d character." So does every penitentiary
sentence put a premium upon good conduct; but it is poor consolation to
the one unjustly condemned, to be told that he may shorten his sentence
somewhat by good behavior. Dr. Booker T. Washington, whose language is
quoted above, has, by his eminent services in the cause of education, won
deserved renown. If he has seemed, at times, to those jealous of the best
things for their race, to decry the higher education, it can easily be
borne in mind that his career is bound up in the success of an industrial
school; hence any undue stress which he may put upon that branch of
education may safely be ascribed to the natural zeal of the promoter,
without detracting in any degree from the essential value of his
teachings in favor of manual training, thrift and character-building. But
Mr. Washington's prominence as an educational leader, among a race whose
prominent leaders are so few, has at times forced him, perhaps
reluctantly, to express himself in regard to the political condition of
his people, and here his utterances have not always been so wise nor so
happy. He has declared himself in favor of a restricted suffrage, which at
present means, for his own people, nothing less than complete loss of
representation--indeed it is only in that connection that the question has
been seriously mooted; and he has advised them to go slow in seeking to
enforce their civil and political rights, which, in effect, means silent
submission to injustice. Southern white men may applaud this advice as
wise, because it fits in with their purposes; but Senator McEnery of
Louisiana, in a recent article in the _Independent_, voices the Southern
white opinion of such acquiescence when he says: "What other race would
have submitted so many years to slavery without complaint? _What other
race would have submitted so quietly to disfranchisement?_ These facts
stamp his (the Negro's) inferiority to the white race." The time to
philosophize about the good there is in evil, is not while its correction
is still possible, but, if at all, after all hope of correction is past.
Until then it calls for nothing but rigorous condemnation. To try to read
any good thing into these fraudulent Southern constitutions, or to accept
them as an accomplished fact, is to condone a crime against one's race.
Those who commit crime should bear the odium. It is not a pleasing
spectacle to see the robbed applaud the robber. Silence were bette