The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-23

Tom Watson's Magazine. With statistics one can prove many things-the conclusion arrived at de- pending, in all cases, considerably up- on the man behind the figures. This time the man behind the fig ures is Doctor Booker Washington may his shadow never grow less.
 In the course of recent lecture, the learned doctor laid down the proposition that the black man is su- perior to the white, and he proved 1t -proved it by statictics. He said that there Is s5 per cent of illiteracy among the Spaniards, while there is only 54 per cent of il- literacy among the negroes; therefore the negroes are clearly more advanced in civilization than the Spaniards.
 Poor old Spain!
 The learned doctor further demon strated that there Is 65 per cent of illiteracy among the Italians; therefore the negroes are far ahead of Italy. Russian illiteracy being 70 per cent the black man takes precedence of the land of Peter the Great, Skobelef, Cor ky. Turgenef and Tolstoy. South America, having an illiteracy of 80 per cent. falls far to the rear of the ne- gro-and Castro must add this addi- tional kick to the many he has already received from North America
 fTOuQ or ms StdtiStiCS, DoCtoi Booker Washington exclaims: The negro race has developed more rapidly than the Latin race has in one thous- and years of freedom
 That's a bold statement. doctor.
 To say nothing of its accuracy, may 1t not have been an unwise thing for you to claim that the black man has risen during thirty years more rapidly in the scale of civilization than the I,ax ri In nt nd
 True. you confine yourself to the Italians, the Spaniards, the Russians and the South Americans, but when you say the darkest of all the colored races is superior to that great section of the white race named by you. does 1t not occur to you that you may ere ate feeling of resentment among all the whites9
 You have thousands of true friends throughout the entire country-white men who have most generously helped you in your work. helped you with muney, wi.h moral support ana with certain amount of social recognition Your admirers refer to you as a great man. They allude to your work as great work. The South helps you with appropriations. just as the North helps you with donations. We want to sec you succeed in building up your race
 But have you single white friend who will indorse your statement that the black man is so superior to the whites that it can do in one genera ton what 1t required the whites a thousand years to dor
 Do you imagine that your friend. President Roosevelt. MT. Carnegie, Dr. Hart. Bishop Potter. and others. will like you better when they hear you putting forth a claim to race superior ity? Doctor, you have overshot the mark.
 Whenever the North wakes up to the fact that you are teaching the blacks that they are superior to the wind.
 What do you men by racial devel- opment. doctor?
 Apparently your standard of meas urement is illiteracy. That Is to say, if greater number of negroes than of Spaniards can read then the negro has achieved a higher plane in civilfza- tion.
 Is that your idea? Doth the abil- lnent?
 According to that, a million negr" ' children attend school twelve months and become civilized" because they ihave learned to spell Baker" and to 7 read Mary had little lamb
 Does it not strike you, doctor. that such a measure might be delusive:
 In making up your tables of illit- eracy. why didn't you include all the negroes, as you included all the ItaI- ians, all the Spaniards. all the Rus sians?
 Why leave out your home folks in Africa. doctor?
 Why omit Santo Domingo and Haiti?
 If you vii. number all the negroes.
 to of among the blacks may run up among the nineties, and knock your calcula- tion into a cooked hat
 In the West Indies God poured His blessing with lavish hand upon the island of Haiti. The French went there and built up civilization. The revolution of 17s9 freed the negroes who were held in slavery by the whites, and the civil war soon fol- lowed *:
 The blacks outnumDered the whites and the climate was their ally. Yel- lowe fever did for them what frost did for the Russians when Napoleon struck at their liberty. They achieved freedom, and they have had it not for thirty years, but for hundred years.
 What have your people done with their freedom in Santo Domingo, doc torr Back, back into barbarian, voo- dooism, human sacrifice. social and po- litical anarchy they have plunged; and their history is one long blood stained record of backsliding from the stndard which the French had already established. Even now your black brethren in Santo Domingo are be- seeching the white man of tine United States to do that which they are un- able to do-administer national af- fairs In self defense this government may have to treat Santo Domingo as Great Britain treats Jamaica, both gov ernments acting upon the demonstra- ted fact that the blacks. left to them selves, are incapable of self-goyern- ment and race development.
 But before entering into compari-