Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-01-22
The NEGRO Problem Again.

iects. we are not able wholly to agree
with the sentiments he expresses with
such picturesqueness and defends with
such v;gor. Dut on the negro prob
lem, the great problem which the
country can never get away from, we
feel that Mr.. Watterson holds the
soundest and most sensible kind of
views. He was the chief speaker at a
meeting in New York the other night
in the interests of the great school for
colored boys at Tuskegee, Alabama.
Among the other speakers were Booker
WASHINGTON, the founder and head Of
the school. Governor Hughes of New
York and other able men, but by far
the greatest interest centered in what
the brilliant Kentuckian had to say
and he did not disappoint his audience.
We wish all the people of both the
North and the South could read Mr.
Wattersons speech on that occasion.
1t is too long to reproduce here in
full, but we can at least touch upon a
few OF its most important features
Perhaps its most significant part was
that in which Mr.. Watterson insists
that the North has an important part
to play in this movement. Too often
Southern men have seemed to feel that
the question is one that does not con-
Germ the North, and that the North
cannot have anything to say about
it. But Mr.. Watterson does not SYM
pathiZe with this narrow and sectional
view. '"The most serious problem" he
States to solve--by reflection one of the
most serious problems for the states
of the North to consider and help to
solve-is known as the negro question"
AS we are all in a measure to blame for
the present situation. we are all bound
to work together, not as northerners
or southerners, but as American citi-
zens. cecimprove it.
Mr.. Watterson made no Immediately
practical suggestions. Rather he tried
10 point out the spirit in which the
work should be approached Booker
Washington and his great services re-
ceived q handsome tribute from the
great eGitor-a tribute which is fully
son, nothing for myself or for my
children. which | am not ready to
give my colored neighbor and his chill
dren." There has, as he said, been no
race war in Kentucky. The feudists
and the might Riders" are white men,
and their victims are white men, too.
The understanding between the two
races in Kentucky seems to be COM
plete. Speaking OF the broader ques-
ton. Mr.. Watterson had this to say:
The white races seem to have gotten
along faster in the great eternal plan
than the black races. Why. I cannot
tell you. 1t is Il simple fact, obvious to
all. that. just as Europe and America
are further advanced in arts and arms
than Africa. 50 are the Europeans and
the Anne ricanS ahead of the Africans in
the development of modern culture. AS
this ought not to lie the subject Of
vair glorious eXultation among whites,
it should not be considered or felt as
either ii humiliation or reproach b."
the blacks. In case it should become
SO. the future would be dark indeed for
both races. Each needs to grow in
grace: but it is my belief that each
can and will thus grow in grace. in the
South first Of all and most of all, and
within lines plainly fixed by God ana
naturr. leading to that ultimate peace
which paSScth understanding. when tho
lion and the lamb shall lie down to-
gcther. And Booker Washington has
blazed The way"
What a PITY that all the leaders o.
the South could not look at this mat
ter as Henry WattGrSOn does. We
prefer to believe that he represents the
real sentiments of the South, the SEN
timent of the best people of that great
part OF the tnlOn, rather tnan TO be-
lieve that they are represented by the
utterances of such men as Vardaman
and Tilman. Such meetings as that in
New York the other night and such
speeches as that by Mr. WattcrSon
ought to accomplish much good Too
often there is impotence and unreason-
ableness when this great subject is dis
| cusSed. TOO often a demand for action
which is radical and impractical. The
feeling at this meeting was that while
tie people of both sections nave a duty
to perform it must rest largely with
time itself to solve this problem of
the negro. a problem which is ;,erhars
the mos; difficult and serious that any
great nation ever faced
Champ Clark appears to be about the
only man from the South who is
optimistic enough to predict the cleo
ton of Mr.. Bryan this year Most OF
the leading newspapers of that section