THE JOHNSON-JEFFRIES FIGHT.

Evening Star, Issue 14413, 8 July 1910, Page 7

THE JOHNSON-JEFFRIES FIGHT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It most come as a great cur price to most people to hear of the Otago Boring Association sending congratulations to'-Johnson, the winner of the recent tight in Reno, Kevada. In spite of all the comments passed on this recent encounter, one seldom hears remarked the fact of it being significant and important to the negro mind. Only these who have mingled with them, and entered deeply into this allimportant question that they have to face in U.S.A.,*can realise the'dilliculty and immensity of the task. Feeling tp-dav runs higher between tho black "and the white than it did amongst the whites themselves before the great Civil War, but it is now all white' versus ail black. It is to be deplored that this light was ever allowed to take place, anti it is still more deplorable that the white man should lose, and for tho Otago Boxing Association to send congratulations only countenances a form of sport which, in this intellectual age, is nothing short of a replica of the old gladiatorial shows of Rome. Let us be sportsmen, by all moans, but do not degrade sport by tho gambling instinct which has crept into nearly every form of it. Above all, let us show tho negro that we despise these matters, and that our superiority does not rest in mere fistic encounters, but in the breadth of intellect and largeness of soul. By sending these congratulations it will Wit the negro on a footing with ourselves. From now henceforth we may expect to hear of repeated riots and quarrels, demands from the negro population in U.S.A. to be put on an equal civic condition. They will expect, furthermore, to be recognised by society in years to come; and what white man or woman is toleraid to-day of this? Let us not by any means “down the nigger,” but lot us continue to hold the mastery of the situation, and allow the negro to work out his own destiny, and prove himself the equal of his white brethren, which they arc far from being at present. One only needs to think of tho quality of people frequenting these competitions—i.e., card-sharpers and swindlers, etc.— and then, .we realise the necessity of putting an end to such matters. Have we progressed any since the days of Rome, when women turn’d their thumb? down to sanction the killing of a vanquished gladiator? It does not appear so, but rather the reverse, when wo hear of ICO women flocking to see a fight which is well-nigh brutalised by its methods.— l am, etc., E.P.W. JWy 7.