Twentieth Century Negro Literature Part 30

May 5, 1893, he married Miss Salina May Sloan of Atlanta, a graduate of Spellman Seminary, who has been a most faithful, loving and helpful companion. He took a special course in the diseases of children in 1894 at the Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, Ma.s.s. In 1895, in the same school he took a special course in surgery. November 1, 1900, H. R. Butler, Jr. came, adding new blessings and happiness to his home and life. Dr. Butler is the first and so far the only colored man to be a regular contributor to the great Southern daily, _The Atlanta Const.i.tution_. He has held that position since 1895. He was three years president of the Y. M. C. A. of colored men. He was four years physician and surgeon in charge at Spellman Seminary, and is now holding a similar position in Morris Brown College, and is organizing a nurse training department to that inst.i.tution. He owns some valuable real-estate, besides a beautiful home on Auburn avenue. He has a large and lucrative practice. He is Grand Master of Masons of the Jurisdiction Georgia, is grand Medical Register of the Knights of Pythias. His life is truly full, every moment of his time is taken.

The causes of excessive mortality among the colored people in Southern cities are _said_ to be _many_ and have been discussed from just as many points of view by students of the social status of this people.

But after several years of professional service among these colored people, which service gave me an opportunity to more closely study them, their faults, habits, needs, methods of living and their knowledge of hygiene and its laws, I have calmly reached the conclusion that the want of money is the main cause of the excessive mortality of this people. It is true that there are several minor causes, _but all_ have their origin in the one mentioned.

Among the most prominent of these _minor_ causes may be mentioned _Ignorance_ and _Poverty_. Let us briefly consider the first of these.

The colored people have made wonderful progress in the acquirement of knowledge since emanc.i.p.ation, and this improvement has played no small part in reducing their excessive death-rate. Yet from this height we look down and see the great ma.s.ses of these people still held in the death-like grip of _ignorance_. To these, education has taken no knowledge of clean homes, pure air, ventilation, soap and water and other things conducive to good health. These are they who to-day are falling so rapidly before the great reaper, _death_.

It is a truth known to the profession, health departments and students of this subject that most of the deaths of the great human family occur between birth and the ages of five years. The children of the colored race are not an exception to the above statement.

If the children of the intelligent, good, better and best die fast, it stands to reason that those of the ignorant, bad and poor would die even faster, and this is just what I have found to be the case.

Ofttimes, among the lowly ma.s.ses, ignorance is the first to take charge of the babies at birth; it sticks a slice of fat meat in their innocent little mouths immediately after birth; it rocks the cradle; it fills their little stomachs with all kinds of decoctions, of teas and whiskies to bring out the "hives;" yea, ignorance feeds these little ones on all kinds of solid foods before they are able to digest them, until it finally feeds the grave with the bodies of its little victims.

Even when manhood and womanhood are reached, _ignorance_, _ghost-like_, stands forbidding the ventilation and cleaning of homes; it says: "It's too cold to bathe;" it sends men and women to bed in wet and damp clothes and does many other acts that multiply the graves in the old church-yard on the hill.

We come now to consider _poverty_. Oh, what an enemy it is, and has been, to the human family! It makes its home mostly among the ignorant, and especially among the ma.s.ses. In the cities of the South the great ma.s.ses are colored people. Hence it is among these that poverty sits enthroned--a sceptered king ruling amid disease and death. It r.e.t.a.r.ds the ma.s.ses of the race in their march to the city of improvement; it prevents them from having larger and cleaner and better homes; with its bony fingers it points them to the cheap renting huts in alleys, dens, dives and bas.e.m.e.nts of cities, and commands them to enter and die; it follows them into the market places and fills their baskets with cheap adulterated and semi-decayed food-stuffs; aided by prejudice and man's inhumanity to man, it drives the colored people from the healthy country districts into the crowded, sickly settlements of the Southern cities, where they soon sicken and die.

Poverty, supplemented by ignorance, and the want of the true Christian spirit, stands in the doorways of the public hospitals, infirmaries and libraries where aids to health are to be found and forbids these people to enter either on account of their color or the "want of s.p.a.ce." Poverty keeps these people from building such inst.i.tutions for themselves.

Again, the colored people of Southern cities const.i.tute the great labor force, hence most of the diseases that result from exposure are more prevalent among them than they are among the white race.

