WHITES AND BLACKS OR THE QUESTION SETTLED 27

CHAPTER IV. THE PROBLEM— MUST THERE BE A RACE CONFLICT?

In an interview or communication published in the New York World, November 5th, 1889, Mr. Shufton, who is a Negro lawyer and author in Orlando, Florida, says:

"The situation down here needs no solution, for it is not a problem. There are three distinct causes of irritation and disturbance at the South. These are political, social and moral, and the first is a greater sourer of evil than all the others combined. There can be no satisfactory adjustment, no permanent peace between the two races at the South until the Negro abandons politics and bids farewell to political glory in these States.

A persistent effort on the part of the Negro to attain that which he never can attain, will inevitably lead to conflict, the horrors of which are unimaginable. It is this relentless persistency on the part of the one race to “be” and the relentless persistency on the part of the other to prevent it from “being”— and prevent it they will at all cost -that causes the trouble”.

The gentleman from whom we quote can never expect perpetual peace, if it is to be obtained in the way he maps out. No Democratic leader of sound sense and judgment is guilty of asking such a settlement. It is impossible to do what Mr. Shufton says entirely.

Education makes men ambitious. The erudite mind desires to impress itself on some individual, and that "mind" will do so or

kill the man that carries it. Gentlemen will learn that the thing finally to be worshiped is not “matter”, but "mind”.

As long as the school-houses dot the hills, the Negro colleges adorn the States of the South and a respectable number of Negroes pay taxes, just so long will there be a cry by colored men for representation. Not a cry for controlling power, not a cry to dominate and rule the white people, but a cry to say something about their "own affairs," their "own interests” in the halls of legislation, school boards and city councils. It is said that if the colored people would proceed about getting described recognition properly, it would not cause offense to the ruling powers of this section.