CHINESE vs. NEGROES

                             .... AS ....

                          American Citizens.




MR. SCOTTRON’S VIEWS

On the Advantages of the Proposed Negro Colonization in South America.

AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION.

Says Negro Possesses Qualities That Render People Readily Assimilable
Into the Body Politic.


The following letter and paper by S. R. Scottron, a member of the
School Board and one of the best known and most highly esteemed
Afro-Americans in Brooklyn, will be of interest at this time:

    To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle:

    The article published in the Eagle Sunday last, “Talks of
    Tropical Colonization,” with Mr. Alleyne Ireland, is certainly
    very interesting reading, bearing upon a subject that must
    engage the attention of thoughtful Americans. Mr. Ireland,
    however, seems to have assumed that the government will be
    obliged to continue the employment of Asiatic races in the
    development of the newly acquired territory in the Pacific.
    Taken in connection with what appears in to-night’s Eagle,
    wherein appears an account of an interview with Senator M. C.
    Butler, recommending that the negroes of the United States be
    colonized in South America, these articles seem to warrant
    my offering to the Eagle an article prepared before the
    publication of the aforementioned interviews, bearing upon the
    same subject, and offering what I may be permitted to assume
    a better solution of the subject of colonization, since it
    will serve a double purpose, covering the suggestions of both
    distinguished gentlemen.

                                                  S. R. SCOTTRON.

    Brooklyn, N. Y., 598 Monroe street, September 19, 1899.




Newly Acquired Territory Presents a New Problem to the American People.


“The rather unusual activity of lawless persons throughout the country
of late, especially the lynching element, has started anew a flood
of opinions and discussion of what is termed the ‘negro problem.’
As of yore, diverse opinions, sometimes diametrically opposite, are
expressed. There is one striking likeness in all, however, and that is,
the evident belief of the writers that each has discovered the panacea
for the great negro ‘affliction.’ The virtues and vices of the negro
are discussed at length, all seeming to forget that there is nothing
especially remarkable in negro humanity differing from the balance of
mankind under the same circumstances. He is ignorant, dirty, vicious
and lazy, or, intelligent, clean, peaceful and thrifty under precisely
the same circumstances that affect the balance of mankind.

“I doubt very much whether there is any such thing as an unsolved
‘negro problem,’ since the negro was granted the same rights and
privileges as others enjoy under the Constitution. There certainly was
a problem before that, but when the government clothed the negro with
the full rights of freemen the problem was solved, and there remains
now but to allow the slow process of time to adjust ourselves to the
situation.

“The negro is a citizen of the United States, invested with the
suffrage, guarded by the most solemn and positive safeguards, and the
nation will never turn back the pages. And all that now remains, as
said, is to adjust ourselves to these unalterable conditions. The age
of miracles is probably past, certain it is that this is not an age
of miracles; hence, we do not look for the elevation of a despised
and formerly enslaved race to the full plane of its surroundings in a
day, nor in any time short of that usually required to elevate mankind
generally. The process seems slow and discouraging except, possibly, to
those who have lived long enough to comprehend the changes that have
been wrought over a period of many years. Remarkable advancement has
been made by the whole people since the proclamation of freedom was
issued, and we should be well satisfied that on every hand progress is
reported and manifest.

“Whatever may be the treatment accorded the negro, he nevertheless,
recognizes the fact that his condition is an improvement upon the
condition which might have been his had his progenitors remained in the
shade of the Dark Continent. Reckoning over a period of two hundred
and fifty years, he has been much the gainer and has no disposition to
return to his ancient condition. He has now passed the problematic
stage; there is nothing doubtful, untried or unsolved in his case. His
is an open book.




Dewey’s Work.


“But a new problem, by the fortune of war, now confronts the American
people. A new volume was unexpectedly opened on that Sunday morning
when Dewey passed the gates at Cavite, and its pages have become the
more perplexing as the glory of that day fades in the distance. The
negro welcomed the day when the American people gave evidence of the
fact that they recognized that the negro problem had been solved, and
other subjects occupied their minds. When free trade vs. protection,
honest money vs. free silver, became the chief topics of discussion,
it was an assurance to the negro of the end of a long drawn out
discussion, which had served to keep him upon the surface of a troubled
sea. The hour has come when he may sit somewhat complacently in his own
secure place in the nation and discuss the desirability of admitting
other races to the full enjoyment of American citizenship, and it is to
be hoped that his own experience will tend to clarify the atmosphere
surrounding him and enable him to deal justly by and be merciful to
others, situated in many respects in a position which was once his own.

