The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1909-08-28
COLONIZATION, ASSIMILA-
TION OR EXTERMINA-
TION DISCUSSED.
DIFFICULT PROBLEM
The Future Status of the Caucasian
and the Negro Seems to Still Re-
main Very Much a Mystery-A
Thorough Treatise On Subject.
BY Alfred Holt Stone.

In agreeing o discuss this subject
am doing violence to a rule which
| laid down for my guidance ten
years ago or more. and from which
have departed only once That
rule was not to talk about the future
of the race problem Seventeen years
of study have served to convince me
that what we most need is a know
ledge of actual conditions. both past
and n4scnt, rather than speculation
about the future r. knowledge ot
which it is inherently impossible To
acquire.
But for many minds the future
possesses an attractiveness because
OF the very uncertainty which en-
shrouds it. Nor can it be denied
that if the world is to live more and
more for postcrity then each gen
Grafton owes it TO the one which
Is to follow to hand down its prob
lens in simpler form than that i'm
which it received them The future
thus becomes invested not only with
practica interest for the present, bus
becomes also, in a very real sense,
a part Of the life OF today Under
the view that the future and the pre-
sent are for some purposes too
closely associated to be separated we
may perhaps consider with reason
able hope OF profit some of the pos
sibilitics which the coming years
may evolve out OF the intricate and
confusing situation which we call
the American race problem
This problem is without a dehni-
ton and without home. Scarcely
any two men will agree as to what
the problem really is, and whatever
it may be. 1t manifests itself where
ever sufficient numbers of white and
ngro races find themselves in juNta-
position. 1t may and does present
more aspects in some places than IN
others, varying with local conditions,
but fundamentally and potentially
it is present wherever the two races
dwell together. 4 realization of this
truth would make for larger possi-
bilities OF concerted effort on tho
part of white people wherever con,
frontcd with race problems Of any
description. There is a vast amount
OF energy wasted among white peo,
pie in making and denying silly al
legations of peculiar lack Of Hu-
manity and virtue on the part OF
people who have to do with such
problems through actual contact with
them A larger knowledge would
bring a realization OF the essential
truth that the practical attitude OF
English speaking white people to-
ward the negro is fundamentally the
same under similar conditions the
world over-quite regardless OF what
their theoretical position or profess
sions may be. And 1t is only through
such realization that cooperation
in the most helpful sense can even
be accomplished between these whita
men who live at d distance from the
negro masses and those who liva
close at hand. This applies with
equal force to the problems of racial
contact in South Africa and in the
United States. There can be no real
harmony of action between the white
man in Cape Colony and the English
man at home, when the latter re-
CARDS the former as blinded by race
prejudice" and the former considers
the latter ignorant and intolerant.
The same statement holds with the
mutual relations of Southern and
Northern white men in America.
The problems which have been Great
ed i'll this country are largely the
result OF sectional misunderstanding
and their alleviation Is possible only
through the wiping out OF sectional
ism in spirit and in action
The first factor to be taken into
account in consideration OF the
future Of the problem is one OF sec
tionalism. | think / am safe in say
ing that insofar as any definite polit-
ical action is concerned, which might