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72 THE CRISIS

would be to bring so bitter a disgrace upon any such community that every man or woman residing there would be ashamed. They are doubtless persons in East St. Louis who feel ashamed of their community, but not enough of them to make a repetition of the horror impossible. 

But if every unpunished lynching were followed by a disfranchisement of the entire town, every citizen would immediately and personally feel his shame. There would be such an uprising, such indignation against the ruffians who had brought such a public disgrace upon their respectable neighbors, that the authorities would be compelled to enforce the laws, whereas at present they are actually discouraged in all their efforts.

Disfranchising the many innocent for the crimes of a few worthless ruffians may seem unjust. But it must be remembered that it is owing to the indifference if the lazy hostility of the many that the few have been able to perpetrate their barbarous lynchings with impunity.

AFRICA
THE Inter-Allied Labor Conference in London formulated the following "war aims" with regard to Africa, according to the New Republic:

As regards more especially the colonies of all the belligerents in Tropical Africa, from sea to sea, including the whole of the region north of the Zambesi and south of the Sahara, the Conference condemns any imperialist idea which would make these countries the booty of one or several nations, exploit them for the profit of the capitalist or use them for the promotion of the militarist aims of the governments. 

With respect to these colonies the Conference declares in favor of a system of control, established by international agreement, under the League of Nations and maintained by its guarantee, which whilst respecting national sovereignty, would be alike inspired by broad conceptions of economic freedom and concerned to safeguard the rights of the natives under the best conditions possible for them, and in particular:

(1) It would take account in each locality of the wishes of the people, expressed in the form which is possible for them.
(2) The interests of the native tribes as regards the ownership of the soil would be maintained.
(3) The whole of the revenues would be devoted to the well-being and development of the colonies themselves.

[[image, depiction of a physical embodiment of war as a sword-bearing soldier liberating Black laborers from economic slavery]]

[[caption]] WAR, THE GRIM EMANCIPATOR

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National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

[[image, portrait of William Stanley Beaumont Braithwaite]]

WILLIAM STANLEY BEAUMONT BRAITHWAITE, Fourth Spingarn Medalist; born in Boston, Mass., December 6, 1878. He is the author of two volumes of verse, three anthologies of English poetry and five anthologies of American magazine verse. He is the most prominent critic of poetry in America.

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