The statesman. [volume], March 02, 1906, Image 1

About The statesman. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1889-1906

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THE STATESMAN.
ORGAN OF THE COLORED PEOPLE IN COLORADO, WYOMING, MONTANA, UTAH AND NEW MEXICO.
VOL. XVI
STEWED
IN OWN
BROTH
Bruce Grit Prophesies Failure of
Thomas Dixon’s Campaign of
Villification
The Negro has taken up the cudgel
in hist own behalf and will make some
of the apt liar* take to the tall tim
ber If they do njt choose fitter sub
ject*. Our good friend John K. Bruce
of Yonkers. N. Y., better known as
Bruce Orlt. la out in a pamphlet an
swering some of our critics who aver
that the Negro lit a failure as a sol
dler. Persons who wish valualile data
and good sound *Mbunder" to fight the
enemy with, will lo well to send him
15 cents for a copy. In his closing
pages he uises a shy at Tom Dixon,
whose play is now touring the North
ern States, to the end that his falla
cies may lie accepted as truth. He Is
the sturdy gladiator of old. piercing
the Joints of his appoints armor
with as quirk and light touch as a
skilled fencer. In pari, he says:
The denunciation of the Clansman
by Negroes Is the very best kind of an
DENVER, COLORADO, FRIDAY, MAR 2 1906.
I advertisement of Hs scurrilities and
historical distortions It cannot hurt
but will help It immeasurably. Criti
cism and denunciation of things we
personally dislike are sometimes more
helpful to their success than the elo
qucnce of silence. The best protest
and answer to Mr Dixons dramatic
slanders will be for Negroes every
i
where in this country where this play
Is to be shown to treat it and its au
thor with silent contempt The more
we say about It, the more we de
nounce it, thclotigcr it will last. We
should always and in all places show
ourselves to In* the very opposite of
what Mr. Dixon in this play alleges
Negroes to have been, at the period of
which It treats. If within forty years
the Negroes have not been able to
emerge from the condition which they
! did not create, and in which they are
pictured in this coarse and brutal pla>
then they deserve to be pilloried by
this reverened author-playright, who
seems to live in the past, and to thrive
and fatten on offal. The Negroe s
trues: and best white friends will not
I>ermit themselves to be influenced by
this play. The Negroes’ enemies, with
whom the wish is father to the
thought, will naturally attend each
performance and applaud the inform
ers We would nt throw a straw in
the way of Rev. Dixon, to hinder him
1 in his cowardly and unrighteous pur
isfilt or a race which has show* only
(kindness to his. which has suffered
more, endured more, to make his race
strong and powerful, than he perhaps
is willing to admit. He believes that
he is right, we who are the subjects
of his clerical venom know that he is
wrong. The true white Christians of
America, who possess the spirit of the
lowly Nar-arene. know that he is no
friend of either race who appeals to
the lowest passions of both, in a mad
desire to stir up strife and create bad
feeling between them. We believe in
liberty, and so believing, we would
not curtail the right of Mr Dixon to
exercise the liberty which the consti
tution of our country gives to every
man.
"O Liberty, dream of the Ages of
Ages.
The pole star directing humanity's
way.
The riddle half read by the Poets
and Sages.
When shall thy To-morrow become
our To-day.”
We would not deny to any man. even
Rev. Mr. Dixon, liberty to make an
egregious ass of himself by discard
ing the holy robes of an ambassador
of Christ to become an apostle of the
devil, a sower of discord, a purveyor
of the gospel of bate, a revolution
ist. an euemy of peace and harmony,
and an iconoclast. Mr. Dixon is clear
ly within his rights, as an American
citizen let him exercise his rights.
The production of the Clansman, in
New York or elsewhere, cannot in
anyway injure the Negro who is de
termined not to be injured by methods
so out of harmony with the truth,
justice and fair play.
Honest men of all creeds and all
races are not particularly concerned
about what the Negro did forty years
ago. but with what he is and is achiev
ing to-day—this is the vital question.
Those who ir« UwdUar with history
know that the civilisation of the South
is responsible for the Negro whom
Mr Dixon holds up to scorn and ridi
cule in his books and play. The South
has had over a century to produce the
kind of Negro it would like lo see in
this country, but its civilization, re
ligion and morals do not seem to have
been equal to a task so stupendous.
In now holding the Negro up to
the gaze of the world as an object to
be hated and despised. Mr. Dixon fails
wofully to even hint at the cause of all
his alleged moral and political lapses
during the stormy period of which lie
writes so volubly and dogmatically.
There are worse people than Negros
in the South, and Mr Dixon is one of
them. We are content to let the pub
lic do its own thinking about the
Clansman. Personally, we are noc
afraid of the aftermath, for we still
have lost neither their self-respect,
their sense of honor nor their love
of justice. The Clansman is not going
to turn the world over this year.
J EBRUCE.
Written by Robert Bums.
I July Nairne has been credited with
the authorship of the song. "The Land
o’ th Leal," for over a hundred years.
It is now settled that Robert Burns
wrote the song on his deathbed, Lady
Nairne changed it. making it ridicu
lous.
no. as