The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-22
THE NEGRO AND THE SOUTH
The Real Negro Problem Discussed by Hon John Sharp
Williams.
Williams.

IN the November mt 81 the
metropolitan Magazine. Hor. John
sharp williams. leader of The
Democratic party IN the House
and newly elected Senator from Mss
.ssippf contributes a thoughtful critic
IN The Negro and the South. from
which the following 1tTacH are
aiken.
Let Us have racial peace without
any interference from the OUTSIDE
and We can hope from the natural
evolution II things for 4 solution 0f
this great problem. as of most others.
God rules his world. and rot the
devil. Things go right n the long
run. and not wrong. | am an OPP
timist, and not a pess!uist Remem-
Der What jefferson said !n hiss first
inaugural address. when he said that
we are-and hope he to- the truth
-'enlightened BY a benign religion.
professel. indeed. and practlsed IN
various forms. yet all or them includ-
ing honesty. truth. temperance. graf
titude and the love or man. acknowl-
edgiag and adoring an overriding
Providence. which by all its dispen-
satons proves that 1t delights in the
happiness OF man here and his greater
happiness hereafter"
Remembering with the apostle Of
American Democracy that Ii is under
this sort Or b~enignant Providence that
we all live and have our being-white.
black, red and yellow-and tina whilc
black and white are not the same an
imal physically, mentally, or morally,
nor in any sense equal, actually or
potentially. and cannot be made so
by platforms or laws, they are yet
both the creatures of one Cod. is il
too much for me TO leave with YOU
the parting injunction that in the
face Of this great problem il would
be well that wise nlan@ fhinL~ r,,-a
that good men pray more, and that
all men talk less and curse less"
Some people talk as IL te repeal
of the fifteenth amendment would
get rid of darkies. 1t is the phvsi-
cal presence of the negro that con
stituteS the problem. That cannot be
too often repeated ard tina consti-
tuted the problem even Whan his
status was one Of slavery. The phys
zeal presence. as far as | can see, is
unavoidable. 1t annot be escaped
by the deportation of the negro race.
1t cannot be escaped by the white
people moving out of the South and
leaving the negroes IN possession of
the accumulated fruits or their intel
ligence and civilization. 1t cannot
be escaped by the determination of
either race by the other. That
thought is absolutely horrible to a
good man, a believer in the divine
philosophy of Jesus Christ, who
taught mutual h~elpfulness, and not
mutual hatred OF mankind. The
races might be fused by amalgama-
uon-that is northumberland yet
while the iarky cannot be removed
from n country, he can be gradually
though not suddenly scattered all
over the n thus relieving the
congeSted racial condition IN the cot
ton States. diminishing the racial
menac everywhere and carrying
with the negro himself "a knowledge
OF the negro problem to white men
in other parts OF the Union.
Negroes are going out and white
men coming in, out we can, by wise
individual and State action, acceler-
ate it by bringing into the South de-
slrable white immigrants, thus sub
1ectlng the darby to an Industrial
competition which will require him to
become either a more eftectual lab
oTer than he is now, especially upon
the farm, or else to leave the neId'
and go to some sort of un-
skilled work requiring heavy muscu-
lar exertlon under the supervising in
~telligence of the white man. Booker
Washington said that the test for his
race would be whether it should re-
main or not remain the laboring ele-
ment or the South. L say that that
test has already been applied in the
minds of all intelligent men, that the
darky as a laborer on farm and in
factory has been weighed in the ball
ance and found wanting. He feels it
himself, and is seeking the cities.
THREE lab: ,T7y thl. ice
Inc present a State of the Negro.
In the cities he Ices not reproduce
his numbers from one generation to
another. The net birth-rate of the
race there is not equal to it's Death
rate. Gods law of evolution, the sur
vival OF the fittest and the extinction
of the unfit, is operating. The birth
rate or the negro everywhere is de-
creasing very materially. as every OBJ
servant Southerner viii tell you.
7 was told not long 6 by a large
planter in SunfloWer county, Miss,
that upon Plantations where from a
certain lumber of women there used
to be nineteen or twenty little picka-
ninnies running around. there are now
only eight or nine or ten. This has
come about largely from the fact that
the negro women are very poor moth
ers-careless and unintelligent. I'm
der the regime of slavery they had to
be good mOthers-Were, in the interest
of their masters, forced to be-and
those who acquired their habits then
continued to be reasonably good moth
erS after emancipation. Nearly ali Of
the old slavery mothers have died,
however, and the new les nave been
left to their natural instincts, without
any control by the white race. A
| vast proportion of the souls born into
| the world die before they are five years
| of age. Among the negroes the death-