Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1921-10-29

ana their protests against outrages are
rs impotent as those humanitarlans
and economists, who live In far
northern Cline. AS President Hard
ing and his Republican associates have
turned us over to our supposed enc,
mics III the Southland, the less he
says relative to our final disposition,
, the bAter. We are now bu.;-
lily engaged in making friends
with that class Of Write south
crners, whom we have atranged
for more than fifty years IN behalf OF
the northerncrs, who claimed 70 be
our friends and who declared to sec 20
it that we were put in possession OF
all OF our civil rights and privileges
under the Constitution of the United
States.
From the way our distinguished
Prd ,ident is handling the situation.
we were just as Wei off under Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland and President
Woodrow Wilson rs we expect to DO
under President Warren G. Harding.
whose praises we have sung from one
section of this country to the other ana
whose success we had prayed for FROM
the time he was nominated up to tho
time TINT he was elected. He has not
exactly gone back on us as his sup
portera but he is giving voice to some
strange utteranCos, which sounds
strangely like those Of the Democratic
leaders, whom we have been opposing.
President Harding says that there
must be such kducation among tire col
ored people as will enable them to dc
velop their own leaders, capable of un
dcrstanding and sympathizing with
. such differentiation between the races
as he has observation-disclosures who viii,
, iHpire the race with proper ideals Of
/, race pride, of nation:dl pride, Of an hon
orablc destiny, an important partici.
, patton in the universal effort for nd.
vanccmcnt Of humanity as a whole.
, This kind of education lras been III
operation for nearly half n century.
We are dumbfoundcd to learn that the
President OF the United States did not
know it. The Southland is full of
those kind Of leaders. DR.. Booker r.
Washington did his part in developing
this kind of leadership. In later years
he realized that he had gone too fal
to the extent Of eliminating the prin-
cip,cs OF manhood, without which no
race can rise TO the full height oi
American citizenship.
He declared that the race problem
was one noticeable in Africa, in South
AmTica, in the South Seas and Of the
Word. Just how it can he II problem
i'll Africa, the rome Of the Black MAJ,
is an amusing situation and n most in
, tcresting one. If the black people be
long thore, what are the white people
doing in tho land Of tho Ethiopian:
But thon this is raising another que.s.
ton. 1t seems to us that President
Harding might have cited quotations
from that Hoy Bible upon which he
took his oath of Office and he would
have found therein fundamental prin-
ciples. the observance Of which will
settle all problems. racial and other
wise. When he declared that the black
man should be encouraged to be the
best possible black man and not tAra
bost possible imitation Of white
man, no sensible person will disagree
with this elucidation of an all import
ant subject. StiN people initiate the
begt. whether tho bost he in the form
of n white man or a blac;, one. 1t is
not tho color that they initiate. but
the qualities and the abilities possess
ed by the model.
President Harding said that It was
Il question Of national concern that
tire South shaEl not he encouraged 70
make lbs colored population a vasl re.
serVoir Of Ignorance. The South has
built up educational institutions and
throughout this sunny land co,orcd
| children may be seen vending their
( way to the school-hduscs and the per
cent of illiteracy has been steadily do
creaaed. Some Of the best friends the
colorcd people ever had or ever vii.
have now live below the Mason am
Dixon Line. President Harding need
not be concerned about the oyer-stocl,
ing Of the professions as against the
preparation for farm-life and business
avoeations. Water seeks it's level ant
l when the overstocking of the profes.
sions takes place, the gaun. wolf 81
, want will drive those not fitted fol
. the professions to the trades for which
, they are fitted.
i, If the schools will make more rigor.
{ QUE their standards Of efficiency, tlris
question will settle sitacqf. The distiu
guished visitor opened the gateway