Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1910-01-06
WHAT SHALL WE DO
WITH THE NEGRO2
lBy the Rev. Charles Sickle.

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We may asWell make up our minds
that the American negro will never
go to Liberia for the purpose of form
ing Negro Republic. He is here to
stay. He came in the first instance,
not because he wanted to come, .but
because he was compelled to make his
home in America. It's pathetic story
this story Of the imported African
who now furnishes about one-seventh
of our entire population. Other races
of immigrants, by contact with our
institutions, have been civilized. The
negro has been only domesticated.
The very qualities of manliness and
Intelligence which are essential for
citizenship in a democracy were sys-
tematically expunged from the negro
race Through 200 years of slavery.
The stronger, independent type was
practically eliminated. 1t is true that
the negro's present condition is not
altogether the result of his slavery to
the white man. Back of this slavery
are centuries Of barbarous existence,
the influences of which are still being
felt. Not many centuries ago, the
negro was brother to the beast in the
jungles of Africa. 1t cannot be ex-
pected that the negro will leap from
this degradation to position Of
equality with the white race in the
short space of couple of hundred
years. 1t took the white man much
longer than this to acquire his present
supremacy.
The negro and the white race are
in many ways indissolubly linked to-
gether. In many respects, the well
fare of one depends upon the welfare
Of the other. The low standard Of
living among the negroes keeps down
the wages of the whites. If the negro
is content to live in a miserable hut.
dress in rags, subsist on the poorest
kind of food, the wages of the white
man, engaged in the same kind of
work, will be constantly pressed to-
ward the same low level. The higher
the standard of living among the me-
groes the higher will be the standard
of the white people in the same occu-
patton and in the same territory. If
the negroes tendency is toward crimi-
nality, there is constant Indictment to
criminal tendencies in the white man.
Crimes committed by one race pro-.
woke crimes on the part of the other.
If the negro is diseased, it will be
difficult to prevent the spread of the
contagion among the white people. It
is only as the negro can hold his own
in the community as producer. that
the white man will respect him. 1t is
only as he does mans work In the
world that he will find the place that
should belong to him.
But the elevation of the negro race
cannot, in all fairness, be left in the
hands of the negro, himself. He is
entitled to the help and the co-opera-
ton. of those who have been more
highly favord than he. One of the
principles of organized labor is never
to discriminate against a fellow
worker on account of creed, color or
nationality. But the policy of or
ganized labor must be not merely
negative but positive. It must hon
sstly face the problem of the negro
in the, labor world, and announce a
policy which shall be constructive and
in harmony with the spirit of brother
hood. upon which the entire move
- 7q4@s
ment rests.
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