Chapter XXXVIII: How to Help the Negro to Help Himself 468 (13)

Last, but by no means least, I call your attention to another most potent remedy for the diminishing of the great mortality of the race in the South. Besides the city hospitals, the whites have many other hospitals and infirmaries, supported by church and benevolent organizations where those that pay are at the hospitals because they can receive the constant attention of a physician and nurse. We need and should have such hospitals. The benevolently disposed people, the churches and societies of the cities could establish and well support them. In them, there would be pay wards and charitable wards. Each church and society supporting the hospitals could send their indigent sick to the charity wards and those who can pay, to the private apartments.

These hospitals would afford a much needed opportunity for young women of the race to prepare for trained nurses and afford better facilities for the physicians to practice surgery and study remedies.

We have established in the city of Nashville, the Mercy Hospital under the care and management of the Board of Trustees, composed of some of the best citizens and heads of our great universities. Among the directors are, Hon. J. C. Napier, President; W. T. Hightower, Treasurer; Dr. G. W. Hubbard, Dean of Meherry Medical College; Dr. P. B. Guernsey, President of Roger Williams University; Prof. H. H. Wright, Fisk University, and Dr. R. H. Boyd, President of the National Baptist Publishing Board.

The hospital is located at 811 S. Sherry street, Nashville, Tenn., in one of the most quiet, beautiful and healthful localities of the city. The site is high and well drained; the building large and commodious and up-to-date in all its apartments. There are two large wards; one for male and one for female, and private rooms, to which good pay patients are assigned where they will come in contact with no one but their physician and the nurse.

In this hospital great care is given to surgical work of all kinds and especially to abdominal surgery and gynecology. Colored physicians all over the South may send or bring their surgical cases here and get every advantage that can be provided by the best first-class hospitals and infirmaries all over the country. We have the best graduate-trained nurses in constant attendance and the resident physicians are men of the race who have made marvelous progress for two decades in all branches of their work.

Since the establishment of the hospital we have had a record of which few similar institutions can boast. During the first year we have had more than 140 surgical cases, including abdominal section and other major operations and yet the death-rate was less than 3 per cent from all causes.

Our operating room is well appointed, with an abundance of sunlight by day and gas light at night. Many of the physicians of the South have sent us cases for which we are very grateful. We have had cases from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Florida, and Georgia. Until the other cities of the South are able to afford the facilities and accommodations and the skill and experience of the Mercy Hospital we feel that it is the duty and should be the great pleasure of every colored physician to send his surgical cases to this hospital. I consider this one of the great factors to solve this vexed problem.

The causes of the great mortality among the Negroes of the large cities of the South are due to ignorance; vice; debauchery; poor food, illy prepared; unsanitary environments; their habitation in the over-crowded tenement houses; in old stables; damp cellars; and low, damp sections and in narrow, filthy alleys, where the foul air, improper nourishment, poor ventilation and the want of personal cleanliness, furnish the proper condition for the development of disease and death. Correct these conditions and educate the people up to a thorough knowledge of and a strict compliance of the laws of health and the problem is solved. The death-rate among our people will not only be lessened, but I believe the Negro will outlive any other people on earth.

SIXTH PAPER.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE NEGROES IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH, AND HOW IS THAT MORTALITY TO BE LESSENED?

BY HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

HENRY R. BUTLER, A. M., M. D.

Dr. Butler was born in Cumberland county, North Carolina,
April 11, 1862. His early life was spent on the farm, during
which time he received at odd times three months' free
school instruction.

In 1874 his parents moved to Wilmington; there he worked in
saw mills, lumber yards, with the cotton compresses and as a
stevedore. He spent his nights studying under Prof. E. E.
Green, now Dr. E. E. Green of Macon, Ga. January 3, through
the assistance of his instructor, he entered Lincoln
University, Pa., and was graduated June 18, 1887, receiving
the degree of A. B.; October, the same year, he matriculated
in Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., graduating
with the degree of M. D. February 27, 1890. The same year
the degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Lincoln
University. While at Nashville he won the H. T. Noel gold
medal for proficiency in operative surgery and dissecting.
He arrived in Atlanta March, 1890, and began the practice of
medicine. He was one of the organizers of the first drug
store owned and operated by colored men in Georgia. It was
known as Butler, Slater & Co. He was organizer and first
president of the Empire State Medical Association of colored
physicians. He was appointed surgeon of the Second Georgia
Battalion, colored volunteers, in 1891, with rank of first
lieutenant, by the Honorable W. J. Northern, then governor.

