The leader., 1905-05-20

Ilutely and impartially enforced. This
was not the case under any admins
tration before that of Governor Var
daman. These facts may be taken to
signify what one likes. They are.
facts.
Criminal Tendency Is Deep One.
Now, IT is the belief Of Governor
Vardaman that crimes such as that
mentioned above are not cured by
education, but are made more numer-
ous. The records of the South show
that the criminal disposition Of the
negro is more apparent than it was
twenty, thirty or forty years ago.
This crime, which put all jackson in
horror, was crime unknown in
slavery days. 1t is crime exclusive
ly belonging to education and to poll
tics. The politicians Of America have
told the negro that the privileges of
social equality are his. He has his
own methods of expressing his con-
yiction, his own notion as to what
those privileges should be. To him
political equality means social equal
ity. And what social equality means
to him is something not for these
pages to discuss.
The question is covered when it is
stated that the white population of
the South is an armed population;
when 1t Is said that the fifteenth
amendment has forced upon a splen-
did portion of America vast, I'M
mentionable horror a vast lawless-
ness so-called. vast unsolvable
problem, vast industrial waste.
vast unhappiness. But it has
not forced upon the white race
the first thought of submission to
that amendment and its conse-
quences. We white men of the North
would say that just as much as the
white men of the South, did we live
| where they do mad as they do. The
! attitude of Northern ignorance-the
Roosevelt, IL we cared loosely and un-
! justly to turn phrase means mis-
cry for the whites and misery for the
blacks. The Vardaman idea is that
this is an intolerable situation, and
, one which ought to be remedied by
the law.
vardaman States Position.
1t is most fair that Governor Var
daman should be quoted on this head
in his own words. These can best be
found in his inaugural address, in
which he frankly took up matters
which he had discussed upon the
stump. He spoke as follows in re-
gard to the education of the negro:
Thus far what / have said on the
/ subject of education has been with
reference solely to the white chill
! dren. What shall we do with the ne
gro? Certainly the education suited
to the white child does not suit the
negro. This has been demonstrated
by forty years of experience, and the
expenditure in the Southern States
! of nearly three hundred millions of
dollars 1t was natural, and quite
reasonable, Immediately after the
civil war, especially by those who
had made but a superficial study of
the negro, to expect that freedom,
! equal educational facilities and the
example of the white man, would
have the effect of improving his NOR
! ais, and make a better man of him
/ generally. But it has not, am sorry
to say. AS race he is deteriorating
morally every day. Time has DEM
onstrated that he is more criminal as
free man than as a slave, and that
he is increasing in criminality with
fearful rapidity. y You can
scarcely pick up newspaper whose
pages are not blackened with the ac-
count of an unmentionable crime
committed by negro brute, and this
crime, want to impress upon you,
is but the manifestation of the ne
groes' aspiration for social equality,
OF the free education in vogue, which
/ the State is levying tribute upon the
white man to maintain.
What shall be done about it?
Surely something must be done. The
/ white people of Mississippi canot sit
idly by without making an effort at
least to arrest this destructive ten
dency. The State for many years, at
great expense to the taxpayers, has
maintained a system of negro educa-
i tion, which has produced disappoint-
ing results, and | am opposed to the
4 perpetuation of that system My
own idea is that the character Of the
education for the negro ought to be
changed. If after forty years of
earnest effort, and the expenditure
i of fabulous sums of money to edu-
cate his head, We have only succeed
ed in making a criminal of him, and
impairing his usefulness and efficien-
cy as laborer. wisdom would sug-
/ gest that we make another expert
ment, and see if we cannot improve
him by educating his hand and his
heart.
There must be a moral substratum
upon which to build, or you cannot
make desirable citizen. The negro
race is devoid of that element
/ Slavery is the only process by which
he has ever been even partially civ
ilized. God Almighty created the ne
i gro for menial-he is essentially a
servant. In every age of the world's S
history it has been shown that his
civilization will last only so long as
he is under control of the superior
| race that inculcated it. When left
to himself he has universally gone
| back to the barbarism of his native
jungles While a few mixed breeds
and freaks of the race may possess
j qualities which justify them to aspire
above that station, the fact still re-
IncIuS that luG race ~ Ut lUIs Il1dl anu
nothing more. At any rate, that is
all he viii ever accomplish in Mis-
sissippi, and as it is in Mississippi so
will it be in all of the States ulti-
mately.
@The white man will not and
should not share sovereignty and do
minion with him"
/ Those are pointed words, are they
not? You call them the words of a
negro hater? How much keener are
they than those of Abraham Lincoln
himself, who. even more than Theo-
dore Roosevelt, is accepted as the
friend of the black man in Americas
In his speech of September is, 1858,
Abraham Lincoln spoke as follows:
sI am not. nor ever have been. in
favor of bringing about in any way
the social and political equality Of
the white and black races; I am not,
nor ever have been. in favor of max
ing voters or jurors Of negroes, nor