The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-28
TRIBUTE no OUR HEROES OF
TWENTY-FOURTH INFAN-
TRY, u. 8. A.


heroes Of the oath U. S. A. How
noble to die fighting the southern
sHun" instead Of the German one,
How perfectly splendid for the south
ern white to know that underneath
the black skin flows wealth Of good
red blood How bravely they faced
death on the scaffold to appease the
southern despotism and autocracy,
and the bourbons and demagogues sit
ting in the national legislature by rea-
son Of stolen votes.
The white man has two standards
of justice, one for the white man and
one for the black. He was swift to
exact payment from our boys, but
what about the militia men in East
st. Louis. who after numbering poor
helpless blacks who had done nothing
but wear q skin pigmented different
hue from theirs, murdered and MAIN
ed and tortured and threw little col
ored babies into the fire and the mill
tary general before whom the inquiry
was held said, "Oh, the boys probably
be boys, you know" And now to save
be byos, you know" And now to save
that dirty massacre and stencil from
being placed upon the American Ne
gro, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People has
secured the best legal talent in the
country to defend our people and to
free the ten colored men already con-
yicted and sent to the penitentiary.
That is the American democracy that
sounds so lovely on paper and in flow
cry speeches, but we black folks let it
20 in one ear and out the other.
Waco, Memphis, Lexington, Hous-
ton, East st. Louis, Chester and all
along that crimsoned. stain of death
and slaughter and murder and ogre,
black martyrs added to the 2,867 Ne
groes murdered by the southern
Hun" in thirty-one years. A splen-
did record to present to other Latin
Americans whose skin is not white
and who question the seriousness of
all this newspaper talk. Maybe the
white faces won't be the only pro-
Germans in this Pecksniff nation. One
can't tell. Those murdered mems rel
atives may accept some of the Ger
man coin or they may help them
without any coin, so intense will be
their hatred. America better try to
instill patriotism instead of crushing
it She will need all Of that and then
some to whip the greatest military
power in the world.
il one was in the least doubt Of the
veneering of this democracy, they
would but need to visit Camp Dodge
and see those poor, uneducated, litter
ate, half clad Negroes who don't even
know who the Kaiser" is or never
heard Of him.
Negro leaders and the Negro rank
and. file are practically united today
rs never before, as to what they want
and how they are going to get it.
There may be some difference of en-
phasis, according to individuals and
groups, but the main basic agreement
is there.
Never in any one presidents admin
istration has there been so much in
human injustices toward the Negro as
this one, for. the south is in the saddle,
but thank God, the day Of reckoning
is drawing near.
Ny mother, who knows something
of slavery, and who is employed in
very prominent and wealthy family
here, was waiting on some guests re-
Gently when one Of them spoke up and
said, sWell, Julia, they hung thirteen
Negroes in Houston the other day."
Mother, who neither reacs or writes,
replied, Eyes, but the Germans will
avenge all that when they come
through the south and on the Allan
tic coast and expect when they need
the Negro the most he'll be helping
the Germans. Now if that ready
.repartee can come from an ex-slave
who can neither read or write, what
do YOU think the educated masses OF
Negroes are contemplating.
It would be we'll for the American
white man not to reckon without the
host. The release Of 100000 Ger
mans on the Russian front has seri-
o,1sly affected things and the German
Hun is at our gate as well as the
southern Hun on the border. None OF
~.
us pay any attention to the German =.
atrocities. In fact, they seem mild
compared to what the torture and
cruelties practiced on our people by
the southern Hun. q.
December 18th will always be hol-
iday for all Negroes in America, Be
81. {, emoria1 services being held IN
all iii the colored churches and BY all the
secret orders, it will be national
holiday for us. God bless our Drave e
heroes who suffered at the hands q
sRufe. Daniels and Sparks, those two :
bully policemen who delighted IN Dea.- :.
/ ing up colored women ana 1oIIlns 1sn!s
their obnoxious presence N III. III
homes when they were IN tnell Ds.s.. 4La
One Of them will never ans"e. IA "a
roll call. Too bad they didn't gee7 ~ =
i Sparks. n h, :a a1;va 4