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26 THE CRISIS white friends become mortified, the committee was humiliated. The legal department of the city framed up an excuse. The ordinance was not drawn up. Thus again the race was sold out by unprincipled leaders for a few pieces of silver! Doctor Spingarn was right when he said, "What the colored people need most of all is not money, or land, or political power, or patronizing friends, but unpurchasable leaders-leaders who would not sell their souls for the good will of their neighbors or for big buildings, any more than they would for a dollar or a job." LINCOLN. A COLORED writer sends this letter to the Columbus, Ohio, Despatch: I am about to relate to you what seems to me rather pathetic. On Monday, Feb. 12, the members of East High School celebrated Abraham Lincoln's birthday and a colored girl who is in attendance at East High said to her mother on returning from school, "We had a lovely program today in honor of Abraham Lincoln, but, mother it seems to me we might have had a colored boy or girl somewhere on the program as Lincoln was such as a friend to the Negro." They never ask us to participate in other rhetoricals but it seems that we might have had a representative on this program so that we could say something in honor of the "great emancipator." I overheard a conversation not long ago between some little colored boys who had been attending manual training school. One said to the other, "I wonder why the teacher never lets us use the saw; he always lets the white boys saw." These one or two illustrations are only similar to what we hear almost every day. Now, the writer is a Buckeye by birth and never attended a Negro school, but we never knew any such prejudice here in Ohio a few years ago. Our people are advancing along all lines, yet the prejudices grow stronger. We are barred from picture shows, in fact, discriminated against in almost all public places; get only a half show in public schools, which are supposed to be free alike to Irish, Italian, Jew, heathen Chinese and all classes. THE MERRIMAC COLONEL L. B. CANNON tells this story in the Troy, N. Y., Record: "Our experiences with the Merrimac convinced the army and naval offices that she was proof against all gun fire. Even our largest guns, then the largest afloat in the world, were ineffectual against her because of the peculiar formation of her sloping roof of armor. It was decided that the only way to destroy her was by ramming her. Some little time after the duel in Hampton Roads (this was between the Monitor and Merrimac), early in the month of April, four big steamships, the Vanderbilt, the Arago, the Ericsson and the Illinois-came down to Fort Monroe to be in the harbor in readiness to attack the Merrimac if she came out and destroy her by running her down. "All the steamships came down under sealed orders. Captain Gadsden of the Arago, a merchant ship chartered for this service, on reaching Fort Monroe and opening his orders found that his ship was to be a ram. His crew in some way got to know the nature of the mission their ship was on, and the dangerous character of the work in which they were to engage, and promptly deserted in a body.... "General Wood brought Captain Gadsden to me and the latter related to me the conditions of affairs. He said Negroes would do for his purpose quite as well as white men and asked me if I would give him fifty Negroes. "'Yes,' I answered, 'I will let you have all the Negroes you want under certain conditions.' "'What are they?' asked Captain Gadsden. "'They must be volunteers,' I said. "They must understand exactly the nature of the service expected of them, all its dangers and possibilities, and must undertake it voluntarily, or they are of no use whatever to you. I cannot tell whether or not they volunteer. But I will make the experiment if you like. They must further be rated on the ship's books and their standing must be the same as that of the crew that deserted.' "Captain Gadsden agreed to these conditions. "At 12 o'clock Captain Wilder had three hundred and fifty sturdy Negro stevedores drawn up in double lines. Captain Wilder made an address to them. "Not a sign of emotion was visible on the countenance of any of the Negroes during Captain Wilder's address. They stood 27 THE LOOKING GLASS like som many sphinxes. There was no response to his appeal. "I was discouraged and disgusted, for I was not prepared for such a thoroughly disheartening exhibition of indifference. But I decided to make an attempt myself to see if they understood just their circumstances, and had any appreciation of the opportunity thus offered to them. I addressed them:... "We have brought down four big ships to destroy the Merrimac by ramming her. The enterprise is a hazardous one, but it is full of glory. From on board one ship the white sailors have deserted because of the hazard of the service. It is my privilege to offer to fifty of you the opportunity to volunteer to go on that ship. Every man who survives will be a hero and those who fall will be martyrs. Now those boys who will volunteer to go on board this fighting ship will move three paces to the front. "And the whole line moved up in a solid, column, as though actuated by a single impulse. It was a thrilling response, and the most remarkable and impressive scene I ever witnessed. "We picked out fifty of the most likely men and they were sent at once aboard the Arago. They were escorted down to the boats by all the Negroes around about, with shouting, singing and praying and every demonstration of exultant joy. It was a most exciting and inspiring sight. "The volunteers out aboard the Arago proved themselves most apt and willing workers and soon proved their value and justified our confidence in them. They were equipped as sailors, and when they came ashore the Negroes in our lines almost worshipped them. "A week or two after this incident Captain Fox, first assistant secretary of the navy, came down to Fort Monroe. I told him what we had and he was greatly interested and saw the men and inquired fully as to their capabilities and value. Shortly afterward he issued an order that the fleets be recruited entirely from Negroes." SOCIAL GOSPEL A. M. TRAWICK, a Southern man, has written a splendid article on the "Social Gospel and Racial Relationship" in the Epworth Era, one of the organs of the Methodist Church, South: Does the gospel of social living offer any help in the solution of race difficulties? Are differences between white men and colored men too deep to be bridged by active human love? Is not the problem better stated as a human question than as a race question? We frankly admit that a problem exists and that it is national in its significance. Some among us say that there is no problem, for the Negro had learned to "keep his place" in a white man's civilization. This easy disposition of the problem is the fallacy of "begging the question." The really vital question at issue is: "What is the Negro's place in civilization?" The answer cannot be reached by an appeal to things as they are or to things as some man might wish they were. Others attempt to reduce the problem to its lowest terms by asserting that the Negro cannot advance beyond a certain point fixed by the Creator when he made him a Negro. This attempt to classify races as superior and inferior is both unscientific and unchristian. No one has ever succeeded in establishing the dead line of Negro intelligence and morality. Still others argue: "The Southern white men know all about the Negro; leave the question to them." There is no Southern attitude on the Negro question. Men of the South differ among themselves both in their method of solving it. They have, indeed, a very grave responsibility in the premises which they may not at the price of their honor evade or transfer to others. But the Negro problem belongs to the nation, and it appeals to the brain and heart and character of the nation for its final answer. He goes on to expound the value of the Negro as a laborer, as a buyer, as a property owner, and as a home builder. He recognizes the higher achievements of the Negro. He continues: The purpose of the foregoing discussion is to demonstrate what to many minds is still a matter of doubt. The Negro is not a beast of burden, nor a mere imitator of the white man. He is rendering his own independent service to a higher society. He is not a drawback to civilization; he is indispensable to American life, and the destiny of these western lands will be imperfectly achieved if he does not perform his own racial mission. It is not the argument of this paper that all Negroes have had a part in contributing all the valuable things herein set forth, for such an argument to one who had lived all his days in the South would be an inexcusable act of stupidity. But it is unhesitatingly affirmed that the race of Negroes had been and is an indispensable benefit to American society, and the best things the few have achieved is a prophecy of still greater benefits the many will confer. We enter no plea for charity to be granted to a race of "hewers of wood and drawers of
