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August, 1936                      231

that there dwell millions of our fellow human beings who suffer from the kind of poverty that spells undernourishnment and underprivilege.

"If local governments, if State governments, after exerting every reasonable effort, are unable to better their conditions, to raise or restore their purchasing power, then surely it would take a foolish and short-sighted man to say that it is no concern of the National Government itself.

"Our country is passing through a period which is urgently in need of ardent protectors of the rights of the common man. Mechanization of industry and mass production have put unparalleled power in the hands of the few. No small part of our program today is to bring the fruits of this mechanization to the whole people."

It has been our habit so long to talk glibly about our outstanding ideals of health, our decent living conditions, our high standards of universal common school education, our sense of justice for the masses, that we have actually imagined that we were realizing them. But to a large extent, our boastings have been mere compensatory phantansies by means of which we have sought to deceive ourselves into believing that we are more righteous and social-minded than in fact we are, or that we are bent upon achieving that which in our hearts we do not even desire. We have talked so much about our sense of justice, about equal opportunity under the law, regardless of race, or color, or creed that we have actually blinded our moral perception to the gross exploitation of weaker grous that has been going on under our very eyes.

If we except the Indians, of the many groups that have been exploited, beginning with pioneer days, Negroes perhaps have been the gretest sufferers. They were the most ignorant, the most helpless. and the most docile. Yet the contribution they have made to the material upbuilding of this country are beyond calculation. Certainly, it has been sufficient to justify them in claiming, without apology, the right to earn a decent share of our great wealth.

A Chance for the Negro 

Under our new conception of democracy, the Negro will be given the chance to which he is entitled-not because he will be singled out for special consideration, but because he preeminently belongs to the class that the new democracy is designed especially to aid. It is to the advantage of Negroes, therefore, that they thouroughly familiarize, themselves with the modified social and economic foundation upon which the new democracy is being built. This requires knowledge and uderstanding of the new forces brought into being by science and technology, and of the various social and political elements which are emerging as a result of greater understanding among me. In order to throw their moral strength and the weight of their influence on the side of the new liberalism and progressivism that is emerging from the welter of our political life, they must have sufficient intelligence and training to make a wise choice among social values. Unfortunately, we know too well that the educational opportunities enjoyed by Negroes are too meager and even in many cases too antiquated for them to develop the type of intelligence required for effective functioning in our keenly competitive democratic society. This makes it all the more important to develop a sound leadership such as this organization can supply.

I have said that the Negro has been probably the greatest sufferer during the period of our development when exploitation  was the general rule. I wish to elaborate on this.

In the economic realm, the Negro has lived for generations on the very fringes. He has been required to work at jobs of the lowest grades, for long hours, and small pay. There has been slight opportunity or encouragement for him to break into the higher levels of employment or into new fields. As a rule, organized labor has refused to enroll him in its ranks. This discrimination has frequently resulted in his use as a "scab" for strike breaking purposes. The general lack of educational facilities has been most acute in the vocational and economic realms. There has been neither proper vocational training, adapted to occupational needs, nor instruction in those important economic and social principles which should be the stock-in-trade of every worker. In some cases where, by means of apprenticeship or otherwise, he has become skilled in certain trades he has been refused a license to engage in that trade.

Taxation Without Representation

In the exercise of the suffrage that is guaranteed him by the Constitution the Negro has met with many abuses and obstacles. In some localities he is callously disfranchised; in other places, for generations, he has been exploited by corrupt politicians, who have bought his vote or have made him promises which were never expected to be kept. And, 

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BIDS FOR VOTERS
The October issue of The Crisis, out September 25, will contain statements from all the political parties on the attitude toward Negro Americans.
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finally, he has been the victim of taxation without representation.

Educationally the Negro on the average lags far below the accepted standards in those communities where separate schools for the Negro and white races are maintained. Studies made in the Office of Education of the Department of the Interior show (1) a lack of availability of educational facilities for Negroes; (2) inadequate financial support; (3) poorly prepared, poorly paid, and improperly selected teachers; and (4) ill-adapted educational programs. Here we have a sad commentary on our democratic principle of equal opportunity, especially when we realize the importance of education in our scheme of life and that Negroes are required to meet the same standards as other citizens.

The general social and civic status of Negroes reveals a picture quite as unsatisfactory as those which portray the economic and educational phases of their lives. Their high morbidity, their crime rate, their infant mortality and their short life span may be attributed very largely to conditions of their environment. Their homes, for which they are charged exorbitant prices both as buyers and renters, are located in the poorest and most unsanitary sections of the community without adequate street pavements, water supply, lighting, sewerage, drainage, or fire and police protection. In addition to malnutrition, due to the sub-marginal existence that so many of them lead, there is a lack of medical and hospital care, of pre-natal and maternal care, as well as general absence of counterbalancing influences such as recreational, welfare, and educational agencies and facilities.

When the extent to which Negroes have been the victims of prejudice, passion, ignorance, and discrimination is realized and the degree to which they have met with frustrations in the legitimate efforts to improve themselves and their race, their achievements merit our admiration.  A race possessing less fortitude and faith would have fallen by the wayside.

I congratulate you on your patience, and on the fact that you have worked while you waited.  I believe that your cheerful disposition, your faith, your loyalty and your lack of resentment are some of the qualities that have brought you the success that is already yours.  May I admonish you as a sincere friend to "keep the Faith!"  In spite of the wrongs that have been committed against you, do not become bitter.  Hatred is a venom which poisons the blood and incapacitates the person who generates it.  Resist wrong stanchly, fight injustice and discrimination, but as for hating those who are guilty of

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