The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-28
UNCLE REMUSONTHE NEGRO

Joel Chandler Harris in the Saturday Eve
 ming Post.
 BELIEVE that, at the bottom a ma
 jority of the American people are at one with respect to the negro and his future and the reason I have for making the statement is a sound one, namely, that large majority of the people of this country are blessed with common sense in larger measure than those of any other country on the globe. This innate commonsense has brushed away so many difficulties, and solved so many problems, and carried the coun- try safely through so many crises, and has come to the front in so many emer- gencies that it may confidently be de- pended on in the future.
 Nevertheless, there are many southern people who steadily refuse to believe that the negro has any wholesome future before him, and some of them even write communications to the papers in order to demonstrate the SnlLliesS chai "OtOl- istics of the race; and intelligence who claim that the two races can never live under the same government and in the same communities without inviting a race war on the one hand or amalga- nation on the other, and that one or the other of these contingencies can only
 
 try or territory where the negro can have everything his own way Moreover there are to be found individual instances where the assertion is made that the negro is going backward instead of for ward; but individual instances of this kind are worth no more than the indi- viduals themselves. In such cases you cannot argue from the particular to the general without doing wholesale injus- tice. for the facts are all the other way.
 The negro is of different raee' it is true and his mind may fail to respond to the different processes of civilization and enlightenment; but this remains to I thus far. He seems to be getting along remarkably well, considering all the cir cumstances by which he Has been sur rounded. He is acquiring property quite rapidly and in our modern civilization this factulty is regarded, whether right ly or not. as the highest possible test of progress.
 The negro is also acquiring an educa- ton, slowly, as a matter of course, but surely. and by so much as the minds of the present generation are prepared and equipped, by just so much will the minds of the generation to come be prepared to assimilate knowledge.
 We are placed in position of expect ing race but a few years from the inevitable ignorance imposei upon 1t by the conditions of slavery to make the most remarkable progress that the world has ever heard of; and when we discover that in the nature of things this IS lm- nossible we shake our heads sadly ana are ready to lose heart and hope. do not ask any one to share my hopetui- ress with respect to the negro, nor Is if necessary that the views am put ting forth should be accepted
 The reason that I can afford to be hopeful in the matter lies in the tact that I am familiar with the history of g county in middle Georgia, where the negroes have a majority of the popula tion. In that county lynching is un- uroyn Such a crime has never been committed in the county and I mention the fact with considerable pride. for inc reason that it Is the county of my b,rth. It may be thought that this Is a descent to the particular. but the point I desire to make is. that the overwhelm- | ing majority of the negroes in all parts ] of the south, especially in the agri- cultural regions. are leading sober and industrious lives. temperate race is bound to be in- dustrious. and the negroes are temper 1 ate as compared with the whites. I am speaking of course of the negroes on the | farms, but even in the towns the ma jority of them are sober and industrious. , The idle and criminal classes among ! them make a great show in the police court records. but right here in Atlanta 1 the respectable and decent negroes far outnumber those who are on the lists of the police as old or new offenders. I am bound to conclue from what I see all about me, and from what l know of the race elsewhere that the negro, | notwithstanding the late start he has made in civilization and enlightenment ;- of 1,{p of,,1 member in the communities in which he