May 5, 1893, he married Miss Salina May Sloan of Atlanta, a
graduate of Spellman Seminary, who has been a most faithful,
loving and helpful companion. He took a special course in
the diseases of children in 1894 at the Harvard School of
Medicine, Boston, Mass. In 1895, in the same school he took
a special course in surgery. November 1, 1900, H. R. Butler,
Jr. came, adding new blessings and happiness to his home and
life. Dr. Butler is the first and so far the only colored
man to be a regular contributor to the great Southern daily,
_The Atlanta Constitution_. He has held that position since
1895. He was three years president of the Y. M. C. A. of
colored men. He was four years physician and surgeon in
charge at Spellman Seminary, and is now holding a similar
position in Morris Brown College, and is organizing a nurse
training department to that institution. He owns some
valuable real-estate, besides a beautiful home on Auburn
avenue. He has a large and lucrative practice. He is Grand
Master of Masons of the Jurisdiction Georgia, is grand
Medical Register of the Knights of Pythias. His life is
truly full, every moment of his time is taken.

The causes of excessive mortality among the colored people in Southern cities are _said_ to be _many_ and have been discussed from just as many points of view by students of the social status of this people.

But after several years of professional service among these colored people, which service gave me an opportunity to more closely study them, their faults, habits, needs, methods of living and their knowledge of hygiene and its laws, I have calmly reached the conclusion that the want of money is the main cause of the excessive mortality of this people. It is true that there are several minor causes, _but all_ have their origin in the one mentioned.

Among the most prominent of these _minor_ causes may be mentioned _Ignorance_ and _Poverty_. Let us briefly consider the first of these.

The colored people have made wonderful progress in the acquirement of knowledge since emancipation, and this improvement has played no small part in reducing their excessive death-rate. Yet from this height we look down and see the great masses of these people still held in the death-like grip of _ignorance_. To these, education has taken no knowledge of clean homes, pure air, ventilation, soap and water and other things conducive to good health. These are they who to-day are falling so rapidly before the great reaper, _death_.

It is a truth known to the profession, health departments and students of this subject that most of the deaths of the great human family occur between birth and the ages of five years. The children of the colored race are not an exception to the above statement.

If the children of the intelligent, good, better and best die fast, it stands to reason that those of the ignorant, bad and poor would die even faster, and this is just what I have found to be the case.

Ofttimes, among the lowly masses, ignorance is the first to take charge of the babies at birth; it sticks a slice of fat meat in their innocent little mouths immediately after birth; it rocks the cradle; it fills their little stomachs with all kinds of decoctions, of teas and whiskies to bring out the "hives;" yea, ignorance feeds these little ones on all kinds of solid foods before they are able to digest them, until it finally feeds the grave with the bodies of its little victims.

Even when manhood and womanhood are reached, _ignorance_, _ghost-like_, stands forbidding the ventilation and cleaning of homes; it says: "It's too cold to bathe;" it sends men and women to bed in wet and damp clothes and does many other acts that multiply the graves in the old church-yard on the hill.

We come now to consider _poverty_. Oh, what an enemy it is, and has been, to the human family! It makes its home mostly among the ignorant, and especially among the masses. In the cities of the South the great masses are colored people. Hence it is among these that poverty sits enthroned--a sceptered king ruling amid disease and death. It retards the masses of the race in their march to the city of improvement; it prevents them from having larger and cleaner and better homes; with its bony fingers it points them to the cheap renting huts in alleys, dens, dives and basements of cities, and commands them to enter and die; it follows them into the market places and fills their baskets with cheap adulterated and semi-decayed food-stuffs; aided by prejudice and man's inhumanity to man, it drives the colored people from the healthy country districts into the crowded, sickly settlements of the Southern cities, where they soon sicken and die.

Poverty, supplemented by ignorance, and the want of the true Christian spirit, stands in the doorways of the public hospitals, infirmaries and libraries where aids to health are to be found and forbids these people to enter either on account of their color or the "want of space." Poverty keeps these people from building such institutions for themselves.

Again, the colored people of Southern cities constitute the great labor force, hence most of the diseases that result from exposure are more prevalent among them than they are among the white race.

Those diseases that result from improper foods, poor sanitation, want of pure air, need of better homes and want of public parks and baths, together with those untimely deaths due to the want of proper medical attention, good nursing and surgical operations at the right time are more extensive among the colored masses because they are the ones that suffer the privations mentioned to a greater extent than any other people.

Along with the observations already mentioned on this subject, and which observations have led me to reach the conclusion that "the want of money" is at the base of this excessive mortality, is this encouraging fact--that the colored people are not dying now as fast as they were even a decade ago. The reason of this is not far to seek. The truth of the matter is, these people are growing in wealth and intelligence and in proportion as they have acquired these essential qualities their mortality has decreased.

I have observed in my practice that those who live in good, clean, well ventilated homes have no more sickness and deaths than white citizens of equal intelligence and wealth. I now call to mind, here in Atlanta twenty homes of colored citizens which are fitted and furnished with all modern conveniences, including heating and baths. The owners are well-educated and spend much time and money in keeping their homes and yards clean and in good sanitary condition. What I wish to say is this, in twelve years' time only two deaths have occurred in that circle of twenty homes, and one of these was a baby whose death was due to an accident, and the other was an aged person whose death was the result of Bright's disease. Does not this speak volumes to prove the truth of my position? What I have observed here in Atlanta relative to the _real_ causes and prevention of this excessive mortality is true in other Southern cities.

