Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-11-07


of the Southern race problem ever
printed in the North and West ap-
pears in the current issue of The
Bellman, high class weekly pub
lished in Minneapolis, Mimi, and
edited by William G. Edgar, who
shows marked sympathy for the
Southern people. 1t is as follows:
The fearful occurrences in Atlanta,
Georgia, which have Mortified readers
of the daily press may.well give us OF
the North a shock. We deserve il
and we need it to awaken us to a
realization of our responsibilities to
our brethren Of the South. A race
war, undertaken on the part of the
whites in sacred defense of their
homes, or an unlawful outbreak in
which the innocent or guilty of one
race were alike sacrificed to the mad
dened vengeance of another consider
it either way, as you will; denounce
it or excuse it; find palliation in the
greatest of provocations humanity
can know or condemn the perpetra-
tors as outrageous law breakers, you
cannot avoid the awful fact that. the
condition which is responsible for it
exists and must be reckoned with.
This dreadful problem presses for
a permanent solution. The conclu-
sion of the rebellion demonstrated,
once and for all, that this was ma
ton. Being such, it's component
parts must share responsibility for
the maintenance of order and justice
within its borders. If the protection
of woman is not the supreme duty of
the American citizen, whether he
lives north or south of Mason and
Dixon's line, then our country no
longer deserves to rank among the
civilized nations. If it is, then it is
time that the citizens of the North
cease to consider the problem of the
South as an academic question to be
discussed calmly and regretfully at a
safe distance from the scene of horror
and shame. 1t ia his duty to come
forward, manfully, and acknowledge
his share of the blame and assume hif
part of the burden. =
The North is even more RESPONSE.
BILE for this overshadowing horror
than the South. Let it face the facts
as they are and cease this sloppy, sen.
timental talk about the elevation oi
the negro race and the need of self.
control on the part of the Southern
Caucasian. Ethical considerations
fine spun theories, philanthropical de.
vices for gradual elevation of the
negro are not entitled to a moment'f
consideration when it is true that nc
white woman living in the South il
safe for moment unless guarded by
the gun.
The North freed these negroes. L,
elevated them to citizenship and pro.
claimed them the possessors of equal
rights with the whites. Previous tc
the war, slavery, accursed though il
was, held them in subsection and re-
strained the brutes among them, and
they were many, from violence
Careless of consequences, the North
let them loose and encouraged them
to believe themselves equal in every.
thing to their former masters. After
brief interregnum of carpet-bae
government, the conGnerers retired
to their safe, pure, protected homes
secure in the knowledge that the lev
was amply strong to protect then
from assault and their women from
dishonor. They washed their hands
of responsibility; they left to the i'm
poverished, defeated, disheartenet
South the task of making the newly
freed worthy of citizenship.
81 ce then, the North has contrib
uted largely of money to educate th'
negro. 1t has sent northern teachers
devoted, self-sacrifcing, well-mean
ing persons, full of zeal to lift th'
once oppressed race to higher plane
1t has sympathized with and sup