The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-15

read that there are more negro children attending the
public schools of South Carolina than whites now and this
has been so any time in these thirty-three years, for the
simple reason that there are more Of them. The last cen.
sus gives our white population as $40, Isl while the ne
groes have '7S1,7SS, a clear majority Of blacks over
whites Of 24I, oo7. The negro boys have been going to
school ever since 1895, or just fourteen years. The ne
groes who registered then numbered I,4oo. If they are
mot ready now, it will not be long before they will be
ready to register. If you imagine that the negro question
is settled as some of the young editors Of papers in this
state tell us, then you had better ask your friends to go
get out a writ oflunacy at once. Nothing but besotted
Ignorance on the part Of these would-be leaders can excuse
their belittling the dangers of the race problem. With the
Exception of the counties in the Piedmont extending east
ward to Chesterfield and including Horny, Anderson and
Union all the other counties have negro majorities. The
general proportion is two to one, but Beafort's ten to one,
and in the counties of Charleston, Georgetown and Berke-
ley it is from three to seven to one. The idea of a COM
'pulsory eduuction law to hurry up the crisis which will
come when the negroes who can vote outnumber the
whites can but be considered criminal.
These editors say 'Tillman is wild" and that he has
been doing a great deal of injury to the state and the
south and that he does not represent the best thought and
feeling of South Carolina. God have mercy! If do not
represent the best sentiment!
What He Says Up North.
All that l have ever said to northern audiences in the
senate or elsewhere is that the creator made the Cauca-
sian of better clay than he made any colored people. l
have told them eve shot them, (the negroes we stuffed
ballot boxes, and did all that was necessary to maintain
our hold on the government and that with the negro major
ity in at least two southern states there was not power
enough between Cape Cod and California to make us again
submit to negro rule, 1 spoke thus on the floor of thesenate.
Did | misrepresent southern feeling or sentiment when l
uttered those words? l misrepresented the feeling Of the
News and Courier and State, no doubt, for both of those
papers have a negro-oving record.
l have told the northern people that they do not
know anything about the negro, that they would not sub
nit to negro rule if they lived among us and that they
only proclaimed their belief that the negro is the equal of
the white man for political purposes. l have said, "you
no not believe he is your equal, you only think he is our
equal. If you would not allow them to govern you, you
will never have the pleasure of seeing them govern us any
more"
1t is one of the things in my life Of which l am proud
est that when | went to Washington as your representa-
tive and found that the democrats were not saying any
thing about the republicans and their pretended love for
the negro, and those republicans were running over us
rough shod in dishing out federal appointments to negro es
In the south, that single handed and alone, l began to
discuss the question without fear or favor. Then after I
had stayed there several years l made a speech on the
race problem which occupied two days. discussed it in
all of its phases from the standpoint of ethnology, history,
geography, sociology and presented its industrial and
political phases. l rubbed it in and not a republican sem
ator ever dared or thought it worth while to attempt a
word in reply. This was followed by two subsequent
speeches. One of these was in reply to Spooner of Wis
consin who had taken me to task on account of my advo-
cacy of lynch law. If my answer did not satisfy him, he
at least did not attempt to reply. Any person who has
not seen a copy of this speech can get it by sending me his
name and address on a postal.
The Crum Affair.
WIZ, n C-rn,e n,r,e yoc cont RI te senate for