It is no doubt plain to the reader that I have not mentioned here a single cause upon which this excessive mortality rests, but that which money can remove. That being true, what is the conclusion of the whole matter? It is simply _this_:

1st. Pay the masses sufficient wages to remove their ignorance and poverty, to build better homes and to furnish and equip them with baths and other things necessary and conducive to good health, to purchase proper food-stuffs, fuel and comfortable clothing.

2d. The cities should enlarge their present hospital facilities, or build others especially for these people, cities and towns that have no such facilities should provide them at once, parks, public baths and libraries should be opened by the cities for the poor.

It is simply a matter of money, before that mighty king, ignorance and poverty, together with all their allies, take flight.

TOPIC XIII.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.

HON. GEORGE H. WHITE, LL. D.

Mr. White was born in a log cabin, located at the confluence
of "Richland Branch" and "Slap Swamp" in Bladen County,
North Carolina, near the line of Columbus County, remote
from cities and towns. His maternal grandmother was
half-Indian and his paternal grandmother was Irish,
full-blood. His other admixture is facetiously described as
"mostly Negro." His early boyhood was a struggle for bread
and a very little butter, his schooling being necessarily
neglected. He usually attended two or three months in the
year. Later, by dint of toil, and saving a few dollars, he
was able to secure training under Prof. D. P. Allen,
President of the Whitten Normal School at Lumberton, N. C.,
and afterwards entered Howard University at Washington,
graduating from the eclectic department in 1877. Believing
that he could best serve his race and himself as an advocate
of justice, he read law while taking the academic course,
completing his reading under Judge William J. Clarke, of
North Carolina, and was licensed to practice in all courts
of that State by the Supreme Court in 1879.

Although Mr. White has won marked success in several walks
of life, as lawyer, teacher and business man, it is his
political achievements that have won for him not only a
national reputation, but have evoked no small degree of
comment from the press and diplomats of many of the
countries of the old world. It is worthy of remark that up
to this time, at the age of forty-nine, he has never held an
appointive office, his commissions coming invariably from
the hands of the sovereign people direct. He was elected to
the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1880, and to
the State Senate in 1884; was elected solicitor and
prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of
North Carolina for four years in 1886, and for a like term
in 1890; was nominated for Congress in 1894, but withdrew in
the interest of harmony in his party. He made the race for
Congress in 1896 and was triumphantly elected by a majority
of 4,000, reversing a normal democratic majority of over
5,000--a change of fully 9,000 votes, indicating in no
uncertain tone the confidence and esteem in which he was
held by his friends and neighbors. He was re-elected in
1898. His services as a legislator were conscientious and
valuable. At the close of his second term, he delivered a
valedictory to the country, which was universally praised as
the best, truest and most timely expression of the Negro's
plea for equality of citizenship that ever rang through the
halls of Congress. The speech was widely circulated, and was
favorably commented upon by the leading newspapers of the
nation.

Mr. White has accumulated quite a handsome fortune, his
wealth being estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000. His
personal popularity and the respect for his ability are
attested by the fact that several honorary degrees have been
conferred upon him by a number of the noted educational
institutions of the land.

Mr. White is a thirty-third degree Mason. For six years he
was Grand Master of Masons for the State of North Carolina,
having filled most of the subordinate offices in that body
before his elevation to the Grand Mastership.

Since his retirement from Congress, Mr. White has been
engaged in the practice of law in Washington, D. C., and so
favorably has he impressed his qualifications upon the bench
and bar of the national capital that one of the judges
publicly, and without precedent, complimented him in open
court and set his methods up as an example for other lawyers
who practice there. Eminent as are his abilities, Mr. White
is proverbially modest. Of strong character, well-balanced
mind and an unswerving sense of justice, liberal in views
upon all subjects, political, social or religious,
companionable in private life, unostentatious in manner of
living or in the bestowal of charity, ready to sacrifice
personal convenience to serve the worthy, Mr. White is
indeed a typical American. The Negro people, in slavery or
freedom, as serfs or citizens, offer no model more
inspiring, no picture more inviting.

In presenting this subject to the public, I shall endeavor to treat it from a broad and liberal standpoint, eliminating all selfishness or individual political bias, and viewing the situation from the standpoint of an American citizen.

The first prerequisite to good government in a republic, is purity in the ballot. No stream can be pure unless its source is pure; neither can a republic hope for just and fair laws and the administration and execution of them, unless there is purity and fairness in the sources from whence these cardinal principles of government spring. Laws should be enacted for the whole people and not for individuals, races or sections--thereby securing the support and retaining the confidence of all the parts of our heterogeneous compact, to the end that a homogeneous whole may move in the same direction for the good of all concerned.