Those diseases that result from improper foods, poor sanitation, want of pure air, need of better homes and want of public parks and baths, together with those untimely deaths due to the want of proper medical attention, good nursing and surgical operations at the right time are more extensive among the colored ma.s.ses because they are the ones that suffer the privations mentioned to a greater extent than any other people.

Along with the observations already mentioned on this subject, and which observations have led me to reach the conclusion that "the want of money" is at the base of this excessive mortality, is this encouraging fact--that the colored people are not dying now as fast as they were even a decade ago. The reason of this is not far to seek.

The truth of the matter is, these people are growing in wealth and intelligence and in proportion as they have acquired these essential qualities their mortality has decreased.

I have observed in my practice that those who live in good, clean, well ventilated homes have no more sickness and deaths than white citizens of equal intelligence and wealth. I now call to mind, here in Atlanta twenty homes of colored citizens which are fitted and furnished with all modern conveniences, including heating and baths.

The owners are well-educated and spend much time and money in keeping their homes and yards clean and in good sanitary condition. What I wish to say is this, in twelve years' time only two deaths have occurred in that circle of twenty homes, and one of these was a baby whose death was due to an accident, and the other was an aged person whose death was the result of Bright's disease. Does not this speak volumes to prove the truth of my position? What I have observed here in Atlanta relative to the _real_ causes and prevention of this excessive mortality is true in other Southern cities.

It is no doubt plain to the reader that I have not mentioned here a single cause upon which this excessive mortality rests, but that which money can remove. That being true, what is the conclusion of the whole matter? It is simply _this_:

1st. Pay the ma.s.ses sufficient wages to remove their ignorance and poverty, to build better homes and to furnish and equip them with baths and other things necessary and conducive to good health, to purchase proper food-stuffs, fuel and comfortable clothing.

2d. The cities should enlarge their present hospital facilities, or build others especially for these people, cities and towns that have no such facilities should provide them at once, parks, public baths and libraries should be opened by the cities for the poor.

It is simply a matter of money, before that mighty king, ignorance and poverty, together with all their allies, take flight.

TOPIC XIII.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATt.i.tUDE IN POLITICS?

BY HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hon. George H. White]

HON. GEORGE H. WHITE, LL. D.

Mr. White was born in a log cabin, located at the confluence of "Richland Branch" and "Slap Swamp" in Bladen County, North Carolina, near the line of Columbus County, remote from cities and towns. His maternal grandmother was half-Indian and his paternal grandmother was Irish, full-blood. His other admixture is facetiously described as "mostly Negro." His early boyhood was a struggle for bread and a very little b.u.t.ter, his schooling being necessarily neglected. He usually attended two or three months in the year. Later, by dint of toil, and saving a few dollars, he was able to secure training under Prof. D. P. Allen, President of the Whitten Normal School at Lumberton, N. C., and afterwards entered Howard University at Was.h.i.+ngton, graduating from the eclectic department in 1877. Believing that he could best serve his race and himself as an advocate of justice, he read law while taking the academic course, completing his reading under Judge William J. Clarke, of North Carolina, and was licensed to practice in all courts of that State by the Supreme Court in 1879.

Although Mr. White has won marked success in several walks of life, as lawyer, teacher and business man, it is his political achievements that have won for him not only a national reputation, but have evoked no small degree of comment from the press and diplomats of many of the countries of the old world. It is worthy of remark that up to this time, at the age of forty-nine, he has never held an appointive office, his commissions coming invariably from the hands of the sovereign people direct. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1880, and to the State Senate in 1884; was elected solicitor and prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of North Carolina for four years in 1886, and for a like term in 1890; was nominated for Congress in 1894, but withdrew in the interest of harmony in his party. He made the race for Congress in 1896 and was triumphantly elected by a majority of 4,000, reversing a normal democratic majority of over 5,000--a change of fully 9,000 votes, indicating in no uncertain tone the confidence and esteem in which he was held by his friends and neighbors. He was re-elected in 1898. His services as a legislator were conscientious and valuable. At the close of his second term, he delivered a valedictory to the country, which was universally praised as the best, truest and most timely expression of the Negro's plea for equality of citizens.h.i.+p that ever rang through the halls of Congress. The speech was widely circulated, and was favorably commented upon by the leading newspapers of the nation.

