HKGRO PROBLEM.
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The Century Magazine con- ♦
B- ♦
u.ina an article by Charles Fran
Hi Adams that is attraclng very
ymral v tention because it em-
bodies the New Englander's eon-
teadon that the way the negro
problem was handled here after
the war was a great mistake,
due to the ignorance of those
who had the matter in charge
The following is a copious ex-
tract from this article, but the
artlcl.- as a whole should be read ^
by those who desire to know the ♦
full of his argument.    4
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Finally as to conclusions:    During
nine weeks putmed in Africa, the only
realty suggestive experience was that
obtained above the Juncture of the two
Niles. A strong reflected light was
thrown on our most perplexing home
problem—the African in America. It
gave much food for thought—first, as
respects Africa: second, as respects
the negro.
Plainly, no matter what Is coming to
the African, Africa’s time Is coming.
The Nile problem Is in process of
speedy solution; that of central and
Interior Africa will certainly follow
hard upon it. Of the country beyond
the White Nile, whether Abyssinia or
that about the Kyanzaa, I know noth-
ing; of the Nile basin I know some-
thing,—not much, I admit, but a little;
and the country beyond Is a corollary
to It South of Kartoum—that Is, up
the Nile—there is very considerable,
not, as such things go, a vast region,
which If drained and then. Irrigated,
would produce largely of cotton, sugar,
rice and tobacco.
So far as the natives are concerned
—what will follow? Clearly, thlr: The
African will at last find his place In
civilization, wherever that place may
prove to be. In the Soudan and Nile
basin, he will not be brought, as In our
Southern cities, Into Industrial con-
flict with the white man. If he meets
with any competitor, It will be the Im-
ported Asiatics—ths Asiatic purposely
imported to do what the African will
sot do, or can not do so well. The
aatlve African of the Nile basin Is now
* savage—he herds cattle and cultl
rates the soli to a limited extent. He
Is distinguished from the brute crea-
tion only by the fact of articulate
speech, those of tools and weapons of
the most primitive kind, .and a knowl-
. edge of the properties of fire. In such
matter of clothes, food or sanitation,
he Is In no essential respects better
than various kinds of animals. A sav-
age, he admits, like nearly all known
negro savages, of an Imitative domes-
tication. Thus, In Africa, the simple
question is as to how far he can be de-
veloped by external Influences; and un-
der altered conditions; for as yet he
has evinced no self-elevating capacity.
In Africa proper is now to be develop-
ed. and if the laboring man will not, be-
cause be can not. Bake • home In It or
in large portions of It, the field k open
to the native. Can he occupy that field
and fill it. or must he. free from forced,
regulated labor, languish and die out
like the American aboriginal, and the
Australian?
A large question, it is as lnterestiag
as its answer Is obscure—as yet! For-
tunately, its solution is In the best of
experience thus thrown light on the
African problem; and again, the prob-
lem working out In Africa is full of
suggestions as respects America. One
thing seems clear, without being re-
duced to servitude, the inferior raco
must l»e recognized as such, and, in
some way, so dealt with. Facts are
facts, and only confusion results
when things essentially not equal arc
dealt with on the basis of natural
equality. The world has now for some
time been pondering the African prob-
lem—pondering It in America as well
as in the place of its origin—It baa
been laying up a store of experience
bearing upon it—experiences stretch-
ing through at least 2,000 years. The
discovery of the Nile source was delay-
ed to our time; In Its turn that discov-
ery now bids fair to involve the future
of the negro. The wild animals of Af- j
rica are to go; will the negro go with
them? The alternative Is demonstra-
tion. That he will not go with the an-
imals our experience shows. That he
Is Imitative has been proven. That be
can even become, or be made, self-
elevating In the mass remains to be
shown.
Finally, as to the African In America.
What gfleam of supposable light does a
brief visit to the White Nile throw on
our home problem? A good deal—per-
haps! In the first place looking about
me among Africans In Africa far re-
moved from that American environ-
ment to which I have been accustomed,
thescales fell from my eyes. I found
myself most Impressed by a realizing
sense of the appalling amount of error
and cant In which we of the United
States have indulged on this topic. We
have actually wallowed in the bog of
self-sufficient Ignorance—especislly we
philanthropists of New England. We do
so still.
Having eyes, we will not see. Even
now not infrequently we heir the suc-
cessor to the abolitionist and humani-
tarian of the ante-civil war period—
the “Uncle Tom” period—announce
that the difference between the white
man and the black man Is much less
considerable than is ordinarily suppos-
ed that the only real obstacle in
the negro’s way is that “He has never
been given a chance!" For myself, af-
ter visiting the black man In bis own
house, I come back with a decided Im-
pression that he Is the sheerest of de-
lusions, due to pure ignorance of rud-
imentary facts; yet we built upon It In
reconstruction days as upon a founda-
tion of stone—a self evident truth! Let
those who indulge In such theories go
to the Soudaa tad pass a week la Om-
durmsn. That place marks la com-
merce, In letters, and la art. In science
and architecture, the highest point of
the African rase. As already suggested
the difference between Omdunuan and
London about measures the difference
between the black and white. Indisput-
ably great, that It admits of measure-
ment Is questionable.
