The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1907-05-11
JEALOUS OF THE NEGRO.

JEALOUS OF THE NEGRO.
Egotism and immodesty are not
specially characteristic Of the south
ern people, but Gustaf R. Westfeldt, a
member of the board of administrators
of Tulane university in New Orleans.
seems to have his full share OF these
traits.
Mr.. Westfeldt has written letter
to the British ambassador at Washing
ton complaining that a Pennsylvania
Negro has beeen appointed to one or
the Cecil Rhodes scholarships at Ok
for university He gives the ambassa-
dor fair warning that the appointment
of Negroes to these scholarships Will
make them very unpopular in the
South. The reply Of the ambassador
to this somewhat impudent note has
not been made public, but in the mean
while The Chronicle will say a few
things which the ambassador would
do well to adopt.
In the first place, nobody in the uni
verse outside of the south cares
whether these scholarships are unpo-
pular in the South or not. Beggars
must not be choosers. The scholar
ships are in the nature Of a charity
and IL the South does not want them
it can leave them alone, but it is an
exhibition of monumental cheek in the
Southern people to accept them and
then undertake to say who else shall
receive them and finally threaten not
to receive them If they are bestowed
on someone else.
This ungratefuI and absurd letter OF
Mr.. Westfeldt would not have been
quite so bad IL the Negro in question
had been a New Orleans Negro or a
Southern Negro, but he was a Penn
sylvania Negro, and still the Southern
man assumes to dictate his status in
conformity with Southern notions and
threaten Southern displeasure il any
one objects to his mandate. In other
words, the South wishes to fix the so
cial status Of the Negro not only for
the South but for the North and for
Great Britain as well.
Mr.. westfeldt might just as well un-
derstand that his letter will excite In
the North both resentment and con.
tempt-resentment because it is an
impertinent meddling with matters In
the North that do not concern him
and contempt because it shows that
some of the Southern people are jeal.
GUS of the Negro. Evidently they are
afraid that If the Negro is allowed to
have university education certain
white men will be eclipsed.
The South can isolate itself and re-
main 500 years behind the rest Of the
world II it chooses, but the prejudice
against race for races sake is dead
everywhere else. An equal chance foI
all in the race Of life is the modern
idea. Social equality with Negroes oil
anybody else is a matter Of individual
choice, but equality before the law and
a fair chance to rise in the scale oil
humanity is humanity's programme
for the future.
II the South knows what is good foT
its own highest interest it viii quit
its fooIishness and join in the process
sion.-The Chicago Chronicle, May s
1907.
The whole thing or situation in the
Southern states, in relation to the No
gro aspiring to acquire practical edu.
cation has been stated in nutshell
In the above editorial, for with few
exceptions, the vast majority of the
whites In the South, are jealous OF
every Negro, who is not a crapshooteI
and who win not act in the capacity
Of q servant a.