The Tupelo journal., 1908-08-21
The Illinois Race Riots.
(Hattiesdurg News.)

~ = i w ovSAASSAs A@ ~
son is preached in every days
experience, and there is not a
single page in history but it re-
cords some instance as a warn
ing to future generations,
Most of the characterless or
deluded politicians responsible
for the blots upon our national
statutes are dead apd gone. Here
and there we may 0nd a surviv-
or livinf in obloquy; but the evil
they did remains: For the sake
of securing a few years of con-
tinued authority, they commit.
ted the meanest and foulest act
man can commit; they trampled
on a brave but yanquished foe.
In doing so they did not scruple,
under the cloak of hypocricy, to
raise a race born and bred to
barbarism, to equality. with their
late masters, not dreaming that
this action opened their own
homes and portals to the invasion
with the same disregard to hu-
man feelings shown by their ia
theirs. That is the explanation
of the disfiraceful scenes in the
capital of Illinois.
The south condemns the Four
teenth and Fifteenth Amend
ments. 1t resents them because
they substitute the principle of
oppression for that of equality,
but it condemns them, not for
the wrong perpetrated upon the
white ownsrs of the soil, but up
on the inferior race which was
once it's chattel. There is no pi-
ty shown in this section to the
negro who runs amuck; the man
who invades the home, be he
white or black, takes his life in
his hands, knowing that he has
forfeited it. But no southern
man will join a mob to kill aged
and helpless negros, and nosouth-
ern man willsee injustice done to
the industrious and well-behaved
colored man.
The North, with false preten-
ses, lured the negro from his
home and his work. 1t held out
promises which could not be re-
deemed because the black race
has neither the characteristics
nor the abilities to con)ese VIII
the white man. There may, and
probably there are exceptions,
but such Instances do not consti-
tute a race. Not every white
man comes up to the stanardS SCI
by the age; but such failures d.
not condemn the race. Even the
british conduct of tla SDrinr.
field mob, while they fill Us
with shame an regcet, do no.
damn other men of their color.
But Of their own disgrace there
is no question.
This expresses the sentiment
Of every true Southerner. Here
the negro who keeps his place
and tries to support himself, has
every opportunity to create such
happiness as he knows and is
able to appreciate. More than
that: if he fails through no fault
of his own but owing to racial
disabilities which the south is
able to appreciate, he is sure Of
assistance. The South looks up
on him as he is, and not through
colored glasses of a mis-named
philanthropy, which often wells
base and mean passions.
There is no cloud but it has a
silver lining. The riot at Spring
field, O., a few years ago, and
the present violent outbust in H.
lnois will contribute not a little
toward the solution of the race
problem, if only by showing the
necessity of a solution. Expedi-
ents no longer afford relief; pal
llatives only strengthen the dis
ease of the great body polite; a
cure, a radical cure must be
found.
And it will be found. Not per-
haps this year or the year after,
but slowly and surely the races
are drawing together, and we
can have no hostile race in our