The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1905-08-26
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
AND THE FUTURE NEGRO
Discussed By Rev. Thomas Dixon In the Saturday
Evening Colonization
His Scheme


asite. whose criminal and animal in
stincts threatens society. But the
negro is here to stay. We must train
him. 4 is the only thing we can do.
So WHAT'S the use TO waist your
breath."
'B.s5 what about the future when
you have educated the negro?" | ask
ed timidly.
Let the future take care Of itself!"
the ostrich man snorted. We
live in}the present. WHAT'S the use
to worry about He'll? If ] can scram-
BILE Though this world successfully III
take my chances with the He'll prob
lemi"
My friend forgets that this was
precisely the line of argument of our
fathers over the question of negro sla-
very. When the constructive states
man OF Virginia (called pessimistS and
infidels in their day. foresaw the COM
ing baptism OF fire and blood Gel to
65) over the negro slave, they attemp-
ting to destroy the slave trade and
abolish. slavery. My friend can find
his very words in the answers of their
opponesits. Let the future take
care of itself! The slaves are here
and here to stay. Greater evils await
their freedom. We need their labor.
Let the question alone. There is 10
danger unless you stir it,
Thestruth which is gradually fore
ing itself upon thoughtful students of
our national life is that no scheme of
education or religion can solve the
race problem, and that Mr.. Booker Il.
Washingt0n's plan, however high and
noble, can only intensity its Difficult
ties.
This conviction is based on a few
fundamental facts, which no pooh
pooling, ostrich -dodging, weak mind
ed philanthropy or political rant can
obscure
The ilrst one is that no amount of ed
ncation Of any kind, industrial, class
ical or religious, can make negro
white man or bridge the chasm OF the
centu- ) which separate him from
the white man i'm the evolution of
human civilization.
Expressed even in the most brutal
terms of Anglo-Saxon superiority
there is here an irreducible fact. 1t
is possibly true, as the negro, Prof.
Kelly Miller, claims, that the Anglo
Saxon is the most arrogant and ra-
pacious, the most exclusive and intOl-
Grant race in history" " Even 50;
what answer can be given to his cold
blooded proposition: Can you
change the color Of the negros skin,
the kink Of his hair, the bulge of his
lip or the beat Of his heart with spell
ling book or machine?"
No man has expressed this idea
more clearly than Abraham Lincoln
when he Sd d: There is physical
difference between the white and
black races which | believe, will for
ever forbid them living together on
terms of soc al and political equality. "
Whence this physical difference?
It's secret lies in the gulf of thousands
of years of inherited progress which
separates the child of the Aryan from
the child of the African.
Buckle in his History of Civilization
SAYS: The actions of bad men pro-
duce only'temporary evil, the actions
OF good men only temporary good.
The discoveries of genius alone re-
main: it is to them we owe all that
we now have: they are for all ages
and for all times; never young and
tneyer old, they bear the seeds OF their
own lives, they are essentially cum
ulative."
Judged by this supreme test, what
contribution to human progress have
the millions Of Africans who inhabit
this planet made during the past four
thousand years: Absolutely nothing.
And yet, Mr.. Booker Il. Washington
| in a recent burst Of eloquence over his
educational work boldly declares:
The negro race has developed more
rapidly in the thirty years of his free
dom than the Latin race has in one
Thousand years of freedom.
Think for a moment of the pitiful
puerility of this statement, falling
from. the lips of the, greatest and wis
est leader the negro race has yet pro.
duced!
Italy is the mother of genius, the
inspiration of the ages, the creator Of
, architecture, agriculture, manufac
lures, commerce, law, science, .philOS
, Iophy, finance. church organization
sculpture. music, painting and litera
!. ture, and yet the American negro n
thirty years has outstripped her thou
sands of years of priceless achieve
ment!
Education is the development O
: that which is. The negro has bel
: the Continent Of Africa since th
! dawn of history. crunching acres
: diamonds beneath bis feet. Yet b
! never picked cne up from the dus
until white man showed TO him IT
! light. His land swarmeG with pow
r erful and docile animals, yet he neve
built a harness, cart or sled. A hur
! ter by necessity, he never made an a.
. spear or arrowhead worth preservin