THE NEGRO PROBLEM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 10

THE NEGRO PROBLEM.

AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES COMPARED. England, as a governing Power, has had to face a racial problem, smaller perhaps, but in other respects very similar to that with which America is so — not to be harsh, let us say, inadequately — dealing to-day. In the British West Indies there is a black population free which once was enslaved, and which enormously outnumbers the white population. In America, . of course, the wnites as enormously outnumber the blacks. Now, the negroes in the West Indies are of precisely the same race, of the same descent, as those in the United States ; yet in the West Indies we have none of those lynchings and burning alive which are an indelible dishonour to Ajnerica, and which raise the question whether, America is a civilisation and not a barbarism lighted by electricity. PERTINENT COMPARISONS. In the West Indies the negroes never commit any offence which is not quite adequately and satisfactorily dealt with by the ordinary criminal law, and one hears no complaints of their insolence. On the contrary. Writing on this very subject, Sir Sydney Olivier, the present Governor of Jamaica, an expert and highly-trained administrator, says: — "Orenerally, in this matter of courtesy, which is essential to the relation of equality, I should be prepared to maintain that the African is, by the temperament and customs of his race, not inferior, but superior, to the average Teuton, and I am forced to attribute the 'sauciness' complained of in the negro of the Southern States and elsewhere far more to the attitude which has been taken, and which is maintained towards him, than to any inherent fault in his composition." The view of Sir Sydney Olivier as to the widely, different results which havo accrued from the widely different handling of the problem in the United States and the West Indies is entirely supported by the testimony of a well-known American who took the trouble to enquire and compare— Professor Royce, of Harvard. So far it would seem that the race problem in America is created much more by the blundering of the whites than by tho original sin of the blacks. What has happened since the glove- fight is a case immediately in point. At Reno the black fought fairly and won, and all over the United States his felloros are slaughtered in consequence. That seems rather to be the way to make problems. PERILS TO WHITE WOMEN. As to the peril to feminine security, that peril which sets every American heart aflame with manly indignation ; at very thought of which the revolvers go off of themselves — once more hear what Sir Sydney Olivier has to say on this delicate matter :—: — "In the British West Indies assaults by black or coloured men on white women or children are practically altogether unknown. No apprehension ,of them whatever troubles society. I say this as an administrator familiar with all parts of Jamaica and all classes of its population, as the head of a household of women and girls which have frequented the suburbs of Kingston and lived for weeks and months in remote country districts with neither myself nor any other white man within call. "A young white woman can walk alone in the hills or to Kingston, in daylight or dark, through populous settlements of exclusively black or coloured folk, without encountering anything but friendly salutation from a man or woman. Single ladies may l hire a carriage and drive all over the island without trouble or molestation. . . "Whatever may be tho cause, it is the indisputable fact that Jamaica, or any other West Indian island, is as safe for women to go about in, if not safer, than any European country with which I am acquainted. There have been no savage punishments here, no terrorism, no hpeciai laws, no illegal discriminations against the coloured. If, then, there is special ground for fearing assaults by coloured on white in America, it clearly cannot possibly be due to any necessary or special propensity of race." Sir Sydney then goes on to suggest to what he thinks such fear may be due, but I have space to quote no more. It is unnecessary, too; we all know well enough that if men are treated by brutes like brutes, as brutes they will respond. And, let it not be foiptotlen, in tho Klove fight tho negro fought fair.— Hubert Bland, in tho Manchester Chronicle.