The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-03
GRAFT AND SLAVERY.

GRAFT AND SLAVERY.
 The New York Mail has reached the point where 1t seriously asks if the love darkness rather than lieht-graft and corruption in munich pal. affairs rather than honesty and an eficisnt performance of public dutyr, s
 The query is not an idle one. by any manner of means. One rarely takes up . newspaper of late days thss he does not read of municipal corruption in some form. or in many forms. and es- pecially is this true of the large cities of the North. Nunieipal honesty Is at . discount end all forms of civic rot- tenness. is the rule. It has reached point in some cities where nothing bet ter is expected or looked for and where the first question to be asked when It is announced that an ofncial has gone wrong is, How much did he gst7"
 If 1t be objected that the people tnesuselves are not responsible for mu- nici>al rottenness we shAil beg leave to differ. The people elect their ofn- cials and in . majority of cases they Ipow beforehand what manner of men they are eiecting. They know. also' that the candidate with the biggest pfle Is the one who is most likely to get the once, and on the same lne they ousht to know that if the people did not vote for him he would not stand much show to get the position And 90 1t is that the people themselves are prifnarily responsible for ofhcisl corruption. because they can put It down by refusing to elect a known dishonest man to once. And The Mail adds:
 No deeper shame could bs confessed than this. if 1t be true. Afncan sAax. ts. .iis , t: S.s,si ssas :sa: s sss'es cs ass n own 1esh and blood. was not 90 osd; bscass had t: husne .r and HslR.a sids ..e. It at aa: sny snS @ f:nssesns f;sssss s.ds {, '1~' Eli .vi eor' ruots whatever touches it.
 Of course African slavery had It's cruel side, but 1t was never half so black al it has pleased n.o4t Northern writers to paint 1t. It had it's humane 6 and helpful side. and that was it's most prominent side. for there were many more of the kindly and merciful mas- tefs than there were of the other kind. But 1t Is the admission contained in the extrsct--that slavery had a Christian, tzfne effect on the African race-that is most important, because it is tr"e. Admitting all that is charged against the slavery system. the fact stands out incontrovertibly that the result to the negroes themselves was humanizins' civtlixinx, efevating and Christianizing. 1n all the centuries that had elapsed since the creation of the world no real advance was made towards elevatins the African peoples from their condi- tion of crude savagery. That some portions of the dark continent had been brought under the influence of kind of civilization a little better than their native darkness is true, but it was only a touch of lighter-colored paint on an immense surface of black ness. When the first negroes were taken from that continent and sold into slavery they were drawn from the very lowest depths of savagery and distributed among civilized and Chris tian humanity. The day of their land ing in America marked the beginning of their emancipation from the depth. of the impenetrabie darkness of theii native condition. From that day tc this they have advanced and risen to. wards the light of knowledge and bet ter life It was Emancipation Day fol each slave when he set foot on the soil of America.
 whether there is hope that the civil. izing and Christianizing influence of African slavery may save their native land in time is a question for the flu. ture to decide. but we confess that the prospect Is not a bright one. If il were possible for large numbers oi the best class of negroes to so from the United States and become perma nent citizen ms of Africa they might pos. sibiy be instrumental in bringing thei, race from darkness to light. but even this is doubtful. The tendency seems the other way. and those who go there taking them as a whole, are more like. ly to sink back into the savagery oi their ancestors. That, however. Is tt be decided in the future We know what has been in this country, but tn, wisest may not know what will be ir Africa.