The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-11-13

"The machine'' last Tuesday acted
much like the thresher when someone
carelessly runs monkey wrench thru it.
A Negro Champion.
The furious controversy which in war
times ragged round the question whether
the negro had soul has given place
in our day to a discussion whether he
is capable of civilization equaling that
of the white race. 1t is convenient for
the white man to calmly affirm the
doctrine of essential inferiority and
let the advocate of the negro prove the
opposite if he can.
One of the most rabid baiters of the
negro is Thomas Dixon, Jr., who is said
to have some vogue as a writer. One
of the cleverest negro publicists Of the
day appears to be Mr.. Kelly Miller, of
Howard university, who has recently
undertaken to answer Mr.. Dixon. Evl-
IDENTIFY the work was to the negroes
taste If the decision could be made
on single example the negro, on the
basis of this correspondence, would be
voted the superior race both in talent
and in manners, for the colored brother
from Washington does not leave
enough of the white romancer to make
q decent funeral.
Yet neither Of them has settled the
main question, since neither of them
could. Time alone will determine
whether the negro is, as Mr.. Miller con-
tends, merely a backward race with all,
the latent possibilities Of superior &C
ton, or. as Mr.. Dixon asserts, an in
ferior race which must always remain
inferior.
It is interesting, however, to note
what strides the negro has made since
he emerged from the barbarism of
slavery Capacity, says Mr.. Miller, is
a potential rather than dynamic mode
been permitted a favorable environ
ment, has accomplished wonders. With
in forty years the negro has cut down
his illiteracy 80 per cent; has produced
a professional class numbering more
than $4,000, including ministers, teach
ers, doctors, lawyers, editors, architects,
| authors, engineers. Negro inventors
have taken out more than four hundred
patents as contribution to the me-
chanical genius of America. In the
south. where the principal crop is cot
| ton, about one-third Of it is produced
by negro proprietors.
All Of these examples of achieve
ment are the result of a little more
I than a generation of freedom.
Mr.. Miller puts them against the fact
that when Pericles was the orator an'd
ruler of Athens the ancestors of Goethe
and Shakspere were living in caves anc
subsisting On raw fish. The entire diff
ference between the Greek and the Ger
man was the difference in the time OF
starting. With these examples of the
triumphs Of the negroes in the past forty
years before us, it is as possible tt
argue that they are remarkably apt
race as to continue to taunt them will
their infericrity. "But all the achieve
ments Of the negro,' we are told, care
but the reflection. of white civilization
When they were returned to Liberia
they reverted to barbarism.' How
much does the present white civilization
owe to past white civilization, and how
many examples are there of the rever
SION Of the white race to barbarism? I
we could say that our whit
civilization is all our own. pro
duction and that none of it Il
veneer, we might argue the inferiorit.
of the negro or Of any other race whic1
has inhabited the earth, but the Cauca
sian can make no such boast.
The problem Of the relations of tn
two races in America is a battling one
The idea Of amalgamation is repugnant
at present the thought Of social equalit
is not tolerated anywhere. The me
of the south resent violently the idea O
political equality. Destiny holds vel
between us and the future Of the race i
America, but, as Mr.. Miller we'll point
out, we are not concerned with destiny
but with duty. One of the duties o
Mr.. Thomas Dixon. Jr., as Mr.. Miller Sc
verely calls to his attention, is to weig
his words and to cease fomenting racis
hatred. That 8 where the negro s &C
: vice is wiser than the white mans pei
Torrance.
.