NEGROES IN AMERICA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9031, 18 January 1908, Page 4

NEGROES IN AMERICA.

In a lecture btf ire the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution Mr Andiew Carnegie gave some interesting facts about negroes in the United States. The total number in 1880, he said, was . 6 590,793, ;in v 1900 ■, it .was 8,840,789. Before the war the broad avenue of education Was; closed to the slave. Let them'see whether he had taken advantage of the door that opened, after slavery was abolished. The census of 1870 and 1900' showed that the percentage of illiteracy of the negro had dropped from .83.5* to 67.4. The lecturer showed that whereas thsre was; no public school system in any Southern State,, before the war, there wa3 now no State without one, embracing negro' as well as white schools. Since- ISSG' negro chur.'he.-! had contributed for negro eduction almost £2,.000 r to supplement the deficienciies of the State system;. Negro church property was valued at over five and a half millions steiling. In 1900 there were 1,036,734 coloured youths attending public schools,, and 17.; 138 at higher schoolsi In, 1900 also.-no fewer than. 746,717 farms—s9,74l square miles —were owned or tenanted by negroes, whilein the Southern States; negro> landlords owned 173,352 farms.. The amount of the aggregate wealth of the negroes was estimated at 300,000,000 dollars. Jackson City was owned to the extent of by negroes. There were 32 negro, banks in the country, while 1,734 negroes practised medicine and surgery. The appearance of the negroe in-literature and art was also mentionedi and Beniamin Banneker* ,the astronomer, J. G. Graves, the negro Potato King, and Alfred SmiHi, the Cotton King, were cited as examples of negro ability. They were staggered now and then by the assaults of the lowes f and most brutal nergoes upon white women in the least. s.ettlhd r States. These outrages were committedi in lonely districts, polic men were unknown: There might be neither provost, judge, nor officer of the law within a day's journey. The guilty fiend! was captured, 1 , tried, and hanged on the riaaresti tree.. I "Judge Lynch" was, however, rarely, if ever, accused of punishing the innocent. Undue haste, on excessive' efficiency, was his fault,, but as the population became denser.;, and* thenegroes bettsr educated, these brutal attacks might b? expected to cease. The remaining vital negro political question was suffrages Booker Washington's influence was powerfully exerted to keep the negroes from placing the suffrage in the front. He contended that good moral character, and industrial efficiency, r-'sultingin ownership of property, were the pressing needs, and the sure and speedy path to recognition: audi enfranchisement.