The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-07-26
Is the Black Man
Superior to the White ?
Tom Watson Answers Booker Washington

/ During the tlOuSanQ years IN WDlcl
the whites were painfully creating
the civilization which you now enjoy
your race, in its native home, wa:
doing pretty much the same thing:
which the red race was doing in NORTH
America. Your people were running
about in the woods, naked, eating
raw meat, elernally at war-tribe will
tribe in ignorance, vice ant
superstition, with an occasional lapse
into human sacrifice and caDnibalism
Your race, az a race, is free Dow IN
Africa, as it has been since the dawn
of history:-where is the civilization
which it worked out for itself? 1t does
not exist, it never did exist.
The negro has been absolutely un'
able To develop a. a race when left tC
himself. Nowhere, at any time, has
he developed system of agriculture
or commerce, or manufactures, made
headway in mining or engineering, OF
conceived system Of finance. Never
has he produced system of laws, in
stitutions of state, religious organiza'
ton, or worked out political ids al
Never has he created literature, OF
developed original capacity for the
fine arts. His foot has never even
crossed the threshold Of the world OF
CREATIVE painting, sculpture, music,
architecture. Into the real ms OF
science, in the domain of original
thought, in the higher reaches of men.
tai power where the human mind
erspples with vast problems material
and spiritual, the problems OF TINT
and eternity, the negro has never en-.
tered. No word has ever fallen from
his lips that was not the echo of what
some white man had already said.
He has sometimes put his foot in the
white mans track, but that is the best
be has ever done.
Compare this initiative race with
the great Latin stock stock from
when sprang Rienzi and Garibaldi,
Cavoue and Napoleon, Da Vinci and
Galileo, Savonarola and Leo the Tenth
Titan and Bellini, Raphael and
Michelangelo.
The Latin race, whether in Spain,
Italy or South America, has develop
ed systems of agriculture, finance,
commerce, manufactures, education,
religion, government has created liter
ature, laws and institutions of state,
has evidenced capacity in science and
art.
The negroes superior to the Latin!
Heavens above!
During the thousand years which
Doctor Washington says that the Lat
ins have done less than the negroes
have done in thirty, Spain rose into
world-power, donated The European
Continent, shook England's throne to
its base, broke the Turkish scimitar in
the great sea fight of Lepanto, evolv-
ed a splendid literature, reached the
highest development in the Fine Arts,
launched Columbus upon his voyage
into unknown seas to test the sugges-
ton of another Latin-TCscaneli and
thus took the first daring step in that
marvellous chapter of discovery whose
sober facts are grander and stranger
than Romance.
Has the learned doctor ever studied
the history of MeXico-the Latin coun.
try south of US?
Since foreign yoke was throwc of
and Mexico found herself,n what
country has made nobler progress?
The negro in Santo Domingo has
had hundred years of freedom; Mex
leo scalce half so many; compare the
Mexico of today with the Santo Do
minga of today. Left to themselves
the Latins of Mexico have built up s
magnificent civilization.
Left 10 themselves, the negroes o.
Santo Domingo have destroyed wha1
| = hn hnI oil I,,s
In Mexico the conditions get, better
year after year.
In Santo domingo conditions grow
worse, year after year.
IT the learned doctor wants to make
a STUDY in contrasts, let him first reaC
"Where Black kules White" BY
Hesketh Prichard, aud then reaC
The Awake ming of Nation" by
Charles +. Lummis, and | venture tt
say that some OF his cocky self cCm
placency as to the superiority of tht
negroes over the whites ill ooze ou
of him.
AS to Italy can it he that Italy ha
done less in thousand years than th'
neglOes have cone in thirty?
The greatest man that ever liveC
was of Italian eXtaclion. Taine say
that Napoleon was true Italian il
character and intellect. If that b.
true, then The TWO greatest men th
world ever saw WeIe Latins. Where
ever the civilized man lives today thi
5 environments, his thoughts, his ideals
: his achievements ale more or les
! influenced by The life and work of Cae
] sal and Nal oleon.
If any TWO men may be said TO hav
created the material modern world
= those two Latins aid it.
If modern Europe is any one man
} it is Napoleon. His laws, schools
: social, political, financial, educatioDs
= irslilLlitrs have Wlung flcm 1uler
] ever since the homage imitation.
; In literature how lllustrious is Italy
: Ii was Petrach "the Columbus Of
q new spiritual atmosphere, the disco>
] eIer OF modem culluIe.n
! 1t was he who bItke away flCr
e monkish medievalism, created III
e hLu aDistic lnII ulse, Treated man 8
Y a 1atICnal beng ait nCm the ole s
i ical detelminatit NJ modernizin
+. literature.
: The short stony" writer's of fctio
: Edgar Poe, Guy de Maupassant all
!, Kipling bad ,hei1 teacher IL Bocta
{ and bis DOvellia.
:, Modem history traces its melhCd
i its spirit sud lis toIm TO 'FiIlau
GuitciaJ djni, and llat wcndertl
j. tlye Of Latin genius, Machiavelli.
b The hole world goes 10 school
il the LatiDs!
If No painter hopes to excel Corleggi'
O Paul Veronese, Antonio Allegro