The Colorado statesman., 1912-09-07

Ine Philadelphia Tribune has q
philosopher on it's staff who signs him
self Just Gone" In a recent issue of
the Tribune he says: There are some
.mong us who seem to be worried be-
cause of the evident steady growth of
color prejudice. They should remem-
Der that the proper thing to do is to
stop worrying and bend their energies
to improving conditions. Other classes
have been as much despised as are we.
For Christian to associate with a
Jew years ago was considered de-
grading act. And yet by industry and
economy the Jew has overcome it. The
serf of Russia is not deprived of his
rights because of his color, nor is the
Irishman because of his brogue. The
underlying cause in all such cases is
condition, such as by comparison
shows one class of people to be
stronger than another. We must,
therefore. develop our powers by all
the means within our reach. Many
of us grow enthusiastic over white peo-
pies business, but show little or no
interest in affairs which concern us
directly. We allow vice to flourish
without an effort to check it; wrongs
to be plotted against us without striv-
ing to checkmate them, and fakirs,
both in church and civic life to pursue
the even tenor of their ways while we
smile; talk Of their smart tricks, but
make no organized effort to stop them
in their mad career. AS though un-
mindful of the fact that these things
affect conditions"
And it should not be overlooked that
negroes have as much color prejudice
as other sorts of people, and have as
nasty a way of showing it. 1t is
hard to find negro who thinks and
speaks well of another negro, before
his face or behind his back.
The Christian Recorder says: Fol
lowing the lead of Chicago, Philadel-
phia has appointed a commission to
study the social evil, and the condi-
tions creating vice in this community.
This is step forward. The Chicago
commission has a colored member
our Bishop C. 7. Shaffer. 1t is un-
fortunate that Philadelphia, with a
larger colored population by two
fold, has no such representation. For
the vice question greatly concerns our
people; not that we are given more
to vice than others, but that, being
poor. as a rule, many Of our neigh
borhoods have forced upon them con-
ditions which they are unable to pre-
vent. 1t is notorious that great deal
of the vice of the white race is con-
centrated in colored communities. This
condition deserves most careful study,
and we are sure Philadelphia's COM
mission will lose much of its efficiency
because 1t has no person on it who has
studied first hand and knows condi-
tions among our hundred thousand
people of color"
The best way for a person to get
things done for himself needful to be
done is to take the lead in talking and
doing them, and in a short time the
things will be done. The negro min
listers of Philadelphia, and of every
other large city in the Union, should
be an association in restraint of the So
cial evil. In some cities they already
have such, as in Chicago, but all the
cities need it. Negroes OF the large
cities have got to organize themselves
and combat immortality, crime and pow
erty as others do it. When they have
so organized they become factor to
be counted in all of the uplift work
in the community and to share in the
moneys set apart by public appropria-
ton or charitable benevolence to aid
in improving and relieving immoral,
criminal and INDECENT conditions.