“The question now before us is how best to serve the nation’s interests
in the disposition of or employment of the negro? I believe I can best
illustrate the question by instituting a comparison between the negro
and the races of men that the fortune of war has placed under our care.




Chinese Versus Negroes.


“Under the above caption, in 1891, for some reason which I at this
moment do not recall, the Boston Herald was giving in its editorial
columns considerable attention to the discussion, ‘Chinese vs.
Negroes.’ Several articles appeared in it, justifying its opinions,
when occasionally they were disputed by other journals, foremost among
which I noted the Boston Journal.

“I recall the matter now because the negro is the recipient of much
attention, as before referred to, and because circumstances confronting
our government at this time render the subject of extreme importance.
Since then the United States has acquired territory very largely
inhabited by Chinese and other Asiatic races, and the question becomes
important immediately to the American people as to what policy shall be
pursued in the future with reference to these races.

“Shall the attempt be made to assimilate and ingraft these upon our
tree, or shall they be replaced by negroes?

“Were the fears which moved the American people in the past to exclude
Asiatic races justified, or have we seen a new light? Is Christian
civilization endangered by the presence of these people? All are potent
questions at this time, requiring sound judgment and unerring decision;
for we are not building for a day a temporary house, but one which it
is hoped shall endure forever.

“What may have been the questions which occupied the attention of the
American people in the past in regard to the negro as a fit subject for
assimilation within the body politic, there can be but little or no
good reason for continuing those discussions now. Since the negro is
already admitted to citizenship, guarded by constitutional enactment,
and, whatever may be the difference of opinions as to his mental
capacity, as compared with the Caucasian or Asiatic, there nevertheless
remains the gratifying fact that no one has attempted to prove that his
presence is in the least threatening to our Christian institutions.
Indeed, it may be said, upon the other hand, that many thoughtful
persons regard the negro’s presence as a comforting assurance, a
bulwark for the preservation of the faith of the founders of our
government.”

Writing now from memory, not having a copy of any of the articles
referred to as having appeared in the Boston Herald, I will briefly
outline as best I can their import. The position taken by the
editor was not new, but one assumed by many able persons in similar
discussion. “The Chinese,” he says, “are an ancient race, with a
civilization antedating our own; largely progressed in the arts and
sciences; having made many important discoveries before our own age.
While on the other hand, the negro comes from the wilds of an unknown
continent, a barbarian, a slave, mean of intellect and of forbidding
mien, with thick lips, black face, flat nose and woolly hair; who has
not in the interval of time shown the high capacity of the Caucasian
for improvement.

“The fathers of the republic,” he further says, “while providing an
asylum for the oppressed of other lands, nevertheless were desirous of
attracting hither only the most intelligent peoples, depending upon
these rather for the perpetuity of republican institutions.” But, as
we have said, the negro has been already admitted to citizenship, and
the question closed in one of its aspects; so that the only question
remaining for us to consider is, what I may regard as a corollary
to the first proposition, viz.; negroes having been admitted to
citizenship, shall we not now admit the Chinese? If the semi-barbarous
negro can be ingrafted upon our body politic, can we not safely extend
to these Asiatic races, having centuries of civilization behind them,
the same privileges?

Had we not an actual experience with the two races, covering a period
sufficient to form a safe judgment, we would very likely jump at
a conclusion in answer to the last question and decide it in the
affirmative. Experience, however, is a safe teacher.

The difference between the Chinese and negroes is as that between old
men, with fixed ideas, and children. If we have ideas and institutions
to perpetuate and preserve, we shall entrust and communicate them to
children rather than to those grown old in an opposite philosophy and
experience. The new born mind is a blank, ready to receive impressions
and to develop largely according to its surroundings. Early impressions
may never be lost.

