Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-09-16
A Gulf That Grows Wide.

- outt Uut StVWo .HtoGs
Professor Kelly Miller says: 1T Is
matter OF common observation that the
races are growing further and further
apart"
Mr.. Washington says on this point
"for the sake OF the negro and the
southern white man there are many
things In the relations OF the two races
that must soon be changed" tpage 65).
The point | raise Is that education
necessarily drives the races further and
further apart, and Mr.. Washington's
brand of education makes the gulf be-
tween them II anything little deeper.
II there Is one thing southern white
man cannot endure II Is an educated
negro. What's to be the end Of Il II the
two races are to live forever side by
side In the south?
Mr.. Washington says: Give the
black man SO much skill and brains
that he can cut oats like the white
man-then he can compete with him."
And then the real tragedy will begin.
Does any sane man believe that when
the negro ceases to work under the
direction Of the southern white man.
this arrogant" "rapacious" and "in-
tolerant" race will allow the negro 10
master his industrial system. take the
bread from his mouth. crowd him to
the wall and place a mortgage on his
house? Competition is war-the most
fierce and brutal OF all It's forms. Could
faulty reach a sublimer height than
the idea that the white man will stand
idly by and see this performance? What
will he do when put to the test? He
will do exactly what his white neigh
Dor In the north does when the negro
threatens his bread-kill him.
Abraham Lincolon foresaw this ira
gedy when he wrote his Emancipation
Proclamation. and he asked congress
for an appropriation OF a billion dol
lars to colonize the whole negro race.
He never believed Il possible to assimi-
late the negro into our national life.
This nation will yet come back to Lin
coins plan. still so eloquently advo-
Gated by the Negro Bishop. Henry NJ.
Turner
1t Is curious how the baldheaded as-
sertion OF lie can be repeated and re-
peated until millions Of sane people
will accept the bare assertion as an es-
tablished fact. Al the close Of the
war. Mr. Lincoln. brooding over the In
soluble problem of the negro's future
which his proclamation had created.
asked General Benjamin +. Butler to
t,,,o fal,
a plan To colonize the negroes. Gen
eral Butler. naturally hostile TO the
Idea, made at once his famous. false
and facetious report. that ships could
not be found TO carry the negro babies
to Africa as fast as they are born"
The president was assassinated few
days later. This lie Is now forty years
old. and Mr.. Booker T. Washington
actually repeats II as verbal inspira-
ton. though entirely unconscious af
It's historic ori~'n.
We have ~ about $500 000. 900 cn
negro education since the war One
half OF this sum would have been suf-
ficient TO have made Liberia rich and
powerful negro state. Liberia Ii cap
able OF supporting every negro In
America. Why not face this question
squarely? We are temporizing and
playing with IL. All our educational
schemes are compromises and tempor-
AIRY makeshifts. Mr.. Booker 7. Wash
ington's work is one Of noble aims. A
branch OF II should be Immediately es-
tablished In Monrovia. the capital OF
Liberia. gift OF ten millions would
do this, and establish colony Of half
a million negroes within two years.
They could lay the foundations Of
free black republic which within
twenty five years would solve our race
problem ON the only rational basis
within human power. Colonization Ii
not failure. II has never been tried.
We owe this to the negro. At pres
ent we are deceiving him and allowing
him to deceive himself. He he pes and
dreams of amalgamation. forgetting
that preservation is the first law
OF nature. Our present attitude Of
hyprocisy is inhuman toward weaker
race brought To our shores by the sins
OF our fathers. We owe him square
deal. and we will never give II to him
on this continent