The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1917-07-12
THE RACE QUESTION

north and south who are always fuss
ing like so many old women over the
race question. Those in the north
accuse the southerners of lynching
and DISTINGUISHING the negro; those
in the south say the north would do
worse if it had a chance, and point
TO such events as the East st. Louis
riots as evidence. Both are partly
right and mostly wrong, and in both
events the sensible people of the
country are tired of the row.
The negro is not disfranchised in
the South, and any man who is in the
least familiar with the federals laws,
or will take an hour to look at them,
will see that he can't be. In order 20
vote, he must take the same measure
TO qualify that a white man must
take, and if he won't that's his own
fault. The negro is sometimes lynch
ed in the South, but it is almost al
ways for crime for which any man,
white or black, in any part of the
world, would kill the criminal if he
could. The negro is sometimes treat
ed with considerable injustice IN the
South, but he has as much considera-
ton here as he would have anywhere;
probably, on account of long acquaint-
ance, more. It's our opinion that most
northern people would treat the ne
gro with justice, but we do not think
they would indulge his weaknesses as
southerners do.
The latest matter of dispute is ne
groes going north for work, and meet
ing a most inhospitable reception at
the hands of northern workingmen.
The negrophiles of the north, who
know less about the negro than they
do about the Chinese, say the negro
goes north because he can't vote and
is afraid of being lynched. Being
lynched is a prospect that doesn't
worry the southern negro much. Only
about one in ten thousand of him ever
when he does the whites lynch him
and him alone, and don't attack every
man, and woman, of, his color in the
neighborhood, as they do in the north.
The reason for the emigration OF
the negro to the north has it's being
in the same causes that make nearly
III +ha o+ka,- h;r. t,.o,,hIor ~ 4ba xxyorI n
the white mans greed-mostly the
northern white mans. As everybody
knows, there has been an immense
amount of manufacturing in the north
for the last two years. Northern
capitalists have sent south for negro
wurkmen Some of them have sent
because they could not obtain the
necessary white labor. Some others
have sent because they could induce
negroes TO work cheaper than white
men. Their agents have been all over
the South, offering negroes work, and
offering to pay their railroad fare
north. AS all southern people know,
there is large proportion of negroes
in the South who will go anywhere if
someone will pay their railroad fare.
And they are the class of people who
don't vote because they would rather
spend dollars for little Injuries
than to pay their poll taxes with
tbem-the class that are used to go
ing to the white people for advice
and help, which is seldom refused
them.
When they reach the north, they
are in a different atmosphere. They
meet white men who expect them to
work much harder than they had to
work in the South, and who won't
give them anything except what they
pay for. Thousands of them are as
helpless as children, and, as we have
plenty of evidence, have a child's
longing for home.
At the same time, they provoke
the antagonism of the northern work
ing people by doing work the north
erners want for themselves, and by
working for less wages. And the
northern laboring men and women
are not to blame for that feeling It's
not easy to feel kindly toward any
one who takes your livelihood away
from you or whose competition
makes you work for lower wages.
When a riot starts, northern white
people don't see. in the negroes a
crowd of men and women, only few
of whom are at fault, or who maybe
are not at fault at all, but merely the
victims of circumstances. They see a
bunch of scabs and a foreign army
in one, and act accordingly. In their
labor wars northern people show as
much hate toward each other as they
do toward the negroes.
Southern negroes must either stay
at home, or work in the North in a
different manner from which they
work in the South. And people on
both sides, of the line had better stop
chewing the rag over the race ques-
tion. If they would religiously keep
their mouths shut, there wouldn't be
any race question.
Our friend Leach of the Leesburg
Commercial persists in locating Muc-
Ian Farms in Lake county. 1t is no