The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-09
nAcu ro sAyAcERY.

BACK TO sAvAGERY.
 Recently Mir. Lambert Tree. states man. politician, author and diplomat returned from a visit to the West ln- dies. and he has been telling The Chi cago Tribune something about the ne- wroes down there He found that in some of the islands the whites have quit exercising any surveillance over the blacks and 'fn consequence" says The Tribune, "the negro population has not only ceased to advance socially and politically, but has begun to sink down again to the level of the old tribal life in Africa" The Tribune finds some apparent consolation in the fact that those negroes have not quite gone back to African barbarism, but. as it ad- mits, "the fact remains that the politi- cal capacity of the. negro seems at once to shrink if the white man re- tires from the field" Then it adds.
 To the evolutionist this is not re- msrkaSe Waep ,s,. the nont,nsnt nssrG5 he was was in a certain stage lof development. By intercourse with the white man his evo- lution towards civilization was given make Nature move faster than she wants to move. Under the white mans guidance the negro probably experi- enced development which was in large And when his. stimulant was taken away the reaction set in.
 The fact that the negro retrogrades as soon as the sustaining influence of the AngIo-saxon civilization is re- moved, may be a new discovery to The Tribune, but 1t is not new to those who have given proper study to the sub ject, for 1t is an inevitable and un- varying result. It is equally true that the genune African has never made any material advance in civilization, or in any of the forms of civilization except where he has had the advantage of the guidance, support and example of the superior white race. To talk of the negro working out his own des- tiny in segregation Is buncombe. He has never done so and never will. unless the Creator changes his mental, moral and physical nature.
 whether The Tribune is correct in its theory that the negro on this con- tinent, under the rule of the white race, developed faster than was natural, 1t is not necessary to discuss, nor can we ascertain whether 1t is correct or not. Possibly that development was artifi- cial to a great extent. The negro is a wonderfully initiative being, and in the three centuries he has been here il was natural for him to acquire DOT tion of that civilization which was al- ways in evidence before him. Much of the development that has taken place in his nature, habits and customs was as purely artificial as was the clothes which have taken the place of the un- dress of his days of native savagery Both the clothes and the civilization will drop from him when he Is left tC himself in a climate where clothes are not a necessity and where the habits the feelings and the customs of his far-off ancestors will come back to him as a natural result.
 The Tribune further comments:
 But evolution has its encouraging as well as It's discouraging aspects. Ii we cannot now believe, as some of oul ancestors did. that one man with bal lot is as good as any otther man witf | a ballot, we can at least believe ever | more fully than they did that there i: germ of progress In all men, no ana ina m . man. It does not follow that he car govern a nation. Haytt would seem tt show that as yet he cannot do so. Bu 1t Is wrong to say that the negro i' hopeless as to say that he has the samC immediate possibilities which open ou before the Caucasian, This Whoi, country North as well o,aSosS as sSufn, t5dg Fl ment of the situation. and the conse quence will be better understanding between the two sections.
 Evidently The Tribune is beginning to realize the fact that the Southern people are best qualified to form ! just and correct estimate of the negro as he was, as he Is. and as he Is des tined to be. If our contemporary Il correct in its statement that the who'll country "is coming to adopt this bal anced judgment of the situation" WI may we'll take heart and feel the hop that unwise and meddlesome interfer ence in our affairs will not continu , forever. We know what the negro i capable of and wherein he is lacking and we know that nothing but tn strong influence of white civilization holds him back from the brute say agery of his native Africa. When tha truth is generally acknowledged an, acted on, there will be a better feel Ing between all sections of our com mon country.
 ANOTHER BRAVE SON GONE. The daatb in rreenshoro N q ves