The Prescott daily news., 1914-12-02
WILSON AND THE NEGROES
 Chicago Tribune

| '''Ni ehS NihioydIlCe or JOSS or
 equanimity if he had refused to hear
 the delegation which wished to protest lagainst the segregation of negro em
 ployes of the Government in Washing
 ton. He easily could have replied to the request for an audience that the matter was one of department and
 bureau administration in which he did not intend to interfere. Then the de- partment heads would have had to do the suffering and it would have been
 less important.
 By giving his opinions officially, even if not publicly, MT. Wilson put the head of the Government in the po- sltion of denying the principles of the Government and his situation was awkward and not pleasant.
 The negro question in the north of the United States generally is answer ed by compromise between prejudice and an idealistic conception of pure right. In the South it is answered in any practical fashion that may be adopted by the whites. In both sec tions the situation is happiest when it is unvexed.
 Abstractly considered it is an i'm possible situation, but it has a knack of finding adjustments. Whites and blacks manage to get along together in spite of every reason why they should not get along. Sometimes it almost seems that deferring definite plan of adjustment is only deferring and magnifying the ultimate evil, but experience reveals that the question, unagitated, has way of working it. self out.
 President Wilson came very nearly establishing a national program of treatment to be given the negro when he defended segregation. If that step | is to be taken it certainly is a serious one, and Mir. Wilson would be in better position fl he were representing na- tional rather than sectional senti- ments.
 It may be admitted that segregation satisfies the prejudices and meets the practical ideas of a great majority of whites, North and South. The diff culty is that it does not meet the ap- proval of at least the Northern con- science. The ideal of equality in citi- zenship persists as one of the cherish ! ed ideals of American citizens, and when a citizen, at least Northerner finds that it has become inconvenient to defend or accept that ideal he be- comes restless
 Therefore, theoretically he is always granting the negro full rights and practically he always is denying them. And he is much happier when the question is not raised at all, when whites and blacks adjust themselves to each other by tolerance and reserve | by consideration of undoubted preju- dices, by the simple process of slipping along somehow.
 In fashion the question is more Iaggravated in the North than in the South. In the South the rule of white dominance is established and main tained without question. The North accepts the South's judgement as to it's own necessities. In the North there is at least q theoretical concession that the negro is fully established ill all political and social rights. In the latter respect this is a fiction, al | though our laws maintain it true and the courts are supposed to enforce the law.
 We do not have much trouble in compromising. and, in the hope that the question has inherent in it it's own solution, we are best satisfied when the situation is not irritated. MT. | Wilson did iriitate it, and to no pur- pose. He ought to have known that the nation does not know what to do, and that he as the head of the nation had no authority to declare any prin- ciples or announce any programs. We are not ready to concede that any body of citizenship has less stand ing under the law than any other. It is true, but to admit it officially it of lfensive. MT. Wilson could have avoid ed the interview, and that was the only sensible thing he could have done. If the South wishes to make any such is- sue as this, it will find that the North where prejudice is violent, is never