The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-18

The following letter, expressing the views of Hon. Alex Troy on the subject of the education of the negro, has been received:
 Editor Advertiser:
 The recent discussion of the negro in the United States Senate recalls the excellent letter of rMs. Moody to The
 Besemer Weekly. published some weeks since which should receive the cordial appreciation of every one who is sin- cere friend of the negro. This letter | ought to be printed every day in the year by every paper iD the State and until the people are aroused to the farce, the failure, the mistake, and
 might add crime, of the so-called negro education. I quote couple or para
 graphs from this letter:
 ''Not only do we contend against their higher education, but do respectfully
 submit that when they can so much
 as read and write, one who might nave
 been a good citizen has his usefulness
 materially curtailed"
 50 far from lifting them. from the
 depths of ignorance, education IS. Tn
 our opinion. causing marked deterio-
 is arousing, and will continue to arouse ambitions impossible of fulfillment.
 Social, intellectual, racial equality is
 an impossibility for the negro m tnis ms | country. Yet it is undoubtedly the dream of the educated negro man. In these views, most heartily con cur and thank Mrs. Moody Tor giving l expressions to them. No one now con tends for the higher education of the negro but many patriots are striving with might and main to see who can
 most. "out-herod Herod" in the lavlsh appropriation of money for theira com
 mon school education,-to determine 1T by this means "the negro question" can
 be settled, all other attempts having failed. That this will result In some
 thing worse than failure I sincerely believe. All the millions which nave
 been spent by the State since the war in negro education had thousand
 of the ocean buried" for then it would have been simply wasted. whereas 1t
 has been worse than wasted,
 Worse Than Reconstruction. Education has had a pernicious in-
 fuence on the negro which emancipa- tion wiIn it's injury to him did not have; which the conferring Of sunrage
 on him. as damnable as it was, dld not
 have; which Reconstruction" with it's horrible attempt to put him. over the white man, did not have. It has,
 ''Turned a wholesome heart to gall: Is this statement fiction or is 1t truth? In order to determine whether or not it is true, let us glance for moment at what the negro was during slavery, what he was thirty years ago and what he Is now; what his relation was to the white man and his propen-
 sitv to crime at these different periods. During the war with the white men or the Soutn dt tue lIoul waging a contest to perpetuate him
 in slavery, the negro toiled on and pro tected the defeneeless women and chil- -dren at home The devotion and loy- atty of the black race during this stormy time challenged the admiration of the world. MT. Toombs may have only been joking when he said that
 Henry Grady would tell lie for Con-
 federate money before he would tell the truth for gold" but We know he
 was telling the truth when he said, in
 his Plymouth Rock speech, that during
 the four long years of war. While hls
 father was at the front, the trusty
 black sentinel stood guard at his
 mothers door every night and no one could have entered that room except over his dead body. During all this time, the negro was loyal. obedtent and practically free from crime. but above all things. he wasfrespectful and hum ble.
 This was the rule and not the excep- ton throughout the South. How was if during Reconstruction? He had then the same freedom and far more political power than he has now. An occasional row at an election precinct l hut the world went on about the same | as far as the two races were concerned; | In 999 cases out of 1000, amity and | good will prevailed on the plantations and in the home everywhere. Is 1t so