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The Looking Glass

LITERATURE

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING in "The Romance of the Swan's Nest":
Light to-morrow with to-day!
. . . . . .
Go and ride among the hills
To the wide world past the river,
There to put away all wrong;
To make straight distorted wills
And to empty the broad quiver
Which the wicked bear along.

* * *

Howard University sends us The Howard University Record, a magazine edited by the faculty and students of Howard. There is to be an annual issue of eight numbers, price ten cents per copy, fifty cents a year. The copy at hand contains among other important articles an interesting account by Professors Lightfoot, Locke and MacLear on the part played by Howard University in the war.

* * *

A valuable and significant piece of work has appeared in the form of a pamphlet by Laura E. Wilkes, of Washington, D. C., entitled "Missing Pages in American History." In this pamphlet Miss Wilkes by patient and arduous investigation has brought together the various bits of evidence which go to show in their entirety the very real and far-reaching part which the American Negro has taken in all the wars of this country. The author says in her introduction, "The facts found herein are taken from colonial records, state papers, assembly journals, histories of slavery and old-time histories of the various colonies and republics."

There is a very comprehensive bibliography at the end of this work, which adds not a little to its value. But the real importance of a contribution such as this lies, as we have said before in these columns, in that we Negroes are awakening not only to the fact that we ought to have a literature, a history, a poetical expression, but that we ourselves must produce these things. We must be our own interpreters.

It is hoped that Miss Wilkes' pamphlet will find its way into every colored school, and every white one too for that matter, not only for the sake of its content, but for the sake of its latent inspiration.

* * *

A discussion of the housing situation and the colored people of Chicago has come to us. The pamphlet is the work of Charles S. Duke, A.B., C.E., and is evidently the result of careful and constructive investigation. Mr. Duke not only analyzes the situation but offers a list of remedies, including The Private Company Plan, The Holsman Plan, The Adequate Loan Plan and The Building & Loan Association Plan. His effort is particularly significant during the present housing crisis.

SYMPOSIA

The Southern Workman publishes these interesting pronouncements on race relations after the war. The Rt. Rev. Thomas Gailor, Bishop of Tennessee, says:

Fundamental rights, so the best white people of the South believe, must never be interfered with except through due process of law. Every man, too, must have the right to choose his own form of labor and to develop his individual powers. The best people in the South want colored people to have these fundamental rights and they want them to be protected in these rights.

Obligations, however, are reciprocal. Colored people can help in many ways. We must all remember that prejudice is a fact which must be bravely faced. Men must cultivate honesty, sincerity, and the virtue of moral courage. It is always hard to suffer and be strong—to be self-controlled. Two wrongs, however, never make a right. The number of people in the South who want to see self-respecting colored people make progress is increasing very fast. Thoughtful colored people must be missionaries to members of their race and restrain those who are quick to resent and who provoke trouble. White and colored people alike have a serious duty and an important work to do.

* * *

Mrs. John D. Hammon says:

Many Negroes, I know, questions somewhat seriously the actions of white people. At bottom I think it is well to remember that the main current of the white race is set toward justice. Men everywhere are seeing more clearly than they have ever seen before. The past, nevertheless, is with us and must have some meaning


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for all of us. Only lunatics are not held by their past. A new day never comes ready to order. The new day comes bit by bit. Recently, when I read of the awful things being done in Texas, I said to myself, "Will the colored people believe in us long enough to give us a chance to help them out of their trouble?"

The future of the races in the South is in the hands of the colored people.  They must hold steady and have faith in the white people when it is hard indeed to have faith.  There is no future for the white people unless there is a future also for negroes. 

The Germans were fighting against God and eternal justice.  God stood in the road at the Marne.  God stands also in other roads.  We must all put our faith in the God of justice and love.  In the South the white people and the colored people are going to be friends -- friends who will trust one another and work together for each other's best interests. 

* * * 

Robert E. Jones shows that the Great War has opened the eyes of the Negroes:

There is one thing this world war has done.  It has lifted the Negro problem out of the provincialism of America into the cosmopolitanism of the civilized world.   We purpose to carry our cause into the open forum of the world.  we purpose to let the world know that the soldiers who brought glory to the American flag on the fields of France are denied common courtesies in too many cases when they return home.  And surely our appeal to the world will not fall altogether on deaf ears.   There will be an awakening, you may rest assured a sense of right and justice that react upon American life.

We make this appeal to the world in no sense of disloyalty to our Nation.  We do it because we are loyal.  We will be heard.  We will not be lynched and robbed and hedged about without a solemn protest. We do not plead for pity or sympathy.  We want what we have earned by every rule of the game.   Our friends must know our desires.   We are making them known in as plain a way as we know how.  We do this in love and out of a desire for peace and good will, believing that a more equitable readjustment of the relation of the races in this country will strengthen our National bonds, increase our National wealth, add to our National contentment, and hasten the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. 

* * *

Frank J. Parsons points the moral:

The greatest development in the South would seem to lie in the direction of agriculture, railroad building, shipping, and manufacturing.  Labor will be the big problem and a wise and just handling of the so-called "Negro question" will be an important factor, particularly with the return of the Negro soldier from abroad, with his wider viewpoint, greater discipline, and record of sacrifice and achievement.  The best minds in the South are giving thought to some system providing a sound method of saving for colored people and with it an opportunity for reasonable credit in the development of business enterprises for the race.  Improved educational facilities will also follow and a more even-handed justice.

The exodus of colored farm hands, dock laborers, and others to the munition factories of the North is not without its lesson; and if the South is to take advantage of the full measure of its possibilities for prosperity in the future, it will doubtless give due attention to this important element of its citizenship.

THE ANCIENT EVIL

The Pittsburgh, Pa., Dispatch writes on the Anti-Lynching Conference recently held in New York:

There is a touch of irony which unfortunately may not penetrate our nation vanity in the subscription of a fund of $10,000 to be used to oppose lynching in the United States.  The National Conference on Lynching was the inspiration for the fund and a request to every Negro in the United States to contribute $1 each to add to this fund to be employed for the same purpose.  If the motives were not so sincere the proposal to raise a fund of thousands of dollars to educate the people who claim to be foremost among enlightened nations, against brutal murders, would be a gigantic joke.  The tragedy in the facts do not permit levity, but if they did the spectacle of a special organization raising and using thousands of dollars annually to coax humane Christian people away from a form of vengeful assassination which is not even practiced by the modern savage would force the laughter.  Whatever tendency to smile is tempted must be directed against claims for advancement by people who, well in the twentieth century, must be charmed away from habits which the savage man gave up long ago.  He kills, but no longer as the American mob kills.  If this were not enough there is the suggestion that a special money fund must be subscribed by rational beings to secure the enforcement of law, which officers are drawing salaries for administering.  Then one might give a thought to the effort to have enacted a special law to punish the crime of murder when committed by a mob, as if murder by 50 men is not in essence the same as murder by two.

* * *

The Louisville, Ky., Courier Journal scoffs at the possibility of a governor brave enough to remove a cowardly sheriff.

Governor O'Neal, of Alabama, says to the Anti-Lynching Conference in Carnegie Hall, New York:

"Lynching can be ended by vesting in Governors the power to remove sheriffs