WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 411, 21 January 1909, Page 7

WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

ROOSEVELT'S VIEWS.

A TRIBUTE TO BRITISH IN INDIA. AMERICA SURPRISED. : (ot TELEcnirn—rniiss association—corntiGHT.) Now York, January 19. President Roosevelt, in a speech delivered at the diamond jubilee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, eulogised the work of Europeans in America, Australasia. Africa, Egypt, Java,.and the and referred to tho lasting benefits conferred on native races. Tho President concluded by paying a remarkable tribute te Britain's beneficent rule in India. ' There, is much comment in the United States over tho President's appreciation of British rule jn India. It stands out in markablo contrast with the views of Mr. Bryan (tho defeated Democratic oarididate for the Presidency) after.his visit to India, and with Mr. Keir Hardie's crusade in. America against his country. . ROOSEVELT AND THE NEGRO. At the laying of the corner-stone of the new building of the coloured Young Men's Christian Association, in Washington.last November, the principal speaker.was President Koosevelt. In the building there will he a gymnasium, bowling alleys, swimming pools, rea'ding rooms, etc., and-Mr. Roosevelt remarked that "the religious people, those standing highest in the coloured churohes, now appreciate, as they, did not a quarter of century ago, that innocent sports and amusements should ba encouraged." The building, he said,. would be a tribute' to the advancement of the coloured race. White men 6hould remember that justice to the'coloured man was demanded in the .interest of all: "What is known as the race problem- is one of the mast difficult; and it exists in tho North as well as in the South. But of one thing wo can rest assured, and that, is that the only way in which to bring nearer the time when there shall be even an approximately fair solution of the problem is to treat each man on his merits as a man. He should not be treated badly beoause he happens.,to be of a given colour; nor should he receive immunity for misconduct because he happens to be of a given colour." '- — ■',!■ Wo should all strive, he continued, to secure equal opportunities and rewards for all deserving men, whatever may be their colour. It was the duty of ' the ywhite man to see that the coloured man had the same justice he would receive if he were white, and the duty of the coloured man to make himself a useful citizen and so to, behave as ,to win the respect of his white neighbour. "Tho performance of dutv should be the test applied to white-man and coloured man alike": •;: "The first) duty which each • coloured man owes both to himself and his race is to work for the betterment both of himself and. his race; for its educational,' but above' all for its industrial, and moral betterment. - It -is to the great interest of the. white people no less than of the ooloured people that all possible educational facilities should be given the coloured people; and it is of even.greater interest to both races that'the coloured man should steadily strive for his own industrial and moral uplift." . ■ In he spoke of Mound' Bayou, in Mississippi;'a thriving town of"-2000 ; people, which was founded a few years ago by negroes. All the residents ■ are negroes, as are all who live in the neighbouring, country: ■ "There is not. a saloon-nor a vicious resort of: any. kind in ; tho town. There are some 6000. people on the tract of land, of which the town' is the centre. This traot includes about fort v square miles, all of it owned by the.'coloured:' people themselves. ' Ten thousand acres of land are in a,high state 1 of-cultivation. There! is a big cotton crop,, and. in addition the'colonv ; produces, four-fifths of the : corn and hay it needs, with: many hundreds of horses, mules, Cattle, and hogs. In the town itself there-are six churches and three" sohbohv There, is..a hank with si capital stock of 10,000 dols., which dpes a thriving business. There are sawmills, gins,, blnoksmith shops; bakeries'; all without: a white-inhabitant in. the neighbourhood. The: 'peoplr/are*; ;pro'stfer6us;:<;;and ?.'singularly'law; abiding." .; . \. . ; : u, ...'.;, '■ This, he said, was an objeot lesson,full' of : hoppifpr the ooloured people; and therefore full of hoDe'.for the white" people, "for the white man is almost as much interested. as the coloured, man in seeing. that the latter rises instead of falls." ■•'"