The Negroes ask for--and as a part of this republic--have a right to demand the perpetuation of these basic principles of our government. While we are young in citizenship, and admit having made many political mistakes, yet we are willing that the search-light of reason be thrown upon our acts, and a fair and impartial verdict rendered as to our conduct, when all the circumstances surrounding our variegated political history are taken into consideration. Liberated, enfranchised and turned loose among our former masters, who could not take kindly to our new citizenship, we naturally sought friendship and political alliance with those claiming to be our best friends--those who had been instrumental in obtaining our freedom. These new friends came largely from the Federal army, interspersed with many adventurers who followed in the wake of that army, seeking strange fields in which to ply their vocations. Many of these new-comers proved to be true friends to the Negro of the South and led us on and taught us as a faithful guardian would teach and care for his wards. But the great majority of them were wholly unscrupulous and worked upon the ignorance, inexperience and gullibility of the Negro, overtime, to place themselves into positions where they had unlimited sway. The result that followed was most natural--the use of public trust for private gain, the looting of many of the Southern states, the political degradation of the Negro, and the complete estrangement between him and his former neighbors. When all these things were accomplished, these human cormorants betook themselves to their Northern homes to live in ease and splendor on the results of their pillage, while the black man was left in the South to endure disfranchisement, torture and murder on account of the malice and hatred begotten from his first political experience.

Surrounded by such environments, the suppression of his right of franchise, the open and notorious examples of fraud, ballot-box stuffing and intimidation practiced in every Southern election for the last thirty years, on the one hand, and the unfaithfulness, "Jingoism," the free offering of bribes and the continued practice of duplicity, on the part of those claiming to be his friends, on the other hand, no fair-minded man would expect to find complete political perfection among a people thus treated. Thus has the Negro been obstructed, not only in politics, but his civil rights have been denied him, and the doors of many industries are closed against him.

But let us turn our faces away from all the horrors of slavery, reconstruction and all kindred wrongs which have been heaped upon us, and stand up, measuring the full statue of an American citizen, upon the threshold of the new century as a New Man. The slave who has grown out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the political and social system, cast into the arena of manhood, where he constitutes a new element and becomes a competitor for all its emoluments. He is put upon trial, to test his ability to be accounted worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise. After all these years of struggle against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions but little removed from slavery itself, he asks a fair and just judgment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall--to frustrate--his every forward movement; rather those who have lent a helping hand that he might demonstrate the truth of "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man."

In a nation like ours, blessed with peace, plenty and full of prosperity; filled with the spirit of "Expansion," sound money and a protective tariff; when there is a disposition to forget all sectional lines, and to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but having all to stand out in bold relief as one reunited whole, when one political party slaps the other upon the shoulder with a knowing look and a smile indicating the fraternal feeling everywhere present, the question naturally comes home to every colored American, "What should be the Negro's attitude in politics?" Constituting as we do, one-eighth of the entire population of this Nation, the Negro's political attitude should be a firm stand for the right, the support of honest men for office, the advocacy of strong, pure American policies, an unceasing contention for fair elections, a pure ballot, a complete repudiation of any party or man who seeks to bribe, or in any way to hamper or degrade him politically. Should he become self-effaced, politically? No, never! He should, at all times, contend wisely, firmly for every right accorded to other American citizens under the organic laws of the nation. He should identify himself with that political party which proves to be the most friendly towards him. There is very little in a name. Results should be sought, and the Negro should never waver until they are obtained. This will necessitate a division of the Negro vote. No fixed rule can be established as a political guide for him, any more than it can be done for any other people. The location, environment, men and measures sought to be obtained, should guide him. The political pathway for the future may seem dark and discouraging, but nothing daunted, we should continue to press forward, contending for every inch of our rights--no right which man enjoys aside from his own household should be guarded more sacredly than his right of franchise--a right which makes each one a sovereign in himself; a right which determines what laws shall govern us, who shall construe them and execute them.

I am not unmindful of the fact that the views here expressed, may sound rather Utopian. But in this age of rush and bustle for place, preferment and national gain, by individuals and the nation; and in an age when anarchists, lynchers and murderers set at defiance all law and government; in an age when, in certain sections of the country, the ballot-box ceases to stand as an exponent of the registered will of the people, but stands rather as a political cesspool of reeking rottenness, impregnating the national atmosphere with germs of discord that may yet stagnate and throttle the Union; in such an age, it is quite necessary that a halt should be called; a reckoning had, and that these small, though dangerous political sores should be lanced from the body politic before they develop into putrifying cancers that will destroy the life of the republic.

From any view that may be taken of the present political situation, it is apparent that the time is ripe for the colored American to think and act for himself. If he reasons correctly, he will certainly reach the conclusion that right must some day prevail; and in order that he may enjoy the resultant blessings flowing from a pure ballot, the colored man must set the pace, and thereby place himself in a position to command respect and proper recognition. "He who would have equity must first do equity."

The Negro's loyalty to his friends, his impressionable soul, his devotion to church, his yearning for education and enlightenment, his thrift, industry, devotion to country, fidelity to the flag shown upon hundreds of battle-fields, must be admitted and command the admiration of all fair-minded men. Let him add to all these attributes, purity in all things; let him cultivate a love for justice and fair play, live as an example for his neighbors, ally himself with the best men in the community or state where he lives, and the day must certainly come when his rights--political and civil--will be conceded to him.

