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[[left page]] 228 THE CRISIS able him and some other folks associated with him also to celebrate. The Virginia congressman took to the proposal kindly. Martin, of Virginia, said: "I simply want to submit this matter to the sense of justice and the generosity of the Senate. It comes in a somewhat irregular way, but it has appealed to me very strongly. I live in the South, and have lived among the Negro population all my days. I know them and I know their weaknesses and their strong points. They have many strong points, and they have accomplished a great deal. They have been struggling against the most difficult circumstances; and I think that they have made a progress that is almost astounding, considering the opportunities which they have had. They wish to celebrate their achievements during the 50 years of their freedom." Vardaman of Mississippi remarked: "The white people have assisted them (the Negroes) in every possible way, except to make citizens or voters of them, and, of course, that ought not to be done and, indeed, will never be done. I am perfectly willing to help develop the Negro along certain lines. I wish him well; but I do not think any good will result from this appropriation." Congressman White retorted: "He has been our burden in the past; he was our burden when he was a slave; and yet, Mr. President, he contributed wonderfully to our race. We can point to as fine a race of white men as ever lived from the South, and those men received from the toil and sacrifice of the Negroes the means with which they educated and accomplished. We are grateful to him for what he has done, and we are willing to show our gratitude by way of urging this appropriation for their benefit and to show the world what they have accomplished since acquiring freedom. "But, Mr. President, we are more truly grateful to them for what they did for us during the struggle in which their freedom was the issue than for what they did for us in other times. When all the colored man had to do to obtain his freedom was to cross the line and take up arms against our section, he stood by our side and fought our battles with us. He camped with us at night; he marched with us by day; he held our horses and guarded our tents while we stood in battle line and met death by thousands. He supplied our every want; he guarded our homes and protected our women and children; he was indeed our friend. He showed his friendship and his loyalty as no other race on earth had ever done by standing by us in the hours of our trouble. "The black men of the South carried their dead masters back to their wives; the sons who had fallen in battle back to their mothers' arms. They bore our sick and the wounded to them; and when they came bearing in their hands these precious burdens, they so endeared themselves to us that it has never been forgotten." What a pity to waste this excellent talk on Giles Jackson! DISFRANCHISEMENT THE WHITE PRIMARY There has been as yet no attempt to bring the question of white primary into the courts but it manifestly must be done in the near future. Here, for instance, in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer are the rules fixed for the primary election in the State. These rules are: "1. That the primaries be held in Mecklenburg County to express preferences for Democratic candidates for State, congressional and county, legislative and township officers. "2. That the candidates for legislative, county, congressional and State offices and delegates to the county convention be elected by a vote of the people in the respective precincts and that such a vote be by ballot. That each precinct shall be entitled to two delegates for each vote it has in the county convention. "3. That an executive committee of five be elected in each precinct in the primary, and that such election be by ballot. "4. That all qualified white voters, Democratic voters, or all white voters who will be qualified to vote in the November election, who will agree to support the nominees of the primary in the general election be invited to participate in the primary." We are reminded of the acquiesence of the great Progressive Party in this dishonorable and illegal attack on democracy. In Chicago, as the Examiner reports, the Rev. William T. McElveen was speaking before the church class in current events. He took up an address delivered a week before by Professor Sidney L. Gulick, of a Japanese [[/left page]] [[right page]] OPINION 229 university, in which the American attitude toward Japan was strongly criticised. "If Colonel Roosevelt had charge he would soon solve the problem of who shall be admitted to citizenship in the United States," said the pastor. Instantly Mrs. McCulloch was on her feet. "If Colonel Roosevelt didn't show any more courage in the Japanese question than he did with the Negroes in his Progressive convention, he would do no good," she exclaimed. SEGREGATION PROPOSALS IN CITY AND COUNTRY Mr. Clarence Poe, who is advocating the segregation of Negroes in country districts, in a letter to the Governor of Virginia, says: "Nor do I believe for a minute that so wise and observant a man as you believes we can rest in fancied security on the theory that the Negroes are content with social conditions as they are. I have no doubt that many Negroes to-day are perfectly sincere in saying that they do not want social equality. They know the race is too weak to get it. It is a universal rule that men seldom strive keenly for that which is absolutely beyond their reach. They strive for the next thing and then press on. When Andrew Carnegie was a poor working boy, he was not ambitious for a hundred million was all he wanted; but then he wanted a hundred thousand, then a million; then a hundred million. "The congress at Memphis was soothed and lulled, of course, by Negroes like Booker Washington, who tell us that the Negro has no desire for social mixing and who makes us feel ashamed of our 'prejudice' against 'the color of a man's skin'—and the white people cheered and cheered and went away satisfied. "But let me tell you this, my dear Governor: within 48 hours after the whites in Memphis heard such messages as these from Negro speakers, I went down to the Avery Chapel, the great Negro church, and saw it packed to suffocation with Negroes and mulattoes fired by an entirely different gospel—the doctrine that the Negro must break down every barrier and that every discrimination must be swept away until nothing stands in the way of intermarriage, Negro office-holding, or anything else. That is the doctrine preached by Dr. W. E. DuBois, their chief speaker (himself two-thirds white), who declares that one of the next things to work for is the repeal of all laws that prohibit the intermarriage of the races. It was the soothing voice of Washington that the whites heard at Memphis, but it was the voice of DuBois that the Negroes and mulattoes listened to, and observed, and carried away in their hearts. Are not the hands the hands of Esau but the voice the voice of Jacob?" This, as Mr. Poe knows perfectly well, is as great a perversion of Mr. DuBois' speech as it is of his Negro blood, and yet Mr. Poe in the South Atlantic Quarterly pleads rather plaintively against being "denounced" as an agitator. "I hope I shall never be classed with the bitter or destructive type of 'Negro agitators.' My whole aim in this matter has been to develop a constructive policy for the help of the white man and not a destructive policy to the hurt of the Negro. If I know my own heart I would not be unjust to the Negro. For the Shylocks and vultures of our own race who fatten financially upon his ignorance and weakness I have nothing but the utmost contempt and loathing. For all who would oppress him and keep him in peonage I have no shadow of sympathy. I believe in helping the Negro and in being just to him." He claims, however, that the Negro has certain "advantages" over the white farmer. These advantages being "shabbier houses, meaner food and dirtier clothes," and then comes the insinuation which places Mr. Poe with Blease and Vardaman, namely, that the Negro criminal is driving the white farmer out of the rural white South. As a matter of fact the exact opposite is true. It is the white hoodlum that makes it so difficult for Negroes to live in the country districts of the South. THE NEGRO AND OIL MORE OKLAHOMA CASES The Philadelphia North American has the following article: "Indians, white men and black men are being made into millionaires almost overnight in Oklahoma these days, and Uncle Sam is acting as treasurer in this fascinating game of getting rich without doing a stroke of work. The money is pouring in a golden
Transcription Notes:
Deleted first partial word on page ("able"). It was transcribed as the last word on the previous page, as a complete word ("enable") as per transcription guidelines.
Note from reviewer: I removed the single quotes around publication titles per instructions: "Do not indicate font style, underlined, or bolded or italicized text."
Note inconsistent treatment of italics.
In the first paragraph of DISFRANCHISEMENT, the italicized 'Observer' is indicated in the transcription with single quotes, as is The Philadelphia North American [p. 229, last paragraph]
But in last paragraph of p. 228, the Examiner, which is italicized in the original, lacks single quotes, as does the South Atlantic Quarterly [p. 229, second column].
