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Negro judges on the bench, Negroes in State legislatures and in the American Congress.

Germany backed up Mussolini in the rape of Ethiopia.  In truth, Italy would not have defied the sanctions of the League of Nations without the support and encouragement of Hitler, and up until the end of the last World War Germany herself had extensive Negro colonies in Africa.  In his book, Germans in the Cameroons, Harry R. Rudin, Assistant Professor of History at Yale, says this of German colonial administration:

"Whipping was the typical form of punishment inflicted on natives in the colony . . . .  In the Reichstag stories were told of whips made of hippopotamus hide cut so as to have sharp edges, of rope soaked in water and then dried or dipped in tar and then rolled in sand."

Our stake in America

Just what stake does the Negro have in America?  What has he got to lose?  We have come a long way in the last fifty years, if slowly.  There is still a long way to go before equality is attained, but the pace is faster, and never faster than now.

In 1890 there were 12,159 Negro clergymen in the United States; in 1930 there were 25,034.  In 1890 there were 15,008 Negro teachers; in 1930 there were 54,439.  In 1890 there were 208 Negro physicians and surgeons; in 1930 there were 3,805.  In 1890 there were 120 Negro dentists; in 1930 there were 1,773.  In 1890 there 431 Negro lawyers, justices, and judges; in 1930 there were 1,247.

Progress? Yes.  Too slow?  Yes; but progress.

Not all of us can be professional men.  As a matter of fact, few of us are.  The great majority of Negroes are working people - skilled, unskilled; organized, unorganized.  But during the last decade a good many doors have been opened to us, and other doors are ajar.  There has been enlightened appreciation of the Negro's problem by the Government.  There has been increase in Negro labor organization; many so-called "white" unions have abandoned color-line policies.

What would happen to labor under Hitler?  I can tell you what happened to the Czechs, to the French, what happened to the Germans themselves.  Their labor unions were suppressed.  Strikes were prohibited.  Union treasuries were seized.

This, applied to America, means that the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the tens of thousands of Negroes in the United Mine Workers of America, the Negroes in the automobile, steel, rubber, packing, shipping, needle trades, and transportation unions, all would be reduced to economic impotence - turned into slaves or turned into the street.  

The Negro businessman would fare no better than the Negro worker.  The first thing Hitler does when he occupies a country is to seize control of the banks.  Then he proceeds with a systematic confiscation of factories, stores, all industry.  The National Negro Business League would be abolished.  Negro banks, stores, loan associations, restaurants, real-estate firms, insurance companies would be suppressed at once.  

There are 680,000 Negro farm operators in the United States, with 95 percent of them living in the Southern States.  During recent years, and particularly during the last 5 years, the Federal Government has waged a vigorous program to aid and relieve the farmer - a campaign in which the Negro farmer has shared.  The Farm Security Administration has made 60,440 loans to Negro farmers.  These loans, both short-term rehabilitation and long-term purchase loans, total some $50,000,000.  Negro farm operators represent 21 percent of the farm operators in the 17 Southern States (including Maryland and Missouri) and they have received 20.9 percent of the Farm Security loans in that area.

What stake has the Negro farmer to lose under Hitler?  He has his land, his buildings, his machinery, his livelihood to lose.  In Czechoslo-