The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, December 01, 1889, Image 7
this pressure but would [almost render the work of this last department nil in the cramped position it would be forced to occu py. Nevertheless efforts should be made to procure the wherewithall for establishing and maintaining this department. We are the State College of a State noted throughout the world for its mining industries; we are situ ated within the very boundaries of the mining districts, and yet we have no mining engineer- ing courses. Personally we have known and heard of different instances, where young men, while they had the preference for this college, were obliged to go elsewhere to pur sue their mining-engineering studies. ONE rarely has the opportunity of listening to a discourse upon a popular question so able, so penetrating, so convincing, as that delivered on November 20th, by Ex-Senator W. K. Bruce, on the race problem. The earnestness of the man in dealing with the question which doubtless lies nearest his heart, was contagious, to say the least, and well nigh irresistible, Mr. Bruce touched the key-note of the situation when he dwelt so long and emphatically upon the remedy of education. Education has been, and will al ways continue to be, the means of solving for our country many otherwise impossible prob lems. As citizens of ah enlightened' republic we are living to-day upon the brink of a threat ening volcano which is sputtering and rumb ling beneath our very feet. I H "ew persons realize the greatness of the danger and the suddenness with which it may overtake us. That an intense race feeling pervades the dif ferent sections of our country is amply testi THE FREE LANCE. fied to by the accounts of every newspaper we read; that this feeling in some places exists in such a degree as to border almost upon open warfare and bloodshed, is also well known. It appears as if the lines of distinc tion between black and white were so marked and of such a character as to be ineffaceable. As Prof. Scomp remarks in December For um, the basic and well nigh permanent diffi culty of the problem is color. We can in the course of a few years assimilate all the ac companying traits of the Irish, we can drown in the flood-tide of our prosperity the vindic tiveness and laziness of the Italian; we can even disguise so as to be scarcely recognizable the phlegmatic characteristics of the Poles, Huns and incomers from other Slavonic na- tions, but when we come to intermingling our good old Saxon blood and ways with those of the African, we stop. The blood of a high spirited negro no doubt often boils at the in dignities to which he is subjected at the present day. True he has to a certain extent his own churches and schools, the rules of the store and street, and the customs of most railways are not such as to interfere materially with his convenience, but it is in the higher avenues of life, in the political, social, religious and educational spheres of the country, that he finds his progress so effectually blocked, that it must ofttimes cause feelings of inde scribable bitterness to rankle within his breast. Yet it cannot be otherwise. History has never yet afforded instances where two races, residing together and differing so radically have amicably adjusted their mutual affairs. The prejudice against the black man, though disavowed by some and that with a desire of sincerity, and though it is almost unfelt in the