The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-30
RACE HAS ADVANCED
Ministers Discuss "Amerlca
and the Black PERIL"

America and the Black PERIL was
the announced subject for discussion last
night by a platform meeting at the Peo-
PIES church. the speakers being DR., w.
l.. Tenney, of Chicago, district secretary
of the American Missionary association
and Rev. George w. Moore, a coioTed
pastor of Nashville, Tenn, who is also
an agent of the association.
The discussion, however. scarcely
touched upon the negro problem as a
peril. but presented instead the encour-
aging aspect of the relations between the
whites and blacks.
Mr.. Moore, introduced by DR.. S. G.
Smith, pastor of the church, said that
he was the child of slave parents, that
he was born in slavery, and was liber-
ated by the abolition of slavery. lie had
been educated at Fisk university, in Ten
neSSee.
Having lived, as it were. in a historical
past, Mr.. Moore felt that he was thus
the more competent to speak of the adj
vaLcement his race had made. Men OF
whites might become discouraged: they
might point to the crime, the illiteracy of
a large body. OF negroes, and ask whether
these people had really progressed;
whether, indeed they were capable of
progressing. But men, whos like the
speaker. could remember the South of
other days, could bring to mind the ante
bellum negro. almost universally i'm
mersedi in ignorance, in ohscurity, and,
what was worse, in mental and moral
apathy that displayed no CLEAN of ambi
ton Or longing for the higher things of
life-this memory had only to be con-
trasted with the knowledge that the
speaker had of the twentieth century
us there a change, ladies' and gentle
men?" asked Mr.. Moore. Have we
progressed? Is the black man. as some
hopelessly shackled by his own inefi-
cheney as by the veritable irons that used
to scar his flesh?
Why. If the changes that have taken
place in forty years are just criterion
of our progress ia the future, 4 think /
may say that within another hundred
years We shall-but it would be unkind
of me to discourage my white friends al
together. The white man, l will admit,
has come to stay.
Seriously, my brethren. I am very
hopeful of my race. Yet do not pretend
that We have progressed uniformly or
that the majority of our people, or even
any very large proportion OF our 10000
600, have made the advances attained by
few
II do insist, however. that. as a race,
We have demonstrated our ability and our
. times stumble. though we sometimes APP
pear to retreat. / firmly believe that ultf
ma tely. in Gods providence. we shall at
DR.. TenneE described the work of the
organization he represented. The Ameri-
can Missionary association he said, was
peculiar in that it labored everywhere In
America except among the average civil
lied white men. 1t had its missions
among the Indians, the Chinese, the ne
groes. the poor white of the Southern
mountains. and among the Porto Ricans
There is a peril. nevertheless" said
DIR. Tenney. "a peril in this negro ques-
ton, a black peril to put 1t in the
foreihle terms of our programme. But
that peril lies in our neglecting our duty,
in failing to continue our good work
among the negroes
DIR. Tenney then related a Lincoln anee-
dete illustrating the value of money in
experimenting Christian effort.