The Colorado statesman. [volume], October 21, 1905, Image 1

About The Colorado statesman. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1895-1961

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The
Colorado Statesman
VOL. XU.
Is the Negro Inferior?
The Negro of to-day will not Brand Himself as an Inferior
People to no Race. Suppression Alone has
Made Him Tardy in Advancement.
Questions of superiority or in
feriority do not properly apply to
the conditions of life, the intellect
ual equipment of society or the
crystalized institutions of evolu
tion in the science of thought. It
is an illog' d process, and conse
quently the conclusions must be
grossly at fault to argue that one
race or generation is superior to
another because the so-called su
perior race is surrounded by high
er forms of life than the so-called
superior to another because race
is surrounded by higher forms of
life than the so-called inferior
raco. 'T'vere a gross violation of
truth and a heathern method of
reasoning for the Slav of fifty
years ago to brand the Japanese
inferiors because the islanders
were not acquainted with the bru
tal acts of war. The simple and
truthful statement to make in
such a case is that the Japanese
were lacking in the formsnnd ac
cumulated products of civilized
lift*. Kidd brings out this truth
when he says, referring to Mr.
Gallon’s flimsy argument t.» prove
the superiority of the present, civi
lizated Anglo-Saxon over the un
washed Dainara: ’“The fallacy
which underlies the reasoning
based upon.facts of this kind, by
which the mental inferority of un
civilized races is supposed to be
proved is not immediately appar
ent : but an undoubted and extra
ordinary fallacy exists neverthe
less. It is one of the commonest
examples of equipment which we
receive from the civilization to
which we belong with the mental
capacity with which nature has
endowed us.”
The present results in Japanese
development simply declare that
they were tardier than the Slav in
receiving and appropriating ad
vanced civilization. Neither is de
lay in developing a mark of dull
ness and certainly it is no badge
of inferiority. The case cited may
be easily explained upon historical
grounds and not upon psychologi
cal grounds. It is historically cor
rect that the Japs were far behind
the Slavs in surrounding them
selves with the fruits and equip
ments of a highly social state; it is
also psychologically correct that
when they did appropriate the
machinery of advuned thought
they surpassed their supposed su
periors in the deft and accurate
handling of this machinery to the
chargrin and the humiliating of
the boastful Russ.
There is but one tiling to which
the words “superiority and infer
iority” may logically apply; it is
to personality. The human and
divine endowments of personality
are the same the world over. The
environment, the sphere of opera
tion. the mental and civilized
equipment and also the source of
inspiration may be to a less or
greater degree supplied or want
ing, and per force of argument,
the dovelopnent of that personali
ty and its outcome in the forms of
social life will be small or great.
This contention is not made for
the individual units of a genera
tion. but for the sum total. It
can be proved that human nature,
centralizes her powers in certain
individuals, lint that to the con
trary, because of the difficulty in
measuring personalitty. it is pre
mature to hold that this individ
ual personality is superior to that
one because that one has not yet
developed itself. It is therefore
illogical for any man to affirm
that the white man is superior to
the Negro because the white man
has adopted the forms of civilized
life sooner than the pagan African.
Priority of development is no ar
gument for superiority of
ment.
Furthermore, it can be shown
from numerous cases, ancient and
present, that where the Negro
came into contact with the higher
forms of life and the accumulated
power of generations, he adopted
these forms of life, became educa
ted had not only equalled some of
the best of the earlier developed
of the white races, but surpassed
many others. Even at this pres.
<>nt time, we can show men and
women who in their mental capac
ity and intellectual ability in the
higher forms of social life are
equal to the best that the white
race has produced. Already our
school boys and girls have laughed
to scorn the ante-bellum dictum
of the wise-acres that the Negro
cannot learn. They made the
childish mistake by supposing
that because he did not learn, he
could not learn. Three minutes
of reasoning along the basis of two
and two make four, would have
dispelled the gauzy film that blind
ed their prejudiced minds. They
knew nothing of the “a preori”
method in acquiring the truth of
the value and power of the human
mind, and even the “a posteriori”
method of modern times seems to
have no meaning for their stupid
minds, but truth is marching on.
