St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-10-20
The Negro Problem.
Interesting Paper Before Chamber
lin Post by Rev. B. F. Butler.
United States Must Educate the Negro
and Await His Development With
Patience.-COnditiOn North and South.
Annual Rally of Post Held Last
Saturday.

street. There was a good attendance,
40 veterans sitting down to the dinner.
The post from now on will hold the
second meeting of the month in the after
noon at $50. Besides a pleasant social
time, the members of the post on Satur-
day listened to two very interesting
papers. Adjutant Charles Ross read an
abstract of paper on The Vermont
Cavalry" and the Rev. B. F. Butler,
son of veteran. read very instructive
paper on The Negro Problem" So
pleased were the members of the post
that they voted to have the paper print
ed in the local press. An abstract of the
paper follows
MIR. Butler first declared that the
negro problem was not only a live
problem but burning issue in the
South and increasingly so in the North.
Sketching briefly the beginning of slavery
and its growth in this country the
speaker said the census of 1900 shows
there are now $780, 789 negroes in this
country and that the number is doubling
once in 40 years. He said:
The real and permanent pinch, horror
and struggle for the South began with
the Emancipation Proclamation. -Four
million of ignorant slaves, unframed in
selfgovernment of any sort, were imme-
diately given the right of franchise and
that right was enforced by military
power. Such move Immediately made
strong and clean cut class distinction.
The South smarting under its recent de-
feat, was exasperated still more to see
the former slaves having the right Of
franchise. They saw the ignorant OBJ
tanning office where they would have the
right to rule; they saw that these A.
100000 ofignorant votes were as pow
erful as 100000 of intelligent votes
cast anywhere in the land.
The Southerner's problem has often
been increased bv the fact that the negro
has frequently been indolent. 1t is not
surprising that this has been the case
Living was easy in the country from
which he came Then too, he certainly
did not have lessons of industry taught
him by the example of his white master
previous to the war.
Some black men have doubtless COM
plicated the problem still more and
harmed their own cause by not always
discriminating as they ought between
their own goods and those of their neigh
bors. 1t may be true that some of them
have had thieving propensities. That is
not at all strange. Centuries of slavery
are not liable to be productive of good
morals or the best ethics.
The negro has complicated the problem
still more and has harmed his own cause
by the fact that he has frequently shown
a lack OF morality. But this is not sur
prising. How much does a true home
life have to do in laying the foundation
for true morals and ethics? No man can
what sort of home life did the negro
have during the centuries of slavery?
How often was the mother interfered
with in the training of her children?
What sort of encouragement did the ne
groes have or what training did they
have or what examples of morality set
before them that would tend to make
them more moral? The Anglo-Saxon
| has had centuries of training in things
moral; he has also had the aid of true
home life. The simple black man forced
had the forty odd years since the civil
war in which to be educated by any
thing like normal home lite.
have said enough to make it plain
| that the white man of the South has his
problem and the negro of the South has
his problem 1t is problem of better
understanding between them and bet
ter adjustment each to the other. With
the negro it is problem of adjustment
| to his new environment He must learn
the meaning of liberty and how to use it;
he must learn industry and steadiness,
self control and honesty.
THE NEGRO In THE NORTH.
In the American Magazine for Febru-
airy 1908, Ray Stannard Baker makes
some most Interesting statements regard
ing the Negro in the North. He first
shows the rapid increase of negro popu-
lation in northern cities. He tells us that
in 1880 Chicago had only 6.480 colored
people. At present it has about As, 900,
an increase of some 600 per cent. The
census of 1900 gives the Negro popula-
lation of New York as 60,666. In 1907
it was not less than $4,000. Between
1890 and 1900 the negroes of Philadel.
pha increased SO per cent, while the
Caucasians added only % per cent
Since 1900 the growth has been even
more rapid, the colored population now
exceeding $4,000. The city of Washing.
ton today has a community of 100000
negroes, greater community of colored
people than ever before gathered in any
one community, so far as we know, New
York and Philadelphia both now proba.
bly, have as many negroes as any south
ern city, Except Washington if that be
called southern city, Nor must it be
| forgotten that about ninth of the ne.
gro population in the United States is in
| the North and West.
GROWING GOODNESS TOWARD NEGRO In
THE NORTH.
We are told that in the North there is a
growing GOODNESS toward the negro. A
few years ago no hotel or restaurant in
Boston refused negro guests; now sever.
| al hotels, restaurants and especially con-
| tectionery stores, will not serve negroes,
even the best of them. In many neigh
borhoods there is strong prejudice
against renting houses and flats to col
ored people.
Some churches have begun to draw the
color line In the last two years in
creased negro attendance at the Episco-
pal churches in Boston has wrought much
uneasiness. A quarter of the congrega-
ton OF the Church of the Ascension is
colored and the vicar has refused any
further attendance OF the colored people at