The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-19
Injustice to the Negro Press.
An Open Letter to Negro Merchants
Business League Talk No. q.

HH OPCU GGAhCI " iNCHNO WGIGfldtthS
Business League Talk No. q.
AS one reads the Negro newspapers
from week to week they can not but
feel that as a class the Negro editors
are just about as unselfish as any set
of people in the country. They are,
in fact, the ultra opponents of unset
fishness.
No less than a 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 APP
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 of
commerce and industry. For this
they are to be commended and should
be encouraged.
BY continually urging the race to
support it's 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 a few
individual merchants give their print
ing of stationery to colored printers
and not a 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 a big way?
The business is certainly there for
the asking. The rae is spending now
about $600,0 900 a year for food and
only about a fourth of this is going to
%colored merchants; the race is spend.
ing $50, 000, 900 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 thai
is to go after it in a definite and de
termined way.
The burden of educating and cult
waiting this trade rests with the bust
ness men themselves, and should no
be left to the colored papers. The!
have their hands quite full in getting
our young folks educated and in pro
tecting Jul rights.
To accomplish something that woult
really justify the effort, the merchant
must of course realize the situation
as it is and then determine to worl
=, out a plan which will accomplish tn
desired results. First, have a CON
mon understanding on the question O
service. White merchants are thei
chief competitors, and no step tc
wards securing bigger Negro trad
can be made without studying tn
methods of competitors in order t
meet them with methods equally a
effective. Service has been n O
the important contributing factors t
the success of white business enter
prises and service is so per cen O
any selling plan.