The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1914-04-04

the North American Review.
good enough to die alongside Of Whit
men IN saving the day at San Jnan
IaM are now learning to know the
gratitude Of Republics. s'1s
- 1nese colored people who are tins
branded are not roustabouts nr cor
ner 1oafers, or worthless lahnrare
4ney are educated men and women
uese graduates many of them. from
- over the country who have PASSED
tnelr civil service EXAMINATIONS and
entered the Governments emn1ou
Win 1ull faith in its Justice aslT;n .
merely the right to serve on enma1
terms with their fellows. The readers
OF The North American Review viii
understand the bitter humiliation 80
the segregation orders if thew can I'M
aglne themselves set anart az -,
worthy by brute authority. but thew
can hardly appreciate the added con ~
~ injury which comes from the FACT
tuat tnls is an act OF the Federal
government. The colored people have
1 porne as patiently as the children of
1sraet pore Their burdens, the WRONGS
VI ACKNOWLEDGMENT, the lynchines
ana ournlngs Of innocent and guilty
the humiliation Of the elm Crow
car, the constant personal insults Of
low whites; these were the acts ~
INDIVIDUALS or of States lately in 70
oelllon. But that the Federal Gov.
eminent. under whose flag thew havo
fought In every war, under whose
aegls they are working, which strncl1
tne1r 1etters from their limbs. should
now take the side of the oppressors
IN the year of the fiftieth anniversary
OF Lncoln's Emancipation Proclama.
tlon-th1s is what hurts and ranlzles
oeyond all else. Is it any wonder that
one OF the leaders of the race of na.
I1ona1 renown writes that he has never
seen MS people so discouraged and
so emD1ttered as to-day?
They rightly declare -as must
every fair-minded man free from
pre3udlce-that this spells caste. Thev
Del1eVe that it is intended to drive
!nem out OF the public service by rem
uering 1t lntolerable for Negroes with
se1-respect; they assert that one NJ
the Assistant Secretaries of the Treas
ury mas already held up the promo.
ZION OF two colored clerks because of
their color. Segregation is. bevond
aouot' an entering wedge, and here
IS tne chief significance of it all. Let
a precedent be established. and who
snail say what the outcome will he,
10 what lengths despotic officials will
take their way by means of discrimin- |
atlon' intimidation, by aboveboard or
methods? Who shall
prophesy to what extent this caste
Idea may not be developed in the dec
ades to come? If colored people can
thus be set apart contrary to the spirit
Of the civil-service law and of the
Constitution itself, why not others
Jews, for instance?
indeed, 1t may come to pass that Mr.,
wilson will go down to history as the
nan who set in motion terrible forces
[or evil without adequate conception
or provision of the dangers he was
~.-~'-~ - =
And his philosophy,
7 he remains silent and segregates
urther, will be wrong, his democracy
at fault; he has given us
beautiful and worthy sentiments in
lis book called ''The New Freedom"
md in his various speeches prior to
md since his election to the Presj-
|ency. But nowhere thus far do we
ind any indication that his democracy
s not limited both by the sex l1nel
nd the color line. He fails utterly to
ee that to discriminate in his democ-
acy against any one is to bring his
mole carefully reared edifice crash.
ag to the ground. The principles
pom which our democracy rests must
pply to everybody without discr1m- {
1ation, as exactly as law of science,
r they are open to doubt at once.
'hus, we should not believe in the law
graVltation if it did not apply alike {
every human being; we should not
INK very much of Mr.. Marconi's
'lreless invention if he could trans.
ut only the first half of the alpha.
ct and not the last It avails the ,
biologists for the President not at all
say that "The New Freedom" applies
My to political and economic prob:
ms, for what Is the whole race prob I
m but an economic and political 7
ne? 1t would certainly be ridiculous
II Mr.. Wilson, '>r his publishers, to
<pect any apforeciative reading G
nong the million s of disfranchised v
mer1cans, whetheA they be colored @
en- and women or white men and
omen, Of his theory of tie coming q
new political freedom at the very U
oment when there is placed upon v
q colored by two of his own Cabinet O
official stigma which no amount
appointing to Office will remove >,
What Mr.. McAdoo
'es not appreciate is that the slight,
t yielding to prejudice on the part b
a high Federal official will find v
zen tmitators in the lower official "
nks VINO think by outdoing their :
asters TO curry favor with those in q
|wer. c.
80" What he does not
Q is that If only one colored man Ii
woman has been segregated it gives
g deliberate lie to Mr.. wilson's
om1se to advance the interests of
Q race and violates his pledge Of
so1ute fair dealing. The men VINO
e lnjuring the President are not the
tenders of this Governments repu-
ton 1or honor and of the rights OF
g colored people, but those subor-
mates who by their official actions
We made dubious the Presidents
,rd. Willingly or unwittingly the
ilson Administration has allied it.
IL with the forces If reaction, and
t itself on the size of every tor
'er, of every oppresser, Of every per-
traitor of racial injustice in the
nth or the North.
But the folly of
sing this race issue does ,,ot stop