The Negro of today will never
DENVER, COLORADO, SATURDAY. OCTOBER 21, 11)05.
consent to the statement that he
is inferior to the white man. He
admits that his race is tardy in
coming to the light and that, not
for psychological reasons but for
historical reasons: he will grant
that in the possession of the ele
ments of strength that increase
civilization he is wanting, but not
in the essentials of power; he will
agree that in the products of mind
and hand he does not equal his
white brother, but not because of
a lack of capacity on his part, or
of superiority on the part of the
whiteman. But ns to the inferior
in the endowments of brain and
heart, the Negro gentlemen will
never brand himself with the
black badge of inferiority.
He is a late comer. That’s all.
—Voice ol the Negro.
RACE NEWS
Gathered from Various Sources.
Knoxville, Temi., Oct. ll—Eva
line McGhee, a famous ex-slave, is
dead, aged 112.
I
D. M. Jackson was recently ap
pointed United States consul at
Jaune Juato, Mexico.
A call lias been issued for all of
the colored ministers of the Unit
ed States and Canuda to meet in a
United Christian Congress. Jan- (
uary 25, lfiOO, the purpose being,
as stated in the call, to put before ,
the world the necessity of increas
ed interest in those things which
so deeply concern the welfare of
the Negro people.
The death of ex-Gongressman J.
E. O'Hara at New Bern, N. C, a
few days ago, removes, from the
stage of action one of the ablest of
the Negro race. The deceased,
who was the most brilliant lawyer
North Carolina has ever produced,
was, during reconstruction, a rep
resentative in congress from the
.Second district.
t
In a few days Louisville, Ivy.,
will boast of a Trust company. ,
with a paid up capital stock of
$500,000. for the purpose of doing ,
a general banking business and to
establish and maintain a chain of
banks in the large cities of the
South. Many of the most promi
nent Negroes of the South are in
strumental in organizing this com
pany.
Dallas. Tex., Oct. 15.—The Ne
gro Baptist convention of Texas,
in session at Waco, adopted a res
olution to day commending John
D. Rockefeller, and saying that in
the opinion of the convention he
was an inspired giver. They also
commended what he had done for
the advancement of education and I
religion in the religious world.
Topeka. Kalis.. October 11. An
alternative writ of Mandamus, re
turnable November 7. was issued
by the Supreme Court to day. di-.
renting the admission of Mamie
Richardson, an 18-year-old Negro
girl to the high school of Kansas
City, Kansas. The suit is design
ed to (test the constitutionality of
the law enacted by the Legislature
last winter, by which Kansas City,
Kansas, was enabled to separate
the races in the high school.
London, Ky., Oct. 17.—Virgil
Bowers, a Negro, was taken from
the comity jail here last night and
har.ged to an apple tree on the
road leading to Barbourville. Oil
August 26 Bowers shot and killed
George Farris, a wealthy Knox
corner lumber dealer. At his trial
last neck the jury cflsaggreed, ten
voting for the death penalty, and
two for a life sentence. A second
: trial by a jury brought from Rock
Castle county reduced a verdict of
life sentence, after ten jurors had
voted fer hanging. The mob is
thought to have come from Knox
county.
Criminiology.
Complaint is now being heard
through the daily press concern
ing Negro criminology and the
filling of the jails of the Common
wealth by youthful Negro crimin
als. This is true. It is deplor
able. and we would correct it if we
could. We will ever be slow to of
fer apology of any kind for law
lessness and a disregard of the
laws of the Commonwealth, but
we do not think we are wrong
when we say that the great discre
pancy in the Sentli between black
and white criminology is due wliol-1
ly to the discrimination between ;
justice —white and black.
Ail examination of the criminal
record of Virginia will show that'
a black boy is convicted of a crime |
which, if he were a white boy and i
accused, lie would be acquitted.
White women overtaken red-hand
ed in theft are kleptomaniacs,
while black women are common
thieves. A black boy accused of
crime, which cannot be proven,
ami of which he cannot be convict
e 1 i- required to give security for
his good behavior —a drag-net
which takes him to jail, while a
white boy would be acquitted.
Such is the condition of affairs'
that exist in Virginia. It is this
which is filling the jails and peni- ;
tentiary with youthful Negro crim
inals, t
If justice lie even-handed —if
there be not a white and a black
jusiice—if the black boy accused
of crime is given the same consid
eration as the white hoy, the per
centage of criminology will lie less
in the black race as compared
with the white race. -Reformer,
To Destroy Suffrage Right.
