Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/185

Even education is a disadvantage to him, and in no way purges him of his superstitions, as has recently- been so ably pointed out in The New York Times for Wednesday, January 20, 1904, on page 7, by no less a person and close observer of the negro character than the honorable Governor of the state of Missis- sippi, who, in the aforesaid issue of The Times, was pleased to bring the following before its readers : SCORES NEGRO EDUCATION Mississippi's Governor Calls It the Black Man's Curse — Says the Negro is Deteriorating Morally Every Day — Wants Fifteenth Amendment Repealed. " Jackson, Miss., Jan. 19. — In his inaugural ad- dress, delivered today before a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature, Gov. Vardaman declared that the growing tendency of the negro to commit crim- inal assault on white women was nothing more nor less than the manifestation of the racial desire for so- cial equality. In strong terms he declared that edu- cation was the curse of the negro race, and urged an amendment to the state Constitution that would place the distribution of the common school fund solely within the power of the Legislature. Continuing, Gov. Vardaman said of the negroes : " ' As a race they are deteriorating morally every day. Time has demonstrated that they are more criminal as freemen than as slaves ; that they are in- creasing in criminality with frightful rapidity, being one-third more criminal in 1890 than in 1880. "'The startling facts revealed by the census show that those who can read and write are more criminal