Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1905-06-20

worth county Local.
It should be remembered that Editor Walt
err Rogers is not responsible for the pimple. We
could write some interesting chapters in that
connection.
TOM WATSON AND THE NEGRO PROBLEM.
Smith Clayton N Journal
Tom Watson, in his magazine, nailed Booker
Washington TO the cross on the negro'progess
question. Washington asserts that the negroes
sinca Linco1n's emancipation proc lamatlon have
made more progress than any other race.
X
Watson points out that that is about the only
progress the negro has ever made and, accord
ing to history, he could not have made that with
out leaning on the white man.
catch the idea from the article that the
African race started out in the world with the
same chance as the Caucasian and Mongolian-
but did nothing until ens1aved by the white man.
brought in contact with Caucasian civilization,
and then freed.
Correct you are. Go up ahead Tom.
But for all that there's nothing new in the
idea, still it is very interesting
Bob Toombs was the greatest offhand think
err this country ever produced. What he knew
was always ready to be reeled Oft.
About two years before his death,l met him
one day in front of the Big Bonanza and put this
question to him pat;
General, is the African race an inferior
racer"
Eyes, sir" exclaimed he, and that by the
fiat of Almighty"
When Noah turned loose his three sons,
Shem, Ham and Japhet, they started abreast to
to work out their God-given destiny. Shem, the
yellow man, took Asia. Ham, the black man
African, and Japh et, the white man, carrying
everything before him, penetrated to Europe.
These races all had the same chance. Shem
did little something. Ham did nothing-and
Japhet did everything. That's the whole story
in a nutshell.
"As said in fremont temple, Boston, be-
fore the war:
6 If the entire African race should be
swept from the face of the earth, it wouldn't
leave single poem, Grafton or invention worthy
the remembrance of man kind
mo, sir, Ham, laggard to the end"
That during the forty years of his freedom
the negro in America has made marvellous
progress in certain ways, is not to be gainsald-
but it cannot be denied that it has all been due
to his contact with Caucasian civilization. But,
as a race, he was certainly, though ignorant
morally, better in slavery than today. He was
taken care of as slave. His poverty and mex
perience has greatly increased his crimes, as
race, since freedom.
1 give single illustration of the universal
fact:
During the fifties, as far as know, not
single negro was in Jail in Georgia. After the
war, the penitentiaries began getting them in
large numbers. Today there are upwards of
5000 negroes in the penitentiary alone.
mention Georgia because, although there
are about 15OO 900 more whites than blacks in this
state, there are more negroes in Georgia than
any other state in the union-over 100000.
am simply giving historical facts without
the slightest prejudice.
It remains to be seen whether the progress
made by the negro in America will rebound
more to his good than his harm in the future!
The veil of that future no man can lift be-
cause history on this question furnishes no pre-
cedent.
That, in the matter of individuals, the ne