The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-09-23
CLARK AND L'ENGLE AND
THE NEGRO QUESTION

IN recent issue. the star printed .
with approval the speech of Con- I
gresham Frank Clark on the Mon !
roe doctrine. 1t was, in our opin-
ion, a timely utterance of the eIo-
quent Florida representative regard 7
ing the questions. between the Uni {
ted States, Mexico and japan. 1t
also touched somewhat on the rel
atoms Of the negro 10 the white man
here at home.
So far as Mexican and the Mongo-
liam are concerned, the Star agrees
with Mr.. Clark without reserve.
In regard to the negro, we can
agree with him only partly. The
negro is all right in his place. His
place is the place he can make for
himself, without infringing on the
rights or hybridizing the blood of the
whites.
Mr.. Clark thinks the only solution
OF the race question is expulsion,
segregation or humiliation of the
negroes. Unless, he says, one of
these remedies is applied, amalgama-
ton will follow.
The Star can't agree with Mr..
Clark Deportation or segregation
is impossible Annihilation would
be Fepulsive if it were not also i'm
possible. You can hardly find a ne
gro so depraved or no account that
he can't count on some white man
standing up for him. Nearly all
have some friends, and most of them
have many. They are better people
than hundreds of thousands of the
Europeans who come to our shores
every year. They are better citizens,
for it is the rarest thing in the
world to find a negro who isn't loyal
to his country.
The negro has a place of his OVID
to fill in this country. The white
man will help himself by helping not
so much to keep the negro in his
place as by helping him to fill his
place. Justice is the solution of this
question as much as it is the solution
of nearly all other questions.
Congressman L'Engle expresses a
much more kindly spirit toward the
negro-the spirit, in fact, of the old
| fashioned Southerner, and while it is
adanfantine wall against the color
! ed man who tries to lift himself to
| level with the whites, it is also a
shield of protection to the members
| of his race who are -contented to re-
main in a safe tho more humble posi-
! ton. After showing, with as much
| humor as logic, how impossible it is
/ to deport the negro, Mr.. L'Engle
winds up as follows:
Il serve notice right now that as
for me, I'm going to follow the mig
gers wherever he sends 'em. l need
'em to wash my shirt, shine my
shoes, tote my wood, cook my vittles,
mind my children, and to make up
| the fire cold mornings. Speaking
! for lots of my friends, they need mig
gers for all these things and also to
drive wagons, push Georgia buggies,
sweep out, roll tracks, pick cotton,
hoe corn, tend to pigs, call up the
COWS, dig bitches, roll logs, curry
pine trees, dip gum, dig phosphate
shove slabs, and make down Pull
man car berths. Trifiing as some OF
them are, negroes are the best cheap
labor we can get. They are more
| tractable and less vicious, and
! therefore easier to manage and con-
troll than Italians, Spaniards, or any
other Europeans who furnish cheap
labor. They don't want to vote as
the foreigners do and unlike them
they are content to dwell among us
as an inferior race. Talk about the
negro problem! there's no such thing
The white people have solved it long
ago, by denying them social and po-
litical equality which they should
not have, and by giving them equal
/ ity in business, in justice, in mercy
It's time we called off this talk about
the dangers of negro political domi-
nation and the horrors of mixed So
ciety. It's a bug-a-boo that dOn't
scare us any more. We know, and
the negroes know, that neither car
ever be, and both are dwelling to-
i gether in peace and harmony, with
as much happiness thrown in as is