Let us learn what is _right_ and then dare to do the _right_; ever pressing forward to higher and nobler things; never lagging, but remember, "That constant effort will remove the mountain, and that continued dripping will wear away the stone."

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY T. T. FORTUNE

TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE.

Timothy Thomas fortune, the subject of this sketch, is an
author, a journalist, an agitator and a lecturer.

Mr. Fortune's grandmother was a mulatto, and his grandfather
a Seminole Indian. Thomas was born of slave parents in
Florida in 1856. His father took an important and active
part in the reconstruction of Florida, being a delegate in
the Constitutional Convention that framed the present
constitution of Florida, and a member of the first five
sessions of the reconstituted Florida Legislature.

During the Ku Klux Klan period, which followed, the father
of Thomas had to stand for his life, which he manfully did
by preparing his house to receive the night marauders. The
father finally moved with his family to Jacksonville,
Florida. Here young Thomas soon found a position as a
printer's "devil," which was the first step to that high
position which he now occupies. He left his printer's "case"
for two years in order to attend school and to work in the
Jacksonville city postoffice.

In 1874 he was appointed mail route agent between
Jacksonville and Chattahoochee; but he was soon promoted to
the position of special inspector of customs for the first
district of Delaware. A year later, 1876, young Fortune
entered that school which has been an inspiration to so many
negro youths, Howard University. After two years' study in
this school he returned to the printer's trade. While in
Washington he married Miss Smiley of Florida.

In 1878 Mr. Fortune returned to Florida to try his hand at
school teaching. After a year's experience at this work, he
again returned to his first love, the printer's trade, but
this time he went to New York City. Of course the other
compositors objected to working with a "Nigger," but by the
manly stand of the publisher, Mr. John Dougall, the "Nigger"
remained, and after a short strike the white compositors
were glad to return.

Mr. Fortune's real career as a journalist began in 1880,
when, with two friends, he began the publication of the
_Rumor_, which, after two years, was changed to the _New
York Globe_. After four years the paper was forced to
suspend. Mr. Fortune immediately began the publication of
the _New York Freeman_. A year later, 1885, the name of the
paper was changed to the _New York Age_, of which Mr.
Fortune is still editor.

His writings are, however, not confined to the editing of
his paper. He is the author of several books, but "Black and
White" and "The Negro in Politics" are perhaps the most
noted.

Mr. Fortune was the first to suggest the Afro-American
League, an organization in the interest of the Negro race.
He was the president of the first convention of this league,
which met in Chicago in 1890. His address as president of
the convention was a scathing arraignment of the South.

Mr. Fortune was also elected chairman of the executive
committee of the National Afro-American Press Association
which met in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1890.

The National Negro Business League was the outcome of a
conversation between Booker T. Washington and Mr. Fortune.
Mr. Fortune was elected chairman of the executive committee
of the National Negro Business League which met in Boston in
1900, and also at its meeting in Chicago in 1901.

Mr. Fortune is, as might be suspected, a Republican in
politics. In the presidential election of 1900 he took an
active part in the political canvas of that year. He spoke
in Indiana and in Missouri, advocating the re-election of
President McKinley.

The whole energy of his life is devoted to the interests of
the Negro race in America. He wields a sharp rapier. He is
the complement of Booker T. Washington. Each is doing his
own work in his own way; the one supplements the other's
work.

There are some questions which, it seems to me, need no discussion, because the truths in them are self-evident; and yet, so perverse is the human understanding, that unanimity upon any subject of common interest is rare in social ethics; and by social ethics I mean the philosophy of organized government in all of its multifarious life.

How intricate and perplexing these questions are; even the uninitiated intuitively understand, although they cannot explain them; while ignorant and learned alike wrangle and often fight over the means to reach ends upon which there is no disagreement. There is, therefore, no phase of the Afro-American problem upon the proper solution of which there is not a substantial agreement among members of the race. The processes by which the solution shall be reached are the bases of the disagreements and discussions, which often defeat the common wish and aim.

"What should be the Afro-American's attitude in politics?" is a sophomoric, rather than a practical, question. What he should do at a given crisis is answered by what he has done ever since the right to vote was conferred upon him by the adoption of the war amendments to the Federal Constitution. Neither threats, fire, rope, nor bullet has been powerful enough to swerve him from pursuing the course made mandatory by his self interests. He may have pursued this course by the intricate process of reasoning employed by educated men, or of intuition employed by the unlettered. The fact remains that his attitude has been one of sympathy and helpfulness towards those who were unmistakably sympathetic and friendly towards him and as unmistakably antagonistic and troublesome to those who were antagonistic to him. With him, as with the rest of mankind, "self-preservation is the first law of nature." What his attitude in politics should be now will be what it has been--governed absolutely by his self interests.

