"the Race Problem."

On account of missing a train at Kalamazoo, the well-known ex United States senator and the orator, B. K. Brute, failed to keep his appointment to speak bofore the Students' Lecture Association on Saturday evening; but he appeared io Univereity Hall on Tuesday evening, and dehvered the first lecture of the winter's course, on the subject, " The Race Problem." The speaker described the appearance on tbis continent of the black race, the yellow race, and the white race, where was found the red race. The white race becarae supreme, and exhibited the utmost selfishness in relation to the others. The white race had prohibited the yellow race coming to our shore ; had stolen the lands of the red race; and had enslaved the black race. What of the future of the 7,000,000 black people of this country ? Some had claimed ihat the solution of the problem lay in extermination, amalgamation, or in slavery. Some had thought that the black race was incapable of taking on a higher civiüz tion, of standing alone; but they forget that the order of a race's devehpment does not reveal its capacity. The teutonio peop'e overéame the latins, and the Ru3sians might yet domínate Kurope. It is unsafe to say that the black race is incapable of assuming and passing on the highest civilization. Industrial growtb, material progress, must come before mach intellectual progress. After the emancipation, it was thought that the blacks could not be industrially independent, for tbey had had no experience in bolding or using capita!. The ex-s!aveliolderspredicted that the blacks would become indolent, licentious, and non supporting. But these fears were groundles3. The black people immediately began to sustain the industries of large sections. They are no longer devoted wholly to agriculture, but are going into businesses which in volve proprietorship. Taey are securing homes, and adorning them. They are holdiiig f airs in which they display the resulta oí their industry and skill invarious pursuits. Tbe most significant sign of their capacity for growth is their exhibition of sound temper, judgment, and endurance. As by the stroke of a pen they became free who ior two centuries had been in the house of bondage, yet there was no breacb of the peace. They had no property. Their old owners were enraged, and treated them with gret indignity. The aged and infirm were cast out to endure hunger and scorn, with no shelter to protect them, and with no mearía of support. But the dominant class were still dependent upon the labor of the blacks whieh upholds the south. The negro can work more hours in the day - and wait longer for his pay - than any other man. The black man had been faithful to the stars and strips : he helped our armies, guided the panting northern eoldier from soothern prisone, and became a hardy soldier. He won his oitizenship by defending the government. He was justly given the ballot. He was very ignorant, of course, but suffrage was judiciously given to hiin. There was nomistake about that, but only in not protecting him for a time. The ballot helped on his developinent as a citizen. Although having no technical knowledge, the negro since his emancipation had bounded forward in material progre.'S, and was undertaking to learn and discharge the duties of a citizen in spite of lack of sympathy of the whites. This progresa cannot be maintained if the dense ignorance be not banished. The first effort to edúcate them was through the much maligned Freedmen's Bureau. The speaker gave a very affecting description ol the eagerness with which the blacks tried in these schools to learn to read. Oíd grandraothers there worked hard to spell out the story of Jesús Christ. Mr. Bruce won great applause by a eulogy of the brave noithern girls who went to the south to teach the blacks to read. He had taken an ojd Massachusetts clergyman to see one of these school?, who was so much impressed with what he saw that he exclaimed with Thomas Jefferaon that he trembled for this country when he reflected that God is just. The north had nobly gent its money to aid in the work of education, and yet there were a million and a quarter of black children who had do education. Illiteracy among whites and blaeks in Louisiana is increasing. The south was not yet recuperated trom the War; their common school system was crude. There is a class of people in the Fouth who believe in education for the few only ; but there is another class that takes & broader view. This iearful ignorance in the eouth is important when we reflect that the blaoks are citizecs, not slaves. The only rempdy for ihis ignorance lay m federal aid, by grants of money, to education. The states of the south cannot do the work alone. We have a great surplus f money in our national treasury. Suall "ie taxes on tobáceo and gugar be repealed while we cannot give one dollar to the south ? Some wanted to abolish the tax ?n liquor; he would prefer to abolish liquor. e told of an impiessive interview he had nce with President Garfield, who feit the 'tnportance of removing the ignorance of e south. The black people walk in darkness and sit in the shadow of death. The black people, it had been said, were V(ry fuperstitious. That is so, said Mr. Bruce. So were other peoples. He had read of a custom which prevnils in some parts of Norway, where, when a death occurs, the people will not take the body out of the door or window, but will make a hole through the side of the house, put the body through it, and then close the hole tightly, the theory being that when the gho8t tries to enter that house he will have a hard time of it. The black men were very superstitioue, but not so much so as to try to take advantage of a ghost. The black men had many beautiful beliefs. They had always believed in the idea of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. The rainbow to them, even n the bitter hours of their bondage, had been an emblem of hope and the sign of a promise. They believe in G-od, in Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in eterna! life. The blacks in the south make excellent juror8. There had been 17 colored members of congress, and not one of them had ever been "investigated." Although they have done so much for themselves, there is discontent arnong them. They are theoretically the equals of all ; but practically they are not. They are denied equal rights with the whites in transportaron faiilities. There is a lax adañnistration of criminal laws in offenses against them. In view of these things, and of the vast increase of their numbers, writers are predicting a race conflict. It ia said that in 1980 there will be 112,000,000 of these people in the south, if affairs go on as now ; but before that time there willbean awfuloontest bet ween blacks and whites. He does not believe that such a conflict will take place. There will be found a remedy. It eannot be solved by any gchemè of colonizador; but must be done bv Americanization. The black man of this country is not African, except in color. He has shown h8 capacity for development, and is becoming an American.