Fitzgerald enterprise., 1906-10-11
THE NEGRO QUESTION ONCE MORE
From tho Je fersonian.

world is one of the omiuous conditions under
which we are beginning the New Century
There is trouble IN all the lands of the earth
Russia has her revolutions; France her combat
between Church and State; Germany, her strug-
gle between imperialism and democracy Great
Britain, her clash of classes and her Irish ques-
tion. In the far East, Egypt and India write
under foreign yoke; Persia is demanding Con-
sttutiona1 Government; China and Japan face
unsolved problems of huge proportions; and the
Philippines do as we'll they can under the
tiless march of benevolent assimilation"
The United States of North America, however,
Is cursed with a complication of male dies, and
the Southern States are lowering over the bot
tom1ess pit of Social Anarchy. Race questions
are nothiog new in the history Of the world, but
such race question he Souh has upon her
hands has never been known before.
Against her protest the British forced
slavery upon her when her position was that of
colonial dependence. This was true, likewise,
of the Northern colonies but the slave system
which failed at the North succeeded in the
South aud the Southern section of the Union
began to outstrip the North in the race fer
wealth aud power. Consequently the record of
our legislation is little more than narrative OF
other, In this contest, the North has almost
Invariably been victorious National legislation
has been so framed as to enrich the North and
East at the expense OF the South and West.
The Eastern portion Of this Union which was
bleak and barren and devoid of natural wealth,
has been built up into fabulous class prosper
itv, while the South and West, where natural
wealth most atounded, have been systemat-
ically str pped and are even now comparatively
barren.
The South would never have been invaded
by the million armed men, who came to drive
her back into the Union, had not the mont y.
making sentiment of the East controlled the
policies of those in power. 1t was only after
Wendell Phillips pointed out to the merchant
princes and manufacturers of the N>rth that II
they allowed the seeding states 20 set up TIE
Southern Confederacy, they the capitalists I
the North would lose their best customers and
richest revenues. More than anything else,
these northern capitalists dreaded tariff walls,
which might protect the South, and which might
put Northern manufacturers ia the same Po-
sition of disadvantage to the Southern markt ts
that the British manufacturer now occupies
with reference TO all American markets. There"
FORE those who looked below the surface OF
things to see what the motives have been, have
not failed to point out that the great armies
who fought the battles of the Union were un-
conscious instruments in the hands of subtle
schemers who were just as much intent upon
maintaining their own commercial supremacy
as they we're of aboshing slavery.
Slavery went down as one of the results of
the war. The slave became not only free
man but a sovereign voter. Brought here a
industry. Without any preliminary education
he was suddenly endowed with the mighty
powers and responsibilities of popular self
government. That he should have made ira,
ic failure in his effort to exercise his new func-
tions is nothing strange That the Southern
whites should have bitterly resented the politi.
cal outlawry of their own leaders and the en-
franchisement of their former slaves, was also
inevitable The strangest feature of the whole
mournful and calamitous chapter is that the
NORTH STILL PERSISTS IN THE BELIEF THAT THE
NEGRO IS WHITE MAN IN EVERYTHING BUT THE
COLOR OF HIS SKIN. With obstinacy which
no array of facts and no teachings of experience
can subdue, Northern philanthropsts still prate
about the negro as if the only difference on
earth between the one race and the other is that
one is white and the other is black. If this
question of races were merely academic, then it
would not matter WHAT the North thought
about the negro, but the question is not merely
academic. 1t is not only question of the most
vital i'm portance, but, so far the South is
carned ~ ia the question that swallows every