The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1914-02-28

men IN saving the day at San Juan
Hin are now learning to know the
gratitude Of Republics. 81
Ihese colored people who are thus
branded are not roustabouts, or cor
ner iOafers, OF 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 employ
Win IuH latin In its justice, asking
merely the right to serve on equal
terms with their fellows. The readers
OF The North American Review will
understand the bitter humiliation OF
the segregation orders if they can i'm.
ag1ne themselves set apart as I'M.
worthy by brute authority, but they
can hardly appreciate the added sense
or 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 t11er 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.
Dell1on. 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 fiftieth anniversary
! OF Lincoln's Emancipation Proclama.
! t1on-this is what hurts and rankles
beyond all else. Is it any wonder that
one Of the leaders of the race of ma.
tional 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-tha this spells caste They
believe that it 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 up the promo
ton of two colored clerks because of
their color. Segregation is, beyond
doubt, an entering wedge, and here
lie
a 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 aboveboard 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? So y
indeed, it may come to pass that Mr..
Wilson will go down to history as the
man who set in motion terrible forces
for evil without adequate conception
Or provision OF the dangers he was
inviting.
And his philosophy
It he remains silent and segregates
further, will be wrong, his democracy
gravely at fault; he has given us
beautiful and worthy sentiments in
his book called "The New Freedom .
and in his various speeches prior to
and since his election to the Presi-
dency. But nowhere thus far do we
AAAu oily 4AOAScIC1Ou C11dI LIS uSLuOCldCy
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
apply to everybody without dlscr1m-
nation, as exactly as law Of science,
or they are open to doubt at once.
Thus, we should not believe in the law
of gravitation if it did not apply alike
to every human being; we should not
think very much Of Mr.. Marconi's
wireless invention if he could trans.
nit only the first half of the alpha.
bet and not the last. It aVails the
apologists for the President not at all
to say that "rhe New Freedom" applies
only to political and economic prob
lens, for what is the whole race prob
lem but an economic and political
one? It would ertainly be ridiculous
for Mr.. Wilson, '>r his publishers, to
expect any aps,reciative reading
among the millions Of DISTINGUISHED
Americans, whether they be colored
men and women or Whit men and
women, Of his theory Of the coming
Of a new political freedom at the very
moment when there is placed upon
the colored by two Of his own Cabinet
an official stigma which no amount
Of appointing to office will remove
Wnat MI; McAdoo
uoes nos pplecia.e IS enaI .n =, siisn.