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28      THE CRISIS

The problem was serious. If it was true that 10,000,000 serfs did not want a single untrammeled champion of their larger rights and ambitions, then the problem of those rights and ambitions was even graver than the editor had dreamed. graver than the editor had dreamed. But the editor doubted. Was it proven that the colored folk did not want such a magazine? Had they been given a fair chance to decide?
 
While these questions were being pondered the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people was formed and the editor was asked to become director of publicity and research. 

Articles in this number show how difficult it is to try to get publicity on the Negro problem in the regular periodical press unless the black man is vilified and traduced. The editor therefore said to his board of directors: "If we are to have publicity, it must be through an organ of our own." The board hesitated. They knew far better than the editor that magazines cost money and despite legends to the contrary, the had almost no money. Nevertheless, the necessity of some organ was great, and with many misgivings the board authorized an expenditure of $50 a month for a small monthly.
 
The editor will not soon forget that first number of THE CRISIS. William English Walling suggested the name; Mary Dunlop Maclean saw to the "makeup;" Robert N. Wood took the printing contract. But it was the editor alone, looking out on the forest of roofs of lower Broadway, who asked and asked again the momentous question: "Dare I order 500 copies- or 1,000?" And when in a fit of wild adventure he ordered 1,000 copies printed he felt like Wellington before Waterloo. Month before last THE CRISIS in a fit of parsimony ordered but 20,000 copies printed. The result was that orders for over 1,000 copies could not be filled so that last month we returned to our regular 22,000 edition. When we tell facts like these, people imagine large capital and dividends in connection with our magazine. Not so. Not a cent of capital has been invested in the magazine, except that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has furnished the services of the editor free of charge. This means that THE CRISIS is not quite paying expenses, for it could not to-day, with its present income and expense, afford to pay an editor. 

Can, now, a magazine like THE CRISIS ever become entirely self-supporting? Many of our friends doubt this. They point to the graveyard of ambitious and worthy ventures—THE COLORED AMERICAN and the VOICE OF THE NEGRO to name the latest—and say the American Negro has not yet reached the place where he appreciates a magazine enough to pay for its support. We doubt this assertion. We actually sell each month over 21,500 magazines. We are sure that if we could get THE CRISIS to persons who want it we could to-day sell 50,000. The problem of distribution is, however, extremely difficult. We cannot use the ordinary channels of distribution, but must have our own agents, and these agents must be largely missionaries in a crusade, because it hardly pays them to give their time to one magazine. 

When once THE CRISIS can reach a circulation of 50,000 its permanence and independence are assured. Until it can there must always be the element of doubt as to whether such a magazine can command the requisite support. We believe it can. The experience of the first two years is more than encouraging. THE CRISIS has to-day the largest net circulation of any periodical devoted to the Negro race in America. If the growth in the next two years parallels the past, then one at least of our problems will be solved—the problem of publicity. 



EDITORIAL

THE LAST WORD IN POLITICS.

BEFORE another number of THE CRISIS appears the next present of the United States will have been elected. We have, therefore, but this last word to colored voters and their friends. 

Those who have scanned our advertising pages this month and last have noted an unusual phenomenon: the three great political parties have in this way been appealing to the colored vote for support. They have done this out of no love to this magazine, but because they needed the publicity which this magazine alone could give and because they knew that our news columns and editorial pages were not for sale. We commend these advertisements to our readers notice. They are the last word of political appeal and they are undoubtedly sincere. 

Taking them now and comparing and weighing them, and what is the net result? The Republican party emphasizes its past relations with the Negro, the recent appointments to office, and warns against the disfranchisement and caste system of the Democratic South. The weak point in this argument is that without the consent of Republican Presidents, Republican Congresses and a Republican Supreme Court, Southern disfranchisement could not survive a single day.

The Progressive party stresses its platform of social reform, so admirable in many respects, and points to the recognition given in its party councils to the Northern Negro voter. The weak point here is the silence over the fact that Theodore Roosevelt, the perpetrator of the Brownsville outrage, has added to that blunder the Chicago disfranchisement and is appealing to the South for white votes on this platform. 

The Democratic party appeals for colored votes on the ground that other parties have done and are doing precisely the things that the Democratic party is accused of doing against the Negro, and this in spite of the fact that these parties receive the bulk of the Negro vote. If, therefore, the Negro expects Democratic help and support, why does he not give the Democrats his vote? The weak point here is that the invitation is at best negative; the Negro is asked to take a leap in the dark without specific promises as to what protection he may expect after the Democrats are in power.

In none of these cases, therefore, is the invitation satisfactory. Nevertheless, because the Socialists, with their manly stand for human rights irrespective of color, are at present out of the calculation, the Negro voter must choose between these three parties. He is asked virtually to vote. 

1. For a party which has promised and failed. 
2. For a party which has failed and promised. 
3. For a party which merely promises.

We sympathize with those faithful old black voters who will always vote the Republican ticket. We respect their fidelity but not their brains. We can understand those who, despite the unspeakable Roosevelt, accept his platform which is broad on all subjects except the greatest—human rights. This we can understand, but we cannot follow.

We sincerely believe that even in the face of promises disconcertingly vague, and in the face of the solid caste-ridden South, it is better to elect Woodrow Wilson President of the United States and prove once for all if the Democratic party dares to be Democratic when it comes to black men. It has proven that it can be in many Northern States and cities. Can it be in the nation? We hope so and we are willing to risk a trial.