The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1910. WHITE V. BLACK.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14237, 1 July 1910, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1910. WHITE V. BLACK.

There can be no doubt that the enormous amount of interest that is taken m the coming fisticuffs between whits Jeffries and black Johnson is very largely, or even principally, due to the fact that it is a contest between a. white and a black. The fight has been I condemned on the ground of its being a worship or' brutal instincts, a retrogression to primitive barbarism that is | a disgrace to an age that deems itself intellectual, a money-making concern at the cost of the corruption of the gainers, a nauseating perversion of the term "sport." Such condemnation could with as much or as little fitness be applied to any match of the sort, save for the one fact which makes this match different from others—the fact that it is a trial of strength and skill and endurance between individuals of two races that are permanently at odds, politically and socially, in the United States. This circumstance of difference of race was popularly recognised in the match made for Johnson in Australia. It is officially recognised in America, in the provision made for preventing riot and bloodshed if the black man wins in tlie white man's game. It is curiously shown, too, in the offering of prayers in negro churches for the success of their brother, in colour and social degradation. It is the old racial antipathy that has separated the children of Japhet and Ham ever since the Flood, that makes the Jeffries-Johnson fight so interesting, that makes people give £lO for a seat to witness it, that makes it financially worth while to pay the boxers enormous fees, to go to great expense in arranging the contest. Yet, notwithstanding the racial interest in the match, it will decide nothing beyond itself, solve no ethnological problem, answer no large question between the two races in their unfraternal contact in the States. . And it may well be that if the black man wins, a hundred trivial excuses will be found for the defeat of the white man. One cable message reported that an opinion prevailed that this would be the last great fight in America. It is easy to understand that. It is a hurt to the aelf respect of the white population that the best man they can find among them to be the champion in a. white man's game, runs even a risk of being beaten by a despised black. This kto be heard in the talk that Johnson " will not be allowed to win." While this feeling might be strong enough to put an end to championship boxing in the States, it does not seem likely to do so if Jeffries wins; whilst if Johnson wins public disgust at the black man's victory, because it waa a. black man's, would very likely he enough to turn the scale.