The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-24
JUDGE THOMAS
MAKES SPEECH
Delivers Address in a
Boston Club.
NEGRO SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION
Montgomery Jurist Tells Southern
Side Of Question.
Conversational Club Hear. Him and
Professor, Hart Of Havana ON DIf-
serens Views OF New

William H. Thomas OF Montgomery.
Ala. tonight before the Congregations
Club Of Boston. Massachusetts. de-
livered most interesting and In.
structive address on the New South.
In the invitation (which the Club ex-
tended Ito Judge Thomas to deliver
the address. IL was stated that Pro-
lessor Albert Bushnell Hart of Har-
vard University would share the hon.
ors OF the speaker OF the evening TAX
Ing the topic of his address "The New
south--an outside view... Judge
Thomas spoke on THE New South
an inside view
At the close of the remarks Of Pro-
lessor Hart and Judge Thomas an OPP
portunity was given other members
OF the club and other guests for ques-
lions and brief answers.
Judge Thomas said In part:
Mr.. President and GentIemen:-when
Matthew Arnold wrote Of Emerson as
the friend and alder OF those who
would live in the Spirit" he pointed
to New England characteristic that
has secured for the South common her
itage with you in q literature which
made the world your debtor.
Yet not quite half century has
passed since there arose between US
this Nation that was fought to con-
clusion with equal earnestness.
Accepting the responsibilities cast
upon the South. with q big hearted
honesty of purpose. her sons set them
selves TO the task Of guiding and
controlling as best they could the vi
cious and irresponsible Of either race"
Before the Boston Merchants Assoc
citation. eighteen years ago. Mr.. Grady
n y art HfVs ~ nxrfh =
necessary. now take largely as q mat
ter OF fact. In tiiis. he says OF what
he calls the South's problem: Can
we solve it?'
As a people you have more fully
come to appreciate our difficulties and
our trials,--as people we have come
70 more fully understand your desires
and your aapirations,-each has aflx.
cd purpose that the right should pre-
vail through q high-minded honesty
that the one must accord to the other.
A Mistakes View.
The standard OF the negro in the
Negth ern mind, fear. Is fixed by the
mixed bloods. or mulattoes, and not
byrthe men who makes up the average
Of the negro race.
~ the Northern mind IL not affected
by the fnfxed-bIood negroes of whom
4 take II. you come largely In con.
tact. 1t ID influenced by the most am
bilious and Intelligent Of the race, who
do not represent the average Southern
negro. Some intelligent people at the
North do not understand the relation
Of the races In the South and make
statements that irritate rather than
ameliorate conditions.
With sincerity Il trust and in all
Kindness must say, II Is impossible
ton know by q casual study the con-
ditions at the South and the questions
confronting us. Indeed many years
Of residence there will present new
features. It has been suggested that
the negro problem be made a national
one. In my candid judgment the hold
ing out of the hope that he is to
be the ward OF the Nation. will but
disturb as false promises and vain
hopes of the past have done. Thrift
and personal worth are the only means
to progrcssn5 You cannot emancipate
a human being. he must emancipate
himself; and in turn the individuals
Of race must ernancipate that race.
The individuals of no other race can
do It. You can not Iegislate people
into power, they must have power to
take and hold fer thenaaeiyas; and as
little can a statute put learning or
morals into individual lives.
In proportion as the negro increases
his productivity and IL frugal and In
dustrious. he viii make for himself
a property Independence; just in pro-
portion as he is honest, virtuous. and
thoughtful, he will build for himself
good name that will be appreciated
by the white man. This for him as
an individual and a.srace is the philos-
oph er's stone. The South cannot give
1t to him: the North cannot find 1t
for him. He must search within him
self with the light he himself pro-
vides.
1t might as well be understood that
the white man and negro together
make up the citizenship OF our south
ern country. and any effort to deal
with either ignoring the other will
diminish the chances. OF ultimate sue
cess. That religion and sentiment
the fixed ideals and prejudices. II you
please, of the South. are substantial
facts, that cannot be ignored and must
always be reckoned with. The negro
is met with race prejudice in the
South. not hatred. let me insist. this
feeling is from the viewpoint of the
business at which he is about and for
which he Is fitted. at the North, 1t
Is said that, the door OF Industrial OPP
portunity is more thoroughly closed to
him by, a race prejudice. If he will
be regarded and judged as a man and
not as a negro-man, can he find IL more
readily in the North than in any other
section of the Union?
Great Religious Fervor.
The negro's development has not
carried his race beyond superstition.
He has great religious fervor that has
not yet raised his morals. as a whole.
TO what they should be. In reply he
win say that since the Civil War the
white man at the South has not made
any general effort to direct the re-
liefous thought of the race. You may
be sure there are churches and white
ministers at the South who. have
pointed to this field for religious train
ing. still difficult to be reached.
The Protestant Episcopal Church has
white and negro ministers doing work
among the negroes.
The last Synod in Alabama directed
its members ito avail themselves OF
every opportunity to preach to the
negro" The General Assembly OF the
Southern Presbyterian Church main
tatns the St.Ilman Institute for edu-
cation of negro preachers.
Two movements on the part OF the
negro in his evolution as race must
he noted-the one. an effort or strug-
gle to at himself to do what Is de-
manded of him as a part OF the COM
mercial order; the other may be term
ed a complaint" on account OF what
la not vet demanded of him in the
south, and for which the South thinks
he ia not yet fitted. He demands the
higher education when his race has
VET TO learn fundamentals. OF course.
~ NAV have Greek II he learns II,
VET II Is more Important for his race
- -. St,at fha rghita man, III believed