The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1905-03-18
SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1905.
Tn. Paper rh., I. welcomed In Every HON.
THE WHITE PROBLEM

"Uness the officers of the law do their full duty
in suppressing the increasing criminal tendency OF
tic negroes the door of hope will be closed in the
face o. the white man
These words are as true as they are portentous.
1t is not necessary to recount the ever-increasing
tendency of the negroes dleness and criminality
1t is subject on which the changes have been rung
to WEAKNESS.
We know only too well what is the of the
majority OF the young negroes
A boy and girl are born in the country, the
children of field aborers.
They go to the public school, and by the
time they are fourteen have learned possibly, TO
scrawI their names and stammer through simple
printed page. If, on leaving school, they return to
the field with their parents year two is sufficient
to eface the little they have learned and they fall
contentedIy into condition of ignorance and honest
labor,
But this is the exceptional case, and every year
it is becoming
The towns and cities offer temptations that II
resistible. The young field hands find there great
numbers of their race, leading absolutely idle,
and therefore, their minds, happy lives. The girl
girls like herself dressed in gaudy silk The boy
sees young negro spending whole days oungng
corners and entirely free from the authority
of any boss, any species of control The result is
natural
The nearest dive swallows up the young country
negroes in which they soon learn all the arts and
vices by which the lives of their feIlow-idlers
supported The girl enters unshamed upon the life led
by the other inmates of the den and the boy becomes
a crap gambler, petty crook, sneak thief, burglar
hanger-on fdves and negro bar rooms; and so on
and so on until cocaine and disease possibly the
rope makes end
This picture is true, 1t is not exception.
1t is fast becoming the rule,
The towns are congested with criminal Migrants
The negroes abandoning the cultivation of the
ground, and their place as field laborers is being
taken by white immigrants.
The logical conclusion is that they must soon be
come parasite race packed into the towns and pro-
ducing in them condition UNNECESSARILY worse than
even that which now exists.
What is the remedy?
Let the law be enforced" says Governor Varda-
man. In making this order he is doing his duty as
Governor and praise is due for his and man
lystand But in issuing his order he addresses it not
only to officers OF the law but to all good citizens.
This is a case in which the of the enforce
ment OF the law rests good citizens
than on the officers themselves.
The worst enemy of the negroes themselves and
the worst enemy of the community which is groan-
ing under the burden OF negro vice and criminal
idleness is the white who deliberately encourag-
and panders the inherent vices of that for
his profit If the dives, the rookeries, the hid
ing places fhuman vermin owned by the va
grants who infest them they would be few indeed.
If the temptation offered to country negroes were
those provided by their own alone they would
stay away from the towns.
If the negro girl had to depend upon her own race
and color for silk dresses and an idle life she would
be forced to honest living
Nor is it the negroes alone who are demoralized
and turned into criminals and public burdens by the
class OF white men to whom the welfare of the COM
munty is as nothing in comparison with their own
greed and avarice.
In a community so cursed temptation of every de-
scription filings its doors wide in the face of youth
Gambling, drunkenness and vciousness are so COM
mon that they ceae to excite remark.
Boys grow up to look upon unbridled indulgence
species OF dissipation the ordinary course of life
Vice that is endured is finally embraced.
The ruin of youth through the saloon, the gam
bling hell, the house of i'll fame is crime for
which the community which tolerates such place is
responsible.
The ruin of whole through such means is
fast being accomplished, and punishment for it will
come in due time to the community which permits
and encourages il.
The situation in our own city cries aloud for
remedy.
The conditions described above apply to it with
peculiar forge.
Greenville is whirlpool that is drawing 70 itself
the population of all the surrounding country
Vice Of every sort aaunts openly and unrsbuked.