The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-08-17


ment and opportunity for development
be handicapped and environed with
insurmountable obstacles to progress
Are friction, strife, hatred, less likely
with the negro under stereotyped con
ditions of inferiority than by the rec
ognition and stimulation of whatever
capacities for progress he may pos
sess? Shall we learn nothing from
history? Do Ireland and Poland fur.
nish US no lessons?"
Wise words and wisely spoken. BY
these principles, SO eloquently enur-
ciated by our great leaders. the couil-
try will unfalteringly stand. What
ever the discouragements and seem
ing failures, the policy inspired by
Christianity and indicated by his
tory will not be reversed. And in al
the coming years that which will be
| spoken of most to the honor of the
South was that, out OF the wreck and
ruin of war, with little left but the
charred and SCARED remains of fire
and tempest, she gave with an al
most lavish hand to the education of
the negroes Every line on that page
of her brilliant history will be glo-
rious with the unstinted praise of the
civilized world.
From the declaration that educa-
ton has made the negro more inn
to dissent. There are no data or fig
ures on which to base such an in
dictment or justify such an assertion.
On the contrary indisputable facts at
test the statement that education and
its attendant influences have elc-
waited the standard and tone of NOR
ais among the negroes of the South.
The horrid crimes Will furnishau a1oI-
ogy for the too frequent expressions
of mob violence in these parallels,
are committed. almost without eXcep-
ton, by the most ignorant and
brutal of the race. I have been at not
a little pains to ascertain from repre-.
sentatives of various institutions the
post-collegiate history of their stu
dents, and l am profoundly gratified
at the record. l believe it perfectly
safe to say that not a single case of
criminal assault has ever beer
charged on a student of mission
school for negroes founded and sus-
tanned by a great Christian denomina-
ton.
ITO school the negro says GER
tain editor, "is to increase his Grim
inality. Official statistics do not lie,
and they tell us that the negroes who
can read and write are more criminal
than the illiterate. This is the I'M
States census
Now, do not hesitate to affirm that
the United States census shows I'M
mistakably exactly the opposite-thar
education has decreased crime. a
careful study of the exact figures will
show that the proportion of the negro
criminals from the illiterate class
has been 40 per cent. larger than
from the class which has had school
training. And when we consider fur
Their that it is naturally and notorious
ly easier to convict poor negro OF
any crime than white man who has
influential friends and well paid coun-
sci, the strength of the statement is
and unanswered
Joel Chandler Harris, the distiu-
SulShed author and political phlloS-
opher, and whose Interpretation OF
the Southern negro has given him
worldwide and immortal fame, in
recent article in the Saturday Even
ing Post, gives this emphatic test.
mony:
The idle and criminal classes
among them make great show in
the police court records, but right |
here in Atlanta the reputable and de- |
cent negroes far outnumber those |
who are on the lists of the police as
new or old offenders. | am bound TO
conclude from what 1 See about me,
and from what | know of the race
elsewhere, that the negro, notwitl!
standing the late start he has made
n civilization and enlightenment, IS
"a pable of making himself a useful
member of the community in which
lie lives and moves, and that he is be
coming more and more DESTROYS Of
conforming TO all the laws that have
zen enacted for the protection of So
iety"
The Hon. w. NJ. Cox, of Mississippi.
prominent in the political councils Of !
lis State, for wears a leading figure