Such will be the Result if Congress Votes to Cut Down
Congressional Representation—Southern Mob
after Thos. Dixon.
Governor James K. Vardanian
of Mississippi, as recently an
nounced himself as a candidate to
be a Senator in the Congress. The
plank upon which he proposes to |
make his canvass is very direct
and simple. It is bodily a plea
for Missisippi to comply with the
United Stutes Constitution and re
duce its representation in the low
er house of Congress and thereby
secure the right to disfranchise all
Afro-Americans regardless of
qualifications. Of course, Missis
sippi could do this, and any other
state for that matter, and still re
tain the power that it possesses in
the United States Senate, and a
law could be passed by the state
preventing any Afro-American
from voting, no matter how much
intelligence or property he might
possess. This, in short, is the
logical result of advocating cutting
down Southern representation. It
will, therefore, be seen that those
Afro-Americans who advocate cut
ling down Southern representation
are in thorough accord with Var
danian and his kind.
There was a public meeting in
Boston recently for the purpose of
urging along the feeble sentiment
for the reduction of Southern rep
resentation in congress. Air. A.
B Humphreys of New York made
a speech in which he claimed to
be the author of the reduction
plank in the Republican platform.
He said that there were a full linn-
I dred Negroes from the South at
: the Chicago convention who favor
ed his reduction proposition. We
do not doubt it. But the fact
counts for nothing. It is an easy
| matter to find a hundred Afro-
Americans in Boston, or the South
who would agree to any proposi
tion affecting the vitality of their
political rights, simply because
they do not know what the vitali
ty of their political rights are.
When Congress votes to justify
the right of a state to disfranchise
a part of its citizenship, with only
the loss of proportionate repre
sentation in Congress, we shall be
in a fearful pickle. N. V. Age.
Columbia, S. C , Oct. 15.—Thos.
| Dixon, novelist and playwright,
escaped mob violence in this city
! early this morning after the per
formance last night of his new
1 play, “The Clansman,” dealing
with Negro rule in South Carolina
J during the reconstruction period,
j only by locking himself in his
i room in his hotel.
The play was heartily hissed by
the large audience which gathered
and Inter, when a number of young
men prominent in the social and
business life of the city gathered
in front cf the hotel with hostile
| intent and sent up a note asking
the playwright to come down, he
suspected their purpose and re
fused.
Balked in theer purpose of doing
him bodily injury, the young men
drew up a set of resolutions set
ting fourth in unmistakable terms
their opinion of the author and
his play and had them sent . up to
his room.
The largest crowd that ever en
tered a local theatre attended toJ
night’s performance, blit it was a
crowd intent on showing its dis
approval. There was frequent
hissing throuhout the performance
which almost drowned out the ap
plause of the few who dared to
show their approval.
When, at the end of the first
scene in the third act, after scat
tering calls, the author made his
appearance in front of the curtain
hisses from all parts of the theater
mingled with htinclicaping, and it
was full two minutes before Dixon
could proceed. The manner in
which the author conducted him*
self in the face of the embarrass
ing situation made friends foe hiuij
After referring pleasantly to the
fact that there had been friendly
criticism of his play, he told of his
close ties in South Carolina. He
said he would give SI,OOO to any
person who would point out any
historical inaccurrcy in the play.
"I am not afraid of the truth,”
he said. ‘“God ordained the South
ern white man to teach the lesson
of Arylan supremacy."
In concluding, he said that he
had always observed that there are
two divisions in the South—those
who would hiss and those who
would applaud the ones who are
trying to portray the true ideals of
the South.
“There were scalawags then and
there are scalawags now." he said
very pointedly.
The audience was composed al
most entirely of white people,
there being scarcely a dozen Ne
groes in the gallery.
Rev. Richard Carroll, the most
prominent Negro educator in
South Carolina, witnessed the per
formance by invitation, standing
in the rear of the orchestra. Car
roll declares that, this is one of the
most horrible things that has ever
visited the South and will do more
toward injuring the prosperity of
the South than any other could
do.
NO. 4.