The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1909-07-30
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Positive and Negative Enigma.
To the Nashville Globe.

| To the NASHVILLE GIODe.
The positive and negative position
or attitude of those who oppose the
Negro people is a strange and almost
insolvable enigma that contradicts
truth and reason. What makes the
situation acute is not because of what
the bad Negro does more than the
bad man of any other race, but be-
cause of what the intelligent, indus
trious, thrifty businesslike and prop
erty-getting Negro is doing in push
ing the battle of racial progress to the
gate, thereby evincing his ability and
worthiness to measure steel mentally
and porportionately to his chances
with other men in the competitive
struggle and affairs of life.
There are some things that demon
strate the enigmatical opposition to
the pushful, insistent oncoming of the
Negro. For instance, the indecisive
ness of the ont-know-what-to-do-
with the Negro is made plain by the
street car systems of two of Tennes
sees large cities, Nashville and Chatt
anooga, only $50 miles apart, and OBJ
Grated under the same state separ
ate car or coach statute, in the one
the Negro citizens seat from the rear
| forward and in the other they seat
from the front rearward. Strange
predicament! The Negro rides be-
hind in one of these sister cities and
iii front in the other. This seems to
indicate that the law is adjustable to
the within or situation and not the
whim or situation to the law Or
the same law in the selfsame words
designates for Nashville the front o.
the car as the most desirable part and
for Chattanooga the rear. Thus the
don ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the Negro
enigma runs on its insOlvable course.
Dear. old Georgia is to the fore with
her erratic self in the role of legis-
lative positive and negative enigma
on the don t-know-what-to- o-With-the-
Negro situation. The following para
graph from an editorial in one of the
daily papers of this city shows the
enigmatical position of poor old in
applicable Georgia with regard to her
citizens of color
"The revenue bill was under dis
cussion in the Georgia Legislature
yesterday, and it contained a PROPOSE
ton to place $500 tax on immigration
agents. When the clause was read,
pending consideration of the bill,
Representative Lewis of Hancock
County said: move that this
clause be stricken out. We have
been yelling that we want to be rid of
the Negro, and that we want him sent
to Africa, or Asia, or the Philippines,
and now, when man comes along
and wants to send few Of the shift
less and lazy ones North we propose
to charge him $500 for the privilege
of doing something that will be for
our benefit The dispatches state
that Lewis appeal won and the
clause was killed"
The above editorial thought is elo-
quent as showing the positive and
negative notion of those who bitterly
oppose creditable progress by the Ne
gro. Why does this Georgia solon
want to send to the North "a few Of
the shiftless and lazy ones" of our
race? Why did he not let peg Leg
Williams take them away when he
was there attempting to do so? The
Negro was less inclined to put away
a nest egg for himself and family
then than now, and thereby hang
tale. Oh, we'll Georgia will be Geor-
gia or break trace,
Another instance IS when the
fighting" Tenth Calvary was ordered
home from the Philippines after sig
nal service in that PARKWAY and hos
tile possession capital was attempted
to be of the objection of a few sore
beads, haters of Negro, but when the
war-worn but brave troopers had dis
embarked and went marching with
proud and gallant tread along pop
ular street in New York City which
was crowded with teeming and
scrambling thousands of spectators
burst of applause broke forth that
told of "withholdless" admiration
and this ran all along the line. The
sight of those brave and gallant men
who had faced all the hell of guerilla
warfare in the Philippine Islands
| broke down for the time being at
least the positive and negative enig
ma.
This miniature narrative might run
On indefinitely, but suffice it to say
l in conclusion that this tantalizing an(