The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-28
RESPECT FOR LAW LN NEGRO
 ESSENTIAL FOR AlMl7Y OF THE "
 RACES, SAYS GOVERNOR yELKS.

person at all could regret to make such
 a statement more than does your speak, e5. There must be better understand
 ing; It Is imperative. and 1t must corHe without any great delay. Il We boast that we are cutting down our illiterates in this State. It would be better if we could boast that we are cutting down the number of those wh' violate the laws. Less reading an6 more honesty would be a good slogan. | IT we are to progress against one of the great. commandments, as we come
 to sin against illiteracy. we are going l forward in the wrong direction. It tsl
 the staggering array of petty offenses
 that is wearing on the better citizen. Any country Is better off with a max
 imum of illiterates and honest men 1 than maximum of Hterates and dis.
 honest people. If we are to get our| readers at the expense of one of the Commandments they come >preciop! ! high. Let us then make no fight to teach boy or girl to read until we have prepared him to understand that it is of infinite more service to be hon. est. Tt is the army of pilferers that is ] breaking the back of peace. They are
 the army of idlers who must steal If they would live I may say that al
 most every person who does not do
 weeks work is thief. The ancient rulers 1uartered their troublesome reg | iments on rebellious subjects and as d punishment made them feed the vo- racious soldiers and suffered the sol
 diers to prty upon the helpless people of the afflicted country. More than a
 single province was finally lost to des- pots because the patient citizenship
 could no longer submit to the galiing
 and voracious soldiers. They ate up the substance of the land.
 And yet We have in Alabama. quar- tered on the hard working and thrifty I.f k,fI .Nf dlaVs- than the army that followed Caesar fortunes in the great wars that plant
 ed his victorious eagles as far north , as the English channel; larger than was the army that marched to Moscow and inglOriously back again under that
 other great captain. This vast army keeps us impoverished. Only the most | patient people in the world would put up with 1t. If patience should give | out we know not what would happen.
 I pray that the excited hand will be | stayed while the better class of men | in both ranks shall learn a new way! Preachers at Fault.
 "It is the idler that makes the thief. If we could get rid ct the one we are
 we manage to so mark the idler that, every honest man shall avoid him, as
 though he were plague? Conditions are intolerable and impossible. As
 often as they happen. have never oc- casioned a race riot. I think am sure of my ground They provoke lynchings, but would not necessarily provoke the whites to a general assault on the blacks. It is the army of loafing thieves | which keeps up the eternal naGging and makes the ground fallow for scenes as the one in Atlanta. provoking some honest and some dishonest men to stamp | upon the statutes, upon the courts ana | defy all the officers of the law.
 ] q am preaching a sermon against
 thieves-and afterwards loafers-and l fhoy thp same How does 1t nap pen that this army exists in tEts state: There is evidence that the preachers or this country do not preach the Eighth Commandment. Some of the people who give evidence of every piety are not made miserable by the prophesy from | the pulpit that he who takes another s life will have his place in the lake
 that is to burn without ending. Under the ministrations which they near, they are lulled to sleep with a theoi- ogy that does not teach some or the strong points laid down in that eel ebrated sermon handed down in stone. Not only so, but it does appear there must be secular teachers whose lips
 are dumb on s,Sf some or the sr.noc grnao that that the duty of teachers and preachers 10 lay down the Divine law-to say noun ing of worthy human statItes-is pe l. ing properly carried out! Why IS It we are turning out from some Of our
 schools. many of them. boys and FITS
 with no sense whatever or .me r'thas thas
 n nrODerty. These are the boys and girls who make1 our loafers and thieves. lney refr sent the great burden honest men ana women must labor for and support. Teachers are turning out these loatefs and worse and are paid for tn edisc1p- line and instruction by the sacred cash
 of the State. to ministry itsel--are either. grossly indifferent to the great work they have in hand or are deliberately leading inc children in their care to violate the statutes of God and man. These are strong words. but can any man reheet on the situation and conclude that the language !s exageerated:
 Right Teaching the Remedy.
 "what shall we do for a remedyI We have heard it said and preached | with some force, and rom nlsn au- thority, that the abolition of the TOUT teenth and Fifteenth amendments or the Constitution of the United states, would furnish some relief. As If that
 would cure lust and laziness ana dis-
 honesty! The possession Of certain | poUtical or civil rights neither pro- duces nor prevents crime. Il
 "I may not know remedy out l can surely say that as soon as great majority of the people on every block | In every city and every siH, country 5 xcndn fndn
 as well the loafer from their conh. dence. the tension of the races will
 give way and this must come before we may hope to assume our old rela- tions of kindly sentiment towards | each other. It Is a time for the better | classes of the two people to have an understanding with each other, and that I might add something to that end | is the purpose I had in offering these remarks
 "I might further suggest. In 2 hunt | for a remedy. that if there be minis ters who avoid unpleasant allusions to God Almighty's phillippfcs against theft, that they may be given an op- | portunity to blow instead of preach
 .I would be almost willing for the Legislature to provide for a license for l preachers. and an examination before | one could he secured. I would not re- l nuire the Board to look too critically | into the applicants fitness for polemi- cal discussion along the lines of hi gher law. but rather towards exam ming his hands that they he clean Too many people are floating away in- to some sweet elysian with other peo- ple's property in their hands. One cannot afford to hold stolen goods In his cold, dead hands. I very greatly desire to see such happy people arrest ed in their march to the great beyond
 by the irresistible door of Gods or der II would serve the purpose Of
 this land better if they could meet the door much this side of deaths portals
 'I could hope further that if there
 .t..er