The minds of the American negro and the American Indian, considered
as adults, were the only maiden minds among all those present in the
early days of the colonies and the formative period of the republic.
By maiden minds I mean blank minds; minds never before impressed with
any phase of civil government; minds ready to receive new impressions;
ineradicable impressions. The American negro has never known anything
save those things distinctly American. We may have various opinions as
to the desires of the forefathers of our republic, and we may differ
on many other points, but it may be very safely asserted that we will
all agree that, notwithstanding their desire for the preservation of
religious freedom, it was, nevertheless, their aim and hope, and it
is the aim and hope of their children and grandchildren to found and
perpetuate a government immovably fixed upon Christian principles and
philosophy. Has it ever occurred to our friend’s mind that the presence
of the negro is threatening to that central thought? On the other hand,
what of the Chinese?

As we have said, the negro came with his mind a blank, with no
preconceived opinions as to forms of government, no attachment to
a foreign flag or institutions. No flag, only the American flag;
no home save America. The faith of the fathers is his faith.
Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Grant, his highest conceptions
of human greatness. Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill the shrines
of his patriotic pilgrimages. Christ his only refuge in religion.
The Sunday of the forefathers his holy day, the Fourth of July his
highest patriotic reverence. Christmas and Eastertide his hours of
holy reflection. The machinations, seditions and conspiracies of the
socialist, communist and anarchist his greatest aversion.

Religious freedom is the law of the land, and yet the most superficial
observer is aware that our whole fabric, our whole structure is builded
upon Christian philosophy. It is stronger than the written law; upon
it is founded the whole law and order of society. It was the faith of
the forefathers and upon its philosophy and reasoning was and is based
every act, every constitutional engagement, every personal property
and public right. These institutions could not have been evolved from
minds immersed in centuries of Buddhism, nor can they ever be more
than dimly perceptible to its children. Has any one ventured to indict
the negro for lack of sympathy for the Christian faith? Of all the
people possibly the negro lives nearest the faith of the founders of
this government. Of the 50,000 Chinese settled in the City of San
Francisco for many years, upon how many has Christianity made the least
perceptible impression? There Buddha and Confucius still live.

Maltreat the negro as you may, he is nevertheless American to the core
and he will follow the flag wheresoever it leads, Santiago and San Juan
Hill he will rush upon to the inspiring strains of “Yankee Doodle” and
“The Star Spangled Banner,” insensible to every danger.

Socially ostracise the negro, make rules that bar him from the orders
of Masonry, Odd Fellowship and the many American institutions and he
will immediately turn up possessed of signs, tokens and passwords of
these orders, fully caparisoned and equipped, bound to be an American.
The curled lips, flat nose and crispy wool, which were such powerful
arguments against the negro in our Boston editor’s mind, need not be
taken into account when the flag is endangered or its supremacy to be
upheld. He had shown the quality of his mind by coming out first in
many a college contest; the deftness of his fingers proven whenever
an opportunity has been given him. The wage paid him has gone into
circulation again for things distinctively American, his savings
invested in an American home and not hoarded up to be sent abroad to
enrich other countries.

The doctrines of Spiess, Parsons and Herr Most have never found
lodgment in a negro breast, and should the day ever come that Beacon
Hill or Murray Hill shall be threatened by the disciples of anarchy,
the sword of the commonwealth may be placed in the hands of every
negro, without question, for the salvation of our institutions, pure
and simple, as handed down from the earliest days of the republic; and
it may again be said, as of old, that “the stone which the builders
rejected had become the chief corner stone of the temple.”

Indeed, the negro has shown that he possesses all the qualities that
render a people readily assimilable into the body politic, and he has
shown these qualities under most adverse circumstances; workshops
closed to him, despised, proscribed socially, absolutely barred and
deprived of all those helps accorded all other races by the American
people, he has nevertheless risen to the full dignity of a most
trusted and intelligent citizen, only too eager, possibly, to be found
foremost in expressions and acts of patriotic devotion. So well has he
succeeded that he can afford to rest his case, feeling assured that the
people will in the end deal justly by him. He has reached that exalted
place of life which prompts him not to unjustly criticise other races
anxious, like himself, to become a part of this great nation; nor to
make any odious comparisons unless compelled in his own defense when
unjustly assailed. His home is wherever the American flag is unfurled
and he will cheerfully give his whole self to the development of every
inch of territory acquired by his government.


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 Transcriber’s Notes:

 ――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.

 ――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.