The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-18


 and shades of possessions. 1t is claim l ed by the negroes themselves that they have one million educated people able to cope with the best type of European. This they claim to be the result of for ty years of the life of freedom. Before the war closed the class known as free negroes owned forty-five millions of property. When we stop to consider that in the last eighty years the world has gotten together more money than
 was hitherto gotten together in the
 whole history of man; when we stop to
 consider that in that same period what
 is known in the modern world as great
 cities have been built; that prior to that
 London was hut a big country town and
 Paris was not large, Berlin was but village Chicago had meyer been dream ed of; when all this money and building
 in America of the great cities Is to be placed against the attainment of the negro. his property holdings appear pitt fable. I
 "In all the cities of the South there are sections where the poorer negroes dwell, the names of which indicate the character of the habitation. This char acter of dwelling works a hardship on the better class of negroes who by in- dustry and economy are selecting a bet ter home life. Nevertheless 1t shows
 
 negro where his holding of property even will indicate anything like equali- t with the white man. In the city of St. Louis. on one street. as I recall. the investment of negroes in property blights all property that Is adjacent thereto. The contrast to any thinking person is so marked, as you recall the splendid homes that have been built by the white man in all the cities of Ameri- ca, the business that has been built up by him. as to make one ask the ques- tion. Has the nekro attained anything at allY Put over against his three hundred million the entire accumula- tion of wealth even in the Southland since 1865; recall that one hundred and ten million dollars have been voluntari- iy spent by southern whites on his edu- cation, more than one-third of all his accumulation; contrast the white mans banking institutions with the negro's institutions. and Is it right to | let him think he is working out his sal vation on these lines?
 The effect that the mistaking of the situation is having on the minimizing. don't-care class of negroes is becoming 1 appalling. Just the other day lady 1 requested a servant to remain in her | house while she attended the funeral of | a relative. stating that if she did so she | would not require her to wash the dish | es and would give her the next day as a l holiday with full pay. Her reply was. | T can't do that; I have got to go to tho | dentist This is due to the fact that | they have been led to believe they are | destined to go into a life of privilege | In an exceptional way. The situation. | as many see 1t in the Southern cities | now, is that a large class of negroes live because they are fed by negro | cooks kept up on the earnings of car porters and negroes who take jobs. | places that are surely destroying his life and taking away his hope, because | of his likeness and his shriftlessness. And still his northern friends will in sist that he is making such progress as | eventually will work out his salvation. It is becoming more difficult to get the | negro to see that every one becomes a | menace to a community inf1icts hard- ship on those of the race who seek to | 10 observe those lines that must ever. livide the races in this country. It is this persistent placing of burdens on 8 | child race that he cannot bear and are difficult even to as highly a civilized | man as a Saxon to bear that makes the | hopelessness of the situation To ex- | pect such results from a race that has | | ue, nor ruined temple, nor code of laws. | nor revelation, nor achievements in all | the past, is to be unreasonable in the | present. \ How Came It sOP
 'Tn the face of these facts, which | none can successfully deny. the ques- ion is pertinent. How did the negro | ever come to such a plightT and the | answer is, Through mistaken kindness | Aa vt nP hfa frto do pA tr1fu l tice on the part of his ehemies.'
 First, the north legalized slavery; | second. they insisted on giving the | franchise to the race and put the ne- gro under responsibilities that the An slo-Saxon could hardly bear For for .y-five years his supposed friends have in making him believe that ! they could bring him to point of equality with his white neighbor, and, md as indicated. the theory of Book er Washington is nothing short of this. | He says to the southern people that hc Is striving for the negro to keep his place until he fits himself. He says to the northern people that the negro is oppressed. But the question is. For, what is the negro to fit limselfT
 The answer is the well-worn an- swer the northern people have been giving since the civil war, namely. to live on an equality with the white race. Now is the time when every friend of he black man-and I claim to be his urge the shiftless negro 10 stop his dreaming and come to the that his racial ideas are inferior to those of the race beside which he Is living, and that he must never hope to sit again on juries or to again acquire positions given him by he federal government at the close of he war. If he will take his place and 10 his work. any kind of work he can get to do, if he will teach his women hat they must recognize that they are lying in the midst of dangers and all theories of education can never lift .hem to safety unless they themselves conform to the rules of life that bring safety to every other race.
 A Grave Issue.
 Let me undertake to point out how grave the issue Is. Great changes are now taking place; we are living In the times of the greatest happenings in the race of man; no part of the world Is being more rapidly changed than the south. where the negro has his home As I have indicated, the American peo- ple always refused to take this question seriously and yet. as I see it. 1t is the supreme question before the public. Two conclusions have been arrived at by many thinkers on the subject. Re- ,entlyThomas Nelson Page, fin his book on the negro, says: The solution of the question must be along one or the other of two unes-that the negro race must remain distinct and keep to itself or 1t must he removed to some other region, whether within or without the confines of the United States.