The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-10-02
AFR0-AMERICAN CULL|NCS

A correspondent of the New York
Evening Mail writes as follows:
l read with interest in the Evening
Mail the proposal of the compulsory
enlistment of Negroes in a huge stand.
ing army" primarily to WELD the
shovel and incidentally to defend the
country, and this, too, offered Is a
solution of the Negro problem. OF
all flights of the Imagination this is
the worst.
The Negro has always been fore
most in the defense of his country,
and always among the first to an
swer his country's call. l will men
ton Crispus Attacks, the Negro
whose blood was the first shed in the
War of the Revolution in calling the
citizens of Boston to resent the at.
tacks of the British; the conduct OF
the black troops in the Civil war, es.
pecially the men of the Massachusetts,
and Illinois regiments, who fought
throughout the war without murmur.
ing, although their families were with.
out support because a secretary of
war refused to pay them because their
faces were black! Though these men
didn't receive their pay until seven
years after the war, there was no
thought of mutiny or of quitting.
When Gen. Benjamin Butler sent
his famous message to headquarters,
IF you don't send me re-enforcements
by tomorrow l will carry the wal into
Africa" time has shown he made nc
mistake in so doing.
OF the conduct of the Negroes in
the Spanish-American war, those who
were at Ell Caney and San Juan Hill
a bear witness. The president OF
the United States has seen fit to con
graduate the black men of the Dor
der patrols for their splendid dis
cipline and efficiency between a rain
of lead in front of them and a storm
of prejudice behind them. Then why
this compulsory enlistment of a race
that never in the history of this coun
try has been weighed in the balance
and found wanting?
The Negro does not have to be
driven to serve his country, but he
does ask that he be allowed to serve
his country as a nan The only place
the Negro race, or any other race, has
is that to which by merit it is en-
titled. The time has long since passed
since the Negro was only a hewel
of wood and a drawer of water. Ii
this government Of the people, by the
people and for the people, the Negro
asks only an equal opportunity for his
lawyers, his doctors, his business men
etc. A race that can produce suct
~concededly efficient fighters surely
can and has produced men capable o.
acting as officers. Then why white
officers?
| regret not having been able, a.
the writer, ito have done my full dut!
to my country" but that wasn't m,
fault. Perhaps my experiences in tina
direction might be interesting. Wher
of Brooklyn representatives from sew
eral Brooklyn regiments called at thu
school to interest students in higl
school companies of those regiments
Every man in my class was ap
preached but myself. Having Learned
If the part Negroes had played il
the wars Ct the United States ant
being ambitious to do my share,
presented myself at a certain armor,
near the school. | was informed tina
they had no companies for coloret
men.
Later on in life as a student in
university up state which has CON
pulsory freshmen military training ur
der the control of an officer of tn
United States army, l was told b