Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-02-06
CONCERNING vARDEMAN.

We had thought to make extended
comment upon the address of Gov.
VARDEMAN before thesMississippi legis.
lature, but, finding that the day of the
extremist has passed and that conserva-
tive white men are as forward in COM
demning such uncalle-dfor utterances
as thoughtful colored ones, we deemed
it advisable to cite a few of the COM
ments made by white Democratic Jour.
mails which, as a rule, have an antip ,thv
to the people whom this official has so
wantonly assailed.
The Richmond, Va, NEws-LEADER
in its issue of Jan. Goth, 1904, said:
Governor James X. Vardeman. of
mississippi, IN his inaugural address de.
nvered yesterday, declared that educa.
tlon is running the Negro race. He as
serted that the commission by Negro
men of uncomfortable crime is an ex-
preston of desire for racial equality
and that the Negro becomes more Grim.
lnal as he becomes more intelligent.
Governor Vardeman's declarations
ano doctrines are much more sensatio
al than Just or sensible. Mistaking co.
medicines for cause and effect is an old
aud familiar fault of shallow Ignorance.
Perverting condolences TO make them
appear cause and effect is au old and
cheap trick of demagogues and ouacks.
few years ago we had argued to us
from very high sources that because
prices OF wheat, cotton and silver had
risen and fallen about the same time
the prices of cotton and wheat depend
ed on the price Of silver"
The above is caustic language, but it
nullified Gov. VARDEMAN's statistics
when it con tin ued:
Governor Vardeman SAYS the statis-
tics prove that in New England.
where the Negro is most generally edu-
Gated, he is most generally criminal.
therefore education makes the Negro n
criminal, he tells us. We could prove
precisely by the same method that edu-
cation destroys the white man morally
1t is unquestionably true that in COM
munities where nobody can read or
write forgery is an unknown crime. We
could demonstrate by statistics and OBJ.
vlo1s facts that in janis and penitentia-
rles there is less crime than anywhere
else in the world. The inmates do not
have the opportunity for crime. The
Negro as a slave was watched, guarded.
managed and punished like a child, and
he bad little more than the child's oppor-
tunities for crime. 1t is a wonder
that Governor Vardeman did not carry
on his course of intelligent reasoning
and protest against the decree of the AL
mighty that human beings must grow
to Intelligence and maturity; for as
children all of us are innocent. The
statistics will prove beyond doubt that
maturity morally destroys humanity,
because under the age of six the erimin-
ais and offenders against morality are
few and over that age they are many.
''In all the histories of the world
pastoral, primative, unsophisticated
people have been innocent and law
abiding as compared with the busy,
progressive, informed people of the
cities. We are told that in the DAYS of
King Alfred, of England, along about
the year SS3. virgin could walk from
one end OF England to the other unat-
tended with purse of gold in her hand
in perfect security. Then nobody in
England, outside the inconsistencies, could
read or write To-day a virgin unat-
tended and with a purse of gold in her
hand would hardly be safe walking 500
yards in England. Therefore, accord
ing to Governor Vardeman, education
has been curse to the English-speak-
ing race. and the sooner we put the torch
to school-houses, universities and col
leges, slaughter the professors and teach
ers and leave learning to the monks, the
better it will be for our morals"
The above is good reading, but what
follows is equally so:
Statistics show beyond question that
in New England and the Northern
States crime among white people is
very much more general than it is i'm
the South. In the South the ignorant
white people are many and in the North
they are FEW. According to the sagaci-
Gus Vardeman. this is conclusive evi
dence that education is a curse not only
to the Negro, but to the white man.
Men and brethren, let us lay hands on
books and schools together. Obviously,
If Vardeman be right, the thinkers and
teachers of all the world have been
wrong these centuries and education,
instead of blessing, is deadly curse.
Let as work ourselves and our children
back to idiocy and isolation as fast as
possible, because those two conditions
mean innocence, while activity and
knowledge mean crime"
This is sarcasm and irony with a
vengeance.
1t continued:
1--WE cannot comprehend the methods
OF thought Of the white people who con-
tend that the Negro should be denied