Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-08-20

able man." he asserted. IT work hard
for a living and am a decent citizen. I
am not to blame for crimes committed
by my race more than for crimes COM
individual do much to prevent crime
among those of my color" He was
writhing under the race stigma, feel
ing the scorch of racial prejudice and
distaste and injustice.
1t is hard to find comfort for such
men. 1t is part of the curse of the
Der of the race prone to impulse, emo
tional and ignorant. Color is not the
only distinction recognized by race
prejudice and race hatred. The in
dividual of a hated or despised race
who aspires faces a cruel world. He
lacks standing with the race upon
which he models himself and learns to
despise his own. When, however, the
color Of his skin or unnlistakable
physical characteristics proclaim his
race as he walks abroad his sorrows
multiply and obstacles rise immovable
in his path. The negro, especially in
the south is surrounded by environ
ment that inculcates in his own mind
a contempt for his kind and his color
He is put apart as a helot and denied
even the common rights of labor. And
this is an incentive to crime and the
excuse of ignorance.
A bright colored boy once worked for
the Times Republican. AS he grew
towards manhood he grew careless of
himself. One day one of the editors
with whom the boy worked took him
do you want to be, a respectable color
ed man or niger? It's one of the
two. If you grow tough you will be
niger. If you attend to your work
keep your own self-respect and stay
clean you'll be a respectable colored
man. Which Is it?" The boy looked
up with despair in his eyes. MIR. -
said he. Il can't be anything but
niger to all of you no matter what 1
me as a niger I've made up my
mind that it isn't worth while to try
can't get into store. there isn't
anything for me to do like a white
man. I've got to black shoes or clean
spittoons or something like that
What's the use?" No good answer oc-
CURED to r1le editor as he looked into
the eyes that met his squarely and
asked unutterable questions, the ques-
ton and appeal of a race 1t might
have been easy TO talk platitudes to
that boy and tell him of the desert of
duty we'll done but it did not seem SO.
There wasn't any white mans place for
that boy. He knew it. What was the
use of lying to him?
There is now no satisfactory answer
to either questioner, the man or the
boy. Perhaps the ages may answer 1t
but the centuries have been trying to
find a satisfactory answer to the He
brew for more than eighteen hundred
years and the reply is not yet COM
plete. Russias is the answer of the
middle ages. Americas reply lacks
much. How can this generation answer
the race which has the marks of the
shackles on its wrists and ankles and
the memory of slavery in it's faces? If
we believe in God we must have faith
that it will be answered, but genera
tons of men must die and other gem
erations of boys replace them and pass
in their turn. giving place to them who
must die and follow them before. in
the mighty processes of the universe,
the ultimate answer comes
But this we do know; the blame is
not so much with the submerged race
as with the dominant. Prejudice is
always the foe of right and hatred is
the handmade of injustice. The white
man must play fair. He isn't doing it.
1t is not enough to prate of the con-
stitution and of the blood shed for uni
Iversal human rights if we refuse to
render to individuals the rights we
won in battle for race. The problem
is beyond. this century but the white
man who tries can help to solve it,
And in the meantime the questioning
eyes of the boy who has lost hope and
the appeal OF the man who is trying
to retain hope are cast upon the
mightiest and most splendid race of all
time begging, with unutterable pathos,
for their answer. What is it? Answer
America.