The Colorado statesman., 1914-02-14

National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People. The associa-
tion. according to committee reports,
is growing. That is we'll There can
be no doubt of the need Of organized
effort to protect the interests and even
the most elementary rights of the
negro.
This is an unpleasant thought, but
true. The appearance of Jim Crowism
in the national offices at Washington,
now thrown into higher relief by the
presidents strange reluctance to at
tack it, is only one expression of the
tendency to isolate and hold the negro
down. Recently Mr.. Hyde has de-
scribed the harsh and demoralizing
conditions with which the most worthy
class of negroes has to cope in Chica-
go. There is now appearing in the
south a new segregation proposal,
namely, that when more than half
of the acreage of a section is owned
by one race, the voters of the section
may exclude ownership by members
of another race In other words, says
Doctor Du Bois, here is the policy of
race segregation which has resulted
in the degradation and destruction of
the Indians.
The reminder is sharp-edged. Our
mistreatment of the Indians has been
admitted to be blot on the nation S
'scutcheon. Are we to drift into an
evil even greater? AS Doctor Du Bois
says, quarter century ago the solu-
tion of the negro problem was formu-
lated thus: Take the negro out of pol
itics. Train him for work, especially
for farm work" The negro has been
taken out of politics by various de-
vices of disfranchisement which. in
effect annul the thirteenth amend
ment- This process of constitutional
repeal has been accepted complaisant-
ly by a generation preoccupied with its
own material achievements and politi-
cal and social problems. The results
of this twofold policy, according to
Doctor Du Bois and other observers
are that the negro schools have been
neglected: that a large proportion of
the negro children are mot in school,
and that there has been quiet but de-
termined opposition to the success of
the higher schools for negroes, while
in the industrial and agricultural field
the negro has had to contend against
tremendous odds"
1t should be said in supplement to
this, that in the south white schools
also have been neglected; that the
south has been very poor and economi-
cally retarded, and that in many dis
tricts the poor whites are worse off
than the negroes.
Yet, after all factors are brought
within view, the human paradox ap-
pears that wherever the negro. in spite
of the staggering handicaps under
which he moves, has forced himself
upward he thereby places himself in
competition with white men and inn
mediately becomes the object of their
opposition What is really wanted of
him is humble, useful labor. Freedom
in name he is to enjoy, but not the
freedom a free soul demands, the free
dom to move forward, to enjoy the
blessings of liberty freedom in the
pursuit of happiness"
We shall not solve the negro prob
lem on any such basis. The wisdom of
Abraham Lincoln, who said this gov
ernment cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free" is wisdom to-
day. Our policy toward the negro
most certainly and most profoundly
win react upon ourselves. That is a
consideration which gives to the move
ment for the advancement of colored
people the force of enlightened self
interest.-Chicago Inter Ocean.