The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1910. BLACK AND WHITE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12587, 17 August 1910, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1910. BLACK AND WHITE.

The great American colour problem is graphical!j depicted by Robert Tancred, an English writer, in the following terse statement' of fact, as recorded in n London paper to hand by this week's mail:—"On Monday night, after the news of tlio Jeffries-Johnson fight had reached' London, I travelled into' the country with two Americans. They wero taciturn, grey, shame-faced. An Englishman may bo hurt by a defeat at cricket, football, or rowing. But he can, rarely feel this deep, bitter shame. These two Americans were good sportsmen. They admired Johnson's pluck and skill. But a white man had been beaten out of hand by a 'nigger.' Their racial pride was in the dust." This is a thing difficult to understand by those who have not been born into it. Even tha travelled Englishman is often hopelessly deceived. Sir Harry Johnston, writing.to the ''Times" last.-year, said:

—.'•' When tho South clcs-es- down all istalo discussion of that indefensible Civil War and matches tho pliysical beauty and vigour of its white population with an equally high mental development, the negro problem in the United States will be finally solved and kept in a state of solution—assuming, of course, t!>at tho negro likewise continues to.advance on the lines laid down by tho white and coloured teachers of Ttftkegco and Hampton." Than this, says Mr. Tailored, nothing could he lnnro misleading. The "negro problem" oxists-in tho mouth in some senses more acutelyl than' in the south, where the coloured man, though regarded as an inferior, is tolerated and often trusted fir. ho was in the old slavery days. Tho truth is that between, the two races a great gulf is fixed. Tho truth is that tho negro is fundamentally different (if wo fear to use the word inferior) to the white, and in a sense education complicates tho problem. Mr. William Archer is a. British democrat, a disciplo of Mr. H. G. Wells. Yet Mr. Archer

camo back from a tour in the. southern

States understanding how the whites regard the black. He says in his book, "Through Afro-America" :—"lt' is absurd to class as pure prejudice the white man's preference for the colour and facial contour of his race. This is no place for an analysis of -our sense of beauty; but to maintain off-hand that it b an unmeaning product of sheer habit, with no biological justification, is simply to shirk the problem and postpouo analysis to dogma: Does any ono really bolievo that tho genius of O.iesar and Napoleon, <:f Milton and Goetho, had nothing to d:> with their -facial an^le, and could havo found an 'equally convenient habitation behind thick lips and under woolly skulls? The negro himself (:>s distinct from tho mulatto rhetorician) takes his stand on no such paradox. Whoever may doubt the superiority to which ho docs instinctive homage It does not enter his head to champion his own racial ideal, to sot up an African Venus in rivalry to the Hellenic, and claim a new Judgment of Paris between them. If wishing could chango tho Ethiopian's skin, there would bo never a negro in America. The black race, out of its poverty, spends thousands of dollars annually on 'antikink' lotions, vainly supposed to straighten the African wool. The brown bello tones her complexion with pearl powder; and many a black mother takes pride, in the brown skin of her offspring." Hence, Mr. Tancred whileadmitting that these conditions may be deplorable, says they are inevitable-— and to most Americans permanent. Tho negroes represent one-ninth of the population of the United States. Among, them are scholars, men of 'character, men of business ability and great fortune. But those are few, and Mr. Archer found them self-satisfied, diffi-cult-—in other words, essentially different to similar white men. The American has tho negro always at his door. Hi.'j self-respect teaches him that it would be fatal to admit the negro's equality, and he is right. His final conclusion is that the battle beween Jeffries and Johnson should never haves taken place. Its result is nationally and racially deplorable. The disgust at tho idea of mixed marriages is the measuro of the attitude of ona race to the other. Five years ago a white woman was sentenced in Mississippi to ten years' imprisonment for marrying a coloured man, and.the judge regretted that ho could not make the punishment heavier. Again Mr. Archer understands: —"There can be little beyond ah-eer ..animalism in. the relations be* tween a whito man and a black woman; and such parentage cannot be reckoned tho most desirable. . . .A.white nation can scarcely bo expected to renounce- its racial integrity on the chance of breeding an occasional Alexandra Dumas '.'■''. . I do not understand how any

whito man who has ever visited the South can fail to be dismayed at the thought of absorbing into the veins .of hia race the blood of the African myriads who swarm on every hand." Another Englishman, Mr. Bryce, now British Ambassador at Washington, says of the negro in his standard book "Tho American Commonwealth" :^-u He is by nature affectionate, docile, pliable, submissive. He is seldom cruel or vindictive, nor is he prone to violence, except when spurred by lust. His intelligence is rather quick than solid; and though not wanting in a sort of shrewdness, he shows the childishness as well as the lack of self-control which belongs to the primitivo peoples. Such talent as he has runs to words. He learns languages easily, and writes and speaks fluently, but shows no capacity for abstract thinking, for scientific inquiry, or for any kind of invention. Having neither foresight nor 'roundsight,' he is heedless .und unthrifty, easily elated and depressed, with little tenacity of purpose, and but a' feeble wish to better his conditions. . . . There is .practically no social intermixture of white and coloured people. Except on the Pacific Coast, a negro never sits down to dinner with a white'man in a railway refreshment room. You never encounter him at a private'party* Ho is not received in a hotel of the bettor sort, no matter how rich ho may bo. He will probably he refused a 'glass of soda-water at a drug store. Ho is not shaved in a place frequented by white men, not even by a barber of his own colour. He worships in a church of his own. . . The two races are everywhere taught in distinct schools and colleges. . . . They worship in different churches. . . With some exceptions in the cas-e of unskilled trades, they are not admitted to trade Unions. . . Tho humble negro shuns contact with the white, not knowing when some band of roughs may mishandlo him. . . . The educated and inspiring negro resents the savage spirit shown towards his colour, though he feels his helplessness too keenly to attempt any action which could check it."