The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-16
sATURDAy, JUNE Is, 1906.
PENSIONS FOR Ex-sLAvEs.

There is an association of former slaves who are asking the government to pension them, when they reach a certain age. we believe. Speaking of the movement The Chicago Tribune says:
 If the government can be held re- sponsible for the existence of slavery then there Is some justice In the idea that the government should pay for the inevitable results of the system But even if the government were to accept the remote responsibility the difficult ties in the way of registration of the bona fide cases, the chance for cor ruption and fraud, the deep aversion to the creation of a pauper class, and the unreadiness of the people to adopt the principle of old age or dependent pen sions. all unite to make 1t unlikely that the plea of the ex-slaves will find sym pathetic support The poor negro, like the poor white man, must be cared for locally as state or county organizations permit rather than be encouraged to look to a paternal government for sup port.
 We don't know why The Tribune uses the 'Tr' in beginning the above para graph, for there Is no doubt about the governments responsibility for slavery in this country. The slaves were pro- tected by the constitution and laws of the country and were legally held in bondage. so that the responsibility for American slavery cannot be denied by the Federal government.
 While this is true it is equally true that the general government is wholly and directly responsible for conditions which render the old ex-slaves subjects for pensions. In slavery days the old slave needed no pensions from any gov ernment. They were cared for at their own homes by the masters and mis- tresses who housed and fed them dur ing the years of their health and sions but such as they received from willing hands and kind hearts.
 It was the Federal government that broke mp this patriarchial system at one stroke and left millions of ignor- ant negroes practically homeless and there was not enough of sanity and justice on the Northern mind to see the cruelty and injustice of immediate and wholesale emancipation. Undoubt- edly there were many who were not blind to the blunder and it's inevita ble consequences. but they were borne down by the great wave of fanaticism and unreasoning hatred that carried everything before it. Some were who'll ly ignorant of the negros weaknesses and unfitness for freedom; some neith- CT knew nor cared about his condition or needs, and still others cared for nothing but to punish the Southern whites.
 And so 1t is that the government was responsible for slavery and it was responsible for whatever of suffering has come to the freed slaves. Why should it not pension them? The ob- jection of The Tribune that such an attempt would be followed by innu- merable difficulties and frauds Is hardly tenable in view of the numerous and enormous frauds connected with our present pension laws. We do not be- lieve there would be more rascality practiced under law to pension the ex-slaves than Is now going on under the law to pension Union soldiers We are not making an argument for pen- sioning the old negroes. but merely showing that the government which legalized their slavery and afterwards set them free to starve might as A matter of justice do something for them. Whether it would be right to expend the public money that way is another question.