The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-05-19

hopS1OoSs -
! together his figures and considering his
averages, tells us that statistics do not
lie; the southern. white man brought
! face TO face with the vast mass of tie
negroes, looking at them as a VINCE,
! says: I'VE are with the negroes day
| by day; we know them; and we sec no
J improvement in them The negroes
are leaving the country and are herd
| ing together in the cities, where they
are increasing in vice n crime and
immortality. Out in the country districts
| away from the whites, almost entirely
to themselves, they are shiftleSs and
immoral; they will not work steadily
| they nave little regard for the mar
! riage tie. With NAM idle negroes al
around Is, ervants and farm laboTers
are harder to get and less efficient
when we do &c. them than formerly
We see negroes ON the chain gang, in
the courts and jails and penitentiarles
We read of and know of horrible lnnu-
mar crimes committed by them; We
are afraid for our women 10 go any
where in the country alone. The idea
of our association on equal terms Win
them is simply absurd. The negro is
not a white man with a black skin.
The education they have had seems 10
do them no good; it spoils a good la
i bo~er, and doesn't make an efficient
man We remember the fearful Col-I
dition OF things when we were under
negro government, and we look over 10
Hay.i to see what a country will be
come when ruled entirely by negroes
How can we LEI them vote on equal
terms and yet preserve our civilization:
God knows. He may have something
good for them but we cannot see II
The average honest, lntelfSenE
northern man, stating with the thco-
retic assumption that the negro IS
a man, a man like himself only WIN
a black skin, long held in slavery N
still much restricted in his ef1Orts TO-
wards progress. has been more optlmls-
tic in his answer. Throw away mis-
race antipathy," says he, educate the
negro, treat him like a man and a
brother, and he will take his place as
any other American citizen" To ms
northern man has come from time 10
time an educated, intelligent, upright,
negro, showing himself to be a man
just ike any other man. He mas ta'A-
cd With DR.. Washington and DR.. Du-
1 Pois. He has been maybe, to Hampton
ard has consulted General Armstrong
nIu III. FIlSSClI, IEO IOoiL4o SA"S So
negro illiteracy has been reduced IN
twenty years from 20 per cent. to ~
u9r cent, that III many parts OF the
north and of the south the colored poo
i ple are buying land and building
homes, accumula.ing property, making
Il doctors. lawyers, teachers and preach
ers. "Why all this talk about social
- equality, this dread of negro DONNA
1 Tho ,,norn ic i'll eft like anV other
Il man; give him a chance and he Will
Z tak1 care of himself, and be a blessing
:, to the whole land"
i Which view is correct? Both. Which
view is correct. Neither. Both are
correct from their own standpoint; and
vet neither one IS correct, because he
: sees only one side of the shield, does
" not consider all Of the facts. The south
ern man looks at the mass, at the ne
: gro at his worst, and does not see the
Il few rising up from the multitude, CIV
ing promise of what can be done.
Il From the social and political condl-
. ticns. in which the southern white man
, has Deer living for the past thirty
Years, he does not see these exception
, al negroes, cannot know them, uniess
, he takes the trouble to search them
out.
| The northern man looks at the few
i exceptional negroes, and does not see
X and realize the low and wretched con-
d ditiOn of the whole.
To show how natural and yet how in
S correct are these partial opinions, the
average Northern man who comes 10
live in the South takes the Southern
i view; and not only that, but the aver
age northern man who, while still III
the North comes in contact with the
mass of the negroes moving to the
: Northern cities, ana who K the
trouble to inform himself of the gen.
eral conditions in b South, agrees
: with the Southern man They are not
as hopeful now of the solution OF this
e problem as they were thirty years ago
And on the other hand, the few earn.
est, thoughtful, far-seeing men or Dotn
u North and Southland their lumber
are g~rowing-are coming to take
something like the position with which
the Northern man started-thatl Is, ina
the negro is a man hampered by con.
ditions. But, they see and declare tina
those conditions are not only in the
q negro surroundings, but in his blood
e that they are not only here today, but
that they go Ddch VI .tne pioSoH', ~
back of slavery, 60 back across The
. waters to thousands of years in Africa
And these men ask from North AMI
Q South, white and black, patience, dis
Ii elimination, sympathy.
The statistician takes the average O.
the negro race; and truly it is discour
aging; but what does the statisticiaI
know of the rising few, who refuse Il
be judged by the average, and point u:
by their own lives to the possibilities
of their race? If we would see the fu
Isl ture of the negro truly, we must maS'
l. a composite picture, eliminating th'
r. false and acknowledging the true il
l. each view.
The negroes are divided more decid