The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-02-25

and found that in most instances TWEEN.
ty to thirty.tiye years ago the price
paid for southern farm land exceeded
that paid for land in the central west.
while that in the west has increased
in that time all the way to some in.
stances 2O00 per cent, with 1000 per
cent Common~that in the south has not
increased any. Just imagine how poor
some of you would be if we had to pay
what the lands here are worth now.
The negro has labOred patiently and
paid his earnings for poor southern
lands and has not enjoyed this in.
crease and, as consequence, has not
really known such profitable thing
has been going on. Any one thinking
the colored race is entirely incompe-
tent should bear in mind that nearly
all the cotton is produced by these
people under the teachings of Booker
T. Washington. He is coming to the
front rapidly as business factor, own
ing over fifty incorporated banks, not
to speak of the many hundred newspa-
pers and magazines owned and edited
by the race in the south. Thousands
are graduating from the different
schools and colleges each year and are
assisting in educating and bringing his
kin out of the darkness where he has
wandered so long, and again, few peo-
pie in this part of the country realize
how the negro is held down and per
secuted by and at the hands of their
former masters We read of that old
story in its most passionate form,
rape" where a black brute has as
saulted some poor defenseless white
girl" and, while | do not deny that
some instances of this are true, yet
most reports are very much to the
contrary. There has been several
cases recently where white men black
ed up were the perpetrators, and we
rarely read of where decent colored
men are forced to leave rural districts
and move to the cities to protect his
wife and daughters from the infringe
ment and insults of the low class of
white men whom the law forgives, or,
with no more than reprimand, while
with the negro, the peaceful mob"
takes care of him and the laws they
established in the south as regards to
negro rights would paralyze lizard.
Take for instance Oklahoma, our new
state with her many drastic laws. We
find a code that prevents negroes mar
rying whites, negroes marrying In
dams, but the sweet moral is that
there's no law that prevents whites
marrying Indians, because the Indians
still have some good land left that the
white man wants, so there you are. 1t
prohibits negroes riding in the same
cars with whites, although the Indians,
who have never earned their salt, may
enjoy all the privileges. The name or
original Oklahoma, however is not to
blame for such injustice to these peo-
pie. It's when they included Indian
Territory in making it state, Indian
Territory being the new home OF the
hill billies" and the red necks" and
squaw men altered the Oklahoma con-
stitution, but the result of oppression
has been that the negro has been
frightened by the bugaboo of preju-
ulce Until ne Tears 10 venture lllO
land where there are none of his race.
His sense of reason has been warped
until he cannot or does not realize
there Is such a place with grand OPP
portunities and protection and equality
before the law as the northwest. | am
well acquainted with these conditions.
He has suffered so much from preju
dice and persecution until 1t Is almost
impossible to have him believe there
| is a place where he could go and get
square deal. He doesn't want social
equality. He wants a chance and,
above all things every man needs, the
protection of the law. This he does
not begin to get in the south.
have told of the Rosebud to num-
| bers Of my race in parts of the south,
and they have listened as one amazed.
Some of the less intelligent have eau
toned me to be careful, that wasn't
| | afraid Of being 'lynched? so far
away from my kind"
| He sings
MY country It's Of Thee.
Sweet land Of
Race hatred and oppression,
But / love thee still"
| So II Is to be seen that he means