The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-05-07
THE NEGRO PROBLEM.

The southern states nave deter
mined that the negro shall not have
social equality. Nor are the negroes
seeking it. The federal constitution
by the war amendments, gives the
negro political equality, the evil con
sequences of which the southern
states have partly alleyiated, if not
entirely avoided, by the educational
qualification of the suffrage.
Abraham Lincoln, in his oft-quoted
speech delivered at Charleston, ILL.,,
declared himself opposed to the po-
litical equality of the negroes.
Il am not, nor ever have been,
he declared, ''in favor of bringing
about in any way the social or poll
teal equality of the white and black
races. | am not, nor ever have been
in favor of making voters or jurors
of negroes, nor of qualifying them
to hold office, nor of intermarriage
with white people; and | will say, in
addition to this, that there is ply
steal difference between the white
and black races which I believe will
forever forbid the two races living
together on terms of social and poll
teal equality Inasmuch as they can
not so live, while they do remain to-
gether there must be a position of
superior and inferior, and |, as much
as any other man, am in favor of
having the superior position assign
ed to the white race"
The race question in the south is
no longer one of social or political
equality, says the Houston Chroni-
Gle Both points have been settled.
First, there is to be no social equali-
ty. This is fixed by the necessity of
preserving the purity of the white
race Second, there is to be political
equality in theory. This is fixed by
the federal constitution. Yet the dis
astrous effects of following the war
amendments is to be constitutionally
avoided by requiring as prerequis-
lite to voting a small degree of
knowledge which the ignorant black
does not possess.
The cardinal error in the treat
ment of the negro has been to en-
courage him to better himself by
going into politics, out of which only
few negroes can profit, while many
are demoralized, instead of using his
full strength in working to improve
his condition.
Many northern friends of the ne
gro have the mistaken notion that
the ballot protects the black from
white oppression. Too often the ne
gro sells his vote for pittance
which does him little good. and
which transaction, immoral though
common, does not tend to develop
him into good citizen.
The south wishes the negro we'll.
Southern white men of the better
class have, in spite of the record of
the days of reconstruction, stood the
negro's friend. They tax themselves
to educate the negro's children, these
men of the south that are sometimes
represented as oppressors of the low
er race, and they furnish the negro
work and are more lenient with the
Africans shiftlessness than any other
men would be, being far more liber-
al in their treatment of the blacks
than our Yankee brother or our Bri-
fish cousin.
What the negro leaders should
teach their people is to overcome
this shiftlessness and learn to work
for its material rewards and the
moral and mental progress that fol-
low earnest toll according to ma
lures great law of development.