race are today deferred
from cooperating with the whites
for mutual benefit by vagabond
class that shifts from pillar to post
and lives upon thieving; by the slick
faced dude or ludene who has
travelled North and comes back to
sound its shallow pate, or by the
society wise-acre that is bleeding his
race of their little pittances while he
subsists on the earnings extracted in
the name of some laudable society.
A single one from any of these three
classes is a curse to community, to
both black and white. He Cor she)
will keep up bitter animosities
between the races, telling his color
that he is as much slave as "befo'
de wa" By some such insinuation
it is his business to keep his race
dissatisfied with service to the whites.
1t is just such class of worthless
scoundrels that give food to lynchers
and blot the good government OF
States-not all Of them south OF
Mason and Dixon's line, either. In
sizing up the negro as a servant they
should not all be put in the general
category. There are many strong
minded, sensible and industrious
ones that these 'scape-goats cannot
scare. They show backbone aud
conservative character that would
put to blush many of the whites, and
it is upon this class and their ex-
ample that our faint hopes for a
solution of the labor problem here in
future is based.
just here, lest some may think
that the Lancaster negro is not q
model to his race we. wish to say
emphatically that the negro of
this county, and its immediate en-
vlronments, is probably the best in
department, religion and industry
that we have seen in travel through
thirty-odd States. The writer has
had occasion from time to time to
pay acknowledgment to his good
citizenship, and again states, as he
has done publicly elsewhere, that
had the negroes throughout Virginia
been as good citizens ana supporters
of morality in politics as are our
negroes of Lancaster there would
never have been thought or need of
suffrage amendments. That there is
still much room for improvement we
must all admit. and it is because we
would have them better, even as we
would improve our own race, that
th. VIRGINIA CITIZEN is continually
presenting phases of the negro ques-
uJn as seen here and elsewhere. We
pay lots of attention to the whites,
good, bad and indifferent, aud since
we have more than hundred enlight-
ened negroes as subscribers We feel
that some attention is also due that
race, good, bad and Indifferent as they
may be.
There is large need of more energy
among the black race. Ia winter
the men get a living from the
water, and support the women; In
summer many of the men loaf,
while the women-some few-may
work out or go North, and thus sup
port the men. This is true of large
class. 1t is living from hand to
mouth and making no provision for
a rainy day. This class is curse to
any community. Idleness breeds
theft and greater vices, and in old
age throws them as burden upon
friends and community. The only
blessing attached to such lives is
that they are not usually of long
duration. The filth and squalor of
the incident negro's hut is a sure
breeder of disease that early exacts
ate toll. 1t is because of this nu
merous and negligent class of ne'er-
do-weils that the negro race is not
growing numerically. He easily