Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-07-18
AFRO-AMERCAN CULL|NCS

William Henry Lewis, one of the
country's most eminent colored men,
was a star football player at Harvard.
q member of the Massachusetts state
legislature. and recently, assistant
United States attorney general. Book
er Washington writes about him Ii
the American Magazine in part as
follows: In 1911, when he was ap-
pointed to the position he occupied
until recently, that Of assistant attor.
ney general Of the United States, the
colored men Of Boston gave him q
banquet at one Of the leading hotels
of the city. At this banquet, in reply
to the congratulations showered upon
him by other speakers, Mr.. Lewis
made a speech in which he made two
references that particularly impressed
me. He recalled the fact that in this
same hotel in which he was at that
moment an honored guest, he had
once served in the capacity of wait
er; and in reference to the honor that
clared that he had no Illusion, he
knew, he said, that 1t was not in
spite of, but because Of the fact that
he was a negro that he had been hon
ored with this high Office. He added
that he accepted the responsibility of
the position not merely as a distinc-
ton conferred upon himself but upon
the whole race which he represented.
The reason l mention this fact is be-
cause it is not always comfortable to
be a colored man in this country, and
the Inconvenience frequently increase
as individuals, either by fortune or
through their own particular merits,
succeed in rising to position above
the masses Of their fellows. One rea.
son why I, with mos: other colored
people, believe in, honor and respect
Mr. Lewis Is because, in the high po-
sition in which he has risen, he has
neither forgotten his own path nor
sought to separate himself from the
race to which he belongs"
Once more the red flag Of race
prejudice is being waved in Washing
ton, and the days Of reconstruction are
being lived. over again, according to
a Washington correspondent of the
Detroit Free Press. The old race
question is to the fore In the national
capital with its accompaniment Of
long-winded arguments pro and con on
the question. The revival of the ques-
ton is due to the organization here
not long ago of the National Fair
Play association, which, over night,
has sprung into an important position,
and automatically the problem has
opened up again like an old wound.
The basis of all the alteration is the
question of whether or not white men
and black men, white women and
black women should be compelled to
work side by side in government de-
partmental offices. And it is the north
and the south which are disputing the
question. as it always has been and it
ever will be when the race question is
at the bar. In conformity with the an
cient theory expressed by Thomas JEFF
ferson In the declaration of indepen-
dence to the effect that mankind are
more inclined to suffer evils which
such evils are sufferable" than over
throw the organized system under
which they are living and working,
evil wrought by the enforced close
association Of the two races has been
suffered for long time. because those
in charge have considered it better to
suffer those evils than to disorganize
the present order of things. But every
few years some man or some society
or organization Of employees brings the
question up again and 1t is all
thrashed out along the lines of it's
original premises. Such an organize
ton now is in process.