The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1910. THE RACE PROBLEM IN. AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1007, 23 December 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1910. THE RACE PROBLEM IN. AMERICA.

— ♦ — ' The reported intention of President Taft, referred to in a cabla message a few days ago, to appoint a negro to tho important office of Assistant Attorney-General* of the United Sta'tea, will no. doubt bring about an acute revival of the disputation concerning the race problem, and perliaps along more hopeful and intelligent lines than anything so far recorded. Tho furore created in the Southern States when President Roosevelt set a precedent for the social recognition of the negro by inviting Booker _ T. Washington to dine at the White House did not involve questions of intellectual fit- < ness or political capacity, and resulted in nothing more than an'unfortunate recrudescence of race hatred arid passion.' The action of President Taft, a man inherently cautious and conservative, and wise in the selection of judicial and political nominees, in choosing a negro to fill a most responsible position will compel attention to a phase of negro development that hitSerto has been to a great oxtent overlooked, excepting in well-informed and intelligent circles. No one can contemolato the achievements of the American riegro since emancipation without certain confidence that, however discouraging : the problem may. be at times, the negroes are 'bound to make greater and greater contributions-to the industrial and intellectual progress of the American nation.. The position as it concerns that country is unique. It was tile industrial and economic worth of tho negro, that in the first placo Brought him by main force, and against his will, to the United States, a fact Dr. Washington in his lectures and books drives home with unanswerable force and logic, with tho corollary that the Americans are face to face with an invited and selfimposed responsibility and an exceedingly grave problem which it is their duty to fearlessly and conscientiously take up and attempt to solve. A problem numbering so many complexities and contradictions cannot bo dccided by prejudice; neither can.it be expected to work itself out naturally and quietly in the passage of time. The trained and scientific inquiry now being made into the entire question has revealed the utter folly and futility of keeping alive, or encouraging in any way, violent and irrational prejudice on tho part of any' section-of tho community towards the negro. Tho quality of that prejudice and its brutality were only too apparent in tho events that followod the Reno prize-fight last July. Many high-minded Southerners arc now standing up resolutely for tho negro's right; they point out that upon the welfare and efficiency of the negro depend the economic prosperity and progress of tho entire South. Ho grows, picks, and market^one-half the cotton crop, the chief/source of revenue' and the stajxe industry of the Southern .SKtes. _ It is true the South paid a ' daggering price for slavery; the memory of the Civil War still rankles, and the thirty dark years of tho reconstruction period that followed when plantations were laid \ waste, industries ruined, fortunes lost, and the political ascendency of ! the negro most feared, have served to render the Southern spirit tho more implacable and unforgiving. Yet the evolution of the negro towards an orderly and well-defined social and political standing .is steadily being accomplished and directed along the , only path of practical education. Booker T. Washington, at the Tuskegee Training Institute, has fullv demonstrated the susceptibility of his race to tho highest forms of culture, as apart from .a natural adaptability to industrial usefulness. At Tuskegee students arc taught to till the land scientifically, to plan and build beautiful and " permanent homes, and trained for business and professional careers, with results that have been most gratifying. The latest- school statistics prove how difficult it is to establish a colour line in brains, coloured pupils not infrequently , capturing the highest, honours in the State schools of America, while a good proportion of them prove to bo energetic, studious, mentally capable, and ouite as competent -as the white children. ■ Although President Taft's emphatic endorsement of the negro race: in i nalanfinr*. n.nmJiAw fill. ..

a high and honoured position in the &tat-o may not in the present instance succeed owing to the strong opposition among certain factions to. the appointment, it will result in presenting the most favourable side of the negro for public consideration, and instead of stimulating race hatred in its more vicious forms, it will cause thoughtful Americans to recognise more and more that the solution of the problem can only bo achieved by affording the negro every opportunity and encouragement and granting him every justice in his determination to work out his future destiny.