The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-10-16
Injustice to the Negro Press.
An open Letter to Negro Merchants
Business League Talk No. a.

Business League Talk No. a.
AS one reads the Negro newspapers
from week to week they can not but
feel that as class the Negro editors
are just about as unselfish as any set
of people in the country. They are,
in fact, the ultra exponents of unset
fishness.
No less than dozen of these pa
pers take their turn each week and
speak editorially to the race, urging
them to patronize the members of the
race who are in business. That ap-
pears to be one topic on which all
the publishers agree, and in agitating
for more liberal and sustained pat
ronage for Negro business enterprises
they are prompted by no loftier mo
tive than their pride of race and their
absorbing desire for the races upclimb
into the more important avenues of
commerce and industry. For this
they are to be commended and should
be encouraged.
BY continually urging the race to
support its business men, these pa
pers are extending the trade of the
Negro business men. But what are
the Negro merchants as a group CIV
ing back to the Negro papers in re-
turn, and what are they doing to CO.
operate with all this agitation?
1t must be granted that quite few
individual merchants give their print
ing of stationery to colored printers
and not few insert small advertise
ments in Negro newspapers which in
many instances is traded out" but
there is entire absence of group ap-
probation on the part of. Negro mer-
chants for the great work now being
done for them by the Negro editors.
Here are some questions which sug-
gest themselves as we read the Ne
gro papers and see how earnestly they
are pulling for the Negro business
men:
Why do the colored merchants not
speak up for themselves?
Why do they continue to let the
Negro newspapers pay their advertis-
ing bills?
Why are they content with the bust
ness which drifts in?"
Why do they not combine and go
after the races business in big way?
The business is certainly there for
the asking. The race is spending now
about $500, 100000 year for food and
only about fourth of this is going to
colored merchants; the race is spend
ing $50,000,000 a year for shoes, and
only about one-twentieth of this is
going to Negro dealers. There is but
one way to get this business, and that
is to go after it in definite and de-
termined way.
The burden of educating and culti-
waiting this trade rests with the bust
ness men themselves, and should not
be left to the colored papers. They
have their hands quite full in getting
our young folks educated and in pro
tecting our rights.
To accomplish something that would
really justify the effort, the merchants
must of course realize the situation
as it is and then determine to work
out a plan which will accomplish the
desired results. First, have a COM
mon understanding on the question of
service. White merchants are their
chief competitors, and no step to-
wards securing bigger Negro trade
can be made without studying the
methods of competitors in order to
meet them with methods equally as
effective. Service has been one of
the important contributing factors to
the success of white business enter
prises and service is so per cent of
any selling plan.