The Kansas blackman. [volume] (Topeka, Kan.) 1894-1???, 1894-05-04
MINISTER DURHAM'S CHAT
OUR RELATIONS TO INDUSTRIAL
ISM, POLITICS AND CIVIL SER
VICE REFORM DISCUSSED.
Municipal Reform and the Oolored Vote
The Work of Colored Leaders at Chicago
-Oolored Men Ready to Cooperate
The Situation is Industrial as well as
Political.
From the New York Age.

fact that the colored vote may be
useful in the work of improving
the government of our large cities.
The recognition of this fact has
been tardy; but the hesitancy of
the reformers has doubtless been
due in great measure to the bad
reputation usually accorded colored
voters. 1t is not uncommon to
hear the statement made in Boston,
New York or Philadelphia that
colored voters may be bought for
a dollar apiece. A reform which
essentially requires intelligence
and independence on the part of
the individual voter has naturally
been slow to address itself to a
class generally believed to be venal.
1t seems that the time has come
when frank statement as to the
attitude of the colored voter should
be made to show how closely asso-
ciated are practical politics, social
ed, and the industrial condition of
the colored citizen in our Northern
cities.
In the first place, it is necessary
to say, as it seems necessary in
every discussion where compari-
sons are made to bear witness
against the man and brother, that
he is simply human being, no
better than the white voter and no
worse. The same variety of
motives, of points of view, the same
selfshness on the one hand and on
the other, the same unselfshness,
impel the political action of white
and black. Colored practical pol
iticians adopt the same methods as
white practical politicians. We
produce our proportionate share of
annual crop of cranks. A Negro
is said to be the standard bearer of
one phalanx of the Coxey army.
We have colored free traders, col
ored Henry George men. A col
ored woman was one of the most
violent of the Chicago Anarchists
group. AS Henri Herbert said in
his Trenton paper many years ago,
the Negro is the Olivette of Amer
lean affairs, in church and state,
in all reforms and counterforms,
"bobbing up serenely from below"
Our reform leaders should start
out by recognizing the fact that in
approaching the colored voter they
are approaching perfectly human
voter. They have no right to be
disappointed if they find no signs
of the cropping-out of angels
wings.
That fact recognized, it is to be
observed that we have our proper
ton of clear headed men who are
interested in good government for
good governments sake. That
proportion is small among white
men; it is small among colored
men. We have our percentage in
every large city. Chicago recent
" made a MAGNIFICENT fight against /
corrupt politics. In commenting
upon the result, the Journal of |
that city said: "To the credit of
the colored voters in Chicago, the |
leaders of that race rendered as
valuable aid at the recent election /
for decent politics as any men in
that city. One challenger stopped /
the voting of a hundred repeaters. /
Furthermore no money was spent /
to secure the services of the leaders
at the polls" In every large centre
of population, there are thousands
of colored votes easily to be bought; /
but, if we may judge by the state
ments of the campaign committees,
there is quite a considerable pro-
portion Of white ''foaters" whose
political virtue is on the market.
The work at Chicago shows that
the colored people of that centre
have their proportion of earnest,
public spirited men, ready to act
in public and courageously to sup
port any movement they endorse.
[ venture the statement that every
other large city can furnish its
eolored contingent to assist in any
good work. /
Colored men are human men;
they must be permitted to develop
human motives. 1t must not be
therefore, that in the
North, colored men Of education
and ambition are forced into polit-
.cal positions whether theirinclna-
tons lead them or not. In several
Of our large cities the bosses who
are 50 freely denounced by white
reformers, have been the only class
Of white men who, as q class, have
been in any degree fair in giving
r0IOred men work. 1t is not the