The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1919-08-21
WHAT THE SOUTH HAS TO- SAY
ABOUT NORTHERN RACE CONFLICTS

about the naygur whin he lives among
his opprissors as l am whin he falls into
tn hands iv his liberators. Strike out
"opprissors and substitute q word i'm
plying regulation, restraint, and benevo-
lent discipline and you have the South
ern point Of view to nicely; what
Northerners call oppression" in the
South the Southerners regard as meas
ures essential to the welfare not only
of the whites but also of the blacks;
they believe that Northern freedom
from restraint Injuries both races, and
the Houston (Texas) Chronicle, COM
menting on race riots in the North, OBJ
serves: "The immediate cause, like the
immediate result, is an old, old story,
but both are rooted in a background
of silly pampering which leads, and will
always lead, to atrocious acts on the
one hand and to illogical spasms of tenn
per on the other.' SO it is natural that
race riots in Washington and Chicago
should be widely discussed throughout
the South. To the Southerners' way
of thinking, they demonstrate the fall
lacy of the Northern attitude toward
the Negro. The Chronicle maintains
that Gin Washington, more than any
other place, Negroes have been petted
into an attitude of lazy conceit," and
that "the uniform has been permitted
to give them an unprecedented degree
of protection and consideration, while
"high wages and allotments have tend
ed to make them shiftless and iYrespon-
sible. - And when Southerns declare
themselves "the Negro IS best friends, -
there is no disingenuousness about it..
They are skeptical when Northerners
lay claim to more generous regard for
the Negroes, and the Memphis (Tenn.)
Commercial Appeal speaks for the
South in general in asserting: 1.-THE
clash of whites and Negroes in Chicago,
coming hard on the heels of a similar
disturbance in Washington, should be
a warning to the Negroes of the South
that the supposed benevolent treatment
of their race in the Northern States is
largely a myth As The Commercial
Appeal informs its readers:
1.-THE scarcity of labor in the North
during the war eaused the big employ
ers of labor there to turn their atten-
tion to the Negro labor of the South.
They imported a number of Negroes
from the Southern States, who were
paid big wages. The Negroes were not
so informed at the time, but it has de-
veloped that their employment was
merely temporary. When the white
soldiers began to return, the Negroes
were let out. With the usual African
improvidence a great many of these
Southern blacks spent practically all of
the money they made on city Injuries,
so that when their employment was
taken away from them they were pen
niless.
Fearing privations and want, a
number of these negroes turned GRIM
inals in order TO support themselves.
There was an outbreak of robberies
and other crimes by these imported
colored men, and the result was that re-
sentiment of the white people was
aroused. The supposed friends of the
black man became his worst enemies
and the war of races was the inevitable
result. 1t has been pursued with re-
lentlessness that could not be possible
in the South.
Gas bad for law and order as lynch
ings may be, they can in no way COM
pare with the racial outbreaks that
occur with a persistent frequency in
Northern cities housing considerable
Negro population. Mobs in the South
vent their revenge only upon the Negro
who has been guilty of some foul crime.
The innocent seldom if ever suffer. OF
course, any mob law is bad, but it is
infinitely worse when this develops into
a clash of, races where the innocent suf-
fer with the guilty. Such racial dis
orders as have occurred during the last
few weeks in Washington and Chicago
are possible in the Southern States, but
they are hardly probable. E"
Such is likewise the contention of
the Southern press in general. AS one
Southern paper puts it, "too often, aias,
in our own section is heard from mobs
of white men the shout of Kill the
coon!' but never 'the coons. " The
Mobile (Ala.) Register meanwhile re-
marks:
at is characteristic of mobs north
of Mason and Dixon IS line to class all
of the colored race as offenders, and to
beat them up Unfortunately. This
is the result of racial animosity. In