The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-24


know
Thy sacred joys!"
Heigho. What would have happened if
the South had been permitted TO go out
OF the Union in peace, as Horace Greeley,
the great Yankee editor, urged when ne
said, Let the erring sisters 60" Mr.
Ernest Crosby, a man of the North with
perception and some sense of right in the
North American Review writes that
Greeley was wise, and his words as to
The South were the wisest words said
0y any Northerner at that time 1t is
urged that all the troubles now on hand
came from that war upon the South by
an overwhelming army. 1t is rather late
III the day to be urging such views, but
they are preferable to the usual abuse
and nonsensical advise given now. It is
beld by Mr. Crosby that the race ques-
tlon so far from being settled by the war,
was really aggravated by it," This is
truth so patent now as to be really
automatic. The eternal intermeddling CT
the North has kept the negro question
hot for a helf century and more. There
has been no hold-up. Let me copy q
from this wlsc, belated political
philosopher. He writes
THE spirit of war and Imperialism .
both of the devil, let me interpolate, has
never yet settled any question, except the
question as to which side is the stronger;
and now, after forty years we are begin
ming to learn''-that is the intermedding
passion-fanning North-".hat the negro
has yet to be emancipated. ii the South
had been permitted to secedc slavery
would have died natural death, the
Southerners would have felt that they had
consented to its demise, and they would
have accepted the new order with the
attitude of acquiescence which is neces
sary to the success of any social expert
ence." If the North, after the senseless,
cruel, ravaging war had ended had let
the negroes alone, instead of enfranchis-
ing them while DISTINGUISHING one-third OF
the Southern white voters, and trying to
put the illiteTate, incompetent, supersti-
tious negro in power to lord it over the
whites, there would have been no race
question disturbing and threatening the
peace and safety of the South for the last
thirty-eight years. 1t was the rascally,
fool-Congress, and the laundering stupid
press urging it on and the baleful, wick
ed blinded legislation after the war that
started the fires of passion and danger,
and the continued tanning and feeding
II these fires by Northern fanaticsm,
ignorance, presumption and greed, through
al these years, that have kept up the
trouble and made a serious, bloody con-
tiict at times almost impossible TO avoid.
So long as Northern fools and cranks try
o govern the South, and are always
seeking to infiame the passions of the
ignorant negroes, so long will there be
trouble brewing, and dangers threatening.
Let the South alone, and it will prosper
and grow in wisdom and justice, and the
condition of the blacks will be bettered
and enlarged thereby In "Gunton's Ma
gaZine' for December R. A. Bowen writes
of the Southern labor question The ere
view OF Reviews" edited by Northerner,
admits that the. Industrial conditions in
the South are still very imperfectly I'M
derstood north of Mason's and DiXons
line Very true, and so it is with many
other matters concerning the South The
North interferes and advises in ignorance
Of the true conditions. Mr.. Bowen.
Northern, seems to have made some eX-
animation of the negro labor, and admits
its unreliableness. He says that negroes
employed within a radius of ten miles
of town or village, practically own tha
owners of those places and desert them
at pleasure, whether they are house serv-
ants or field hands. Cooks who have all
their afternoons free will announce that
they are going to be absent for two or
81 convention There
is no permission asked. He says, IN
fact that the negro paralyzes the South"
He adds that "the negro, except in towns
where competition affects even his easy
gcing habits is not to be depended on.
But there ere changes going on ei
which the North knows but little, and
many in the South itself are not inform
ed The editor of the Richmond Times
some months ago went out and travelled
over several adjacent counties. He never