The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1910-10-28

the South has just entered upon a new
era, which can be made great, or can
be sadly marred by her W people.
This much is certain, we have passed
the day wren Northern passion and
ignorance Of the true conditions in the
South can much affect Southern des-
tiny.
Failure to do the impossible. that is
elevate ignorance and incompetency
into the seats of power, has brought
the nation to a very much soberer
state of mind than could have been
expected at the close of the civil war
when the Negro was idealized as a
noble man, downtrodden and treated
simply as a beast OF burden. Much of
the glamour has passed. and with its
going saner views are obtaining every
where.
Many things have happened and are
happening every day to bring people OF
the nation and the world to their sens
es. The gradual spread Of the Negroes
northward, their infusion into the life
and politics Of the North, the race
riots North, and the frequent recur-
renee of mobs have brought sober
minded people everywhere to the con-
clusion that the trouble lies deeper
nan latitude, or previous condition"
or color. And the aquirement of u
colonial possessions, with the mixed
and laggard tribes and nations coming
under our flag has brought h wnole
nation to a realization of the patent
fact that peoples differ, and by as
much as they differ care must be a
not to degrade the highest standards
of morals and government to the low
ideals of an incompetent people. The
whole nation has been under that prac-
tical kind of education which an
idealistic unmarried woman gets con-
corning the management Of children
after she is married and has a house
full of children of her own. 1t is SAFE
to saw that the South will not be much
more pestered about the Negro prob
lem, but will have a free hand to work
# out for herself. for the nation and
the world. 1t is now really becoming
more and more a national and world
problem, but the big end of it rests
on the South, and will for an indeti-
mite period.
A WHITE RATHER THAN NEGRO PROBLEM.
am free to say that in my think
ing, the far greater problem in the
South is the white problem. If the
white people in the South will do
right, deal with the lagsard people
among than in a humane, just, Chris
tian and statesmanlike way, no one
need dread the result. The peril Of
the situation is not most in the blacks,
but in the whites. The Negroes, by
their very nature, and by their past
associations, are clay in the hands of
the potter and the white race is the
potter. We can mar the vessel or we
can shape it for service and for glory.
And further, blended as we are, the
whites cannot degrade the blacks
without degrading themselves. There
is a law written in the moral consti-
tuition of the universe by its great
Maker to the effect that all advance
ment is along the course of truth,
mercy, righteousness, enlightenment
and service.
To state the case in a concrete form:
If a white man cheats a Negro, the
white man is hurt more than the Ne
gro. If the white people degrade the
Negroes fer money, as with bar rooms,
the white people have voluntarily TAX
en- a lower place than they have CIV
en- the Negroes. If the white people
have light and knowledge, and with
hold it from the black people, the
Scriptures will be fulfilled in them;
From him that hath not shall be TAX
en- even that which he hath.
The Southern white people are face
to face, at close range, with an oppor-
tunity and a duty of tremendous import
to every interest of our civilization. We
can not get away from it. We car
not turn it over to others. We can
not evade it. We must grapple with
it like Christian people, or let it rot
the life out of our civilization. l will
not dwell on the fact that the Negroes
did not bring themselves here; that
they served our race in the past, that
they s~afeguarded our homes during
the civil war, and many other things
which ought to appeal to our kindlier
feelings. We nHst face t. srat in
controvertible black fact: They are
here, millions of them, and millions
on millions more are coming along
the course of nature to curse or bless
the land. If they had been rained
down on the land or driven from dis
tant shores in tiny crafts which they
could not guide nor control, the case
would be, in substance, the same.