The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1920-09-02
DRAWING THE COLOR LINE

There is an organization having for
its professed object the advancement
Of the negro race in this country. and
even in Africa, which calls for COM
ment in view of the Importance, in
the aggregate. of the colored man in
the nations supply of labor The
mere fact Of solidarity makes any
organization a much more serious
proposition than a mob. however
riotous and even murderous. If there
are two million negro members pay
ing dues of only 81 year each to
this movement to set up an imperium
in imperio in the United States, that
fund of actual cash is capable of
doing considerable mischief.
1t is sometimes forgotten, and
many people who never saw Africa
do not know, that the American ne
gro is not merely hopelessly inferior
morally, intellectually and physically
to any of the white races He is in
ferior to most Of the African races,
allowing for everything that educa-
ton. religion and "uplift" have done
for him here. The reason is one
which anyone but an incurable sem
timalist will understand. The
slave traders in Africa raided only
the inferior tribes. The others could
protect themselves against a small
raiding party, however well armed,
and invariably did so.
1t was the comment Of one who had
spent years in Africa and who was
sufficiently familiar with the negro
here. in the South as well as in the
Northern cities, that he had never in
90 years seen an American negro fit
to compare, in intelligence and ply
siaue with the African Basuto or
his first cousin, the Zulu In South
Africa, which now extends for 1000
miles north to the Zambesi river and
bevond it tho American NEGRO politil-
cal missionary is a laxative and
mischief-makin0 nuisance, but is re-
oarded with contempt bv the high
bred Amazulu races, self-respecting
and respected.
This is not say that any white man
is the superior of any given negro,
But it is to say that you can not make
the inheritor Of countless generations
of savagerv and voodooism into
white man by the application of
philanthropic talcum powder or the
simultaneous injection Of whitewash.
The Anglo-Saxon race is a vindica-
tion of heredity. It has taken a
thousand wears to develop its stan
dard Of intelligence and its capacity
for self-government It's mere ma
chine for free government has re-
peatedly failed to function in less
capable hands. That machine in Lii
IBERIA. Havti and San DOMINGO has
not operated to nrevent the descen-
dants of slaves from relapsing into
barbarism.
There are 2OO.O0O,OOO peoule in
Africa. 1t is grandiloquently proposed
by THE organization At New York to
unite these, under the leadership of
the American negro. There are a
dozen races in Africa, Arab Copt and
Negroid, each exceeding our entire
neoro population. whose cauacjtv for
self government. individual intelli-
gence and physique are above the
level Of the best negro community in
this country. 1t is more than prob
able that if they were invaded they
would make slaves Of the invaders
Slavery is not extinct in Africa. and
the slaves are still drawn from ex-
actlv the same tribes which originally
sunulied the American slave market
There is something sufficiently
sinister about this organization to
deserve careful watching. There is
a mixture of Ponzi and "proleta-
riat." promise Of something for
nothing to the IGNORANT dunes. and a
threat to the public peace arising out
of their disappointment. Like other
current agitation. it is largely a pro-
duct Of abnormal wages. The field
Of self-interested agitators to ferti-
lie through envy and inherit lazi-
ness is obvious-Wall Street Jour
nal.