Milford chronicle., 1907-10-18
WHY THE DELAWARE NEGRO
Should Favor Local Option.

1. Because we have no financial
interest in the liquor business. We
spend great deal Of money in it,
but every dollar so spent is direct
loss to the race. It goes to help en-
rich those already in possession Of
the material resources of the nation.
There is but one Negro in the State
who owns or operates a saloon.
2. Because the liquor business
pays practically nothing to the Ne
gro in wages. The number of men
employed is smaller, in proportion
to the capital invested, than in any
other branch of trade, and there are
all white men.
3. Because the seperate bar sys-
tenn in vogue throughout the State,
IS a degradation to our manhood, to
which none of us should submit in
the purchase of an article of no real
value to us but positively harmful in
its effect.
4. Because the liquor business
has a direct bearing on the race pro-
blem in which we are vitality inter
ested.
Friction between the races is pro-
NOTED by prejudice and passion and /
both these causes are fed by the ag-
encies which rob men of the power
of calm reason.
Prejudice is an ever present force
in the community. It exists in
both races but necessarily the
weaker race suffers more from its eff
fects. Reason subdues it; passion
naames it.
The negro, with a mind disordered
by drink, not only resents with
greater intensity what he conceives
to be injustice, but he is prone to
the evils from which he suf-
fers and to misiudge the motives. ,
even Of his friends. From misdir- ,
ected efforts to assert his rights or to Z
avenge his wrongs, crimes of VIC /
lence result. !
The white man, under similar L
loses patience and self t
control in the presence of real or 4
ancied assaults upon the existing 5
ocial order, and is impeled to per- N
onal efforts toward repression and !,
humiliation. A drunken white man n
las no conception of the differences a
mOng individuals of the Negro race b
nd all are brought under the ban b.
+ his displeasure when his anger is m
TIRED by few or perhaps by one. d
The negro population of Delaware u
) about 20 per cent of the whole. %
hat is, for each Negro there are four cc
'hite men These white men have ra
ontrol of all the departments of gov an
all financial institutions Sc
u commercial and manufacturing hi
and own nearly all the tic
Xable property in the State. tu
The sober Negro who can think "a
seds no argument to prove that any esi
isis which would array the races vic
.ainst each other would mean dis
ter for him. He must take his En-
oice between accepting the situa- I
IN as it is or move out. If exist fin
9 conditions are changed the white ma
an must change them-the Negro sew
mot. Wh
But, though we may not make ma ma
anges directly, we can cause them. dis,
increasing intelligence, industry con
d sObriety we must inevitably to
n in self respect, material pros wol
rity and the good will of other edg
n. The open saloon is a barrier tul!
such progress. What we have reV'
ne in this direction has been in an an
te of and not because Of the sa- Of oe'
H. stea
BY increasing ignorance, Incidence sou
vice, of which the saloon is the the
bed and nursery, we arouse the sho,
agOnism of the whites whether prod
y be drunk or sober. The Grim bic
record of the young Negro is a say
slant irritant. y
n such a time as this we need all 49, -,N
VIII anu WISDOM we can com $500
Id. Whatever course others seve
7 pursue, let us resolve to be gold
ehful and sober, and summon to Mich
and circumstance which gives
Mise of help. Vote for NO-Li-
O An
w n TACON such
~ O4'''0-'' almo
---.. - man