The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-27
Leads all North Carolina Daies i'm News and Ulzlaton

|
heaven of Amalgama tion--or lie is do
ing something equally dangerous,
| namely, he is attemptin" to build a
| nation inside a nation of two hostile
| races. In this event he is storing
dynamite beneath the pathway of our
children-the end at last can only
be in bloodshed.
Mr.. Washington is not training
Negroes to take their place in any in
| dustrial system of the South in which
the white man can direct or control
him. He is not training his students
| to be servants and come at the beck
| and call of any man. He is training
them all to be masters of men, to be
| Independent, to own and operate their
| own industries, plant their own fields,
buy and sell their own goods, and in
every shape and form destroy the last
vestige of dependence on the white
man for anything.
/ do not say this is not laudable-
/ do not say that it is not noble. |
only ask what will be its end for the
Negro when the work is perfect?
Every pupil who passes through Mr..
WashingtOn's hands ceases forever to
work under a white man. Not only
so, but he goes forth trained as an
evangelist to preach the doctrine of
separation and Independence.
The Negro remains on this Cont
nent for one reason only. The South
ern white man has needed his labor,
and therefore has fought every sug-
gestion of his removal. But when he
refuses longer to work for the white
man. then what?
Mr.. Booker r. Washington says on
page 65 of his book: THE Negro must
live for all time beside the South
ern white man."
On what sort of terms are they to
live together. AS banker and bOr-
rover? Hardly, if the Negro is the
banker. Even now. with the white
man Still huggi~~ the hoary delusion
that he can't get along without the
Negro, he is being forced to look to
the Old World for labor. The simple
truth is, the South will lag behind
the world industrially in just so far
as she depends on Negro labor. The
idea that a white man cannot work in
the fields of the South is exploded.
Only one-third of the cotton crop is
today raised by Negro labor. Even
now the relations of the races, with
the Negro an integral part of the
white mans industrial scheme, be-
come more and more difficult.
A Gulf that Grows Wide.
Professor Kelly Miller says: "It is
a matter Of common observation that
the races are groWin~ further and
further apart
Mr.. Washington says on this point:
For the sake of the Negro and the
Southern white man there are many
things in the relations of the two races
that must soon be changed" (page
$50. The point | raise is that educa-
ton necessarily drives the races furth-
er and further apart. and Mr. Wash
Aingtons brand Of education '1""'-~~ 80
| IL 10
deeper. If there is one thing a South
crn white man cannot endure it is an
educated Negro. What's to be the
end Of il if the two races are to live
forever side by side in the South?
Mr.. Washington says: GIVE the
black man so much skill and oroins
| that he can cut oats like the whit"
| man-then he can compete with aim
And then the real tragedy will ne
gin. Does any sane man believe that
when the Negro ceases to work under
the direction of the Southern white
man, this "aTrOgan4' "rapacious' and
| "intolerant" race will allow the Ne
gro to master his industrial system,
| take the bread from his mouth, crowd
! him to the wall and place mortgage
! on his house? ComDetition is war
the most fierce and brutal of all its
forms. Could fatuity reach a sublimer
! height than the idea that the white
| man will stand idly by and see this per-
| formance? What will he do WHOM put
to the test? He will do exactly what
! his white neighbOr in the North does
when the Negro threatens his bread
kill him.
| Abraham Lincoln foreSa " this trag
| edy when he wrote his Emancipation
| Proclamation. and he asked Congress
| for an appropriation of a billion dol
| lars to cOloniZe the whole Negro race.
/ He never believed it possible to aSsim-
| ilate the Negro into our national life.
! This nation will yet come back to Lin
| coins plan, stiii so eloquently adVo-
Gated by the Negro Bishop, Henry NJ.
| Turner.
1t is curious how the baldheaded
| assertion of a lie can be repeated and
repeated until millions of sane people
| will accept the bare assertion as an
esta bished fact. At the close of the
war, Mr.. Lincoln, brooding over the
| insoluble problem of the Negroes flu
ture which his proclamation had
created asked General Benjamin i.
Butler to devise and report to him
Immediately a plan to colonize the
Negroes. General Butler, naturally
hostile to the idea. made ut once his
famous, false and facetious report,
that ships could not be found to carry
the Negro babies to Africa as fast as
they are borni" The President was
assaSsinated a few days later. This>+ie
is now forty odd years old, and Mr..
Booker 7. Washington actually re-
peats it as a verbal in5piratiOl though
entirely unconscious Of its historic
origin.
We have spent about $800,000,0 900
on Negro education since the War. One
half of this sum would have been suf-
ticient to have made Liberia rich and
powerful Negro state. Liberia is cap
able of supporting every Negro in
America. Why not face this question
squarely? We are tempOrizing and
playing with it. All our educational
schemes are compromises and tenn
p%aV makeshifts. Mr.. Booker T..
Washingtons work is one OF noble
aims. A branch of it should be i'm
mediately established in Monrovia, tne
capital of Liberia A gift of ten mil
lions would do this, and establish a
colony of half q million Negroes with
in two years. They could lay the
foundations of a free black republic
which within twenty-five years would
solve our race problem on the only
| rational basis within human power.
Colonization is not failure. 1t has