There will be nothing gained in the proper education and comprehension of the subject under discussion by holding up holy hands of horror at the statement that selfishness, pure and simple, has governed and will govern the attitude of the Afro-American in politics. The purists, who prate of the common interest and loyalty to the flag as the first and highest duty of the citizen, are entitled to their view of the matter, but the fact remains and is true of the people of every ancient and modern government that self-interest will govern the actions of the voter. One of the components which is discriminated against and oppressed by legal enactment through popular clamor will invariably produce substantial unanimity of thought and action on the part of the pariah against the common interest, and, in the last analysis, against the flag itself, as the emblem of governmental discrimination and oppression. The Helots of Sparta and the Jews under the Pharaohs were of this sort. The Jews in Russia and Germany and the Irish in Great Britain are modern examples. The first concern of every man and of his own race is his own concern. He will oppose those who oppose him, whether as individual or state; he will look to his interests first and to those of his neighbor afterwards. The Afro-American is just like other people in this, as well as in all respects, despite the puerile contention of some, even of his own household, that he is not as other men. He will not love those who hate him nor pray for those who despitefully use him, although enjoined to do so in thunderous tones from every pulpit in Christendom. And, therefore, the Afro-American's attitude in politics will be governed, as it has been, by his selfish interests. And, why not? The banker's attitude in politics is governed by the policy that serves his selfish interests best; the manufacturer's attitude is the same. The same rule of conduct governs all men in their social and civil relations to the state.

In a republic, government by party is the fundamental basis of it. There must be parties or there can be no government; this is equally true of democracies and limited monarchies. The primary is the basis of party government. His selfish interests, of whatever sort, make it necessary for every citizen, who wishes to conserve those interests, to belong to some one party. Unless he is permitted to enjoy the rights and benefits of the primary, or party referendum, he cannot hope to enjoy the rights and benefits of the party of his choice--enjoy them to their fullest extent--for the right to vote, which does not carry with it the right to be voted for, leaves the citizen in a voiceless condition as to those specific interests in which he is concerned, and which can only be secured from the state through the action of his party. No man can speak for another as he can speak for himself, hence, in every party, men and special interests, such as railroad, bank, manufacturing and the like interests, habitually seek to put in control persons who will represent them, speak for them and vote for them upon any question of legislation which arises. It is because of this that there is great rejoicing among Afro-Americans when any man of theirs is put forward for his party in any official capacity whatever, and it is because of this that so few of them have been, and are put forward.

Wherever an Afro-American is found supporting, by his lung-power and ballot, a party which denies him participation in its primary (basis of party) government, then you have found a man who does not know what his attitude in politics should be; and, whether he should be pitied or despised, must remain a question for each individual to decide. The democratic party is the only party in the United States which denies to the Afro-American this basic right in party government. Logically enough, it is the only party in the United States which has always sought to prevent him from enjoying the rights of the elective franchise, the right to vote and to be voted for, and which has necessarily, to justify this policy, always sought in every conceivable way to degrade his manhood to the brute standard. A voteless citizen is always a social and political outcast; a voteless race in a composite citizenship will always constitute a problem more or less dangerous to the state--enemies, fostered in the bosom, as Cleopatra's asp, only to wound to the death. It has been the way of the world since the dawn of history.

It is creditable to the good sense and the manhood of the Afro-American people that they have constantly recognized and acted upon the theory I have here laid down, as the consistent one in politics. Their attitude has been manly and consistent; they have stood by their friends and defied their enemies, even when their friends have been lukewarm, or brutally indifferent, and this has been the attitude of their friends since 1870.

Through good and evil report they have refused to be seduced from their allegiance to the party of freedom, and their enemies have wreaked their vengeance, without hindrance, so that the attitude books of every Southern state bristle with a code of laws as infamous and oppressive as the slave code. But that does not affect the principle in the least, and the principle is the thing; it is the essence of all life. He who clings to it, though he may die, as the poor Indian has done, deserves and receives the respect of mankind. When it has been said of him that he was corrupt, purchasable, unreliable in politics and that the franchise should be denied to him by fair or foul means, because of this, by the kuklux klan terrorists, or red shirt brutalists--sufficient answer to it all, in my mind, has been that if he could have been seduced from his best interests, from his friends in party politics, without violence towards him, none would have molested him or made him afraid. That is a self-evident proposition in partisan ethics.

We do not terrorize and shoot and defraud people who vote with us. No, the Afro-American has instinctively distrusted his political enemies, even when they came to him bearing grapes in their hands and honey on their tongues. His attitude has been one of manly protest, wherever he was allowed to vote, or made to sulk in silence and indignation. And here has been and here is the rub. When you cannot coax a man against his will, as Jonathan did David, or purchase his birthright as Jacob did Esau, if you have the power you terrorize and shoot him into compliance. That is what the political enemies of the Afro-American have done and are doing, but patient as the ass and with the faith of Job, which passes all understanding, he sticks to his principle of self-interest and waits; and the good proverb says, "All things come to him who waits." I believe it. And if every man of the race had the alternative of being shot in his tracks for clinging to his principles or life eternal for deserting them, the part of manhood and honor would be to stand up and be shot. As a matter of fact, thousands upon thousands of Afro-Americans have been shot to death by their political enemies since 1868, and perhaps thousands more will be shot in the future in the same way, and for the same reason and by the same heartless enemies, before the nation reaches the conclusion that an Afro-American citizen should have as much protection under the Federal Constitution as any other citizen with a white skin, despite the fact that the whole matter is largely one of state control and regulation. When cancers get on the body politic like this of disfranchisement and debasement of an entire element of the citizenship, they are usually cut out, as that of slavery, and its exceeding horrors, were.

