THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XIII. 



CHICAGO, MAY, 1899. 



NO. 8, 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN flMERICi 



If we should read that the 

 c?vuSio. savages in the Philippine 



Islands or some other unciv- 

 ilized land had roasted a human being 

 alive, after first cutting- off his ears and 

 fingers and pouring kerosene oil over his 

 bleeding body, we would doubtless be hor- 

 rified beyond measure at such barbarism 

 among the heathen. What, then, shall be 

 said when this revolting thing occurs in 

 our own midst, in a civilized, christianized 

 community? This was what an infuriated 

 mob of southerners did to a negro recently. 

 The press throughout the country gave an 

 account of the affair with all the grew- 

 some details, but the feeling in the section 

 was not very strong against the mob. 

 We need not cross the ocean to " Take up 

 the White Man's Burden. " We do not 

 wish to be understood as sympathizing 

 with black brutes, who commit fiendish 

 crimes, but we wish to be understood as 

 being on the side of law and order. Let 

 the law take its course. Because a negro 

 a decendant of a race of slaves, de- 

 graded and hampered by circumstances, 

 gives way to the baser instincts of his 

 nature, should white men with every 

 advantage in their favor be excused for 

 brutality and cruelty that would disgrace 

 a savage? 



It was not so much the crime that 

 aroused the fury of the mob as the fact of 

 its perpetrator being a negro. White 

 men have committed crimes as bad; some 

 of them were lynched, some were hanged, 

 and some after a brief term in prison were 

 allowed to come forth to delight dime 



museum audiences. No, we have here 

 the old race question again white against 

 black. 



At the time of the conflict between the 

 two races in North and South Carolina, 

 and the Pillager Indian outbreak in Min- 

 nesota, this question was much agitated 

 and among the articles regarding it was 

 an exceptionally good one by Francis E. 

 Lsupp, in the December Forum, in which 

 he says. 



"Is our attempt to civilize the Indians 

 a failure? This is the question heard on 

 every side since the recent so-called out- 

 break of the Bear Island Pillagers, a band 

 of Chippewa Indians living on and near 

 the borders of Leech Lake in Minnesota. 

 Is our Caucasian civilization a failure? 

 By the same token, yes." 



A few days before the Indian trouble a 

 white mob in the south lynched a negro; 

 a few days after it a murderous riot 

 occurred in the mining town of Illinois. 

 The same impulse was at work in both 

 cases and it was the same feeling which 

 animated the Indians. a desire to redress 

 grievences. The only difference is the 

 difference between the nature of a white 

 man and of an Indian. The former, when 

 wronged, acts upon the impulse of the 

 moment and in a fit of rage avenges the 

 injury of last night or to-day; the Indian, 

 on the contrary, is slow to retaliate, 

 nurses his wrath for years, adds the 

 memory of the last insult to that of a pre- 

 vious one, his anger growing stronger 

 instead of diminishing until some appar- 

 ently trivial event proves the last straw 



