The Denver star., 1914-02-28

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. l do not want to add to
the flame that has been kindled-far
from it. Such contribution as l 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 or
in any way injure any of the people
who are in our midst. We commit
ourselves to Il wrong or a degrada-
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, it makes it 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-
sideration and that the co!Ored col
leges would doubtless get little of the
money The only bill under which
they have benefited was that Of 1880.
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 policy
of race discrimination, Mr.. Willard
continued:
Now. / 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 n number of reac-
tionary senators. congressman and cab
met officers urging Il new slavery. For
the violent anti-Negro southern sena-
tors-it is to them | want to pay my
respects tOnight-are of the most reac-
tionary kind. There is no more amaz-
ing spectacle i'll 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 go;
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
1 as determined that all the people shall
not rule but only n fraction thereof.
| They are today before God and the ma
| ton the chief apostles of reaction-the
Vurtlamans. Tillmans. Hoke Smiths
and all the rest of the Negro batting
crowd who have risen to eIninence on
the back of the Negro. defaming and
Expressing him as they went.
| Then. when they fail to rise, you
checrlully assert that this proves the
1 Negro incapable of advancing and half
! brother to an on. You deprive the
Negro child of all schooling, as 5000
are deprived in Atlanta, turn him
adrift to roam in sum streets, and
then if he @rowS'up an animal you say
the responsibility is his; that that
proves him IL beast and his race in
herently criminal. Never WAS there Il
more braZen assertion that II people
| cannot rise in the scale of civilization
and "a more determined effort to pre-
vent their rising.
But | 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 Hu-
man Way voice the same sentiments
| to be heard ut our National Association
| For the Advancement Of Colored PeO-
| pie mectings-fCr instance. denuncin-
ton Of the iimcrOw car and a demand
| for the ballot for the worthy black
| man.
at meant much when II prominent
southern educator came to our annual
meeting in New York last year and
| declared that what the Negro needed