Conthact with the white man is nec-
essary to keep the negro from retro-
gression. He has never Invented any-
thing—not letters, nor arts, nor arch-
itecture. nor has he voluntarily adopted
euything, except rum and flroarma. He
taught himself to handle Implement*
and weapons, both of the rudest and
most elementary kind; and he can talk.
There his development stops. In ar-
chitecture he has not progressed be-
yond the rave, the hovel and the nest.
In letters he has not devised a symbol
for s sound. In science bis digits rep-
resent the sum total of his rapacity for
computation. Art, poetry, mustc—It Is
the same old story! Religion, law, med-
icine—today the natives of Uganda are
perishing by the thousands from a
strange epidemic known as the sleeping
sickness.” The prevailing scientific
conviction Is that It is caused by a
poisonous insect of the mosquito spec-
ies, to whose attacks the negro Is pe-
culiarly exposed from the fact that, un-
like the Hindoo, for example, he has
not yet got so far a* to Invent gar-
ments and cover his nakennoaa. And
the worst of it Is that, being thus, he
is stationary. The Instinct as well as
the desire for development is lacking.
Such being the Indisputable fact, Ba-
ker, writing la 1865, closes his long
enumeration of renditions with a start-
ling corollary. “So long as it Is gen-
erally considered that the negro and
the white man are to be governed by
the same laws and guided by the same
management, so long will the former
remain a thorn in the side of every
community to which ho may unhappily
belong."
If true, this strikes at the very root
of our American polity—the equality
of man before the law. We caa not
conform to it. If tbo fact must be con
ceded— so much the worse for the fact;
by all good Americans at least the the-
ory will none the less be maintained,
the principle confidently asserted. Wo
are thus confronted by a condition. The
existence of an uneradlcable and Insur-
mountable race difference is indisput-
able. The white man and the black
man can not flourish together, the lat-
ter being considerable in number, un-
der tho same system of government.
Drawing apart, they will assuredly be-
come antagonistic. An opposite the-
ory enn be maintained, and will work
with more or less friction where the
white greatly dominates, and the black
element Is a negligible quantity: when,
however, the Mark predominates, the
theory breaks clown, and some practi-
cal solution is reached not in conform-
ity with It. As Hamlet was led to ob-
serve In a quite different connection,
“This was somewhat a paradox, but
now tho time gives It proof.”
What, then, Is to be our American
outcome? The negro squats at our
hoarthstone; we can neither assimilate
nor expel him. The situation In Egypt
Is comparatively simple. The country
will he developed by European money
and brain; and the African will lad
hU natural place is the outcome. Fact*
will be recognized, and a policy adopt-
ed In harmony with them Will the re-
sults reached there react 00 us in
America* Who now can aay? The
problem Is intricate; the work done b
those who were In political control a*
tho close of our civil war was wops
done In utter Ignorance of clhoologp
law and total disregard of unalteraMS
fact. Starting lift movement «rmm
will be yet prUuctlve or
Injury to us. »uc negro. sfHP •**>«
cipatlon, should have been oM®**'**
not as a political equal, much »***
forced Into position of superiority; be
should hnve been trea’ed ns a ward
and dependent, firmly, tut in n spirit of
kindness and absolute Justice. Practi-
cally impossible as s policy then, this
Is not less so now. At beet. It Is some-
thing which can only be slowly and
tentatively approximated. Neverthe-
less. It Is not e.vy for one at all ob-
servant to come hack from Egypt and
tho Soudan without a strong suspicion
that we will In America mako small
progress toward n solution of our race
problem until wo approach It In less
of a theoretic nod humanitarian and
more of a scientific spirit Equality re-
sults not from law, but exists because
things are In essentials like; and a po-
litical system which works admirably
when applied to homogenous equals re-
sults only In chaos when generalized
Into a nostrum to bo administered uni-
versally. It has been markedly so of
late with us.
Tfefc jb3i3 talk
guile/
Qrie> v®uLl’ifc
*1L
e/x3.
Mr. Blxby—Rastus do you ever ion*
for those good old days down South?
Rastus—Yes, sah; I certainly doe*,
sab. Life was one grand, sweet per-
tater dem ole days.
The Devil In Scotland.
There wea much good sense in the
old Scotchman, who said:    "You can
tell that the devil is bad by his very
name; for if you take away the d it
is evil; and take away the do it is
vile; and take away the dev it la ill;
so that he is an ill, vile, evil devil •
Deacon Johnson—Has youah wife a
sunny disposition, Brother Jackson?
Mr. Jackson—Lawd, yais! She roasts
me, tans de kid* and raises thunder
generally.
Miss Hascoigne—Er-before announc-
ing our engagement. Count, I-or-I
think perhaps it would he more eatle-
factory if you had your-er-title guar-
anteed.
"His environment
reticence.’
"You think so?"
"I’m positive. He lives with his wife
and har mother.”
I
Pete—O’lomg!
lion I
Snowflake, she am a
watermll-
DESTINATION.
Brother Simpn—My friend, I should
hate to see yon in perdition.
Pete Applejeek—Then why don’t
you ref*. *m elder, before you git tharl