Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1906-09-22

MI n. " " tilns uuuel Ndt zap
ton OF The Tragedy OF Color" dis
cusses Americas Racial Problem"
in Harper's Weekly Of September
18th. 1906. He says:
seem TO find the same hastness
and something OF the same note OF
harshness that strike me in the cas-
es Of MacQueen and Gorky in Amer
iea's treatment OF her colored Isopu-I
lation. I am aware how intricate.
how multitudinous, the aspects of
this enormous question have becomel
but looking at Il in the broad and
trarsitOry manner | have proposed
for myself In these papers, II does
seem TO present many parallel ele-l
ments. There Is the same DISPOSE
ton toward an discriminating YER
dict. the same disregard Of proper
ton as between small evils and
great ones. the same Indifference to-
the fact that the question does not
stand alone. but is part, and this
time by no means small part. in
the working out OF Americas des-
TIMES.
In relation 10 the oolored popu-
lation, just as in relation TO the
great and growing accumulations OF
unassimiiated and increasingly un-
popular Jews. and to the great and
growing multitudes OF Roman Catho-
lies whose special education CONTRA
diets at so many points those con-
ceptions OF Individual judgment and
responsibility upon which America
relies, ! have attempted time after
time 20 get some answer from the
Americans I have met 90 what is
20 me the most obvious OF Ques-
lions. Your grandchildren and
the grandchildren OF these people,
Will have to live in this country side
by side; do YOU propose. do you be-
lieve IL possible. that they should be
living then in just the same reia-
tons that You and these people are
living now; ~ you do not. then what
relations DO you propose shall exist
between them?"
This is the question OF questions
and it demands a thoughtful, d4s-
passionate answer He continues:
II Is not too much 70 say that I
nave never once had the beginnings
OF an answer 70 this question. Us
ually one is told with great gravity
that the problem OF color Is one OF
the most dificult that we have TO
consider. and the conversation then
breaks up into discursive anecdotes
and statements about black people.
one man viii dwell upon the un-
controllable violence OF a black
man 8 evil passions. (In Jamaica and
Barbados colored people for an o.
overwhelming proportion OF the popu-
lation, and they have behaved in an
exemplary fashion for the last thirty
years.; another Will dilate upon
the Incredible stupidity Of the full
Hooded Negro during my stay in
New YORK the prize for oratory at
Columbia University, oratory which
was the one redeeming charm OF
Daniel Webster, was awarded TO a
Zulu or unmitigated blackness): a
third will speak OF his physical Of
iensiveness. his peculiar smell which
necessitates his social isolation
tmost we'll 70 do Southerners are
brought up by Negro "mammies")
others again. viii enter upon the
painful history of the years that fol
lowed the war, though il seems a
FOOLISH thing 10 let those wrongs of
the past dominate the outlook for
the future. And one charming
southern lady expressed the attitude
OF mind OF whole class very COM
pletely' think, when she said, "You
nave 10 be one of US TO feel this
question at all as 1t ought to be
There, I think, I got something
cult.
Mr.. Wells is certainly giving in
formation in accordance with has
own and the observations of Others.
He says further:
My globe-trotting impudence will
seem, no doubt, to mount to fits zen
TN when l declare that hardly any
Americans at all seem to be in DOS
session Of the elementary facts in
relation 70 this question. These
broad facts are not taught. as Of
course they ought to be taught. in
school; and what each man knows
is picked up by the accidents OF his
versation always tinctured by per-
sonal prejudice, by hastily read
newspapers and magazine articles
and the Ike. The quality OF this
discussion is very variable, but on
the whole pretty low. While I was
IN New York opinion was very much
swayed by an article in. IL l remem-l
Der rightly. the Century magazine.
Dy a gentleman who had deduced
from a few weeks observation in
the slums of Khartoum the entire
incapacity Of the Negro TO establish
civilization OF his own. He never
nad, therefors he never could; al
discouraging ratiocination. We En-
gilsn' a century ago. said all these
things OF the native Irish. II therel
is any trend OF opinion at all in this
matter at present. IL lies in the di-|
rection OF generous decision on
the part OF the North and West to
leave the black more and more to
the Judgment and mercy of the