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32 THE CRISES MIGRATION If the Negro prefers the North to the South;if he prefers the opportunities there to the opportunities under Southern skies, then let him go, and may peace go with him. Fort Worth, Tex.,Record. Sheriff Alcorn of Chicot County publishes a notice to planters in the Chicot Spectator asking them to notify him of supposed agents who claim to be selling small articles to the Negroes. The sheriff's information is that these supposed agents or peddlers are labor agents from the North, and he advises plantation owners to warn them that they will be arrested and prosecuted if they attempt to spread dissatisfaction among the laborers in Chicot County. Forest City, Ark., Messenger. THE COURTS "At the moment a black form was seen to move forward through the Confederate lines, and, in spite of the lead and iron hail, he rushed to the wounded officer. He took him in his arms tenderly and carried him back to safety. That Colonel was my brother. A hero who could do that at Gettysburg cannot be a murderer. Stand up, Tom, and open your shirt." The prisoner rose opened his shirt and showed the scar of the wound which marked his heroic devotion to his master. Not another word did the brilliant orator utter. He submitted the case to the white jury before him and without leaving their seats they rendered the verdict of not guilty. Generally this is the attitude today of the white people of the South toward the Negro. - New Orleans, La., States. In Roland v. State in the Supreme Court of Tennessee (May, 1917, 194 S.W., 1097), a conviction of a Negro for an alleged assault upon a white woman was reversed because of gross misconduct of the public prosecutor in summing up to the jury. The court observes that "the situation was one calculated to excite the strongest passions of the jurors." The principal question was as to the identity of the assailant. The defendant had introduced proof of an alibi, and several witnesses, including respectable Negroes and two white men, testified to the defendant's good character. This being the situation, the assistant district attorney, after animadverting upon the Negro witnesses, said: "But even at that, I have more respect for these nigger witnesses than I have for these two white witnesses who have volunteered to come here and testify in favor of a nigger that he has a good reputation." - New York Law Journal. FARMERS Additional legislation may be necessary to reach the drifting Negroes, but all should be rounded up without delay, and those fit for service in the army sent to France, and all others placed under guard and forced to get busy on the Southern farm. These blacks have no business in the North making trouble when they can be used to so much advantage in the South, or in France. By all means these Negroes should be gathered up at once and pressed into service of the country, and at the same time, special attention should be directed to labor agents. - Columbus, Ga., Ledger. There is money in farming, lots of it, but the Negro farmer has been systematically robbed by the white man since the close of the Civil War. They haven't been treated right and no one can blame them for quitting the soil. If the Negro farmers would be returned all the interest in excess of 8 percent charged them for money advanced them, they would today be living in brownstone mansions, just as the rich white advancers do. - Mayor W.T. Robinson, Montgomery, Ala. MOBS As twelve persons were killed and seventy were murderously assaulted, and as, by all accounts, a number took part in each assault, it is clear that several hundred murderers or would-be murderers are at large in this community. - City Committee on the Atlanta riot, 1906. In the South even lawless punishment runs against the individual. In the North it runs against the entire membership of the race that is in sight. - Memphis, Tenn., Commercial-Appeal. Southern people engage in an occasional lynching bee, but they never murder Negroes in wholesale lots like they do in East St. Louis, Springfield, Ill., and Fort Wayne, Ind. - Sioux City, Iowa, Tribune. THE LOOKING GLASS P33 INDUSTRIAL FREEDOM A compromise of the controversy concerning the driving of automobiles by Negroes has been agreed upon by committees representing the white churches of Miami and the colored Board of Trade. The terms of the proposed compromise are: Negros are to be fully protected in their right to drive their own cars. Negroes are to be allowed to drive buses and cars for hire, for the transportation of Negroes only. The solicitation of Negro patronage by white car and bus drivers is to be discouraged as far as possible. - Miami, Fla., Metropolis In his address to the Rotary Club yesterday, President I.H. Fetty of the Port Wentworth Lumber Company predicted for Savannah a wonderful industrial future, but he directed attention also to a lamentable obstacle; the shortage of labor. He urged upon the civic organizations and businessmen of Savannah the imperative need of such steps as will check the outgoing tide of Negroes and attract additional Negro laborers to the city. - Savannah, Ga. News. PERSONAL SAFETY Every decent Negro at the South is as safe in his life, his liberty and his property as the decent white man. It is only the vicious Negro who is unsafe in the South. - Mobile, Ala., Ledger. If a Negro should insult me, as a white man, the community would b expect me to forcibly resent it. Because the RULING sentiment demands that ALL white men must do so, for our mutual protection. If I did that and the Negro beat me instead, then the community, this community, any community, whether they like me or not, would be forced to beat the Negro to show others that they must not strike a white man. If he resisted and fought back they would kill him. That is the case of Anthony Crawford, and it will be the same with any other Negro in any community who dares to raise his hand against white men, no matter what the immediate cause.-Abbeville, S.C., Scimitar. Which is the real South? Which papers are telling the truth and which are writing for "Northern Consumption?" We are not pausing for replies. BLACK SOLDIERS The letter of Colonel Charles Young, anent his retirement, is published in The Pittsburg [[Pittsburgh]] Courier and is a document of which any race may be proud: S.O. No. 175, War department, retires me from active service with the rank of Colonel and places me on active military duty with the Militia, State of Ohio. Since the Militia is mustered into the service I am, so far as that goes, jobless at this date. It seems regrettable for both the country and our people, for I could have done good work for both, but as the President willed it and ordered it, I submit cheerfully, like a soldier. He is the Commander-in-Chief, you know. Perhaps I may yet be able to convince the authorities that I am not sick and thus be permitted to serve. While I know the chagrin that many of our people, and not a few whites, feel in this regard, still I pray that there shall be no word of protest at this time. Let us not embarrass the administration which has only too many serious problems on its hands anyway. We love our country too well not to desire its early success in this war. If its interest can be best subserved by the attitude which in spite of ourselves and our desires seems to be shaping itself toward colored officers, we are too broadminded not to allow it free had.... In spite of the findings of the doctors in my case (and I believe them sincere and perfectly honest and upright in their dealings) still I am not now nor have I felt a sick moment. I believe my case is a supernormal one in which the high blood pressure is compensatory for the great amount of work that in recent years has fallen to my lot in the Tropics, and I believed such to be the final opinion of the board. But let it go as it is. I mention this fact to simply reassure any and all that physically I believe myself in condition to render as full and as strenuous service as ever, when the occasion arises. Testimony of the efficiency of Negro troops abroad continues to come. It is said that the German line has been broken but once during the war and that by black Turcos, who penetrated to a depth of ten miles. They were not taken prisoners. They were surrounded by Germans and shot to death in cold blood. The Southern Workman quotes Hugh Brown as saying of the Senegalese: They are excellent with the bayonet and stand the strain in the trenches even better than some of the white troops. It is particularly significant that the Senegalese Negroes were used to aid in the retaking of Douamont; it is an excellent compliment to their ability. In glancing over the art posters of the war and the literature of the last year, one finds any number of references to
