The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-16
LETTERS TO, THE EDITOR
The Race Problem .

Editor Advertiser:
 Immediately after the civil war, the Southern white people naturally ceas- ed to try to influence the negro. He at once passed under the teachings of our enemies and this, to a great eX- tent. is the cause of the present un- happy state of affairs We can eX- peet trouble so long as the negro is taught and trained by our enemies.
 Stonewall Jackson taught negro Sunday school. and today both races all house servants derived more or less education from their owners. The safety of the South demands that we return to our former methods, and by the aid of the State develop them upon an extensive scale. It would be well If negro schools, as far as posst- ble. were taught by Southern white people, who would undertake it in a missionary spirit, and who would pre- serve the standard of their own race, while they sought to beneft an infe- rior one.
 The negro race should be dominated, but by good treatment. kindness and justice, and in our daily relations as well as in courts of law. There as well as punishment for the bad. To conquer the race by force, Is to cre- ate smouldering fire, that will con stantly blaze forth, threatening every home. Some crimes, Of course, de- mand immediate trial and extreme punishment.
 While we should seek to influence and train the negro as race, we | should also attempt to prevent and | overcome, so far as possible the teaching of enemies and fanatics
 The Confessions of a Yankee" IS 1 the title of a small book that makes ! grave charges against the Tuskegee | Institute. some things may be taught | there, that are not in the books. II 1 is a shrewd diplomacy that draws support from both sides. The State I ATs.w. H1A Id fTNrf L. 1 tuition. and the Legislature should ap- point a committee, composed of con servative men. to make an inVestlSa- | tion. We do not know what IS ln- ! side It may be a Trojan Horse. Every year the State graduates l about twelve hundred criminals from l a school of crime. known as the pen | itentiary. Arrest men for trivial of lenses imprison them for years with hardened criminals. make them Weai 1 a badge of disgrace, treat them crue 1 ly. embitter them against the world and when you turn them loose yoI | have created an element that is dan gerous to society.
 The State is now farming crime al I tremendous profit and under inhuita. Ia conditions. For petty, offense tht state has q right to take mans lib' erty, but not his life. Improve the | jaii and the treatment of conVlctS convict labor to decrease crime. Es Es tablish a Reformatory Institution TOT Negro Boys Keep men convicted 0
 slight ofense separated from har
 dened criminals So far as posslol' relieve them of the disgrace or De
 ing d convict. Give them religious
 and educational instruction. TurI
 them loose as useful members O
 society in general rather than as
 constant menace to our homes ah' civilization.
 With the exception of the las
 paragraph the above article a, wa,
 written for publication two week or more ago IL Is gratifying t'
 note that Governor Jelks message
 intimates the advisabiuty of south
 ern white teachers for negr'
 schools. Let Alabama lead the val
 in the solution of the race problem along the lines of discretion. ha'
 ''~A''' F. ". Jackson.