The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-03-07
WEDNESDAY, MARCH .. 1906.
Virtue is like a rich stone. best plain
set. Lord Bacon.
A Complaint From the South.

The Montgomery Advertiser is becoming
firmly convinced that something should
be done to protect the colored people in
the North from i'll treatment and mob
violence. They are safe nowhere, 1t
seems" says our Southern contemporary.
north of Mason and Dixon's line, and
are apparently regarded as outlaws, who
have no civil rights and are entitled to
no protection
That is, simply delightful. 1t reads
something like satire, but there is so
much truth in 1t, and. manifestly, 1t Is
so sincere that 1t must be taken as the
serious expression of n representative
Southern newspaper which has, as all
true Southerners have. the kindest regard
for the brother in black. The Advertiser
speaks particularly of the riot at Spring
field, Ohio. which, as has already been
pointed out is in the district of Con-
gresham Kiefer. And Congressman
Kiefer Is the latest champion of negro
rights, and the latest to insist that the
representation of the South shall be cut
down because the negro vote has been
reduced.
But it is not on the score OF suffrage
that the Advertiser complains. 1t admits
that the North allows the negro to vote,
and that the black man is sometimes
allowed to sit MT the white mans table;
but says that these are about the only
rights which Northern negroes enjoy. The
right to be an Industrious citizen: to live
at peace among the whites; TO work for
living in competition with white labor
these are not looked on as being among
the vested and assured rights of a col
ored individual after he leaves his South
ern home.
Has the attention of the Advertiser been
called to an article recently appearing in
the Chicago Chronicle, in which it was
confessed that the negro mechanic had
little chance to earn livelihood in that
city? Has its attention been called 10
recent communications in the Phladel-
phia Ledger. in which it is confessed by
one correspondent and confirmed by an
other that the black man is much more
prosperous in the far South than he is
in Philadelphia, and that the condition
of the black man in the South Is alto
gether better than that of the black man
in the North?
We recently reproduced these extracts
and In our comments spoke of the friend
ly relationship between the whites and
blacks of Virginia. The Advertiser says
that the same relationship exists in Mont
gomery; that there Is hardly an industry
In that city in which negroes are not
working: that white man and black man
work side't5y side. in peace and harmony,
AID that When the days work is over
each goes his own way; that the negroes
have their homes in every quarter of the
city, and as long as they conduct them
selves even fairly well, they are not
noested: that the negro in Montgomery
Is safe from molestation or any form of
imposition or maltreatment just so long
as he is decent and orderly citizen.
That is the case In Richmond. and we
believe 1t iz the case in every orderly
community of the South. There Is race
separation. but no race antagonlsm. The
line Is drawn and each race keeps on it's
side. But that Is the way TO have
peace.