Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/365

Rh mony on which the convictions were had in 77 cases was furnished by colored people, and that the man convicted by white testimony received a sentence of one year in the penitentiary, and the average sentence of those convicted on colored testimony was from two to five years. . . . Last year there were twenty-two negroes killed over the crap table. ... It is said abroad that the white people in the South are killing off the negroes. The statistics of crime which I have kept for years disprove the charge. It is true that pernicious crimes are committed which cause lynchings, but the same causes bring the same results in other States of the Union. I must not be understood as defending lynchings. Lynchings are wrong whenever or wherever engaged in. Every lyncher is a murderer. . . . The majority of crimes are not committed by the best colored citizens, but by shiftless people who float from one community to another with no visible means of support." (Daily Picayune, New Orleans, April 9, 1897.)

From a statistical standpoint, the outlook for the negro is not encouraging. I do not believe that any one can forecast the future of the negro. One thing is certain, when left to himself without the strong will and example of the white man in the black belts, he tends to retrogade; when outnumbered by the whites in the white belts, he assimilates more to the habits of white men, becomes a better laborer and a better citizen. The negro is certainly improving as a laborer all over the South since the last three or four years, and farming is getting more and more in its normal condition. Experimenting is passing away and both white and black races understand each other better, and all work is more strictly on business principles. Labor has got over its disorganization, and is realizing that unless good service is rendered, it is difficult to get on good lands or with good employers. Both white and black have paid old debts and are more careful in incurring new ones. Many mortgages have been lifted in the last three or four years, and good crops have been produced.