The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1903-02-10
HYPOCRISY TOWARDS THE
NEGRO.

Secretary Root, as expressed in his
speech the other day in. New York
before the Union League Club, the
ehiefend and aim of the American
citizens life must be to hold Office.
The burden of their cry is that the
negroes in the South do not hold
the offices, and that they are dis
franchised" in some of the Southern
states. The hypocrisy of their
attitude upon the real welfare OF
the coIored population of the United
States was made glaringly apparent
in the speech by Secretary Root,
which is referred to. In the first
place, he must know, as all reason
able men know, that the real welfare
Of any class of men Is concerned
chiefly in the opportunity given
them to work and maintain them
selves. In the second place, it is
an undisputed fact that the labor
unions of this country absolutely
refuse to admit negroes to member
ship, and that they also bar negroes
from any labor except in Il mental
capacity. Were there any colored
men present at the banquet given
by the Union League Club last
Friday night in New York? Not
enc. OF all the three hundred and
Fifty members present, everyone was
white, and for a good reason-the
worst enemy OF the negro in the
United States today-perhaps bar
ring his fool friends who give him
! semblance Of socialrecognition to
coax votes from his race-is the
labor union. Knowing these facts,
Secretary Root had the opportunity
Of his life, as a speaker before the
Union League, to plead for the
nights of the colored man to work
at the trades, as well as the white
man, to beg the labor organizations
10 admit colored laborers to the
ranks of the carpenters, brick-lay-
ers, or mechanics of any craft. But
he absolutely ignored what any
true friend of the colored race would
have considered his duty to plead |
that equality of opportunity be !
granted the race, that negro laborers
be no longer excluded from the |
unions. But such a plea would |
perhaps have antagonized the labor
vote in the North, and so the willy /
politician adopted the course more
pleasing to his hearers and abused
the Southern people for not electing
negroes to office and for excluding
the ignorant ones of the race from
The right Of suffrage. Was there
ever a more fragrant piece of hypo-
Grisy and injustice? The same ne
5roes who are disfranchised by the
law in certain Southern states
would also be DISTINGUISHED if they
lived in Massachusetts. Rhode {
Island, Maine, New Hampshire l
Connecticut or Pennsylvania, vet
'lr. Root does not object to the +
uffrage laws of those states. Nor q
-oes he object to the illegal and a
Unjust practice Of the labor unions I
n boycotting laborers who have
ven the faintest strain of African
lood. What does it matter to the
lIllons of our colored citizens
neither a favored handful of them 0
old office or not, as compared with :
he vital importance to the masses pi
the race as to whether they shall Il
; permitted to work at the trades? 5,
his avenue of hope is now cut off "
en- them by the unions. The move in
I'D its origin in the North, even
'fore the war. Negro laborers were
ebbed by foreign workmen on the
reefs Of New York during the war. a,
he North is anxious for the colored B,