The Twin City star., 1914-02-13

up our COZ ntry. that all may get togeth.
er for one great purpose-free opportu-
nifty to each. that the best type may be
developed. There must be confusion In
the minds Of many who come to us
as to the difference between our high
national motives and the acts of the
individual. do not want to add to
the fame that has been kindled-far
from 1t. Such contribution as | can
make to this discussion is to dwell
with all the emphasis within my pow.
er upon the wrong that we do our.
selves when We wrong or degrade OF
in any way injure any of the people
who are in our midst. We commit
ourselves to a wrong or degrade
ton or an injury when we do not pro-
test against it."
Mr.. Willard, chairman Of the board of
directors Of the association, made the
principal address Of the evening.
This bill as it stands represents a
radical step in the movement for rural
discrimination against negroes in the
SOUTH" he asserted. Coming on the
heels Of the campaign for farm segre-
cation, 1t makes 1t possible to deprive
the Negroes Of their share Of federal
appropriations for agricultural educa-
ton by allowing southern legislatures
to give the entire amount to white
colleges. Members Of the committee
which framed the bill and Of the house
and senate" he said. "have admitted
that this fact was taken into con-
siderat1on and that the colored col
leges would doubtless get little of the
money. The only bill under which
they have benefited was that Of 1890,
which provided for equitable division
of the funds as does the Jones amend
ment to the Smith-Lever bill, for which
the association is fighting now" Mr..
Willard characterized the bill as one
Of the most vicious that have in a long
time brought before the federal gov
ernment the issue Of ratifying a policy
Of race discrimination. Mr.. Willard
continued:
"Now, I want to say few words to
you about the extraordinary position In
which the Democratic party finds itself
today, with its president preaching a
new freedom and a number Of reac-
uonary senator's, congressman and cab
met officers urging new slavery. For
the violent anti-Negro southern sena-
tors-it is to them I want to pay my
respects tonight-are Of the most reac-
tonary kind. There is no more amaz-
ing spectacle in our public life than the
eagerness with which they mouth the
now familiar slogan that the people
shall rule; that special privilege must
cease; that we must have direct rule
by the people; that the bosses must 60;
that Wall street must be. put in its
proper place and the alliance between
big business and politics cease.
There are no bosses today compa-
rable to them; there are none others
elected to Office who so clearly repre-
sent only minority Of the adults with
In their election districts or states;
there are none others the country over
as determined that all the people shall
not rule, but only a fraction thereof
They are today before God and the ma
ton the chief apostles of reaction-the
Vardamans, Tillmans, Hoke Smiths
and all the rest Of the Negro batting
crowd who have risen to eminence on
the back Of the Negro, defaming and
expressing him as they went.
Then, when they fail to rise, you
cheerfully assert that this proves the
Negro incapable Of advancing and half
brother to an OK. You deprive the
Negro child Of all schooling, as 5000
are deprived in Atlanta, turn him
adrift to roam in slum streets. and
then If he grows up an animal you say
the responsibility is his; that that
proves him a beast and his race in
herently criminal. Never was there
more brazen assertion that people
cannot rise in the scale Of civilization
and a more determined effort to pre-.
vent their rising.
But I have another indictment for
these men. claim that they mis-
represent the heart and conscience and
brains of the true south, the south of
chivalry and fair playa real south
that has lain dormant, but is beginning
now to stir. 1t Is not for nothing that
we have Breckinridge of Kentucky
foremost among our workers in the
National Association For the Advance
ment Of Colored People. 1t is Of no
little Importance that our protest
against the segregation Of the races in
Washington was upheld to the letter
by another Breckenridge in his news
paper in Kentucky. 1t is Of the ut.
most significance that the papers by
southern men read before the southern
sociological conference last spring and
published under the title Of The HUI
man Way voice the same sentiments
to be heard at our National Association
For the Advancement Of Colored Peo-
pie meetings-for instance, denuncia-
ton Of the jimcrow car and demand
for the ballot for the worthy black
man.
"It meant much when prominent
southern educator came to our annual
meeting in New York last year and
declared that what the Negro needed
in the south was not less but more
social equality, and proposal for a
national race commission to study the
problem, which we laid before the
president last May, was conceived by