Mr. White has acc.u.mulated quite a handsome fortune, his wealth being estimated at from $20,000 to $30,000. His personal popularity and the respect for his ability are attested by the fact that several honorary degrees have been conferred upon him by a number of the noted educational inst.i.tutions of the land.

Mr. White is a thirty-third degree Mason. For six years he was Grand Master of Masons for the State of North Carolina, having filled most of the subordinate offices in that body before his elevation to the Grand Masters.h.i.+p.

Since his retirement from Congress, Mr. White has been engaged in the practice of law in Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., and so favorably has he impressed his qualifications upon the bench and bar of the national capital that one of the judges publicly, and without precedent, complimented him in open court and set his methods up as an example for other lawyers who practice there. Eminent as are his abilities, Mr. White is proverbially modest. Of strong character, well-balanced mind and an unswerving sense of justice, liberal in views upon all subjects, political, social or religious, companionable in private life, unostentatious in manner of living or in the bestowal of charity, ready to sacrifice personal convenience to serve the worthy, Mr. White is indeed a typical American. The Negro people, in slavery or freedom, as serfs or citizens, offer no model more inspiring, no picture more inviting.

In presenting this subject to the public, I shall endeavor to treat it from a broad and liberal standpoint, eliminating all selfishness or individual political bias, and viewing the situation from the standpoint of an American citizen.

The first prerequisite to good government in a republic, is purity in the ballot. No stream can be pure unless its source is pure; neither can a republic hope for just and fair laws and the administration and execution of them, unless there is purity and fairness in the sources from whence these cardinal principles of government spring. Laws should be enacted for the whole people and not for individuals, races or sections--thereby securing the support and retaining the confidence of all the parts of our heterogeneous compact, to the end that a h.o.m.ogeneous whole may move in the same direction for the good of all concerned.

The Negroes ask for--and as a part of this republic--have a right to demand the perpetuation of these basic principles of our government.

While we are young in citizens.h.i.+p, and admit having made many political mistakes, yet we are willing that the search-light of reason be thrown upon our acts, and a fair and impartial verdict rendered as to our conduct, when all the circ.u.mstances surrounding our variegated political history are taken into consideration. Liberated, enfranchised and turned loose among our former masters, who could not take kindly to our new citizens.h.i.+p, we naturally sought friends.h.i.+p and political alliance with those claiming to be our best friends--those who had been instrumental in obtaining our freedom. These new friends came largely from the Federal army, interspersed with many adventurers who followed in the wake of that army, seeking strange fields in which to ply their vocations. Many of these new-comers proved to be true friends to the Negro of the South and led us on and taught us as a faithful guardian would teach and care for his wards. But the great majority of them were wholly unscrupulous and worked upon the ignorance, inexperience and gullibility of the Negro, overtime, to place themselves into positions where they had unlimited sway. The result that followed was most natural--the use of public trust for private gain, the looting of many of the Southern states, the political degradation of the Negro, and the complete estrangement between him and his former neighbors. When all these things were accomplished, these human cormorants betook themselves to their Northern homes to live in ease and splendor on the results of their pillage, while the black man was left in the South to endure disfranchis.e.m.e.nt, torture and murder on account of the malice and hatred begotten from his first political experience.

Surrounded by such environments, the suppression of his right of franchise, the open and notorious examples of fraud, ballot-box stuffing and intimidation practiced in every Southern election for the last thirty years, on the one hand, and the unfaithfulness, "Jingoism," the free offering of bribes and the continued practice of duplicity, on the part of those claiming to be his friends, on the other hand, no fair-minded man would expect to find complete political perfection among a people thus treated. Thus has the Negro been obstructed, not only in politics, but his civil rights have been denied him, and the doors of many industries are closed against him.

But let us turn our faces away from all the horrors of slavery, reconstruction and all kindred wrongs which have been heaped upon us, and stand up, measuring the full statue of an American citizen, upon the threshold of the new century as a New Man. The slave who has grown out of the ashes of thirty-five years ago, is inducted into the political and social system, cast into the arena of manhood, where he const.i.tutes a new element and becomes a compet.i.tor for all its emoluments. He is put upon trial, to test his ability to be accounted worthy of freedom, worthy of the elective franchise. After all these years of struggle against almost insurmountable odds, under conditions but little removed from slavery itself, he asks a fair and just judgment, not of those whose prejudice has endeavored to forestall--to frustrate--his every forward movement; rather those who have lent a helping hand that he might demonstrate the truth of "The fatherhood of G.o.d and the brotherhood of man."

