Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1906-12-16
Straight Talk From Northern
 Journal on the Negro Question
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ee white wpmaa- and rapidly Ieturn- ing tn state Of Jrutal ,avagcfE, ev- ,.r day de4enefatiu2. as whole, t. ol4,.y, and bec3ming an increasing
 mace to civilization rp5n this vicious. ignorant debased horde, the puny schemes of race elevation were ,, as snownakes falling into the seeth- ing ocean. still the southern whites protested. warned and implored, but
 northern sentimenjality was proof against the natural appeals Of race, the ties of kinship and dictates of nature.
 Now it has at length come to pass that the deluge is broken and this problem, long in the brewing of it's malign factors, must be effectually settled, not alone by the south, but the north as we'll We have had enough of theorizing, temporizing, philosophizing-it is time to act. Northern people are Hot generally aware of the fact, but it is nevrrthe- less true that the state of the mass of negroes in the south is so debased, so utterly, hopelessly, fearlessly, lack ing ill moral conceptions that there exists in many southern states con- dition which this or any other re- spectacle journal would not dare de- f1,n 70 terms, so loathsome and shocking would be the details if truly and plainly stated.
 White women and children are not safe; they can not walk unguarded in the streets of the cities even in daylight. At night doors must be locked and windows barred, the re- volver must be at hand, if the black assailant is to be kept out In many portions of the Black Belt the family of the white man lives in constant state of siege; fate worse than death awaits it's members if they dare relax their vigilance for an hour. Northern people do not know the truth and their journals are not en- Tightening them. The south, for very known, but residence of even a few weeks in any portion of the
 country where the ignorant negro population is congested will con vince the most. skeptical that this hideous danger is always imminent and very real.
 The crime of stealing is the very least of the negrO's offenses against southern society," The whites of the south have long since ceased to eX- pect that he will respect the rights of property. Larceny is looked upon as a joke. As we'll might one eX- pect the leopard to change his spots as the southern negro to refrain from stealing. It is possible to protect against this comparatively minor of fense; it is the hideous crimes, the unspeakable horrors, that are the real menace. Against these the law is powerless, because it recognizes no punishment adequate to the of fense; it can devise nothing that will prevent it's recurrence and the harm done is irreparable
 Ordinary punishment. adequate ill the north to check the crime, fails entirely ill the south to restrain the negro even from the commission of minor misdemeanors. The disgrace of imprisonment does not touch him, as rule In many southern towns,
 when cold weather approaches and the shiftless and improvident blacks | feel it's chill, numbers of them delib- erately and openly commit theft in order to be arrested, convicted and
 sentenced to the pententiary during
 the winter months, there to be main i tained in comparative comfort at the