Steadfastness, therefore, in the faith that moves mountains and patience which overcomes a world of wrong and injustice, will bring the reward as it has so often done with the race in the past. The reward is perfect equality under the laws of the Federal Government and of the several states. But our attitude must be one of absolute fidelity to the priceless sacred trust of citizenship, which comes to us out of the agonies of the greatest war of modern times. If we be true to ourselves, the great republic will be true to us "in God's way and time."

THIRD PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATTITUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE W. MURRAY.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MURRAY.

George Washington Murray was born September 22, 1853, of
slave parents, near Rembert, Sumter County, S. C.
Emancipation found him a lad of eleven summers, bereft of
both parents. Without a friend upon whom to rely for either
aid or advice in an impoverishing section, he entered upon
the fierce combat then in progress for the indispensable
bread of life. Among the waifs of his neighborhood in 1866,
he learned the alphabet and acquired an imperfect
pronunciation of monosyllables. In efforts to improve his
meager stock of knowledge during the succeeding five years,
he so industriously applied himself that in January, 1871,
he entered a day school, while in session, for the first
time, but as teacher, not scholar.

He taught until the Fall of 1874, when he successfully
passed a competitive examination and secured a scholarship
as sub-freshman in the reconstructed University of South
Carolina. He was successfully employed as a teacher until
February, 1890, when he secured an appointment as inspector
of customs at the port of Charleston, S. C.

Entering the political arena in the contest for the
Republican nomination for Congress in 1892, he successfully
won the stake and was placed in the general election against
Gen. E. W. Moise, one of the most brilliant, wealthy and
popular Democrats in the State, whom he finally defeated and
was declared elected to the Fifty-third Congress.

He was again elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress, and
counted out, but contested and was finally seated. He was
again elected to the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses,
and counted out, and failed to be seated after strong
contests.

Since his retirement from congressional contests, seeing the
primary and crying need of his race is a larger per cent of
the ownership of homes, and the impossibility of securing
them in the desired space of time, under the prevailing
circumstances, where the necessaries of life and rents
consume the entire resources year after year, he has applied
himself to the development of a scheme of buying large
estates and cutting them into small holdings, and giving
long periods of time in which to pay for homes, receiving
about the usual rents as payments.

He now has about 200 families located on about 9,000 acres
of land, and is adding from 2,000 to 3,000 acres to his
territory each year.

He has already secured twelve letters patent on a multiple
farming machine, that is destined to revolutionize farming
methods.

Without his request upon the demand of the President
himself, he was recently appointed Division Internal Revenue
Deputy Collector for the district of South Carolina.

To the casual observer the above query is easy of solution, but it is at the same time engaging the profoundest attention and thought of the wisest statesmen, and the greatest philanthropists and humanitarians.

It is especially difficult to the black victims of present political environments.

With a proportionate share of all the elements of strength, intelligence, wealth, business and character--the Negro's attitude politically should, and would, be the same as that of the other members of society.

The writer presume that in dealing with the question at issue, he is territorially restricted to the ex-slaveholding portions of the United States, as the Negro's political status in the rest of the territorial limits of the country differs so little from that of other members of society.

As we see it, the mistake of the nineteenth century was the attempt to make the ex-slave a governor, before he had learned to be governed.

It seems that members of the race have not even yet learned that governments have their origin and growth in the necessities originating in the business and wealth of mankind, and have attained their greatest perfection where there is most business and wealth.

The naked, wandering savage has the lowest order of governments, because, in that state, he has need for no other, and could not support any higher.

It twenty intelligent and progressive men settle down in the midst of a hundred thousand such savages, they will immediately set about establishing business, accumulating wealth, and will very naturally organize in self-defense, and in time rule the ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty others.

When just emerging from the shambles of two and a half centuries of slavery and inforced ignorance, penniless and without experience, it was a serious blunder to have placed the Negroes in such a position as to make them responsible for the government.

They were not only without the necessary intelligence and experience for its successful operation, but all the resources essential to its maintenance were in the hands of the minority class, and they were without the ability to compel any contribution for its support.

Placed upon the wrong track in the primary stages of emancipation, the race spent its energy in trying to control the kind of government that other people's business and resources made necessary, instead of trying to acquire the elements which would have made it welcome as part owners and rulers of that government.

Such conditions as resulted from the plans and policies pursued in the rehabilitation of civil government, after the War of the Rebellion, very naturally created great friction between the former master-class, possessing practically all the business, wealth and experience, though in the minority in many localities, and the former slave-class, without business, wealth and experience, on the other hand.

