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180 THE CRISIS races. There should be no color line drawn, all on one side of which be declared outlaws. Did President Wilson in his address to Congress forget the thoroughly undemocratic treatment of a whole mass of people in this country? Benjamin Albin Arnold, writing in the New York Evening Post, feels this must be the case: President Wilson in his address to Congress said that we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government. The more I read and think of these words the more I think of conditions in this country that surely cannot escape the notice of the President. I wonder if he ever thinks that he can convince the world that America really stands for humanity so long as he never raises his voice in behalf of the down-trodden people of his own country. I wonder if he ever thinks of the State Governments of the South, many of them more despotic than any in Europe; of the thousands of American citizens deprived of the right of suffrage, guaranteed them by the Constitution of their country; of the Jim Crow cars, segregation acts, and other hardships heaped upon a defenceless people without cause; I wonder what he thinks of the affair at Memphis, when people came from miles around to see a poor wretch burned to death. We hear a lot about the cruelty of the Germans, and that the world can only be made safe for democracy by the destruction of their power. I think if the President would notify the Governors of the Southern States that lynchings must cease, and that every unfair law be erased from their statute books, he would go a long ways toward making this country the real champion of the cause of democracy. I cannot understand how it is that America is willing to spend her treasure and the blood of her sons to secure liberty for the Belgians, Poles, Germans, and all the other nations of Europe, and at the same time deny to ten millions of its most loyal subjects the liberties guaranteed them by their Constitution. The American Negro is humiliated and degraded every day by his Government; he sees great signs telling men that their country needs them, and when he tries to enlist he is coldly refused. Here is a significant bit from the Macon, Ga., Telegraph. Speaking of registration day, the editor says: In Jasper county, where there has before now been serious racial trouble, women's organizations had a flower and a little emblem for every man who registered. On the coat lapel of every white man was pinned the little tribute by a white woman, into the hand of every Negro was placed a similar little tribute by the white women. The line was drawn clearly, boldly though tactfully, but the universal service got its recognition. The italics, of course, are ours. Yet these women are not too proud to have Negro soldiers fight for them. THE AFFAIR AT SCHENECTADY The strike in the General Electric Company at Schenectady has been amicably concluded. The Gazette (Schenectady, N.Y.) says: According to Mr. Emmons, King, the Negro student-worker, will remain in shop 23 under the exact conditions which obtained when the men walked out. Mr. Emmons, who is the company's vice-president, has issued the following statement: "I am glad that the men have accepted my advice and will return to their places and will work peaceably with all their fellow workmen. "The young man, Wendell King, remains in his present place." The Schenectady Knickerbocker Press makes this significant observation: The fact that 5,000 men have been idle for eight days because one Negro student was doing the work of a machinist, is proving expensive to the strikers. The impression left by the strike has not been a pleasant one. The Utica, N. Y., Press feels that— The Schenectady incident is symptomatic. From denial of political rights and equal protection of the laws to denial of economic opportunity to the Negro and finally even of the commonest subject rights are natural gradations. Both of either constitutes a flagrant violation of the democratic spirit of which America has been too fond of believing itself the especial champion and guardian. And the Charlotte, N. C., Observer cannot miss this opportunity to remind the North of its inhospitable reception of the Negro immigrant: The reception of the Negro in the North has not been entirely up to his expectations in all cases. If the truth were known it has met his previously conceived notion in but few. At Schenectady two thousand workmen went out on strike because one lone, unoffending Negro had been given employment in the shops—and this in war times when the employment of an undesirable laborer might have been expected to be minimized. In normal times the appearance of a Negro among the Schenectady workmen might have resulted in a riot instead of a simple strike. The significance is in the fact that these workmen supposed that one Negro having been admitted to work alongside them, others would naturally follow, and they will not stand for that. Shadows of Light [[image - photograph of three men standing in front of a house]] [[caption]] THE LAST OF THE "OLD GUARD" M. W. Gibbs Ex-Gov. Pinchback, Who is the Sole Survivor James Lewis [[/caption]]
