Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-12-16

the North, for the matter of that
which is heard of little enough to be
worth reminder. When there is crime
or trouble of airy kind. and that withou,
discrimination as to whether the re-
| sponsibility may not be on the white
person also concerned in it, we are
prone to think of the ten million
negroes as troublesome and all that
rejecting little what an infini1esim
sample we are judging the whole by
and how the white race would fare un.
der the same treatment.
Taking an ampler view, President Me-
serve notes that in a single generation
the black people have increased from
four TO ten million, while their per cent
of illiteracy has decreased from 100 to
45. Beginning also with practically no
property they have in this time ac-
cumulated a grand total amounting IN
value to $500, 600 AS something of a.
cOrollary one would think, Mr. Meserve
goes on to say that despite a very gen.
eral opinion to the contrary the colored
people are industrious and are doing
Northern community has only to look
at its colorad colony to feel the truth
Of this. A large proportion of last
years cotton crop of nearly fifteen mil
lion bales was raised by colored labor
ers. The lazy and criminal among the
negroes attract attention and with
characteristic prejudice we attribute
their quality to the race, forgetting the
MANY that are honest and Industrious
that We see and know about us.
As for their place in the South, Mr.
Meserve says the colored people arc
nearly all the white people want them
to stay. Relations with the whites are
improving. There is practically no
friction in North Carolina, and Mr.. Me-
serve thinks that friendlier relations
are coming about throughout the South.
To the accusation that they are not
faithful and efficient in their work there
is thu retort that they earn all that
they receive, which Mr.. Meserve quotes
approvngly. The South has many peo-
pie Of eminence that favor the educa-
ton of the colored people and do ali
HOY tn, lrs.tT vi,
ty alone has enrolled more than 100 stu
dents. 9rd IT'S graduates occupy high
places in many parts of the world
The medical faculty of the university
is made up OF ten white men who, for
years. hay. done their work as con-
scientiously as though their students
We're white.
Mr.. McServe thinks that the breach
between the races is not widening. 1t
takes long time for Il race whose
wants are few and easily satisfied to
discover that real freedom means self
support the meeting of Obligations and
the performance of duties as prerequis- !
ties to the exercise of civil rights. But
there is evidence % growth in this per
ception. The colored people are help
ing themselves. But Mr. Meserve adds: |
I can not close this interview with |
out renarking that, Notwithstanding |
all that has been accomplished the |
work has really just begun, fer there |
are more colOrcd people who can not |
read today than was the case 1T the |
close of The civil war in 1869. The num- |
Der of colored iiliterateS today is $780, |
'oo. which is in excess of the number |
freed by the fiat of war;
One thing this whole country will
have 10 take TO itself, namely, that il |
can not for Ita own welfare afford 20 |
have an illitorate mass. We are
alarmed at a few thousand foreigners |
that com" here iliterate. But we
should understand that we can not al |
low millions Of blacks to live not only |
illitcrato. but under conditions that |
thrust them down to lower levels We
have freed these people once for all |
HIT Jpn VIII not De zone again. Nor |
Will it be allowed to be undone We
have now slowly, patiently to lift up
this ignorant mass. We may take heart |
by reading Mr. Meservey's statements
and remembering that rs we make bet !
ter the lower masses so we raise the
level OF the whole The South is more
interested than We because the negro |
will always do the heavy work Of the
South. And the South will have t.
learn that it is possible to educate its
labor and make it more intelligent
without making it social equal.
President Woodrow Wilson was mis-
1 q l,ta 4l.a&