Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-15


pose heavy fines Generally speaking, the
law is effective In promoting temperance
industry and prosperity among the poorer
classes. and particularly among the ne
groes and the poor white" class. who
are remarkably prosperous in this part
of the state.
People here no longer talk about the
negro. He has been eliminated from
politics. Even those who are eligible sell
dom vote in North Carolina. and do not
seem to care to do SO. The former po-
lttical leaders among the negro popu!a
ton have gone to work and making
good use of their time and talents. They
earn good money. Farm wages have in
creased from $3.50 to s16-S2O month
with the same allowance of meal. bacon
molasses and other provisions that have
usually been supplied to plantation
hands Town negroes get 81 50 a day and
all the work they can do. The relations
betweer the whites and the blacks are
now peaceful and friendly throughout the
state, and the negroes are improving in
their material condition because every
thing they raise commands high prices
Cotton is worth more than 10 cents a
pound, and chickens, eggs, butter and
vegetables, all of which are raised almost
exclusively by negro truck farmers In this
section, are worth double what they
used to bring in the local markets.
Negroes Morals Improving.
Everybody tells me that there has also
been a decided advance in the moral as
well as the material condition of the
negro since he was eliminated from poll
tics and the temptations that surrounded
him in the old days. 1t Is said many
negroes are saving their money and are
putting 1t in banks and building asso-
Citations. Many of them are buying homes
and building houses and getting little
farms Of their> own instead Of wasting
their wages In dissipation and on gim-
cracks.
1t is difficult for a negro to resist the
temptation of spending his money for
Saturday afternoon the streets of the
cities of the south are always crowded
with colored people from the country en-
joying q holiday and spending their earn
ings for confectionery, ribbons. gilt jew
elry and other useless objects which seem
to fascinate them. But, owing to the pro-
hib,tion law, the men usually go home
sober. They consume vast quantities of
soft drinks and occasionally get little
liquor from some city friend, but the po-
for them to obtain fire water.
The negro schools have been somewhat
improved in North Carolina during the
last few years. In the cities they are
nearly as good as those provided for the
white children, and the same rules are
applied to the selection of teachers. Here
in Charlotte, for example, the public
school building for white children Is built
of brick with architectural pretensions,
while the buildings for the colored chill
dren are of frame and of ordinary de-
sign. The white teachers are paid about
one-third more wages than the negroes,
but the grading Of the scholars is the
same, the books are the same and the
school terms are Of equal length.
Throughout the state, I am told, there
has been a considerable increase in the
length of school terms and in the wages
of teachers, and the tests for appoint
ments have been made more severe. All
the schools are under the supervision of
white principals and are governed by
white boards of education. The negroes
are said to be taking more interest in the
education Of their children. They are be-
ginning to appreciate more fully the adj
vantages, and the coming generation of
negroes will show a much lower per-
centage Of illiteracy than the present gen
Grafton,