The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-07-18
%AFRO-AMER|CAN CULLINCS

In a letter t. the Washington Star
MIR. Michael Jones has the following
to say:
AS one intensely interested in the
best possible welfare of my race, and
as one who has and will always at
tempt to help usher the negro to the
topmost peaks within the realms of
human possibilities, l want to call at
tention to the fact that practically all
the strides which have been made In
business, m and finance in
America have been made by the
thrifty, industrious and enterprising
white man in whose midst the negro
has lived, thrived and p]rospered.
firmly believe that the colored race
has risen no higher than the present
unsatisfactory position it now occu-
pies largely because of its lack of a
larger participation in the business,
commercial and financial phase of u
American life. Doubtless there are
many reasons why this is true. How
ever, one of the greatest-if not the
! greatest-reasons for this lamentable
fact is so well explained in a letter
| received from Senator Works, and
so much in harmony with my convic-
ton, that l take the liberty to quote
from that keen-sighted statesman. Il
believe" says Senator Works, that if
the colored people would leave off
thinking so much about politics and
political advantage and turn their at
'tention more largely to advancement
along business lines and useful occu-
pations they would succeed very much
better than they have in the past and
would remove much of the opposition
that exists against their race.
They have accomplished absolutely
nothing in a political way, excepting
that a very few of their number, com
paratively. succeed in securing small
Offices, and the great masses of the
people receive no benefits from their
participation in politics"
l repeat that Senator Works ex-
presses my sentiments in this regard.
| want to be correctly understood. l
believe that any nation which takes
the ballot or any other birthright from
any group of her citizens because of
race, previous condition of servitude
or political advantage commits a
wrong, a deep and bitter wrong, and
will ultimately suffer-inevitably so;
but l am thoroughly convinced that
the American colored man, or any
other materially weak race in a SINH
lar condition, should abandon politics,
as such, and strive to build and
strengthen the business, commercial
and financial phases of its life.
With considerable interest | have
noted that during the past four
months colored inhabitants of the Dis.
trict of Columbia have assembled at
eighteen monster mass meetings fol
the express purpose of protesting
against segregating of the colored EN-.
ployes in government departments,
With a much larger degree of both in
terest and satisfaction have | observed
that during this same period of time
progressive business men of my race
in this city have held forty-fve meet
ings for the specific purpose of urg-
ing colored citizens of the District to
direct more of their energy toward
the development of business among
the race. l trust that more mem
bers of my race, especially in the city
of Washington, will realize the great
advantage and seize the vast opportu,
nifty of conducting independent bust.
nesses of their own instead of being
dependent upon some obscure govern
ment position that in many instances
subjects them to humiliation, discrimi-
nation and segregation.