In a nation like ours, blessed with peace, plenty and full of prosperity; filled with the spirit of "Expansion," sound money and a protective tariff; when there is a disposition to forget all sectional lines, and to know no North, no South, no East, no West, but having all to stand out in bold relief as one reunited whole, when one political party slaps the other upon the shoulder with a knowing look and a smile indicating the fraternal feeling everywhere present, the question naturally comes home to every colored American, "What should be the Negro's att.i.tude in politics?" Const.i.tuting as we do, one-eighth of the entire population of this Nation, the Negro's political att.i.tude should be a firm stand for the right, the support of honest men for office, the advocacy of strong, pure American policies, an unceasing contention for fair elections, a pure ballot, a complete repudiation of any party or man who seeks to bribe, or in any way to hamper or degrade him politically. Should he become self-effaced, politically? No, never! He should, at all times, contend wisely, firmly for every right accorded to other American citizens under the organic laws of the nation. He should identify himself with that political party which proves to be the most friendly towards him.

There is very little in a name. Results should be sought, and the Negro should never waver until they are obtained. This will necessitate a division of the Negro vote. No fixed rule can be established as a political guide for him, any more than it can be done for any other people. The location, environment, men and measures sought to be obtained, should guide him. The political pathway for the future may seem dark and discouraging, but nothing daunted, we should continue to press forward, contending for every inch of our rights--no right which man enjoys aside from his own household should be guarded more sacredly than his right of franchise--a right which makes each one a sovereign in himself; a right which determines what laws shall govern us, who shall construe them and execute them.

I am not unmindful of the fact that the views here expressed, may sound rather Utopian. But in this age of rush and bustle for place, preferment and national gain, by individuals and the nation; and in an age when anarchists, lynchers and murderers set at defiance all law and government; in an age when, in certain sections of the country, the ballot-box ceases to stand as an exponent of the registered will of the people, but stands rather as a political cesspool of reeking rottenness, impregnating the national atmosphere with germs of discord that may yet stagnate and throttle the Union; in such an age, it is quite necessary that a halt should be called; a reckoning had, and that these small, though dangerous political sores should be lanced from the body politic before they develop into putrifying cancers that will destroy the life of the republic.

From any view that may be taken of the present political situation, it is apparent that the time is ripe for the colored American to think and act for himself. If he reasons correctly, he will certainly reach the conclusion that right must some day prevail; and in order that he may enjoy the resultant blessings flowing from a pure ballot, the colored man must set the pace, and thereby place himself in a position to command respect and proper recognition. "He who would have equity must first do equity."

The Negro's loyalty to his friends, his impressionable soul, his devotion to church, his yearning for education and enlightenment, his thrift, industry, devotion to country, fidelity to the flag shown upon hundreds of battle-fields, must be admitted and command the admiration of all fair-minded men. Let him add to all these attributes, purity in all things; let him cultivate a love for justice and fair play, live as an example for his neighbors, ally himself with the best men in the community or state where he lives, and the day must certainly come when his rights--political and civil--will be conceded to him.

Let us learn what is _right_ and then dare to do the _right_; ever pressing forward to higher and n.o.bler things; never lagging, but remember, "That constant effort will remove the mountain, and that continued dripping will wear away the stone."

SECOND PAPER.

WHAT SHOULD BE THE NEGRO'S ATt.i.tUDE IN POLITICS?

BY T. T. FORTUNE

[Ill.u.s.tration: T. Thomas Fortune]

TIMOTHY THOMAS FORTUNE.

Timothy Thomas fortune, the subject of this sketch, is an author, a journalist, an agitator and a lecturer.

Mr. Fortune's grandmother was a mulatto, and his grandfather a Seminole Indian. Thomas was born of slave parents in Florida in 1856. His father took an important and active part in the reconstruction of Florida, being a delegate in the Const.i.tutional Convention that framed the present const.i.tution of Florida, and a member of the first five sessions of the reconst.i.tuted Florida Legislature.