Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1908-09-23
The Race Question.

Editors Index:
A few days ago one Of our RepubIi-
can friends was cridcising our position on
the negro question. and especially on
the question Of separate schools. His
objections were that in many cases it
would be an added expense to our
school taxes. Now for fear others may
take the same view we would like few
words through the Index to briefly define
our position on the negro question. In
the hrst place it is not our idea to force
people to adopt the separate school
system, but to enact a law that will en-
able them to do so wherever they desire
to do it, and not retard or injure either
whites or blacks in their pursuits Of ed
ueaton. While we are absolutely op-
posed to mixed schools we would not
favor legislation that would place an un-
reasonable burden on the people, unwiII-
ingly, but would leave it to their own dis
c1e6on as to what they could do, but
make it so that they could wherever they
so desired have separate schools, and it
seems to us that with law enacted on
this line that no one could be injured,
and certainly not the negro race, for |
take it that every one will agree with
me that with separate schools both the
whites and blacks will be largely bene-
fitted, for as it now is there is a continual
strife both in and out Of school or to
make it more plain, there is a race
prejudice that no amount Of talk can
ever do away with. And it seems to
me that the best thing that can be done
for all is to, as far as possible, remove
every temptation for the cultivation Of this
prejudice, and we can see no better
way than to give each separate schools
and give each the very best Of advantages
IN those separate schools. By this means
we take away the immediate cause Of
the continual strife, and to a great extent
put the minds Of both whites and blacks
at ease in the school room, and thus
give greater degree Of freedom for
their actual advancement. And while
we are talking on the Negro question
we will just add a word or two on the
question Of intermarriage Of whites and
blacks. Up to the present time we are
unable to find one single solitary reason
for such marriage. 1t has always been
and is now our opinion that the white
race is superior race, and that let come
what will this country is bound to be gov
erned by the white race, and the whittier
the better; and whenever we hear Of a
mixed marriage we can not help but
think that in such case the Negro is the
better Of the two, for they are making
an effort to elevate themselves while the
white person is losing what little self-re-
spect he may have previously been pos
ses'ed Of, and to our mind they come
pretty near committing a crime against
their offspring, for by such marriages they
bring children into the world that are
neither white nor black and are cast of
to great extent by both whites and
blacks. They have to go through life
with bnrden that has been placed
there by no fault Of their own but
nevertheless a burden that they can
never hope to shake off, and all on ac-
count Of our slack laws that permit such
absurd marriages.
1t is the duty Of every one who has
the love Of his country at heart to do all
an his power to upGft and build up and
no one can ever hope to add to the IN
teIigence or honor Of our people by the
process Of mixed marriages, unless it
might be some one who is ready to ad-
init that the Negro is equal in every
respect to the white race; and it has long
been our opinion that when we hear one
advocating social equality with the Negro
that he his not honest in his talk but i.
simply talking for effect, and in many
cases to get the Negro support.
Now we are not objec6ns to poEi.
cal equality. but we are from FIRST to las
opposed to any more social equality. un.
I'll such tune as we are convinced thai
our race is no better than the Negroes