Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1907-11-16

timent." | deny the charge. The
South has been represented In Con-
gress IN the past. and Is now repre-
scented In several instances. by men
whose courage has been demon
strated In war and In peace. They
have all had the desire In their hearts
TO repeal the fifteenth amendment,
as ] have, and as every white man
In the South has.
These men did not fail to make il
their main business at washington
to agitate for the repeal of the If
teenth amendment because they
were towards. They failed to do It
simply because they were men of
practical common sense with their
feet on the ground. and all of them
with some slight degree OF informa-
ton as to the state OF public opinion
in the United States.
Mr.. Williams states the truth
there. They didn't take the goose.
because they couldn't get il, and
there are thousands OF people In this
country. who believe that there are
millions of white people In the
Southland who feel the same way
about the Thirteenth Amendment &,
the Constitution OF the United States.
IL is natural TO suppose that while
Mr.. Williams is in the business of
confessing that he should at least
make "a clean breast or IT." He
voices a hope.-let us believe, a
vain hope when he says:
l agree that there may some time
be a repeal OF the fifteenth amend
ment. but II so, IL will not come in
response to a sectional Southern de-
mand, nor will II come in response to
partisan political demand Ii will
come after the Northern people have
attained the same degree OF knowl-
edge concerning the Negro, his char
acteristics. his limitations, his I'm
pulses, his eccentricities-as he is
that we now possess. This will be
only after. by industrial evolution,
the Negro has been scattered all
over the United States. or over at
least two-thirds OF It. in sufficient
numbers TO make himself known and
to make our opinion Of him, as a
consequence, appreciated.
We are willing to take our chan
ces in waiting for this time. It will
be long after Hon. John Sharp VIII
liams and his colleagues have been
gathered into the graves OF their
fathers. The Negroes are undergo
ing an evolution, caused by change
In their surroundings and environ
ments. The question that we are
now discussing will not be the is
sues OF the years that are to come.
Mr.. Williams says:
There is already a drift OF the
Negro population toward the North
ern States. principally TO the cities.
This drift is annually increasing. es-
pecially In the border States, Indiana
Ohio. Illinois and in New Jersey. and
eastern Pennsylvania They are the
worst Negroes who leave our fields
and 90 North, and not the best-the
best are In our cotton-fields. Fully
ninety per cent. OF the Negro race
| Is behaving itself as well as could be
expected; II is at work in the fields,
on the railroads, and in the saw
mills. and does not. for the most
part know that there IL a fifteenth
amendment, either TO be repealed or
70 be buttressed by further legisla-
ton OF Congress.
The above is a correct statement
Most OF the colored people who go
North are OF the worst type. but
there are notable exceptions. Many
colored people in the North are &C
formulating money and many OF them
are paying for homesteads purchased
in the Southland. They are handi-
capped though by this very worth
less element that fills the streets OF
Northern cities and the jails OF
northern municipalities But then
even white folks north can under
stand. They have the white hood
lums there too. Mr.. williams saye:
The bad element that goes North
constitutes the strongest argument
against the old New England idea OF
the equality OF featherless bipeds and
In favor OF the Southern idea on
the race question-an object-lesson
argument. Some time it may be
that this argument will prove strong
enough to cause a demand to be
made from New Jersey or from In
diana or Ohio or Illinois for a repeal
OF the fifteenth amendment, so that
the people OF those States may frank
ly confine their suffrage to white
men twenty-one years OF age" their
people. being. as a whole. opposed
to resorting to educational or poll
tax qualifications.
Mr.. Williams INDUCES in ''pipe
dream" for the reason that there
are white people with the same in
clinations and tendencies as the coll
ored ones. White men in the North
know that crime is not confined TO
colored people and that the same
class and kind or Negroes that find
a way to the jails are duplicated by
the same class and kind OF white
hoodlums, who meet them there.
In the absence OF race prejudice.
they fail to see any difference in the