The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1914-01-02
SIMPLE JUSTICE
FOR OUR RACE
Chicago JurIst Pleads For Il
In Stirring Address. Z ..s y
RACE HAS PROVED ITS WORTH

RACE HAS PROVED ITS WORTH
Judge Marcus A. kavanaush In Dis
eusslns the Negro Problem suggests
Three Methods For lie Solution,
Which He Believes 10 Not ImpessibIs
70 Accomplish.
Chicago.-The speech Of Judge Mar
Gus A. Kavanaugh of the superior
court in this city not long ago, in
which he gave his views CONCERNING
the SO called race problem, has attract
cd wide comment 1t has been sug-
gested by some Of our people that the
speech be printed In pamphlet form
and distributed broadcast. That would
,, be wise thing to do, but for the bens-
at Of the readers Of this paper especi-
ally and the race generally the full
text Of Judge Kavanaugh's speech n
here given. HE
1t was delivered before the Irish
Fellowship club and is as follows:
Among the many grave problems
pressing upon this people there is, It
seems to me, one neglected question
OF crying Importance: How much have
We freed the Negro? The other day
a semiprofessional concern advertised
for Negro girl cashier. There were
sixty-four applications for that one po-
sition. The majority Of the girls who
applied had high school edueations, be-
cause the Negro will make the most
pitiable sacrifices to give his children
learning. These were neatly dressed.
modest appearing and intelligent The
one who succeeded had made ffty-two
other fruitless efforts to get position.
l do not like to let my mind follow
the sixty-three unsuccessful young
girls In the weary. heartbreaking
search they are still pursuing, aud yet
1t will be demanded Of these young
women that behind their dark, humil-
lated cheeks they keep white souls
burning. To their infinite credit most
Of them will. This instance illustrates
the attitude Of the American public
toward the Negro. Let black man
get work Of equal rank among white
brick masons, electricians, clerks,
bookkeepers, and what happens? Ev-
cry white employee will quit the job
as though the place had been covered
by pestilence. There is not q great
store in Chicago that dare put q Negro
clerk behind its counters, no meter
how competent he may be. TheN is
not a street railway that dares to put
Negro to work on one Of its cars.
The everyday story Of a Negro hunting
house in which to live is filled with
burning humiliation and injustice. And
yet the Negro Of pure African blood
Is rare; many Of them are almost
white-oppressed with white mems
brains, cursed with white mems
hearts, hopelessly consumed with white
mems ideals and aspirations.
II ask you this afternoon to put
yourselves and your families In the
place Of an honest. respectable Negro,
with his own wife and little children.
To do that you will have to crush out
all the strongest yearnings and highest
longings of your hearts. Then see
what dismal place you have made Of
It Think for minute that your little
children, no matter how wise they may
become or how good they shall remain,
must never hope for public esteem or
general honor What incentive remains
behind your darkened nves7
when we complain of the Negro we
should remember that one cannot
measure the capabilities Of a race by
its lowest members, but by the attain
ments Of it's very highest We have
pushed the Negro out into freedom.
Free to do what2 To become porter
In q saloon or waiter In q dining
car. Which was better. the drugged
contentment Of the slave or the hope
less, endless humiliation and burning
subjection Of the freedman? II the
Negro may not use his education It Is
q cruelty to educate him. II he may
not use his freedom 1t was q crime to
set him free. .
"Still he has progressed wonderfully.
The general social and intellectual con-
dition of the American Negro In the
north today is vastly superior to that
of the white inhabitant Of any ciyi
lized country in the seventeenth GEN.
tury. Yet three generations ago he
was a slave. chattel. thing. Not
withstanding this. II was essential to
slavery that the slave should feel him
self physically and mentally slave.
Generation after generation this idea
was ground into his soul. Let the
general community today unite In It's
estimate az to any Of rs, and i'm
perceptibly we will sink or rise to the
limits of that estimate. II we brutalize
man We have no right to complain