The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1906-05-11

his evidence and inference with those
oil Livingstone. But, when all allow.
are made, there ia for Amerl.
cans much food for Thought in Bakers
conclusions. His verdict on the
Sudanese was at any rate exploit ~
II believe that 10 years residence in
Sudan and this country would spoil
an angel, and would turn the hest
hoafo 90 stone And again-"Ghe
apathy, Incidence dishonesty com.
bined with dirtness, are beyond des.
criptiOr; and their abhorrence Of
anything like order increases their
natural dislike to Europeans The
following we also have observed In
America--'In childhood T believe
the negro to be In advance In intelleo
tual qlickness, Of the white child of Q
similar aye, but the mind does not
expand--it promises fruit, but does
not ripeD; and the negro has grown
In bndy. but not advanced In intel
lect." In this respect, rs tie in.
divldual, so IL the race. TN no In
stance has he evinced other than q
retroy ressiOn, when once freed from
restraint land his natural In
stincts being a love of idlenessN and
savagedom, he will ~assuredly relapse
Into an idle or savage state, unless
specially governed and forced by In
dustry." The restraint" In this
case Is not necessarily physical; II
may be moral; but contact with the
white man Is necessary to keep the
negro from retrogresston. He has
never invented anything mot letters,
nCr numbers, % tools, nor harmony,
o arts, nor architecture. nor has
he voluntarily adopted anything, ex-
cept run and fire arms. He taught
himself to handle implements and
weapons, both Of the rudest and
most elementary kind; and he can
talk. There his development stops.
La architecture, he has not progress
cd beyond the cave, the hovel and the
nest. In letters he has not devised a
symbol for q sound. In scierce, his
digiis represent the sum total of his
capacity for computation. Art,
poetry, music, 1T is the same old
story Religion, lay, medicine--to
day the natives Of Uganda are per.
lshipg by thousands from q strange
epidemic known as the Sleeping
sickness The prevailing scientific
} viotion Is that 1T Is caused by q
poisonous insect Of the mesquite
spi cles, to whose attacks the negro Is
peculiarly exposed from the fact that,
unlike the Hindu, for example, he
has not yet got 80 far as to invent
garments, and cover his nakedness.
And the worst Of 1t is that, beirR
thus, he Is stationary. Tha instinct
as "e)l as the desire for development
3 lac tirg. Such b,ing the indtsput
able fsct, Baker, writing In 1866
closes his long enumeration Of condi-
lions with a startling corollary-"Su
long as IL Is generally considered that
the negro and the white man are to
be governed by the same laws snd
guided by the same management, SO
long will the former remain q thorn
in the side Of every community ia
which ho may %unhappiIy belong"
If true, this strikes at the very
root Of our American polity-the
equality of man before the law. We
cannot conform to it. II the fact
must be copceded--so much the worse
for the factl BY all good Americans
at least, the theory Will none the less
ne maintained, the principle conf
IDENTITY asserted! We are thus con.
fronted by a condition. The exist
enca Of an uneradtct sand insur.
mountable race diff 5rsnce is indisput-
able. The white man and the black
man cannot flourish together, the
latter being considerable in number,
under the same system of government
Drawing apart, they will assuredly
become a~ntagontstic. An opposite
theory can be maintained. and will
work with more or less friction where
the white greatly dominates, and the
black tlsnenGis a negligible quantity;
when, however, the black predomin
,.,ates, the theory breaks down, and
some prac ical solution is reached not
In conformity with it.. AS Hamlet,
was led to observe In q quite different
come ction--"This was sometime q
paradox, but now the time gives 1t
proof"
What, then, is to be our American
outcomeP The negro tquats at our
hearthstone- we can neither aSsimilate
nor expel him. The situation In
Egypt Is comparatively simple. The
country will be developed by Europe
an money and brain; and the African
viii find his natural place In the cut
come. Facts will be recognized, and
a pollty adopted in harmony with
them. VIII the results reached there
react or us In AmericaP--Who now
can say? The problem Ia intricate
Mean while n thing is clear--the
work done by those WHO were IN poll.
tical control at the close Of our Civil
var was work done In utter Ignorance
Of ethn0logio law aid total disregard
OF uDalterable fact. Starting the
movement wrong, 1t will be yet pro-
ductive Of i~ncaculable injury to us.
The negro, after emancipation, should
have been dealt With, not as a politi.
cal equal, much less forced into O. posi-
ton OF superiority; he should have
been treated as a ward and depend.
emit firmly, but in q spirit Of kind.
ness and absolute justice. Practical
ly impossible as a policy then, this is
not less 80 now. At best, 1t is some.
thing which q only be slowly and
tentatively Appropriated. Neverthe
less, 1t is not easy for one at all OBJ.
servant to come back from Egypt and
the Sudan without strong suspicion
that We will In America make small
progress towards q solution of our
race problem until we approach 1t In
less OF q theoretic and humanitarian,