The Irish standard., 1905-05-13
WHO is NEGROES BEST FRIEND?

WHO is NEGROES BEST FRIEND?
1t will be remembered that Cover
nor Vardaman of Mississippi, in Feb
ruary last, saved a negro from lynch
ing by personally taking charge of
matters. At that time he was criti-
cised by people in the south for say
ing the alleged black BRUTE" At
that time long letter was written
by a white clergyman, whose name
we have forgotten, telling how he had
tried to prevent the executive from in
terfering, and how he had begged him
to allow lynch law to take its course
1t now appears that the negro, after a
trial, has been acquitted. The woman
who claimed to have been assaulted
failed to identify the prisoner. and
thus it appears that the man who so
narrowly escaped lynching, is inno-
cent. He owes his life to the prompt
action on the part of Mississippi's &C.
centric Governor, and in this connec-
tion it is gratifying to point out the
fact that Vardaman, who has been so
universally maligned in the North is
really, when action is necessary, the
negroes best friend. Like Tillman Of
South Carolina, Vardaman under
stands the race question. He realizes
as does every man in south, that there
is race barrier between the whites
and the blacks that can never permit
knows that what the negro needs is
the protection and the care of the
stronger race, and not the impossible
social equality. He has on many oc
casions told the busybodies of the
North that they are doing an immense
amount Of harm to the people of the
South in keeping up this trash talk
about equality. 1t creates unrest
among the negroes and gives them an
idea that they are being abused when
they do not receive the same social
attention that is accorded by one
| white man to another. Governor
Vardaman has been outspoken in his
denunciatiDn of the people who are
doing so much to keep up the race
question in the South. He has called
a spade a spade, and by doing SO he
has called down upon himself the
wrathful criticism of the theorists
who have never lived in the South
where there is a race barrier While
lynchings are taking place in Indiana
Illinois, Delaware and other Northern
states, Governor Vardaman is en-
gagged in using all the power of the
state and in giving his OWL personal
! attention to the prevention of that
state of Mississippi. The occasion to
which we refer was one where the
Governor, at his own expense, hired a
special car to take him from Jackson,
Mississippi, to the scene of the
| trouble, and arrived in time to secure
the negro and take him away from
the mob to safety. We are of those
who believe that man like Varda-
man, although blunt in his words, does
more to help the negro race and to
solve the negro problem than does all
the so-calied reformers who tried to
persuade people against themselves
that negro is white and that there is
no race barrier; that all the antipathy
existing is due to prejudice. What
| the South needs is to be let alone and
it will solve the negro question. The
white men of the South know the
negro, and they know how to treat
him, and they treat him better than
do the white men of the North. Polit-
ical demagogues in the North and a
few of them in the South, are continu-
ally harping about the wrongs heaped
upon the negro in the South. They
are continually telling the negro that
he is being imposed upon, and thus
they inflame his passions and arouse
those qualities in the negro character
that are so prominent and so harmful
to his progress. The Vardamans and
Tillmans are better friends Of the
negro than are the Lodges and the
Crumpackers. They know the negro
from a practical standpoint and they
know that what he wants more than
the ballot and more than social equal
rity, is to be taught how to earn his
own living, how to acquire home and
to put money IN theibank. The great
1mass Of the negroes Of the South are
children in all 'these matters The,