The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-09-03
RACE QUESTION AGAIN.

The lynching of negro at Laramie, Wyo, one
day this week, brings mob violence almost to our
very doors. The crime for which this wretch risked
his life is the same the one for which the negro
was burned at the stake not long ago in Georgia
With sure and horrible vengeance staring them in
the face, these black manacs commit rape and muir
der their victims without a single thought beyond
the one of bestial qualification. No fear will stop
the crime No appeal TO and law is needed
by an avenging mob. And so sure as the crime is
committed, so sure will a mob gather and inAict
torture that makes one shudder to even think
of it.
Then where Is the sense III admonishing to
abide by the decision of the law. when they are
prone to turn a deaf ear to entreatv? And who
tell but that the very persons who raise their
voices loudcst for law might be the first to violate
it if they were put in the other mans place? Such
is human nature. Such are the promptings of hui
man passion.
These crimes only intensity the race question.
The indignation, the same methods for exp-
alton, exist North as we'll as South but happily,
here they infrequent. Perhaps the ncgro's en-
viromnent in this latitude has much to do with
the SOLDERING up of his morals. He is only small
fraction of the population. Ia portions of the
South, particularly in the BLACK Belt he OUT
numbers the whites three to one
1t makes one impatient to listen to partisan
complaints Of Southern treatment of the blacks
The negro question should be one distinct from
politics, and it is made political question by men
of the North for campaign buster. These complain
that the laws nhibitng franchise except upon edu-
Il
ticc to the negro. Let them fit the Southern shoe
to their foot. How long would Illinois, or In
diana, any Northern state, submit to a govern
ment placed in power by the votes of negroes! In
deed has any Northern state honored negro by
any office above that of dog catcher! The South
feels that the presence of negro labor is indis-
pensable 10 her industrial progress, but demands
only that in her relation to the she shall have
a free hand. And she certainly ought and does.
exercise that right.
AN Old Abolitionist." in the New York Sun,
presents old solution of the negro question;
nevertheless, it is new because it comes from an
abolitionist. 1t spells one word-Exodus lie
says:
If the only views that to prevail relate to the
negrO'S present condition part of American So
cety then il may be taken for granted shat in the
south just long lust OF the black man as
saults the honor of the white woman. black Gu
pdity leads 10 the murder of the whites, Just so long
will negroes be burned at the stake Yet all this
might be prevented if north and south could only
come into harmony. There is complete solution;
but it lies only within the OF the nation South
ern statesmen. like John Temple Graves Georgia.
have advocated this solution with tongue and pen:
leaders of the negro race. like Bishop Henry NJ.
Turner Of the same state, plead for it the only
possible door of hope to the despised and outcast
descendants of slaves II is the solution of Exc
us 1t asks that laying aside all questions party
the national government shall make it possible for
every black under 80 years Of age, who so de-
sires. find in Africa that degree of opportunity
that social equality the freedom from prejudice
the chance for political advancement. the essential
elements of happiness which he feels he is en-
not aspire. Only in Africa, the land of his ances-
tors. may the black find that reality of freedom
which he desires; only when he has gone, and the
white labor of Europe fills his place, may hope to
lifted from America the stigma of awess ferocity
which adheres TO her today.
Words wasted The South wants the negro in
its fields, and the negro has no intention or desire
to leave those fields. Negro labor is profitable to
planter and congenial to field hand, providing the
field hand is treated well (Which he usually isl or
otherwise is broke (Which also frequently happens)
Therefore the negro will never go to Africa or any
other country. He was brought here slave He
was emancpated but Lincoln's act did not change
his skin, nor did it better his condition. Indeed,
the slave of the old days was better off, in many