The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1914-02-21
oswald Garrison Willard Grandson William Lloyd Garrison
Writes Strong Aticlefor the North American Review

Il
good enough to die alon egide If wb;to
men In saving the day al San Inans
Hill are now learning to know the
gratitude OF Republics. zl
These colored people who are thus
branded are not roustabouts. or cor
ner loafers. or worthless laborers.
They are educated men and women.
college graduates many Of them. from
all over the country who have passed
their civil service examinations and
entered the Governments emnlnv
with full faith In its Justice askine
merely the right to serve on aonal
terms with their fellows. The readers
OF The North American Review will
understand the bitter humiliation IF
the segregation orders If they can i'm
agine themselves set apart as nm
worthy by brute authority. but thew
can hardly appreciate the added sense
OF Injury which comes from the fact
that this Is an act OF the Federal
Government. The colored people have
borne as patiently as the children of
Israel bore Their burdens, the wrongs
OF Acknowledgement, the lynchings
and burnings Of innocent and guilty,
the humiliation Of the Jim Crow
car, the constant personal insults of
low whites: these were the acts of
individuals or Of States lately IN re-
sbellion. But that the Federal Gov
eminent, under whose flag thew have
fought in every. war, under whose
aegis they are working, which struck
their letters from their limbs, should
now take the side of the oppressors
in the year of the fitch anniversary
OF LincOln's Emancipation Proclama.
ton this is what hurts and rankles
beyond all else. Is 1t any wonder that
one OF the leaders of the race of ma
t1onal renown writes that he has never
seen his people so discouraged and
so embittered as to-day?
They rightly declare as must
every fair-minded man free from
prejudice that this spells caste. Thew
believe that 1t is intended to drive
them out OF the public service by rem
dering it intolerable for Negroes with
self-respect; they assert that one of
the Assistant Secretaries of the Treas
ury has already held I'D the promo.
ton of two colored clerks because of
their color. Segregation Is, beyond
doubt. an entering wedge, and here
Is the chief Significance OF it all. Let
q precedent be established, and who
shall say what the outcome will be,
to what lengths despotic officials will
take their way by means of discrimin-
alton, intimidation. by aboyeboard or
underhand methods? Who shall
prophesy to what extent this caste
Idea may not be developed in the dec
AIDES 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 60 down to history as the
man who set in motion terrible forces
tor evil without adequate conception
Or provision of the dangers he was
inviting.
And his philosophy,
IL he remains silent and seprepates
further. will he wrong. his democracy
grayely at fault. he has given ne
beautiful and worthy sentiments in
his book called "Tha New Freedom. ,
and in his various sneeches nrior to
and since his election to the Presi-
dency. But nowhere fins far do we
dnd any Indication that his democracy
is not limited both by the sex line
and the color line. He fails utterly to
see that to discriminate in his democ.
racy against any one is to bring his
whole carefully reared edifice crash.
ing to the ground. The principles
upon which our democracy rests must