The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1917-12-22
some of the complaints or charges

Some of the complaints or charges
of discrimination seem all the more
unwarranted, in view of the fact that
there is far less hazard to the life of
the soldier connected with the Service
Battalion than is true in the case of
the soldier who faces shot and shell
on the firing line. Furthermore, the
attitude of the War Department to-
ward .colored soldiers is clearly
shown by the following facts: More
than 626 of the 1880 colored men who
completed the course at the Reserve
Officers Training Camp, at Fort Des
Moines, Iowa, have been commissioned
as officers in the United States Army;
nearly 100 colored physicians and sur
geons have received commissions as
officers in the Medical Reserve Corps,
and a full fighting force of 10000 col
ored soldiers, including representa-
tives in practically every branch of
military service, will constitute the
92nd Division, to be detailed for duty
in France under General Pershing.
The relations between the colored
and white men, in the camps contain
ing both, have been worked out on a
very satisfactory basis, and little or
no trouble seems likely to arise. All
of my reports indicate that the COL
ored men are accepting this as an op-
portunity to serve and not an occasion
for creating discord or trouble, and
white men and officers are passing
over the question of race difference in
a helpful spirit. What we need in this
emergency is the help of right-thing-
ing people in the cities and towns
around the camps, and we are getting
that cooperation so generally that
our course seems free from embarass-
ment, if German propagandists, who
want to make discord by stirring up
sensitive feelings, are simply not al.
lowed to do their work
AS a matter of fact, the colored peo-
pie and the white people in this coun-
try have lived together now for a good
many years and have established re-.
lationships in the several parts of the
country which are more or less we'll
ually the colored people are acquiring
education in the industrial arts, and
are rendering themselves more and
more useful in our civilization, and
more and more entitled to our respect
On the other hand, the white people
are coming more generally to realize
the value of the good citizens among
the colored people through their in
dustrial importance and their eager
desire to learn and qualify themselves
for usefulness in the country, and this
has brought about a growth of good
feeling married, it is true, here and
there, by such incidents as that at
Houston and that at East st. Louis,
which grew out of sad misunderstand-
ings, and were perhaps contributed to-,
in at least one of these instances, by
the malicious activities of people, who
would rejoice to- see any embarass-
ment come to us as a sign of weak
ness against our enemy. Therefore
unrest among the colored people and
suspicion of the Government on their
part are, by all means, to be discour-
aged at time like this.
We are bending all our energies to
the building up of an army to defeat
the enemy of democracy and freedom,
and the army we are building contains
both white and cOlored men. We are
expecting that they will all do their
duty, and when they have done it
they will be alike entitled to the graft
tude Of their Country.
~. (Signed) - '..-
-.. NEWTON D. BAKER,
800 -. - = Secretary of War