The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-08-07

farmer, who Is closest to the negro,
Is either not sufficiently educated TO
do either, or az his financial interest
in the negro and the negro's productive
power are not OF sutflcent moment 10
stimulate him TO the point Of taking
the trouble.
No Social Problem in South.
There is no race problem in the
South except that whose foundation Is
problem whatever, socially. A prob
lem Of this sort threatens other sec
tons Of the country whepA the negro
populations are smallest, I'D this Is
the result of two facts: ~ The worst
element Of the negro raee-not, as Mir.
Smith claims. the best-have emil
grated TO those sections, and CO. the
people there, not understanding the me-
gro, don't know how 70 act toward
him, n uncoT scicusly, perhaps, en-
courage social equality.
We of the South have never been
threatened with social equality except
In rare Instances, Most Of the at
tempts to create this relation have.
been made by Inferior white persons,
VINO failed, because, IN every instance,
IN seeking the negroes level they have
fallen below It..
ity; for where he sees advances In
this direction by the whites, he will
either shun them as ne ought to do,
or he will permit them only to become
mot the equal, but the master Of the
~advancers,
Oppose Social Equality.
The natural, normal negro lays no
claim to social equality with the white
race or any other race. AS a race, the
thought never enters his head. Where
the two races mlngle In a social way
1t is, for the negro's part, the result
Of a false, pesniciOus education follow
Ing the Civil war, whose foundation
lies wholly without the Dixie domain.
1t is probable. too, that white persons
outside of the S0ath are led into the
error by the same false sort of teach
ing, added to native ignorance Of negro
character. One must na9e known me-
groes Intimately In childhood and boy
hood to be capable OF understanding
them; so, when grown-up negroes emf
CRATE from the South and become citi-
Gems In localities not already well
stocked with their people, they are as
unknowable as II they had come from
Madagascar. When we add to this fact
the false doctrine that they are down
trodden refugees from a land Of rebels
and North -haters, we begin to under
stand why efforts are being put forth
hat seemingly have for their object q
single social standard for both races.
Willing to Help Neighbors.
Because Of this ignorance at the
North, and the utter nopelessness OF
the wish that all people might know
the negro, the s~ympathies of the whole
South ought to go out to those upon
whose portals the shadow of this social
problem Is falling. They are learning
by bitter and sad experience hat So
cial encouragement to negroes is a two
edge sword, working havoc to both
races, A single bloody result, verified
and widely published. should suffice to
prove that wreck and ruin must fol-
low a social commingling OF the two
races. Time was when we OF the South
sought the aid Of the North to settle
what appeared to be---just after the
Civil wars real race problem. Our
petitions were sighted, and now the
boot liz on the other leg. Learned wri-
ters-among them, probably the ablest
Of the lot, Alfred Holt Stone-and great
orators, like Henry W. Grady, felt thae
the South alone was afflicted with a
race problem.
In order for such a problem to be-