Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1907-01-11
NOT FRENZY, BUT
THE GOLDEN RULE.

perpleX the wlsest men, and cause
statesmen and philosophers to feel
that they need Gods wisdom to COM
prehend, His Omnipotence 10 master
and much time to adjust. The race
question is such Il problem. You can
hear its solution in every street car
Men sitting on nail kegs at the coun-
try stores, on beer kegs in the dog
geries, and on more pretentious seats
i'll churches, court rooms and news
paper offices are saying: "Thus and
thus saith the sage, it is settled. 1"
The wise lawyer taps his bulging fore
head and says; 'Iaw has mastered it
and | am its exponent" " The wise
editor grinds out Il solution that is
sold on the streets in twenty minutes
and forgotten in an hour. The wise
preacher misquotes or misapples his
Bible and considers himself a prophet.
The wise statesman clears it all up in
a wise speech, and eagerly waits for
some follower to procl i'm him a
greater man than Moses or Roosevelt.
Lesser lights repeat the statements of
these, and declare all plain as day.
Meantime, reporters from North and
South send dispatches that make
hades gleetul and cause the thought
ful to have keen regrets; news that in
cites the wicked to boldness and that
shows the race question is yet very
much pcrpleXing problem, one for
statesmen, students, editors and, most
of all, for the commoners to meet
earnestly. 1t is not one for figures
only. 1t does not read: If one ship
can carry a thousand blacks to Africa
in fifteen days, how long will it take
for the worlds fleets to transport the
millions? 1t is not: If among a
thousand coIored people so many
more are born in a given time than
among the whites, how long before
the blacks will outnumber the Auglo-
SaXons? 1t is not: 1t the power of
Il black brain be one half that of a
white mans brain, how many years
will it take to make the black man or
woman happy to be the underling for
his paIcr neighbor? 1t can not all be
stated by Il question like this If a
negro boy without a history can rise
in two or three decades to become a
Booker Washington, how long will it
require to make all negro boys into
great men? Nor, If a brutal negro
becomes notorious desperate or a
bestial william after forty years of aw-
ful neglect, how long will it require
to make all into criminals ? Much
less is it possible to state it: If a race
of slaves, after decades of slavery,
which followed centuries of heather
ism, were easily controlled as slaves,
how easy will it be for their descend
ants TO become serfs after forty years
of freedom Neither is it wholly a
question Of craftsmanship or denunci-
alton or torch. Yet it has as factors
such minor questions as those of birth
and death, of brain and Drawn, OF
commerce, church, school, service,
heart, soul and all that affects human
ity. Tillman's pitchlork and Roose
velts' manifestos, the teachers SPELL
ing book, the labor question-itself
unsolved-and rope and torch and
knife, with love and hate, and whis-
key and lust, and law and gospel, and
criticisms and force and helpful coun-
sells all these are factors, but there is
Il larger one yet that must not be un-
derestimated. This nation settled the
race question once by the word slav-
cry, or thought it had (say, rather, it
created iD, and complacently sat
down to sclf-gratulation as its great
wisdom, but God laughed us to scorn
and gave us our choice between ma.
tional death and letting the oppressed
go free. God is the chief factor
now-for Righteousness and Justice
are other ways of spelling God.
What are His mandates? Answer
that, and the rest is easy, for the best
policy of nations, rs Of individuals,
in the long run is to do right. What
is right? A fair chance, with neither
unjust favorS or needless hardness for
any. No domination except by tair
means, and the dominant giving the
minority Il square deal. To go into
details would he to add another fool
production to the thousands already
forgotten, but to say distinctly that
God and eternal right must not be
forgotten is timely now, as it always
is. If no question is ever solved un-
til God and right are reckoned with,
it is extremely important to seek for
this true solvent Extremists are
rarely absolutely fair OF right. There
is a middle of the road, a straight
line, if we can but find it, The
would-be leader who defects to one or
another extreme is not safe to COM
mand, but may be a guidon showing
where not to go.
While it is true that slavery will
never be the solution, nor peonage,
for you can hatch a chicken but can
never get it in the she'll again, it is
also true that Il freeman can enslave
himself and hurt his fellows by con-
tinued ignorance, intemperance or
uselessness. Idleness and vice are
the black mans worst foes as they
are the white mans enemies. Liberty
and wickedness are not to be synony-
nous in this land. There need be no
fear of slavery, and very few would
want it, but the train of freedom will
carry the incorrigible criminal to pen
al servitude, as it ought. 1t should
not be forgotten that neither at II New
England town meeting nor Carolina
barbecue will Il momentuous question
like this be settled. What is wanted
is the fairness and righteousness of