The Columbus weekly dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 1902-1905, 1905-06-01

tdAAty " SIaus anu lCdIn TIE AmC1A-
can negro. and that this opportunity
, Theodore Roosevelt has never had.
Is it any wonder that two men
constituted just as these two are
should disagree upon this particular
subject? Their disagreement is
matter of national knowledge; and,
as stated above. it has been the cause
of notoriety not wholly just to the
Southerner.
The truth Is that Vardaman of Mis-
sissippi knows more on his chosen
theme than do his Northern detract-
ors. The immense ignorance of the
entire North on the race question
an ignorance which begins at the
White House and runs from Maine
to OregOn-is something unspeaka-
bic. We say that in the South they
are still fighting the war. Really, it
is We in the North who continue the
fight. 1t is we in the North who in
sist we know al there is to be known
about the negro question. We might
easily learn otherwise did we care to
investigate, but the North has never
yet begun to study the question.
Northern men who move to the
South, or who frequently visit the
South, in a very short time stand
shoulder to shoulder with Southern
men on the race question. 1t is an
immense, an impossible folly to think
that the white MAJ North or South,
will not stand shoulder to shoulder as
white men, and as against the rest OF
the world
That is all that Governor Varda-
man of Mississippi has claimed or
ever will claim. Hence, for telling US
simple truth. which we ought to
be willing to admit. we deride him.
call him a mountebank and pre-
tender. He can afford the epithets.
1t is a concession to Northern ignor-
ance to state that in making such
statements as the foregoing, the writ
er feels it necessary to say he is
Northern man, a Republican and
warm admirer of Theodore Roose-
welt Were this not said, surely this
writing would be set down as the
fumings of a discontinued Southern
partisan. So much for ignorance.
Northern Ignorance on Race Question.
Where does Northern ignorance on
this race question have its founda-
ton? In geography, in transporta-
ton. and in politics. There is an
other strange basis not so esaily dis
covered. The South understands the
North. but the North does not unuder-
stand the South. The great North
ern newspapers are read in the South,
bat the great Southern newspapers
are almost unknown to the North
We get little news from the South ex-
cept that of lynchings, hence, we sup
pose that lynching negroes is the ex-
elusive occupation in the Southern
States. Yet since, North and South,
we are savages-white savages, the
strongest savages the world ever saw
were we Northern men to live in
the South. under existing conditions
it is certainty that we would do
precisely as our Southern brethren
do But what Northern newspaper
is catholic enough to admit this? No,
it is better to purchase press dis
patches covering incidents which are
as shocking TO the South as to the
North. 1t is better to keep up the abb
surd and ruinous sectional line
In the South there rises a strong
man who openly declares that the
negro is still a savage, such a savage
as he was forty years ago, and that
-
make an educated citizen of him. or
to try to make a safe neighbor of
him. This man knows his subject
thoroughly and intimately, through
a lifetime of experiences Lacking
In accommodating in decorum, if
you like-he openly says he knows
more about this than any man. not
excepting the president Of the United
States, who has not had that expe-
rience or made that study Disclaim-
ing any wish to be lawless, he openly
declares that nothing will serve the
South except a sixteenth amendment
to the constitution. That amendment,
he has said. Is sure to come. and he
believes that it may come with a
rush at any time. This is the idea OF
Vardaman of Mississippi.
Problem Is \ Great One.
A man with an idea as big as this,
with a sincere conviction as great as
this, is entitled at least to a respect |
full hearing. The question involved
is tremendous one. far more SO than
we of the North are disposed to be
Iieve.> in our ignorance regarding it |
Today the white men of the South |
are not free Americans. They are
slaves. and slaves to a condition. We /
call the Southerners narrow, uncom- |
promising. bitter. They are AL that,