The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-10-02
RANsoMlAN ELooUENcE.
By CHAS. A. STARKS.

er and sureness of victory. Then you
have some idea of how Reverdy C.
Ransom, preacher-orator, handled the
ringing question, What Time Is the
Clock Striking Now?"
1t was a lecture audience at Allen
chapel Monday evening, just the right
number. The hoodlum, and there are
church hoodlums, was entirely miss
ing. The people present impressed the
writer as being thoughtful and think
ing people, at least they were quiet.
A very infrequent thing in our own
audiences. Therefore, all that was
said by the speaker was heard and
appreciated, and the lofty one went
about his business in leisurely and
consummate style. Maybe you think
he spoke apologetically, perhaps com.
promisingly, or may be you think he
made some excusatory defense of con
ditions imposed by the white man on
the black man. If so, then let me
assure you how absurdly wrong you
are.
Reverdy C. Ransom, as stated, rings
1
tones speaks out limpidly and cour-
ageously for every high ideal, every
| human right that belongs to his peo-
| pie and to mankind. In his address
the great spokesman ranged graceful
ly and sometimes terribly from one
thesis to another. Now in scathing
arraignment of President Wilson and
| hi i,
immortal John Brown is the means
of the orator reaching a serene height.
With hand poised majestically in air
he calls forth, as by magic, the holiest
and most patriotic sentiments imag-
Unable. What of the Night, Watch.
MANI" is continually asked in drama.
tic accents. He approaches the Eu-
ropean war and pictures the deep
| working forces there as meaning far
more than people dare understand, but
he tells us that Gods clock is strik-
ing now" Knowing this, he exclaims:
Let the guns thunder!" Back to
America, he tells how that it was
blood that bought our freedom" and
hints strongly of the necessity of more
concrete action on the part of black
| people in the matter of securing in
dividual liberty and full rights of citi-
! zenship.
What! Cringe to the man because
he has a. white. skin This is terri
BILE to him. Simply because a man
has a white skin is no indication, no
principle, nothing but his blasted pig
ment, is treated with culture, sarcasm
and fearful ridicule.
"In America men are trying to re-
verse Gods hour, but his clock is
striking now" He tells of the insid
ious policy of the administration in
Haytian affairs. Just what it means
to Hayti to have American protection.
He sees how Hayti, who has preserved
her national integrity through a hun
dred years of surrounding conflict. is
about to prove victim of artful Amer
lea. Toussant L. Overture, and Rich
ard Allen are names hung upon by the
orator as being more representative
of human liberty and achievement
than such names as George Washing
ton and other supposedly American
heroes. Not that we love Caesar
less" but you know, etc.
The orator exhorts the bishops and
ministers to broader religion aside
from the mere theological routine to
interest themselves more in the indus
trial, economic and social affairs of
their constituents. Now he tells of
changing conditions. Goods clock is
striking now" He, the orator, claims
for himself "the right to his opinion
and even 10 prophecy as much so as
any body else" And he sees the in
evitable change that is already TAX
ing place. The fall of the white mans
dominance has begun. What! is it
possible that God in heaven gives the
power of one third of the worlds peo-
pie to dominate and rule the rest?"
He does not claim that the white
man has passed his noon. He does not
profess to see his decline. Oh, no!
But he does know that Gods clock
is striking now" There must be a
: change. He admits that the white
man has accomplished some of the
worlds wonderful achievements, but
he has also "gone against the philo-
sophy which he has formulated" Here
the orator reaches his noblest climax.
If anything, he is elemental. Eyes
flashing, with moving, extended arms,
he presents picturesque figure which
strikingly recalls the immortal Fred
erick Douglass, who charged and re-
charged the rostrum as divinely in
spired apostle of the gospel of lib
erty and truth. Great God! can 1t
be that this race is not to move on?
Ransom, speaking as an apostle, says
that "it must!"
Sleeping Africa has awakened, and
SO has India, says the orator. After
all, the black man, continues, he, is
powerfully at the bottom of many in
/ dustries, and he has the power ito
say no" to the important raising of
coffee as this commodity (very inn
portant) is raised chiefly by the dark
er typed races" The same, he said,
is true of sugar and rubber and other
things. Thus this man eloquently
sums up the answer to the question;
What time is the clock striking
now?" He would have us understand
this is Gods time.
Mrs. Rosa Buford underwent an op-
1 ~. krn.