New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-01-18
HIP WATTERsOy on TUsKEGEE.

Colonel Wattersons remarks last night at
Carnegie Hall the negro question will, we
hope, be widely read: for they show the e4-
lstence at the South of sane and tolerant views
too seldom brought TO the attention of the
Northern public. The North is too prone to
consider the extravagant and violent utterances
of sensationalists like Senator Tillman typical
of the South's attitude toward the negro The
senior Senator from South Carolina has gone
about the country preaching at Chautauqua
lecture rates his gospel of hatred and contempt
for the black man. and his pessimism has been
taken by many to represent the average South
erner's total disbelief in the negro's capacity
for Intellectual moral material progress.
1t is encouraging to be reminded that there
are other Southern leaders who do not share
this narrow and preiudiced view of the negros
character and the negro's future The failure
of the experiment of intrusting the ballot to
enfranchised slaves with no experience or po-
ntical knowledge and without any competent
natural leaders inevitably embittered the South.
which. after suffering the evils of carpet bag
misgovernment, was in no mood TO credit the
negro with any fitness whatsoever for the duties
of citizenship. For a while the outlook seemed
desperate TO the Southern people, and they
were disposed to consider themselves hope
lessly burdened with the care of an inferior
race incapable of self Improvement, and I'M
which they were totally unprepared. Even
Colonel Watterson. who has always advocated
a policy of humanity and tolerance toward the
negro confesses that until within the last ten
or a dozen years be could not see a single ray
Of light or hope But he has come, with many
other open-minded leaders of Southern opinion,
to believe that the negro is destined to work
his way upward in the scale of worth and to
find natural and useful place in the South's
economic and social system.
Colonel Watterson's visits to Tuskegee con-
WINGED him that the negro race in America has
at last found in Booker T. Washington the
leader it needed. He saw that the work which
Mr.. Washington was doing and the spirit in
which he was doing it opened the way to genu-
inc race progress. 1t Is the Tuskegee idea that
the Southern negro can make himself respected
as man and accepted as citizen by demon
strating his ability to do a mans full work and
10 be q helpful factor in the civilization about
him. In proportion as the negro acquires edu-
cation and property, equips himself for in
dustry. builds homes and churches and ac-
uures habits of thrift and sObriety, he will be-
come a socially and economically desirable
neighbor SeIf-hep is the best help, and the
race which labors to improve itself and demon
strate its capacity and efficiency will have no
trouble in obtaining all the civil and political
recognition which should accompany proved fit
ness. Mr.. Watterson and other Southerners OF
his type delight to honor and sustain the man
who is starting his people on the upward path
and who is doing as much for the South as a
whole as he is doing for its negro popula-
ton They heartily cooperating with Mr..
Washington in appeasing race anmosities and
removing race frictiOns. They speak the sober
judgment of the South. and their utterances
ought 10 have hundred times as much weight
the SenSatiOnaliSm of a fomenter of race
strife like Mr.. Tillman