The master-class determined that in self defense it had to organize to repossess itself of governmental control, which was then in the hands of the slave-class, and withheld its support from the government, which the latter class was helpless to compel without the strong compelling arm of the Federal government, which the peaceful and considerate judgment of mankind would no longer sustain in maintaining such conditions.

Whereupon all over the South where the ex-slave class controlled merely, by reason of numbers, its power and influence failed, until to-day it finds itself absolutely shorn of power, even so much as is necessary to protect its property, family and life.

While it may be both unjust and unwise for a class in the condition of the former slave class to absolutely control a government made necessary by the resources of others, yet it is a cruel wrong to deprive it even of that influence that is absolutely necessary for the protection of family, property and life.

The paramount issue of Southern Negroes should not be political office, but the possession of such political influence as is necessary for the protection of their property and lives.

While it is desirable that as many Negroes as possible be provided for at the official pie-counter, the all important issue, in my humble judgment, is the equality of civil and political rights, without which we are in some measure worse off than slaves.

Deprived of that influence, which selfish interests always impel the master-class to give in defense of his property rights, the emancipated-class must possess a counter voting power somewhere within its own personality, which an untrammelled ballot alone affords.

Wisdom dictates that the Negro should speedily assume the task of producing such conditions as will give the needed influence.

This brings us to the question at issue, What should be the Negro's attitude politically?

In short, whatever attitude would prove most beneficial to him the Negro should adapt himself to it, until he shall have acquired sufficient strength along all lines to occupy and maintain an independent position, and shape the course of action to suit his fancy and convenience.

The difference in the treatment of colored men North and South is not half so much on account of a difference in the education and customs of the white people in the respective sections, as from the difference between the business, intellectual and political status of the members of the colored race itself in the two sections, coupled with the fact that the white man possessing practically all the business, wealth, culture and experience in the North, is divided into political camps, each controlling influence sufficient to protect each constituent member, however weak, while in the South he is united in one political party, which wholly destroys the colored man's influence and partially his own.

In fact, in the North, the combined wealth, culture and influence of the entire party with which he is allied overshadows and protects his rights, both public and private, and this brings us to the question at issue, What should be the Negro's attitude politically?

Upon this question there are as many opinions as there were colors in Joseph's coat.

Some advise that we solidly vote the Republican ticket.

Others that we should all vote the Democratic ticket; still another class advise us to divide our vote, and another class advise us not to vote at all.

There may be a grain of truth in each one of the above theories, but for all times and occasions each one is essentially false.

Under present environments it appears that we accomplish nothing by voting the Republican ticket, and gain no more by voting the Democratic ticket than we would by not voting at all.

To us the all important task is to find a way to make our ballot effective.

Though, throughout the South, a cruel and savage spirit seems triumphant, let the Negro take courage, for God is still ruling, and the very machinery that has been set in motion for his political destruction is hastening the day of his political regeneration.

The reduction of the Negro's vote to an insignificant fraction which does away with the possibility of absolute Negro control, is not an unmixed evil, as it entirely destroys the foundation of the scarecrow of Negro supremacy, which has been used as a great welding hammer to forge the white race, with so many divergent views and opinions, into one political mass, while the standards of wealth and intelligence raised as a bar to his progress are causing the Negro, as never before, to bestir himself in efforts to reach them.

Thus it is seen that his would-be enemy destroys the welding hammer at one fell blow; sets in motion irresistible currents that will inevitably find outlets in the broad ocean of the political freedom of both races, and arouse in the Negro, by the standards set up, the very desirable incentive to make preparation for the enjoyment of the destined freedom which the fates seem bent on bringing him.

Once more the wonderful hand of Providence is using man's malice and prejudice as His own marvelous highway of hope to bring good results from evil intentions.

Let the poor, desponding Negro, way down in the valley of degradation and oppression, continue to be industrious, honest and frugal, and pray, and God will again hitch His own all powerful steeds of hope to his chariot of despondency and oppression, and, riding over the mountains of man's folly, manifested in unjust rules and practices, in defiance of His will, will draw him upon the broad eminence of joy, gladness and hope.

TOPIC XIV.

IS THE NEGRO AS MORALLY DEPRAVED AS HE IS REPUTED TO BE?

BY PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

PROF. B. H. PETERSON.

Butler Harrison Peterson, the subject of this sketch, is a
native of the State of Florida. He was born of slave
parents, just in time to be spared the horrible experiences
of that slave system which swept over this country with such
direful results.

When the war clouds of the Civil War passed over, he was
sent to an ex-slave for private instruction. Shortly after
the public school system was introduced into the state of
Florida he entered as a regular attendant. Three very
profitable and successful sessions were spent in these
schools. Soon after entering upon the fourth term his mother
moved to another part of the state, leaving him in the care
of an aunt, who, loving money rather than education, took
him out of school and hired him to a law firm as office boy,
for $1.50 per month. This lasted for nearly two years. He
then took a position as porter in a dry goods store, and
then a clerkship in a small grocery store, owned and
controlled by a colored man, the Rev. William Bell.