g moral and intellectual lines if he would
preserve himself. Scientists have gone so far as to hazard the
prediction that ultimate extinction is the forecast for the race. The
race itself is apt to receive this declaration with derision, but it
must not count its position too sure. We have yet to see an
intelligent refutation of the statements which the scientists are
making in this regard. The Negro press promptly sat down upon Prof.
Hoffman when he touched upon its moral standard, but it was rather by
ridicule than argument. Only the properly qualified should speak on a
question of this character. By that we mean those reasonably informed
and who have given the proper time to an impartial investigation of
the subject. Howls of protest and indignation cannot take the place of
scientific reasoning, and before the press of the country takes Mr.
Hoffman and his kind to task it should be prepared to know whereof it
speaks. But, aside from this, popular interest is very much aroused as
to the present educational needs of the Negro. Prof. Washington, the
great apostle of industrial education, thinks it the Negro's greatest
want just now. President Mitchell, of Leland University, thinks the
higher education of the race the proper thing. The "Advance" is
inclined to the former view. The Negro may not be top-heavy; his
higher education has hardly gone far enough for that in a general
sense, but he has given altogether too much time to the intellectual
side of his development. He should become skilled in manual arts; he
should learn something that he has left unlearned: how to labor
correctly and profitably. His intellectual offspring each succeeding
year realize more and more difficulty in finding places, so that the
so-called higher avenues are becoming crowded to an uncomfortable
extent. The colored man will find it not a whit to his disgrace to be
a tiller of the soil; when he is an educated tiller he will find that
he can produce better crops, make more money, and rear his children
usefully. If he keeps up his present lick, he will find that he has
all teachers and no scholars, all preachers and no congregations, all
doctors and no patients, all lawyers and no clients. Several vital
questions should now receive the race's closest attention--viz., (1)
the investigation of its moral condition; (2) a system of education
adapted to its needs; (3) the improvement of its physical status.
(Alamo City Advance, San Antonio, Tex.)