The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-11-18
PROGRESS Of THE
NEGRO IN AMERICA
tPubHshed by Roqucst.)

thinking OF the marvellous progress
Of the negro in America, the thought
comes with something of a shock that
probably by no method of missions that
is known, could so large a part OF
race bo Christianized and civilized, in
the same space of time, as has been
evangelical in America through slavery
and its whole chain Of consequences.
When the first negro slaves wero land
ed in America there was begun move.
ment which, not in its motives nor in
its spirit, but certainly in its results,
was the greatest missionary movement
for Africans the world has known; all
thanks, to that wise providence, which
so often in history has made the wrath
and the cruelty and the greed Of men
to praise him.
A comparison of what one sees at
Sierra Leone, in Africa, under the
dominance of British control, and in
Liberia under black rule as a republic,
with the present moral, material and
educational status of the negro people
of the United States, justifes one in
the belief that without that first mis-
sonary movement in 1919, that brought
the first twenty slaves into America,
they would be no further advanced in
the arts of civilization, than tho teem-
ing millions who now people the Black
Continent.
1t is deliberately stated opinion
that nowhere else on the face of the
globe, can one find ten million people
who are the equals in character, in
ambition, in promise, and who have
achieved as much us the ton million
negroes of the United States of Amer
lea, in forty years, who were themselves,
or their ancestors, slaves.
However unpleasant it may be to
confess it, slavery, with its horrors,
was used by God to work out mighty
purpose. 1t has knitted together in
indissoluble ties of affection the white
and the black; it laid the foundations
for trustfulness on tho part of the
blacks and a reciprocal helpfulness on
the part of the whites which have sur
vived the horrors of reconstruction-a
period of great trials to both races
and triumphed over the violent appeal
of those who would stir the fires OF
racial bitterness, and resisted every
effort to tear the races apart.
Slavery per SC is always abhorrent,
but any question is to be studied in
its environments, everything must be
judged by its fruits. This is the divine
rule and what delights all lovers of
humanity, is the progress of the negro
in America since the abolition of slav-
cry.
Since freedom dawned, the negroes
have not died out, nor wilted in the
presence of the severe competition of
present day life, but have reduced their
illiterary more than half, and in the
elements of civilization, the ambition
and ability to save and own n home
or farm they have done we'll. In 1900
no less than 746,7l7 farms, 1928 1888
acres, were owned or tenantod by
negroes, that is, they were either land
lords or farmers; the race that owned
not an acre of land forty years ago.
is now possessor as landlords of an
area larger than Belgium and Holland
combined, with an aggregate wealth
estimated at $300,000,000, and rapidly
increasing.
The figures take no account of their
progress in other directions, in profess
sions, in establishing enterprises, insur-
ance companies, and that highest of all
UIuDlH VI ClNllNhlibhY hbliAbg "
conduct banking enterprises. OF these
latter there are now some fifty-fOur
throughout the country and mainly in
the southern States
The writer glores in every Indication
of negro progress. His pride, and his
love of his race is in it. His sense of
manhood and chivalry is in IL. Every
drop of his southern blood boils when
some rabid politician seeks 10 turn
from the negroes the helping hand of
the whites, or when the whole race is
berated for the sins Of the worst of
the race.
The white mans burden ought to be
rightly saddled ON the white man. Take
the vile crimes of the negro reprobates
and trace them to their ultimate source,
and where is itq In the white man g
barroom. White men are in control If
they have a burden they are making IL
themselves. A 1.-THE of the money
spent on vice and the delbauehery Of
the untaught negroes, given TO their
elevation, would put them where they
could carry their own burdens, and lift
nightly at the worlds burden in
Africa.
Emmett J. Scott, secretary to Booker
IT, Washington, the negro educator,
WhH one OF IHt lIulSSlOuerb sent by
President Taft to look into the eondi-
tion of affairs in Liberia, and he says,
we have worked hard, but the progress
of the masses of the negro race in
America could not have been made
without the tremendous help and en-
eouragement which came from the
whites. individually, and through State
legislatures, which contributed so lib.
orally towards the education of the
race, The most influential, the most
learned, the most aristOcratie of the
white people, have never been ashamed
to lend helping hand, nor TO speak
out resolutely, when reaetionary pro-
grams have been proposed
The Hon. Henry Watterson, speaking
on one occasion in Carnegie Hall, New
York city, declared: al wish nothing
for myself, nor for my children, nor
for my childrcn's children, that I am
not willing for the negro to have for
himself and his children, aud his chill
dren Is children. The treatment Of the